Friday, 25 May, 2012

Neutrinos are odd: Extremely difficult to see, they travel through mass with scarcely a trace. A 1-billion ton detector in South Pole ice is now counting neutrinos, intent on understanding their origin and role in the universe, and even spotting echoes of the Big Bang.

Buried 1000 meters under the city of Hida, Japan, and packed with 11,146 photomultiplier tubes, the Super Kamiokande detector is set up to capture the presence of what may be the universe’s most bashful particle. The ghost-like neutrino has no electrical charge and a near zero mass. That means it doesn’t like to play with [...]

Neutrinos are everywhere, but catching these tiny particles is one of the toughest tasks in physics. A giant neutrino experiment is starting up in Illinois. Want to go visit?

The Spallation Neutron Source, a mammoth science project involving the collaboration of six national laboratories, is scheduled to be completed 2006.

An international team of scientists selected the Homestake goldmine to be the world’s deepest underground lab, but the project may sink.

At the South Pole, giant telescope searches for elusive neutrinos, hoping to find evidence of huge explosions in the distant universe. In neutrino astronomy, ice is definitely nice!