The Neutrino

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2011

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the neutrino.In 1930 the physicist Wolfgang Pauli proposed the existence of an as-yet undiscovered subatomic particle. He also bet his colleagues a case of champagne that it would never be detected. He lost his bet when in 1956 the particle, now known as the neutrino, was first observed in an American nuclear reactor. Neutrinos are some of the most mysterious particles in the Universe. The Sun produces trillions of them every second, and they constantly bombard the Earth and everything on it. Neutrinos can pass through solid rock, and even stars, at almost the speed of light without being impeded, and are almost impossible to detect. Today, experiments involving neutrinos are providing insights into the nature of matter, the contents of the Universe and the processes deep inside stars.With:Frank CloseProfessor of Physics at Exeter College at the University of OxfordSusan CartwrightSenior Lecturer in Particle Physics and Astrophysics at the University of SheffieldDavid WarkProfessor of Particle Physics at Imperial College, London, and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Producer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for down learning the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:10.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:12.0	Hello, about 93 million miles above our heads as a star we call the sun.
0:17.0	In the heart of this enormous ball of plasma, nuclear reactions are producing vast amounts of energy, energy which reaches the Earth in the form of heat and light.
0:27.0	But in addition to warming our planet and bathing it in light, the sun is also bombarding us with a storm of objects we don't even notice.
0:34.0	They're called neutrinos, and billions of them pass straight through our bodies every second.
0:39.0	Neutrinos are some of the strangest and most mysterious objects in the universe.
0:44.6	They're invisibly tiny and can travel through solid rock and even stars as easily as they do through
0:49.9	space.
0:51.5	Scientists first prove that our existence half a century ago. Today,
0:54.3	neutrinos are offering us new insights into the nature of the universe and of
0:58.1	matter itself. With me to discuss the neutrino are Frank Close, Professor of Physics at Exeter College at the University of
1:05.2	Oxford, Susan Cartwright, Senior Lecturer in Particle Physics and Astrophysics at
1:10.0	the University of Sheffield and David Walk
1:12.8	Professor of Particle Physics at Imperial College London
1:15.6	and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Frank Close.
1:18.4	I've hinted at the sheer strangeness of these particles.
1:22.0	You think they're the weirdest objects in the universe
1:24.7	could you give us a bit more detail about them what they are how they behave so on?
1:28.4	Well they're probably as near to nothing as anything that we know. They've got no electrical charge.
1:35.0	Until very recently we thought they got no mass at all.
1:38.0	If they have got any mass, it's too small to measure.
	...

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