Scientists have reportedly clocked a subatomic particle going faster than the speed of light in a vacuum and that’s something that, according to observation and theory, should not be possible. The report originated at CERN:
Scientists at the world’s largest physics lab said Thursday they have clocked neutrinos traveling faster than light. That’s something that according to Einstein’s 1905 special theory of relativity – the famous E (equals) mc2 equation – just doesn’t happen. “The feeling that most people have is this can’t be right, this can’t be real,” said James Gillies, a spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research …
That’s a healthy, skeptical attitude and my amateur guess, for what it’s worth, is this will turn out to be a false reading. Neutrinos are exceedingly difficult to detect. They’re teeny-tiny, like electrons, but have no charge and rarely interact with ordinary matter. There are scads of neutrinos streaming through your body right now and you’re none the worse for it.
Given how famously difficult neutrinos are to detect, it seems more likely that the error is not in the Theory of Relativity — the body of knowledge underlying all of macro space-time — but on the method[s] used to measure the transit time of the ghostly particles. Still, scientists will try to replicate the results and determine if the effect is legitimate or an artifact of observation.