What do you do as a scientist when you know a research result that is almost certainly wrong is about to become a media sensation? That is the quandary I found myself in last month as I awaited the announcement from CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, about particles called neutrinos supposedly traveling faster than the speed of light. I had already been informed about the experiment, whose findings, if true, would require an overhaul of physics: Our current understanding — based on Einstein's theory of relativity and consistent with every known physical theory and experiment — is that nothing can travel through space faster than the speed of light.
I hoped that somehow the result would escape the attention of the world news media, but I knew better: A news conference had been scheduled. On the other hand — except for the die-hard would-be Einsteins who have already begun to write me suggesting that the CERN result proves their pet theories — I also knew that for the general public the claim would prove to be a momentary curiosity, forgotten along with much of the rest of yesterday's news.
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