The Neutrino Controversy- What's all the Fuss About?

This week has been huge for the scientific community. And that cannot be understated enough; if the events at CERN are not corrected as "experimental error", modern physics is on the brink of a quantum leap.

Now, if you're reading this, you probably ain't a scientist. So rather than bore you with equations and hypotheses, I'd like to try and explain to you just WHY this is so important- try and make you feel like a physicist. In order to do this, however, we need to do two things. First, I will explain WHAT HAPPENED. Then, I'll need you to get into my time machine with me.

WHAT HAPPENED?
Well, since  the early 1930s we've known about these elementary particles called Neutrinos. There are two important things you need to know about Neutrinos- firstly, they are very small (sub-atomic) particles usually caused by atomic decay, and secondly they have mass.

That second point is very important, because it means that unlike say, Photons, Neutrons weigh something. They have mass (albeit very tiny). This week, scientists from CERN announced that they have spotted Neutrinos moving faster than light. Now that is BIG freakin' news. Why? Well, it's time for you to hop in my time machine with me. C'mon, don't be shy! We're going back to the year 1594- over 300 years before the Neutron was even suggested to exist.

In 1594, a clever German chap named Johannes Kepler was born. He is one of the heroes of modern astronomy, because he was the first person to accurately describe the motion of the planets with a mathematical formula. We know this today as 'Kepler's Laws". But let's pause for a moment; what did Kepler really do? Well, he carefully observed the planets he could see, analysed the numbers and made a set of predictions. And for years, his predictions proved accurate. But as time went on, we realised that there were two problems with his predictions. Firstly, they didn't tell us WHAT made the planets follow his laws. Secondly, Mercury seemed go be 'a bit weird'- it didn't follow his laws at all. Why?

Well,  a couple of hundred years later, Isaac Newton answered question number one. He realised what made planets and moons follow those laws Kepler wrote. Gravity. He correctly identified that gravity holds planets in place, and motion keeps them...well...moving! That's what orbits are! But what about Mercury?

We needed to wait till the early twentieth century for a young Jewish gentleman named Einstein to work that one out. Einstein worked in the patent office at a time when railroads were just taking off. He got to see a lot of patents which involved time- specifically the accurate measurement of time across a large continent. From there*, he postulated his theory of relativity: that energy, matter, space and time are inextricably linked. He used this breakthrough to explain Mercury's weird orbit- it moves so fast that it's relativistic! His laws, such as e=mc^2 have benefitted us immensely; GPS for example relies directly on the theory of relativity to provide accurate data on location and time. But Einstein's theories had some rather grave implications.

Einsteins theories stated that something with mass cannot accelerate to the speed of light. This was (simply speaking, ignoring complex Lorenz factors) because mass is linked to velocity, as as velocity increases, mass increases by a factor that scientists refer to as "gamma". So, as velocity reaches the speed of light, mass reaches infinity. And according to high school physics, force = mass x accelleration, so if mass is infinite, you need infinite force to accelerate it. Therefore NOTHING with mass can hit light speed. That's what Einstein said nearly a century ago. It is what physicists swore by for about 100 years. Until this week.

What does this mean? At the very least, Einsteins theory needs revisiting. We now know that things with mass can reach the speed of light. What we don't know is how. So a lot of effort will likely go into observing these particles; trying to work out how and why they seem to break the law of relativity. What does it mean for us? How will this change our technology? Only time will tell.

But if there's one thing you take away from this article, let it be this:

Science is not wrong, it is incomplete. Scientists, unlike other branches of human leadership, LOVE to be disproven. It's exciting. Kepler used his observations, and drew the correct conclusions. We teach his laws in universities to this day. Any subsequent theory, be it Newton or Einstein, must explain ALL of the preceding theories AND any new observations made.

The same holds true today. Einsteins theory will now be elaborated upon based on observations WE have made in 2011 that COULDN'T have been made in his time. Never discount old theories, though. Newtons theories of gravities are old, and have been long since expanded upon, but you would never jump off a cliff, would you?