Faster Than the Speed of Light is Pretty Fast - Relatively Speaking

As you've probably heard by now (or not, depending on whether you are a flaming nerd or not), a research group based primarily at CERN claims to have sent a neutrino, an elementary subatomic particle, zipping across Europe faster than the speed of light.  According to early reports, the neutrino reached its destination -  after traversing a 732 km distance - 60 nanoseconds faster than it should have had it been traveling its expected speed, which is a tiny fraction under the speed of light.  This is a big deal because according to Einstein's theory of special relativity, the speed of light is the ultimate speed limit for all physical matter.

But is it really THAT big a deal?  I say no, not particularly.

If you'd like to know why it's not really as tremendous a breakthrough as some would have you think, check out posts at Wired Science and The Evolving Scientist.  Here are a few quick thoughts about this study, as illustrated by posing questions to myself:

Does this disprove Einstein's theory of special relativity?  Of course not.  This is one small, albeit significant aspect, of this particular theory.  I should also point out that this is only one of Einstein's many contributions to our understanding of physics.

Are these results conclusive?  Not necessarily.  Other groups, such as the U.S.-based FermiLab, are already working on repeating the study to see if they can get the same results.  Additionally, the European group claims to have taken important sources of error into account when analyzing their data.  But that doesn't mean that they were able to consider every source of error, and so other physicists were immediately pointing out potential sources of error with this study.

If these results turn out to be conclusive, how important are they?  They're pretty important, but no more so than any other notable scientific discovery.  That's kind of the point.  Science is not static.  It moves forward.  Our knowledge is advanced with each new discovery, and new discoveries are happening every single day.  And that's why science is so cool.