Dear friend of Arkadia, You are invited to ‘Faster than light particles?’ with cosmologist Shaun Hotchkiss, cosmologist Rose Lerner and particle physicist Mikko Voutilainen on Saturday 15.10 at 4pm. A few weeks ago, the newspapers were full of the news that faster-than-light neutrinos have been detected. If this result is correct, it shakes the basis of physics as we know it, calling into question Einstein’s theory of relativity, and perhaps even the notion of “cause and effect”.  Rose Lerner has generously put together a panel of scientists who will first attempt to explain the experiment (and why it might be wrong) and then discuss what the result would mean for science if it is correct. The talk will be one hour long, with 30 minutes reserved for discussion. Please don’t worry if you are not sure what a neutrino is, or anything else – our kind panelists will attempt to explain from the basics. Warm regards, Ian Bourgeot www.arkadiabookshop.fi –Entrance is free and green tea will be offered. A donation of €2 (or more!) to fund the event is suggested and would be most welcome! The panel: Shaun Hotchkiss, who works in the cosmology group at Helsinki University and blogs at trenchesofdiscovery.blogspot.com Rose Lerner, who also works in the cosmology group at Helsinki University (but does not have a blog) Mikko Voutilainen, who is a particle physicist at Helsinki University working on the CMS experiment at CERN and blogs (in Finnish) at blogs.helsinki.fi/higgshunters/ Blog posts on the neutrino experiment by the panellists: Shaun: http://trenchesofdiscovery.blogspot.com/2011/09/yet-another-voice-in-neutrino-opera.html Mikko (in Finnish): http://blogs.helsinki.fi/higgshunters/2011/09/24/oopperan-kummitus/ News coverage of the experiment: see for example http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/sep/22/faster-than-light-particles-neutrinos?intcmp=239