[lit-ideas] Re: No shock that report Einstein "may have been wrong" may have been wrong
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:30:48 +0100 (BST)
Some famous scientists seem less phlegmatic than Adriano and, indeed, seem to
have a rather different understanding of the implications of such a finding
being
accepted:-http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/sep/23/physicists-speed-light-violated?intcmp=239
'Brian Cox, a professor of particle physics at the University of
Manchester, urged caution. "If you've got something travelling faster
than light, then it's the most profound discovery of the last 100 years
or more in physics. It's a very, very big deal," he said on BBC 6 Music on
Friday. "It requires a complete rewriting of our understanding of the universe."
Professor Jim Al-Khalili at the University of Surrey said it was most likely
that something was skewing the results. "If the neutrinos have broken the
speed of light, it would overturn a keystone theory from the last
century of physics. That's possible, but it's far more likely that there is an
error in the data. So let me put my money where my mouth is: if
the Cern experiment proves to be correct and neutrinos have broken the
speed of light, I will eat my boxer shorts on live TV."'
Of course, Cox is discredited easily - for singing "Things Can Only Get
Better", playing Hannibal Lecter in 'Manhunter' and, worse, accepting a
professorship at the so-called University of Manchester. Al-Khalili only
appears on BBC4 and they never do live TV and since 1986 he has owned no boxer
shorts but sports briefs, so his threat may be dismissed idle. Nevertheless
their responses ring of realism/falsificationism, in terms of philosophy of
science, rather than instrumentalism or conventionalism. This might be
explained by their being proper scientists and not given to positions
comfortable for an armchair philosophiser.
Donal
London
________________________________
From: Adriano Palma <Palma@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, 23 September 2011, 13:28
Subject: [lit-ideas] shock that report Einstein "may have been wrong" may have
been wrong
what gtr & str require is that there is a maximal speed, whether it is in fact
C or the speed of neutrinos the theories're neutral about.
regards
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ξε ν’, γγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ἀ ὅτι τ δε
κείμεθα, το ς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.
/begin/read__>sig.file: postal address
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