Neutrino Oscillations Confirmed

mfg writes "The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory has found evidence that neutrinos can change type between the Sun and Earth. See the BBC news story for more details."

Why are the neutrinos interesting?

[dejectuk]

Not being a physicist / whatever, can someone explain why finding these particles is so interesting and/or important? I can understand that the particles changing on way to earth is a theory proved, but what use is a theory if it has no application? I can't see an application in that story...

Re:Why are the neutrinos interesting?

[tanveer1979]

Did you travel to andromeda galaxy? No you didnt inspite of black holes, still we study them. Look at it this way, how will people get nobel prize if they dont do all this. Dont be so insensitive

Re:Why are the neutrinos interesting?

[levell]

At the Cavendish Lab, where they discovered the electron, there used to be a toast: "To the electron, may it never be of use to anybody!". The applications (electronics in the case of the electron) only come later, once the theory is well understood.

Re:Why are the neutrinos interesting?

[kpetruse]

They are interesting because they provide proof (or disproof) of basic quantum theory. Neutrinos are produced by the sun during the fusion of Hydrogen. The amount predicted by the equations is three times what is observed. Therefore either something happens to the neutrinos on the way, or the theory is wrong.

It's called science. You make a hypothesis, and you try and prove it by experimentation. Simple really.

With the sort of attitude shown here, Einstein would never have bothered looking at discrepancies in Newton's laws of motion and gravitation, and there would be no theories of relativity. Heisenberg/Bohr/Planck (and all the others) would never have looked at discrepancies in black body radiation etc and quantum theory would never have been thought of. And then I wouldn't be writing this, because semiconductors would never have been discovered.

Just because there's no immediate application in a particular field doesn't make it important. Stop thinking of that great big $ sign.

Re:Point?

[hij]

Its not possible to figure out what direction this sort of information will lead the science community. That is why it is called "basic research." The principle argument is that it helps us understand the universe around us. The implicit assumption is that people will be able to exploit whatever knowledge eventually comes out of this research.

There is a good deal of tension between advocates of basic versus applied research, and there needs to be a better dialog. Currently it is a bunch of people throwing around assumptions about the merits of both types of research, but no one seems to really engage the other. (IMHO).

As an aside, there was a link [bbc.co.uk] from the article about the Japanese detector. Seems that one of the tubes blew which set of a cascade that destroyed most of the remaining tubes. I can't imagine the boom that one made...

Re:Why this matters....

[Jodrell]

it's a funny idea, but a "neutrino toaster" would be quite difficult to create...

At normal neutrino flux levels, it'd take several times the lifespan of the universe for neutrinos to deposit even the tiniest amount of energy into a slice of bread. Consider the fact that many billions have passed through your body in the time you've been reading this comment. It's unlikely a single one of them would actually collide with a particle in your body.

A neutrino toaster would probably need the total neutrino output of the sun to toast a slice of bread in a reasonable time period - and if you've got that, why not just stick your bread on a real long fork and toast it over the sun's corona :-)

Re:Why this matters....

[gnalre]

(Apologies to V.Vinge) What about imaging applications. Could we use neutrino's to map the center of planets oe even the sun?

Lets ignore the technical impossibilities for a second here.

Actually we already have a good application already. we have proved that the sun is working as we expect. There was two possibilities for the missing neutrino's.

1. The theories were wrong
2. The sun was very ill.

Personally I feel a lot richer for knowing 2 is not the case.

Can we use this technology as a way to monitor the sun?

Re:Neutrino MASS??

[PhxBlue]

But it is important. . . isn't it? If I recall my physics correctly, neutrinos with mass = closed universe.

It's funny when you think about it, that probably the smallest particle in the universe will decide its fate. . . but it's true. Pretty amazing stuff, physics.