Categories
Uncertainty

Critical thinking

A very good blog post in the Guardian by Jon Butterworth, discussing the faster-than-light result (or possible result). One thing that wasn’t at all clear from the mainstream press coverage was that the whole thing depends on probability distributions. It’s obvious when you think about it (it’s not as if you can label an individual neutrino and send it from one place to another, hundreds of miles away), but it does change the complexion of the whole thing. It also makes it rather more complex, of course, and as usual there is massive scope for disagreement about statistical techniques and whether everything has been allowed for.

I’m looking forward to the next chapters in what I’m sure will turn out to be a long story.