CERN has confirmed that the anomalous results which indicated that neutrinos traveled faster than the speed of light were caused by faulty machinery. The findings were reported on heavily last September, and since then scientists the world over have been trying to explain how the neutrinos broke one of the fundamental laws of physics. Earlier this year, there was word that the team behind the results had found possible faults in its test equipment, and the error has now been confirmed.

While it may seem like a huge blow to the team, CERN Research Director Sergio Bertolucci was pragmatic in his summary of the events. He thanked the scientific community for its collaboration on finding the error, and explained why mishaps like this show the strength of science:

"The story captured the public imagination, and has given people the opportunity to see the scientific method in action - an unexpected result was put up for scrutiny, thoroughly investigated and resolved in part thanks to collaboration between normally competing experiments. That's how science moves forward."

Bertolucci summarized that "although this result isn’t as exciting as some would have liked, it is what we all expected deep down."