Two Americans, Japanese Win Nobel Physics Prize

Fox News ^ | October 8, 2002 | Associated Press

[Physicist]

STOCKHOLM, Sweden

[Physicist]

Not mentioned is that Ray Davis also discovered the solar neutrino deficit, a problem that was solved in the last few years by scientists here at Penn. The reason why Prof. Davis's neutrino experiment in the Homestake gold mine only detected 1/3 as many neutrinos as predicted by the standard solar model is that the electron-type neutrinos produced by the sun transform into muon-type and tau-type neutrinos in-flight on their way from the sun. This in turn demonstrates that neutrinos have mass. Since Prof. Davis's experiment was only sensitive to electron-type neutrinos, he saw an apparent deficit.

With little more than a tank of dry cleaning fluid--carbon tetrachloride--he discovered a fundamental fact about the most elementary particles in the universe.

[William McKinley]

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[Sabertooth]

((((((growl)))))

[Gumlegs]

Has evolution been disproved again?

[Physicist]

The Particle Sleuths, a great article about the history of neutrino physics at Penn.

[RadioAstronomer]

Fabulous!

The link was a great read too :-)

[Wonder Warthog]

"With little more than a tank of dry cleaning fluid--carbon tetrachloride--he discovered a fundamental fact about the most elementary particles in the universe."

Methinks there was just a "tiny" bit more involved than the tank of carbon tet.

[freedomcrusader]

From the link:

Ain't the Federal Government grand? Forcing out the best minds b/c of stupid bureaucratic "rules"...

[Physicist]

Methinks there was just a "tiny" bit more involved than the tank of carbon tet.

The technique is difficult, but conceptually the experiment really is that simple. Chlorine plus neutrinos equals argon.

You start with a big tank of carbon tetrachloride, make sure that there is very little argon in the tank, and let it sit for a while. Over time, some of the chlorine atoms (deep in the Earth!) are transformed (by the core of the sun!) into argon atoms. Measure the amount of argon, and you can calculate the solar neutrino flux.

What makes this technique difficult is ridding the tank of argon, and then measuring a very small concentration of argon when you're done. It can't be called an easy measurement; it took a top-notch physicist to do it. But to me, it's the conceptual simplicity of the experiment that makes it so elegant.

[freedomcrusader]

Ooops, forgot to past the part of the text Iwas complaining about:

When Davis was forced to retire from Brookhaven 16 years ago because of federal age limits that are no longer imposed on university professors, Lande suggested he continue his research at Penn.

[Chemist_Geek]

With little more than a tank of dry cleaning fluid--carbon tetrachloride--he discovered a fundamental fact about the most elementary particles in the universe.

A honking big tank of carbon tet, a mass spectrometer, and one heck of an imagination. Congratulations to Prof. Davis!

[maxwell]

Here is a link to (physics) Nobel recipients, 1901-2002.

Haven't looked through the entire list-- have to quit piddling around and finish presentation for CAARI-- but would you say there's about equal representation from nuclear-particle / AMO-condensed-solid state?

Met Phillips in Lindau last year-- great guy. Very amiable, talked to anybody and everybody, and seems to love every minute of life. Met the BEC dudes this summer at DAMOP-- well, "met", haha, I was running around sweating like a horse trying to find extension cords so Ketterle could get his durn laptop hooked up in time to give the opening talk... He was sweatin' it... Eric Cornell gave a great post-banquet talk about his misadventures in Sweden-- apparently he got the bowing procedure all screwed up, and the distinguished audience didn't know when to clap for him... Bwahaha...

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[longshadow]

The Italian-born Giacconi, a U.S. citizen, was cited for building the first X-ray telescopes that provided ``completely new — and sharp — images of the universe,'' the academy said. His research laid the foundation for X-ray astronomy, which has led to the discovery of black holes and allowed researchers to peer deep into the hearts of the dusty young galaxies where stars are born.

I quite sure this is who I saw giving a guest lecture whilst I was a lowly freshman in 1973. He spent most of it talking about Cygnus X-1, and the suspicions he had that it's X-rays were the result of frictional heating in an accretion disk of a Black Hole. It was standing room only in the lecture hall that afternoon. In fact, I sat on the steps in the aisle, as did about 75 other students who were mesmerized by the topic, but for whom there were not enough seats in the hall.

"Physics is good" and "three cheers for cleaning fluid" bttt

[PatrickHenry]

Bump. (Once again, my perpetual-motion machine fails to win the prize. Perhaps next year.)

[longshadow]

nerdly neutrino Nobel-prize bttt

[Physicist]

How could we not ping you?

[longshadow]

As an aside, do you know if, when the Solar neutrino problem was resolved, it was resolved in favor of the "flavor-change-takes-place-in-space" theory or the "MSW - flavor-changes-when-it-passes-thru-matter" theory?

[Physicist]

There's definitely an MSW effect going on. They have extracted the MSW parameters from the charged-current and neutral-current measurements. Furthermore, as a check they have measured the day-night asymmetry, which arises from the fact that at night, the solar neutrinos have to pass through the bulk of the Earth.

[MeekOneGOP]

His experiments were described in the citation as ``considerably more difficult than finding a particular grain of sand in the whole of the Sahara desert.''

Amazing ! It may not be rocket science, but it's way over my head !

Whoo-Whee, Deputy Dawg !

Thanks for the post and the pingaroo....