So, the thing that really amazed me about the news that neutrinos might possibly travel faster than light (I’m not convinced) was not that this would change all physics forever and make Einstein a dooty-head as well, it was that physicists were using the Large Hadron Collider in Bern, Switzerland, like a particle-beam cannon to shoot volleys of neutrinos at Italy! Wouldn’t that be awesome? I didn’t even know it could do that! I thought the particles stayed inside the accelerator, for the most part. I didn’t know they could lob an occasional broadside at a target in another country. “Who should we blast full of neutrinos today?” “Well, I’ve always wanted to irradiate Kalamazoo.” Man, I wish I’d paid more attention in physics class.

Speaking of which: A couple of particle physicists joined Tom Ashbrook on his radio show yesterday to talk about the neutrino thingy, and when they got to the part of the show where callers phoned in to dump on the guests, one of them began to explain away the supposed extraordinary speed of neutrinos by saying, “If I recall my high school physics correctly…” Oh! Hey! We never thought of that! Man, if we’d only gone back to high school physics, none of this controversy would ever have come out! Thanks, high school physics caller! That cleared everything up!