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In this program, NOVA probes the secret ingredient of the cosmos:
swarms of invisible particles that fill every cubic inch of space
and just may explain how the universe was created. Trillions of
ghostly neutrinos move through our bodies every second without us
noticing a thing. Yet without them the sun wouldn't shine and the
elements that make up our world wouldn't exist. This program
explores the 70-year struggle so far to understand the most elusive
of all elementary particles, the neutrino.
Narrated by British actor Juliet Stevenson, "The Ghost Particle" is
the story of a discovery that altered scientists' understanding of
what the universe is made of and how it was first formed. NOVA
accompanies scientists into the laboratory, revealing astonishing
footage of bizarre experiments. Computer animation brings to life
the neutrino particle, which is at once invisible and yet utterly
essential to all life.
The program first takes audiences back to 1930, when Austrian
physicist Wolfgang Pauli wrote to his colleagues about the
phenomenon of radioactive decay. The experts were puzzled by a
missing bit of energy that could not be accounted for in their
picture of how a radioactive atomic nucleus decays. Pauli suggested
that an exquisitely tiny, previously unknown particle had to exist
to account for the missing energy. The problem with this theory,
however, was that there was no hard evidence of neutrinos'
existence.
It seemed to be an impossible investigation. Neutrinos have no
electric charge, making them invisible to ordinary detecting
equipment. Truly poltergeists among particles, they can pass
directly through thousands of miles of solid matter without slowing
down. Yet every element vital to life, including carbon and oxygen,
is made by a chain of nuclear reactions that would be impossible
without neutrinos. They are an essential ingredient of the universe,
and catching these neutrinos became the ultimate scientific quest
(see
Case of the Missing Particles).
NOVA sits down with
Professor John Bahcall
and Nobel Prize winner Ray Davis, two men determined to solve one of
the biggest puzzles in particle physics. In the 1960s, they began
their scientific adventure with a daring underground experiment that
few believed could succeed. Vindication for both men is a long time
in coming ... but come it does.
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The Super-Kamiokande detector in Japan is just one of
several such experiments that have helped to solve the
long-standing mystery surrounding the number of
neutrinos streaming out from the sun.
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