Scientists cast doubt on faster-than-light neutrinos

Scientists have cast doubt on a study published earlier this year which seemed to suggest that certain subatomic particles could travel faster than the speed of light.

If true, the findings from a team at the INFN-Gran Sasso laboratory would have undermined the currently accepted laws of physics which were originally established by Albert Einstein more than 100 years ago.

However, a different team of scientists from the same laboratory have repeated the experiment and have rejected the claims that neutrinos can travel faster than the speed of light.

"These neutrinos should have been spraying out particles like electrons and photons … if they were going superluminal – and in the process would be losing energy. But they seemed to have kept the energy they started from, which rules out faster-than-light travel," Jim Al-Khalili, a professor of physics at the University of Surrey, told the Guardian.

He had been sceptical of the originally ground-breaking report and claimed he would eat his own boxer shorts live on TV if it was proven to be true.

Posted by Fiona Griffiths