Yesterday, the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to two physicists – Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald – who made leading contributions to the discovery that neutrinos, very difficult-to-detect subatomic particles, can actually change from one kind to another kind spontaneously. This is called “neutrino oscillation” or “neutrino mixing,” and the fact that it happens at all implies that neutrinos have mass. In case the notion of a neutrino is alien to you, here are some helpful resources to learn more about this important subatomic particle.
Explain It In 60 Seconds: Neutrino (Symmetry Magazine, April 01, 2010)
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/april-2010/explain-it-in-60-seconds-neutrino
Deconstruction: Neutrino Experiments (Symmetry Magazine, October 2011)
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/october-2011/deconstruction-neutrino-experiments
Explain It In 60 Seconds: Neutrino Masses (Symmetry Magazine, September, 2008)
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/september-2008/explain-it-in-60-seconds-neutrino-masses
Explain it in 60 Seconds: Neutrino Mixing (Symmetry Magazine, May, 2005)
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/may-2005/explain-it-in-60-seconds
The Elusive Neutrino (Symmetry Magazine, May, 2005)
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/may-2005/the-elusive-neutrino
Neutrinos: Nature’s Ghosts (Fermilab, starring Don Lincoln)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8dRZjOD_ME
Neutrinos: Nature’s Identity Thieves? (Fermilab, starring Don Lincoln)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGv-pcKRf6Q
Breaking: Nobel Prize awarded for discovery of neutrino oscillations (Symmetry Magazine, October, 2015)
