Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Faster than a speeding bullet, faster even than the speed of light, neutrinos flying in beams sent through the Earth’s crust the 730km between Cern in Geneva and the Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy are astonishing the world scientific community. Initial measurements of the neutrinos have given scientists startling results, showing them to travel at 20 parts per million above “the world’s cosmic speed limit”, the speed of light.
Neutrinos are elementary particles that are electrically neutral.
The Opera project, which has thus far measured some 15,000 neutrino events, has prompted Cern to open access to other scientists to better understand the results, the Geneva group says in a statement Friday, linked to a seminar on the results. The surprising results, which fly in the face of accepted science, must be independently verified, says Cern. Checks for faulty equipment and methodology have turned up nothing.
“The Opera measurement is at odds with well-established laws of nature, though science frequently progresses by overthrowing the established paradigms,” Cern notes in its Friday statement. “For this reason, many searches have been made for deviations from Einstein’s theory of relativity, so far not finding any such evidence. The strong constraints arising from these observations makes an interpretation of the Opera measurement in terms of modification of Einstein’s theory unlikely, and give further strong reason to seek new independent measurements.”
“This result comes as a complete surprise,” said Opera spokesperson, Antonio Ereditato of the University of Bern. “After many months of studies and cross checks we have not found any instrumental effect that could explain the result of the measurement. While Opera researchers will continue their studies, we are also looking forward to independent measurements to fully assess the nature of this observation.”
“When an experiment finds an apparently unbelievable result and can find no artefact of the measurement to account for it, it’s normal procedure to invite broader scrutiny, and this is exactly what the OPERA collaboration is doing, it’s good scientific practice,” says Cern’s research director Sergio Bertolucci.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – WRS radio reports that a woman who fell from the first floor balcony of the Grand Théâtre Saturday evening 30 January remains in serious condition and will have surgery. The Tribune de Geneve and Le Matin earlier reported that the woman was leaning against a barrier when it gave way, and she plunged four metres, injuring another member of the audience.
The 5,000-year-old door in Zurich may be one of the oldest found in Europe (photo, city of Zurich)
Update 2, 22 October Zurich, Switzerland (GeneveLunch) – Archeological digs in the centre of Zurich have been turning up a number of treasures, among them a door that is 5,000 years old.
The excavations, near the opera in Zurich, began in May 2010 and will be completed in January 2011, making way for the construction of a parking lot.
Niels Bleicher, who is leading the archeological project, told AP that the door, made of poplar wood, is “very interesting, solid and elegant”, with a “remarkable” system for holding together the planks.
An ingenious system holds the door together - (photo, city of Zurich)
He also noted that it’s rare, during a dig, to come up with as many interesting items as they have been finding in Zurich.
Archaeologists have found traces of at least five Neolithic villages believed to have existed at the site between 3,700 and 2,500 years B.C., including objects such as a flint dagger from what is now Italy and an elaborate hunting bow.
Links to other sites: Business Week/AP, 20 Minutes (Fre), WRS background video story, June 2010
Dame Joan Sutherland, 1926-2010
(Video) Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Dame Joan Sutherland, one of Australia’s music greats and a long-time star in the international word of opera, died Monday 11 October at her home in Les Avants, near Geneva. She was 83.
The opera singer, who became known particularly for her bel canto repertoire “made Donizetti, Handel and Verdi sound as new, through her fearless technique and formidable range,” writes The Age in its obituary.
Her career was launched in 1959 when she sang Lucia di Lammermoor at the Royal Opera House in London and tributes to her extraordinary voice poured in. For the next 30 years she sang at the world’s major opera houses, performed with the opera world’s best and made scores of recordings.
Bloomberg’s Manuela Hoelterhoff summarized her career thus:
Location: Geneva
Link out: http://www.geneveopera.ch./fr/
Start date: 4 Sep 2010
End date: 19 Sep 2010
Cern Opera experiments bring in exciting results
Cern Opera experiment detector, Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A significant step forward in our understanding of physics was announced in Italy Monday 31 May, by a team at the Gran Sasso laboratory: the first direct observation of a tau particle in a muon neutrino beam sent through the Earth from Cern, 730km away.
