Leadership

An idea can be captured in a formula.

This has been successfully demonstrated in science. The idea comes first, it marks the most important moment in scientific research: the moment of creativity.

A famous example of such an idea is the one that led Einstein to the theory of relativity.

The idea is that it is impossible to measure ‘absolute motion’.

Close your eyes and imagine yourself drifting through empty space. There is nothing but you. According to Einstein’s idea it is impossible for you to know whether you are in motion or at rest. You were clever enough to bring a flashlight. You send flash of light into the direction ahead of you. The light will travel with a speed that equals the speed of light with respect to the flashlight plus the speed of the flashlight itself - your speed. So by measuring the speed of the light your flashlight emitted you can then determine whether you are in motion or not. No, Einstein says. He holds on to his idea and asserts: the speed of light is constant and independent of the state of motion of the source that emits it and independent of the state of motion of the observer that detects it. He extended this idea with a further assertion, somewhat more subtle. If ‘absolute motion’ is a meaningless concept, the state of motion of a particular observer, say a physicist conducting experiments, is irrelevant for the laws of nature this observer discovers. In other words: the laws of nature are invariant under transformations of one frame of reference to another. These two ideas have far reaching consequences. The most dramatic is that ‘time’ is not absolute, but relative. Relative to the state of motion of the observer with respect to the clock that is used for clocking the time. ‘Moving clocks run slower’ is the brief summary of this result of Einstein’s theory of relativity.

In a formula: t’=t/sqrt(1-v*v/c*c)

Imagine an elementary particle, like a muon (abundantly present in cosmic rays), that is unstable and has a characteristic natural lifetime. (Two millionth of a second in this particular case). If we observe this particle flashing by with a speed v then we see it decay after t’ seconds according to this formula. c is the speed of light, 300 000 km/sec. For speeds v approaching the speed of light, to 90 or even 99 percent or more, t’ can become much bigger than t and the particle can travel much further than one would expect according to its natural lifetime t. This is exactly what is observed in experiments. There is something else the formula tells us: v can never become bigger than c, no object can travel faster than the speed of light. In that case we would have to take the square root of a negative number and the formula becomes meaningless.

Physics stops at the speed of light.

When the OPERA experiment, employing a neutrino beam generated at CERN and a detector located at the Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy, announced the observation of neutrino’s travelling faster than light the theory of relativity was challenged. Before publicizing such an earthshaking result you better be very sure that your measurement is right. The measurement was wrong. Who should take responsibility for publicizing this erroneous measurement prematurely? The ‘spokesperson’ of the Opera team, Antonio Ereditato, has resigned over it. So be it. He took his responsibility even if he is no more guilty than many of his senior colleagues; that is the way it goes.

The publicity on superluminal neutrinos and the subsequent withdrawal of this claim has done considerable harm to CERN’s reputation as a center of excellence. Those responsible for its governance and management should speak up. They should explain themselves.

Jos Engelen
8-4-2012