Posted on 10/06/2015 5:24:45 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The 2015 Nobel Prize in physics has gone to two scientists for discovering the quirky, shape-shifting behavior of neutrinos — tiny ghostlike particles that fill the universe, traveling close to the speed of light.
Takaaki Kajita of the Super-Kamiokande experiment at the University of Tokyo and Arthur B. McDonald of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory at Queen’s University in Canada were awarded the physics Nobel on Tuesday for their discovery that neutrinos oscillate — and thus, that they must have mass.
Small as these particles are, the scientists' insight — that neutrinos are chameleon-like particles, switching identities in an instant — had massive implications for our understanding of the cosmos.
“For more than half a century, we used to think that neutrinos are massless,” Olga Botner, a member of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said at the announcement Tuesday morning. “The discovery of neutrino oscillations at the turn of the millennium upset our notions.”
Speaking via telephone, McDonald joked about being roused in the dark hours of the morning.
“As it turns out, I did not mind,” McDonald told the Nobel committee during the briefing.
Neutrinos are incredibly small, but what they lack in size, they make up for in number. There are so many neutrinos in the universe that trillions of them pass through your body every second. Even a slight change in how we see these particles can have enormous implications for our understanding of the building blocks of particle physics and of the cosmos as a whole.
Neutrinos have been around since the birth of the universe. They were produced during the Big Bang; they’re generated in the hearts of stars and high-energy events like supernovae as well as in the bellies of nuclear power plants.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
In a universe full of strange and incredible things, the neutrino is in my opinion at or close to the top of the list. They are as strange as quantum mechanics, as strange as relativity, as strange as black holes.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t someday play a role in enabling us to travel between stars and galaxies, or generate an endless supply of energy.
If it meant an endless supply of energy, Obama would find a way to kill neutrinos.
Meanwhile we wait for the announcement of the winner(s) of the Peace Prize. Who will it be? Putin? Kerry and his Iranian counterpart? Obama for an unprecedented second time? Hillary to give her campaign a boost? Edward Snowden?
Neutrinos have mass. Vatican reaction at 11:00...
That’s funny.
And another thought is maybe these guys have no clue what is going on out there. They whittle 99% of the universe into distinct laws where things always act the same way and replication is available BUT in a small number of areas, e.g. neutrinos, things just seem to do what they want to do and react in unpredictable ways. LOL
Huge fudge factor to be able to say we have it all figured out.
I didn't know they were Catholic. Finding that out really deserves a Nobel Prize. Or maybe the Ignobel Prize.
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