Neutrinos in the news

Neutrinos have been in the news a lot the last few days, following evidence that they don’t travel faster than light.

What bothers me about all these news stories is that a great deal of them claim that Einstein’s postulate that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light has been proven “right” by this neutrino experiment.

Here are a few sample headlines:

Einstein proved right in retest of neutrinos' speed

Einstein can rest easy as neutrinos obey speed limit

Retest of neutrino speed suggests Einstein was right, after all (+video)

New neutrino test suggests Einstein was right as rain

Einstein vindicated as neutrinos obey speed limit

The reasoning is completely ridiculous, and it runs thus: neutrinos have been shown not to travel faster than light, therefore nothing can travel faster than light, and Einstein has been proven correct.

All this neutrino experiment showed was that neutrinos don’t travel faster than light. End of story. Why do scientists and the headline writers of the world continue the story to say that, since neutrinos don’t travel faster than light, nothing does, and Einstein has been proven correct?

First of all, it’s a logical fallacy to make the leap that since neutrinos don’t travel faster than light, nothing can. Such broad generalizations usually don’t hold true in the real world, and they certainly don’t have any place in science. Second, the experimental results don’t “prove” relativity. The results are merely experimental support. Relativity has never been “proven.” It has only been supported by evidence.

Einstein has not been vindicated; he has not been proven right. Neutrinos don't travel faster than light. End of story.