No shame

The handling of results suggesting faster-than-light neutrinos was a model of fitting behaviour.

Physicists saw plenty of reasons to doubt OPERA's extraordinary claim, and Ereditato and Auterio did not disagree. Even as they presented the result, they invited their colleagues to comment, and encouraged others to try to reproduce their results. Within months, CERN had sent a new beam of neutrinos to Italy and a second experiment found neutrinos travelling at the expected speed. After a great deal of searching, members of the OPERA group eventually traced the discrepancy to a cable that was not fully screwed in.

“The message here is that scientists are not afraid to question the big ideas.”

Ereditato and Auterio acted responsibly when speaking publicly by sticking close to their data and avoiding over-interpretation.

Some Italian journalists aside, the press responsibly reported the initial result as simultaneously incredible and very possibly wrong.

The no-confidence vote and resignations are a matter for the collaboration's internal processes, and have no bearing on the quality of the collaboration's science.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v484/n7394/full/484287b.html?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20120419