Neutrino Hunters

I was oddly unexcited about the Chemistry Nobel prize announcement this year. While DNA repair mechanisms are clearly important, it just didn’t excite me. I did show a slide summarizing the announcement to my classes as soon as I heard the news, but it felt rather “blah” for lack of a better word.

On the other hand, the Physics Nobel prize announcement the previous day got me all excited! I read the press release and a summary of the work aimed at the general public. (I also attempted to read the scientific report but had trouble following it as I did not have the requisite background in particle physics.) I did not know much about neutrinos, other than its famous introduction by Pauli back in 1930 and its involvement in beta-decay first postulated by Fermi. I had some vague memory hearing about early experimental detections being awarded the Nobel Prize, and I had heard about facilities such as Kamiokande involved in neutrino detection.

My excitement led me to borrow Ray Jayawardhana’s book Neutrino Hunters published just a couple of years ago.  I remember reading some great reviews of the book but never got around to reading it. The book is subtitled “the thrilling chase for a ghostly particle to unlock the secrets of the universe”. I concur. The book was very engaging; I had trouble putting it down! It is aimed at the non-physicist but the physics is so well communicated that I feel I learned a little bit of particle physics and experimental methods in physics from the book. That’s not the main point though. The best part is how the author weaves a thrilling narrative that jumps between the present and the past. The history of great discoveries in physics are conveyed with excitement, and the colorful scientists are presented quirks and all. While some of these were familiar to me, I had not heard of Bruno Pontecorvo nor was I familiar with the work by Ray Davis and John Bahcall. I think I also gained a better understanding of the work awarded this year’s physics Nobel Prize and I think it is very well-deserved. I wonder if Jayawardhana’s book had anything to do with it. He certainly did a superb job popularizing the work.

While there was much in the book that caught my attention, let me just point out two things I really enjoyed learning. First was the careful experimental work by Ray Davis complemented by equally careful work by Bahcall leading to their proposal of the Homestake mine experiment. The thoughtfulness of both scientists, and in particular the patience of Bahcall to hold on to the soundness of his theoretical calculations in the face of much of the physics community thinking there was something wrong in his work was amazing – it was really satisfying to read about his vindication in the end.

The other thing that really jumped out at me came from the final chapter in the book where the author looks forward to applications of further neutrino research. One of these was designing detectors that a body such as the IAEA could use to figure out if a facility was stockpiling to produce a nuclear warhead. Since neutrinos pass easily through matter, they would be difficult to hide even in an underground bunker. Of course, the same property makes their detection difficult but it sounds like solid progress is being made in this area.

Who would have thought neutrinos would be so interesting? I think I will include them next year in my chemistry classes. By the time the Nobel announcement came out I had finished “covering” nuclear chemistry and I usually don’t talk about neutrinos when we discuss beta-decay. I think I’ll cover it next time; it’s quite the thrilling story and I think there are some scientific inquiry lessons to be learned.

Bottom line: I recommend Neutrino Hunters. You won’t be disappointed!