The universe as we know it is safe for now, and so is Einstein’s theory of special relativity. Physicists who shocked the scientific world by claiming particles could move faster than the speed of light have admitted they made a mistake. Their reasoning: a faulty fiber-optic cable in a GPS receiver.

Researchers at the European Centre for Particle Physics near Geneva claimed in September 2011 that they had recorded neutrinos – a type of tiny particle – travelling faster than the speed of light, or 299 792 kilometres per second, to be exact.

The results would have knocked Einstein’s theory of special relativity – proposed back in 1905 – right out of the water because essentially, it would have allowed information to be sent back in time, and thus would have created confusion with the concept of cause and effect.

The physicists again claimed in November 2011 that they had reproduced their findings, and invited physicists from all over the world to try to replicate their findings.

Doc Brown and Marty McFly fans experienced a brief period of stimulation, and scientists across the world agreed that if the results were proved incorrigible, that it would have forced a fundamental rethink of the laws of physics.

Many scientists got to work, and just last weekend, five different teams announced at the annual meeting of the American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences, that they were gearing up to run tests of their own.

However, yesterday, the original team made a humbling announcement: the GPS system they’d used to adjust the mechanism that timed the neutrinos’ journey had a loose fiber-optic cable.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili, of the University of Surrey, who threatened to eat his boxer shorts if the original results were proven accurate, is reported to be relieved because it would have been equally as difficult for him to digest cotton as it would have been to understand that something could travel faster than the speed of light.

[Source: Time]