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Neutrino Oscillations Confirmed

Posted by Hemos on from the do-the-wiggle-waggle dept.

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."

2 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why are the neutrinos interesting? by levell · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Struggling to find a day everyone can make? WhenShallWe.com
  2. Re:Why this matters.... by Jodrell · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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 :-)