'Faster than light' scientist steps down, page 1

'Faster than light' scientist steps down

www.spacedaily.com

An Italian scientist who headed an experiment suggesting neutrinos traveled faster than the speed of light has resigned, officials said.

Antonio Ereditato, leader of an Italian project dubbed Opera working between particle labs at CERN in Switzerland and Gran Sasso in central Italy, quit after the results were disproved amid reports of discontent among his team, the Italian Nuclear Physics Institute said.

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Proof of the old adage: "If it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't" The news that neutrinos were detected rocked the world; if it were true, one of the fundamental principles of the theory of Relativity would have been undermined. Criticism of the findings were immediate, but were quickly embraced by the "alternative science" community. Repetitions of the experiment failed to reproduce the results, suggesting systematic error on the part of the OPERA team. In retrospect, it is clear that the team leader, Antonio Ereditato, rushed to publication against the better judgement of others on his team. This is not so much a reflection on Ereditato as it is on the dangers of internet driven publication; in the past, scientists had the leisure to review their work before submitting it to their peers. It could take years before a paper eventually found its way into a journal, and months after that before the findings were picked up by the popular media. Now, faced with the dictum "publish or perish," scientists are forced to release their results as quickly as possible, if only to "scoop" other researchers in the field. This has resulted in spurious "discoveries," such as superluminal neutrinos and arsenic breathing microbes. It is regrettable that the story has taken the course it has; Ereditato was no doubt a sincere and dedicated scientist. This should serve as a warning both to the scientific community to thoroughly check one's work, and to the general population to thoroughly evaluate the latest scientific results before accepting them as "fact."

www.spacedaily.com
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reply to post by DJW001

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I don't see why he had to step down. Maybe failure needs to be tolerated a little bit more in scientific community, at least when it's something so on the edge. This idea that if you're wrong once you'll never be able to redeem yourself is grinding science to a standstill in a lot of areas. Ufology also of suffers from this attitude, but it's kind of justified a bit given all the hoaxes.

DARPA does something like this to encourage innovation if I'm not mistaken.

reply to post by DJW001

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I can't say the news particularly shocks me but like the previous poster noted, it is indeed sad that he felt compelled to resign. Is it not one of our human qualities that we tend to learn from out mistakes?

As someone once said: "Show me a man who never made a mistake and I'll show you a man who never did anything."

reply to post by RSF77

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I don't see why he had to step down. Maybe failure needs to be tolerated a little bit more in scientific community, at least when it's something so on the edge.

I agree. The sense I get is that he stepped down due to conflicts with his team members, who felt uncomfortable rushing to publication and now feel their reputations have been tarnished. This is the scientific community's equivalent to a film director leaving a project because of "artistic differences."

Originally posted by RSF77
reply to post by DJW001

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I don't see why he had to step down. Maybe failure needs to be tolerated a little bit more in scientific community, at least when it's something so on the edge. This idea that if you're wrong once you'll never be able to redeem yourself is grinding science to a standstill in a lot of areas.

It's just one big giant circle jerk. That is all it is.

Find a single scientist or inventor...one...who became a household name, who wasn't considered fringe at best, or a complete outcast at worst, by the "mainstream scientific community," in their own time.

I do not hate science itself; but I do have an absolutely pitch black, passionate hatred of the type of attitude that considers itself authoritative where science is concerned. I hate the priesthood.

reply to post by DJW001

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...The news that neutrinos were detected rocked the world; if it were true, one of the fundamental principles of the theory of Relativity would have been undermined.

Precisely. And undermining one of the fundamental principles of the theory of Relativity would be catastrophic in today's political and economic climate.

Which is why I'm not buying either story.


S&F for a good catch though.

reply to post by DJW001

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I think it is a weird and suspicious story alltogether. This guy is a scientist, well educated and surounded with probably equally serious and educated co-workers.

Now,...why start an experiment like that in the first place if you know that there isn't something faster than the speed of light? The money involved to setup such an experiment, the "ridiculous" undertaking itself and the chance it would damage your career.

In my opinion this guy has strong and solid reason to start such an experiment and the scientists who helped him must have agreed there must be something there.

He must have known that publishing wrong results would be devestating for his career and must be 100% sure before going public with it. Especially because of what specific experiment he is trying to do...the whole world will be watching.

I like a good conspiracy and this could well be one of them. Anybody who is interested in conpiracies must know that technology to time-travel, but kept secret by the "elite" is one of them.

What if this guy has been told to sell the world failure while in reality he did actually proof that there are particles traveling faster then the speed of light? The intent is to keep scientific knowledge and applications from the world to know. Also to demoralize and discourage other scientist for any attempts to investigate the subject further.

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