The Italian professor who led an experiment which initially appeared to challenge one of the fundaments of modern physics by showing particles moving faster than the speed of light, has resigned after the finding was overturned earlier this month.
The Italian professor who led an experiment which initially appeared to challenge one of the fundaments of modern physics by showing particles moving faster than the speed of light, has resigned after the finding was overturned earlier this month.
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March 31st, 2012 at 6:32AM
I don’t get this one–there must be something else going on. Yes, their result was shown to be wrong due to experimental error (a faulty connection causing a time-delay in the detector) and this is mildly embarrassing. But they did the right thing. They made an observation, reported it properly to the literature and opened the work for review. That’s science. Better than we get from the climate modelers. Are the insiders saying that the experimental error was a career-ending oversight? Harsh.
March 31st, 2012 at 6:36AM
Shane: I agree it’s harsh – I assume he embarrassed a lot of people.
But isn’t that rather one whopper of an error? I’d be interested in knowing whether there was language in his publishing of the results that suggested such a thing might have to be considered.
March 31st, 2012 at 8:29AM
I don’t know, frankly. They seem to have tried to find the error for over a year before publishing and asking for further scrutiny and other researchers to look at the problem: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17139635
But the push to get the guy out did apparently come from inside the OPERA group, so yes, embarrassment….
March 31st, 2012 at 1:33PM
Such a thing might have to be considered in every case – you don’t have to signal it. One of the principal justifications for tenure is to allow researchers to make, and above all to admit, errors (the latter being plenty difficult even when one’s job is not at stake). Fraud gets you fired (sometimes), and what might be termed willful negligence. This is either egregious behavior or politics. Of course, it’s Italy, so….
April 2nd, 2012 at 7:49AM
I’m surprised at this. Everyone knows that ‘making mistakes’ is the one, true, constant theme of scientific research. And, more specifically, a misbehaving cable is practically a cliche, the correct scientific response is to fix the cable. I’d suspect that the guy has enemies who are taking an opportunity for payback.
Also, last week the NYT published a good joke on the subject: a theoretician said that the best explanation he heard was that the neutrinos were law-abiding as long as they were in Switzerland, but when they got into Italy, they figured, “Hey… what the hell.”