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I have two distinct points of view to comment the news as reported in the papers.
a) the result of the experiment as such, in its scientific significance
b) the communication of the finding of the experiment in the actual public fundings perspective.
a) It is not an entirely new discovery. It has been based on 3 years of data, and it follows the findings of the Minos experiment (Fermi Lab). I am not a specialist in any of the fields of science that could be directly interested. Nevertheless, I am not surprised that any, I mean really all of the principles, postulates, hypotheses on which any, and I mean all, theories can be developed about nature, can one day be shown inaccurate to a given degree. My opinion is that it is not of truth that we are discussing but of representations of nature. I doubt that to day any scientist would build a theory of nature based on something that needs to be absolutely certain.
b) The paper Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam
has 73 authors, from 49 laboratories and from 11 countries: Russia, Switzerland, Italy, Korea, Francia, Turkey, Germany, Japan, Israel, Croatia, Belgium (in the order of quotation).
These large numbers give me the idea that it is a call for further fundings, in a moment when all the countries mentioned are going through severe cutting of expenses. It is not an uncommon gesture by the physicist community.
It is a technical paper, yes, easy to follow and it looks completely sound to me, but it is signed by administrators also. It has some public relation purpose, in my opinion of course.
Somebody is hoping to be able to continue experimenting on this "hot" subject for many many years to come. Like it did happen for the ether caper.
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