And so it ends. Not with a superluminal bang, not even with the discovery of an experimental error — but with a whimper. Last month, science journalists received an e-mail from Sergio Bertolucci, the head of CERN. Its title: “Neutrinos sent from CERN to Gran Sasso respect the cosmic speed limit”.
It described what we, by then, knew — that the apparent faster-than-light, transalpine journey of neutrinos, reported to great excitement last year, was the result of a faulty cable, rather than, say, the collapse of modern physics as we know it. It contained a quote from Bertolucci that reiterated what has been the physics community’s accepted party line. “Although this result isn’t as exciting as some would have liked,” Bertolucci said, “it is what