New measurements of neutrinos, ghostly sub-atomic particles that hardly interact with anything, indicate a surprising 1% discrepancy between predictions of their behaviour and the way they actually behave. 

The findings, announced to puzzled scientists at the US Fermilab, the world's highest-energy accelerator, could mean that an unknown force or undiscovered particle is influencing the neutrinos. 

(OMED: Headline above links to original article.)

Oregon Magazine submitted this BBC article to a particle physicist who lives well west of London.   He replied: "Yes, this is probably not correct... it is only a small deviation, and these guys are grasping.  The data is subtle and requires significant corrections.  Of course it could be right, and then would be as important as they claim.  But my money, and that of most knowledgable physcists is that there is most likely an error ... we need stronger results and most importantly other cross checks."

Thus, a reader, in a world where one can be firmly unsure of even physics, must build his foundation on poetry:

Speedy neutrinos are silly
LIke lovers at play in the park
Something gets smacked
And something gets cracked
God knows what's going on 
              in the dark. (LL)
 

Original text (C)  2001 Oregon Magazine