Gaming the system? Neutrinos, theorists and citations | Jon Butterworth | Life & Physics

If you hold back results because they contradict your favourite theory, or even because they contradict other experiments, you might as well not make a measurement in the first placeSo it looks like neutrinos respect the speed limit after all. At least, the OPERA experimentalists announced a couple of days ago that they have found one problem (with a connector in their experiment) which could have led to a faulty timing measurement. When they run again with this fixed, they may well get a result compatible with the speed of light.You'll note the words "could" and "may well" in there. We don't know yet. But the faster-than-light result already had a hard time gaining credibility in the face of all the evidence in favour of relativity. The balance of probability just shifted further in favour of Einstein, and Jim Al-Khalili's shorts, on this one.The connector problem will be a depressingly mundane explanation for an intriguing anomaly, if it turns out that way. I still respect OPERA for putting out a result though. Once you've decided to measure something, you should publish the result, even if it is not the one you expected or hoped for. (This is even more important ...