In September 2011, a group of scientists announced that they had detected subatomic particles travelling at speeds greater than the speed of light in vacuum. The finding is in conflict with Einstein’s theory of relativity and has been met with great skepticism by mathematicians and physicists around the world. This lecture will examine the grounds for that skepticism, and consider the role of skepticism in general in science and mathematics.
Dr Cormac O'Raifeartaigh lectures in physics and mathematics at Waterford Institute of Technology. He has a PhD in physics from Trinity College Dublin and is a frequent participant in scientific debates in the Irish media. He writes regularly on physics in newspapers (The Irish Times) and magazines (Physics World) and is the author of the well-known science blog ANTIMATTER. He has just returned from a position as Research Fellow with the Science, Technology and Society Program at Harvard University.