Normally staid scientists rushed to defend a foundation theory of modern physics -- and one even vowed to eat his blue boxer shorts if the findings were confirmed.
The fuss began in September when a European team announced that ghostly sub-atomic particles called neutrinos had been found to travel some six kilometres (3.75 miles) per second faster than the velocity of light.
The neutrinos had been generated at the giant underground lab of the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva.
They were timed at their departure and, after travelling 732 kms (454 miles) through Earth's crust, at their arrival at the Gran Sasso? Laboratory in Italy.
To do the trip, the neutrinos should have taken 0.0024 seconds.
Instead, the ornery little critters hit the detectors in Italy 0.00000006 seconds sooner than expected.
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