[quesera]

While that's all certainly true, NASA physicists are not all crackpots, and at least some of them are careful experimenters.

Newtonian mechanics was also extremely well-tested. Unexplained error is always interesting and sometimes exciting.

[eru]

Newtonian mechanics still holds for `normal' levels of energy. Relativity and Quantum mechanics only show up on the edges.

dzdt says that this device does NOT probe the edges---no high energies for example.

[TearsInTheRain]

The photoelectric effect which led to the discovery of Quantum mechanics is not at all high energy physics and could barely be called an edge case...

[rbanffy]

> dzdt says that this device does NOT probe the edges

A Cesium clock on board a 747 will slow down even though the 747 will not be flying at relativistic speeds. It's just that it's a clock good enough to show a very small difference.

They are measuring a very small, barely detectable, force.