The team has been working as part of the Opera experiments at Cern in Geneva.
The tau particle sighting provides the missing link to a puzzle that has intrigued physicists since it was described in the 1960s by US scientist Ray Davies, whose work on it led to a Nobel Prize. Cern reports:
He observed far fewer neutrinos arriving at the Earth from the Sun than solar models predicted: either solar models were wrong, or something was happening to the neutrinos on their way. A possible solution to the puzzle was provided in 1969 by the theorists Bruno Pontecorvo and Vladimir Gribov, who first suggested that chameleon-like oscillatory changes between different types of neutrinos could be responsible for the apparent neutrino deficit.
Several experiments since have observed the disappearance of muon-neutrinos, confirming the oscillation hypothesis, but until now no observations of the appearance of a tau-neutrino in a pure muon-neutrino beam have been observed: this is the first time that the neutrino chameleon has been caught in the act of changing from muon-type to tau-type.
The chameleon-like change has enormous potential significance for the world of physics.
Title: Flowers in the mirror, a Chinese opera
Location: Lausanne
Link out: Click here
Description: Performed by the Sichuan Opera.
Start Date: 2010-04-11
End Date: 2010-04-25
Title: Opera: Lulu
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: A burlesque and macabre tragedy.
Start Date: 2010-02-04
End Date: 2010-02-19
Title: Opera: La vie Parisienne
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: A zany operetta about 19th century Paris. The show is produced by theatre company Vivre et Chanter. A charity performance to benefit “Friends of India’s” projects.
Where: Theatre du Leman, Grand Hotel Kempinski
Start Time: 20:00
Date: 2010-02-13
Title: Opera: Otello
Location: Lausanne
Link out: Click here
Description: The Lausanne Opera begins its second half of its season with a classic lyric: Otello.
Start Date: 2010-02-21
End Date: 2010-02-28
Title: “L’Etoile”, Chabrier opera, Geneva Grande Théâtre
Location: Geneva, Grande Théâtre
Link out: Click here
Description: Emmanuel Chabrier opera, with the Suisse Romande orchester and the choir of the Grand Théâtre, under the direction of Jean-Yves Ossonce.
Start Date: 2009-12-23
End Date: 2009-12-31
Title: Opera: Il barbiere di Siviglia
Location: Lausanne, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: The classic opera, the barber of Seville, will play for one week only in Lausanne. The last opera of the season.
Start Date: 07 Jun 2009
End Date: 14 Jun 2009
Title: Zurich festival
Location: Zurich
Link out: Click here
Description: A celebration of the arts: opera, music, dance and more.
Start Date: 19 Jun 2009
End Date: 12 Jul 2009
Title: Opera: Pan y Toros (zarzuela)
Location: Lausanne, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A zarzuela in three acts (Spaniard equivalent of the opera that also includes the spoken word). The setting for “Pan y Toros” (bread and bulls) is 1790 when the Spanish monarchy tried to stop the people’s revolution by providing more bread and corridas (bullfighting).
Start Date: 19 Apr 2009
End Date: 26 Apr 2009
Title: Opera: Salome, Geneva
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: Based on the Richard Strauss opera, performed by the Swiss-Romande Orchestra and the ensamble of Geneva’s Grand Theatre.
Start Date: 13 Feb 2009
End Date: 22 Feb 2009
Title: Opera: L’isola disabitata
Location: Vevey, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A Hayden piece presented by the Bienne Opera.
Date: 11 Jan 2009
Title: Opera: The king carrot
Location: Vevey, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: Since 1872 this opera had not been played on stage, a rare opportunity to enjoy the last eve of the year.
Date: 31 Dec 2008
Title: Opera festival in Avenches
Location: Avenches
Description: Concerts held on a Roman coliseum
Start Date: 2008-07-09
End Date: 2008-07-19
