Tomorrow, researchers from CERN will be releasing experiment results that suggest neutrinos, the lightest particles we're aware of, may be moving slightly faster than the speed of light. Although the results have not yet been made public (UPDATE: the paper has now been released), rumors of the finding have spread far and wide, leading to coverage by the BBC and the AP. Still, because the findings would seem to violate relativity, the authors are being very cautious about their results, and many in the physics community are expressing skepticism.

Neutrinos have generally made the news because they engage in what are called flavor oscillations, in which (to give one example) an experiment that creates only muon neutrinos will see some of them behave as electron neutrinos when they hit a detector. These oscillations confirmed that neutrinos must have mass, although they are orders of magnitude lighter than any of the other fundamental particles. That extremely low mass means that it doesn't take much energy to get them moving very quickly, which allows physicists who work on neutrino detectors to simply treat them as if they are moving at the speed of light when calculating their expected behavior.







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Très bien fait: RT @darwinsbulldog: New comic strip about #evolution from @DarrylToon: #Darwin #science #biology

RT @NCSE 9 up, 9 down: Antievolution Legislation Scorecard updated: #evolution #science #biology #Darwin #creationism

RT @VeroniqueR: RT @openculture: 3D Map of Universe Captures 43,000 Galaxies: #science

L'inspiration pour le Professeur Tournesol - J'ai toujour seu un faible pour celle-ci: #science

L'inspiration pour le Professeur Tournesol - J'ai toujour seu un faible pour celle-ci: #science

An awesome critique of #evolution utilizing Dora the Explorer: #Darwin #biology #science #creationism

Free pdf versions of The #Universe Verse, vol1: Bang! & vol2: It's Alive! - #Darwin #evolution #science #biology #books

Suprising Science - Five Reasons Anti-#Evolution Measures are a Bad Idea: #science #education #biology #Darwin

History of #Science in Science #Education: #history #histsci

Antimatter atoms produced and trapped at CERN - #science #physics #cern #pressrelease #antimatter

Antimatter atom trapped for first time, say scientists #science #physics #cern

Did the medieval world give birth to modern #science? See the argument thru @NewHumanist: #histsci #history #religion

RT @VeroniqueR: Indeed!>Tarantula helps scientists map how our brains process fear (latimes.com - Nov.9) #science

RT @darwinsbulldog: Today is the 97th anniversary of Alfred Russel Wallace's death: #histsci #evolution #science #h ...

RT @pierretran Fête de la science : la biodiversité à l'honneur ! via @futurasciences #science #cnrs #biodiversite #iyb

RT @PierreTran: Science et Fiction, la nouvelle exposition de la Cité des Sciences via @citedessciences #science #f ...

“What’s New” at Darwin Online (large update): #Darwin #evolution #histsci #history #science #digitalhumanities

“What’s New” at Darwin Online (large update): #Darwin #evolution #histsci #history #science #digitalhumanities

RT @darwinsbulldog: "The evolution of the #science museum" by Alan J. Friedman from @physicstoday: #museums #education

"Species Seekers," popular #histsci book by @RichardConniff, will be released on Nov. 1st: #history #science

RT @kelltrill Darwin's family tree rediscovered, via @sciencecodex: #science #Darwin #history #genetics #genealogy

RT @dhayton Prominent scientists & historians of #science annotate fave passages in #Darwin’s Origin: #histsci #evolution

since @Creation_Movie was recently released on DVD in the US, a collection of reviews: #Darwin #evolution #science

"The Evolution of Creationist Movements" (via @darwinsbulldog)

"Did #Darwin have a power ring? I don't think so.." Full Frontal Nerdity: #evolution #science #education #creationism

Polishing #Darwin's statue in #Shrewsbury, #England: #art #statue #conservation #evolution #science #history

Richard Dawkins on Why Evolution Trumps Creationism #Darwin #evolution #science #creationism

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À introduire en conclusion des cafés scientifiques? RT @jeanlucr Nouvelle tendance: Science Slam, le savoir en 10 minutes

I nominate @pygnol for a Shorty Award in #music because of Mujigka's wondeful compositions for our Alice show

Couldn't read the lead without a smirk too (see also today's xkcd: http://xkcd.com/685/ )

The life science web services registry

Two psychology journals have recently published papers showing that this strategy works, the latest findings from a decades-old body of research. When students study on their own, "active recall" — recitation, for instance, or flashcards and other self-quizzing — is the most effective way to inscribe something in long-term memory.

The truth is, no color actually exists outside of our brain's perception of it.