Tasting neutrinos: Flavor changing in the cores of exploding stars

I have long wondered about the Universe's wry sense of humor. After all, how else can it be that one of the most ethereal and ghostly particles in the cosmos is fundamentally responsible for some of the most colossal and violent explosions in it?

New research indicates that not only do neutrinos play an important role in supernova explosions, but we need to account for all their characteristics to truly understand why stars explode.

Stars generate energy in their cores, fusing lighter elements...