Neutrino

by Frank Close

Neutrinos are perhaps the most enigmatic particles in the universe. These tiny, ghostly particles are formed by the billions in stars and pass through us constantly, unseen, at almost the speed of light. Yet half a century after their discovery, we still know less about them than all the other varieties of matter that have ever been seen.
In this engaging, concise volume, renowned scientist and popular writer Frank Close gives a vivid account of the discovery of neutrinos and our growing understanding of their significance, also touching on some speculative ideas concerning the possible uses of neutrinos and their role in the early universe. Close begins with the early history of the discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel and Marie and Pierre Curie, the early model of the atom by Ernest Rutherford, and problems with these early atomic models, and Wolfgang Pauli's solution to that problem by inventing the concept of neutrino (named by Enrico Fermi, "neutrino" being Italian for "little neutron"). The book describes how the confirmation of Pauli's theory didn't occur until 1956, when Clyde Cowan and Fred Reines detected neutrinos, and reveals that the first "natural" neutrinos were finally detected by Reines in 1965 (before that, they had only been detected in reactors or accelerators). Close takes us to research experiments miles underground that are able to track neutrinos' fleeting impact as they pass through vast pools of cadmium chloride and he explains why they are becoming of such interest to cosmologists--if we can track where a neutrino originated we will be looking into the far distant reaches of the universe.
In telling the story of the neutrino, Close offers a fascinating portrait of a strand of modern physics that sheds light on everything from the workings of the atom and the power of the sun.

Genres: Science, Physics, Nonfiction, Popular Science, History, Astronomy

176 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 2010

About the author

Francis Edwin Close (Arabic: فرانك كلوس)

In addition to his scientific research, he is known for his lectures and writings making science intelligible to a wider audience.

From Oxford he went to Stanford University in California for two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow on the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In 1973 he went to the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire and then to CERN in Switzerland from 1973–5. He joined the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire in 1975 as a research physicist and was latterly Head of Theoretical Physics Division from 1991. He headed the communication and public education activities at CERN from 1997 to 2000. From 2001, he was Professor of Theoretical Physics at Oxford. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Birmingham from 1996–2002.

Close lists his recreations as writing, singing, travel, squash and Real tennis, and he is a member of Harwell Squash Club.

Reviews

[Tim Turnip · Rating 4 out of 5]

As expected, I was completely out of my element here. Too much Science. However, I understood enough of it to see what was going on. Kind of. Here's brief outline.
Neutrinos are byproducts of beta decay, a type of radioactivity were mass turns into energy or something. So these scientists were examining this and they found that something was wrong- their was some particles missing from the transformation. Paulis, a scientist back then (early to mid-20th century) had an idea that there was a massless, chargeless, invisible particle that was carrying away the missing energy. He was basically right. The neutrino, which in Italian means Little Neutron, has almost no mass, is very hard to detect, moves with relative speeds, and has no charge, much like a neutron, it's namesake. There are three types of neutrinos- tau-neutrinos, muon-neutrinos, and electron-neutrinos. This is based on the particle that is released alongside the neutrino. Taus and muons are just heavier electrons. And then there was alot more complicated ideas and all, with detectors involving ice, some special light that revealed the oresence of a neutrino, and heavy water.
This book was really well scripted, and was not just meant for uber-scientists. You just need some understanding of matter, Matter and Energy conservation, a tiny bit of Special Relativity (know what e=mc squared means) and you should be able to interpret most of it. Now I'm goingto read Anti-Matter by Frank Close
And let me know if I left out any reallyimportant details, or am plain wrong, or if you know about neutrinos and can explain them to me in the comments! Thanks.

[Julian Worker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank Close is Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics, and Fellow Emeritus at Exeter College at Oxford University. He was formerly Head of Theoretical Physics Division at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, vice President of the British Science Association and Head of Communications and Public Understanding at CERN.

He is the only professional physicist to have won a British Science Writers Prize on three occasions. He is one of the best writers in the English language regardless of the subject matter. I've read a number of science books and I know how easy it is to make scientific subjects complicated. Frank Close explains things really clearly and he's the ideal writer to provide lay people such as myself with an explanation of the strangest particle in existence, the neutrino (and yes there are anti-neutrinos too).

The neutrino was first postulated by the physicist Wolfgang Pauli in 1930 and it was to be many decades before its existence was proven but along the way it was found there are three varieties of neutrino which can all oscillate that is change form, so although a certain flavour of neutrino may leave the sun or a supernova on its journey into the universe, this neutrino can change along the way depending on what it bumps into.

Neutrinos are without charge, almost without mass, and can pass through matter for billions of years before they interact with anything at all. Billions of neutrinos will have passed through you, your computer screen, and the keyboard while you've been reading this review. But now neutrino astronomy is giving humankind views deep into the hearts of distant galaxies and allowing us to see back into the past of the universe.

[Jorge Zuluaga · Rating 5 out of 5]

En este entretenido "relato" el físico de partículas Frank Close narra la increíble historia de una de los más intrigantes tipos de partículas que hayamos predicho, descubierto y estudiado como especie: los neutrinos.

No es esta, naturalmente, la historia de los neutrinos en el Universo, que han estado aquí desde que comenzó el Big-Bang y se producen profusamente bien sea en las estrellas, en el interior de los planetas o en los choques de partículas por todo el cosmos. Es la historia de como estos "fantasmas" estas "partículas casi nada" fueron primero predichos usando únicamente nuestras expectativas sobre la validez universal de las leyes de la física (en particular una que apreciamos profundamente, la ley de la conservación de la energía), hasta su descubrimiento usando ingeniosos métodos físico-químicos entre finales de los años 1950 y principios de los 1970.

Pero también es la historia sobre las manera como sus increíbles propiedades han venido guiando el desarrollo de la física fundamental. Una historia sobre una búsqueda asombrosa que no termina todavía (a la fecha la naturaleza precisa de los neutrinos, algunas de sus propiedades fundamentales - tal como su masa que todavía se desconoce y su relación con el resto de partículas del universo, no se entienden cabalmente todavía).

El libro esta muy bien escrito, es agradable de leer (¡se puede saborear en una sentada!) y no contiene muchos tecnicismos.

Esta escrito con un cierto humor muy al estilo de los libros del gran Leon Lederman,autor del clásico "La partícula divina", un maestro en esto de hacer divulgación de la física con un poquito de picante.

Close es definitivamente otro Lederman. Leer "Neutrino" me ha hecho buscar todos sus otros libros de divulgación en el tema.

Me alegra haber descubierto, así sea "tarde", para mí como físico, este gran divulgador de mi disciplina.

La historia de la predicción y descubrimiento de los neutrinos es asombrosa*. Los neutrinos son asombrosos. Vale la pena leer sobre ambos en un libro salido de la pluma de Frank Close. ¡Lean este libro!

(Abajo unas notas autobiográficas prescindibles)

Como lo saben algunos de los que leen mis reseñas aquí, por estos meses he estado regresando sobre algunos libros que leí hace muchos años (y otros que obviamente no leí, como este), pero también sobre textos que salieron recientemente y que forman parte de una extensa colección de libros de divulgación en física, que en los últimos 30 o 40 años, han revivido para el gran público la increíble historia de la física de partículas y la teoría cuántica, una historia que además no termina (todavía hay demasiadas preguntas abiertas, experimentos sin realizarse, ideas originales por descubrir).

Mi motivación original era prepararme para un curso que estoy dictando (mientras escribo esta reseña) sobre este tema justamente. Y es que después de dictar muchos cursos similares por varios años, descubrí que es bueno leer los libros completos del curso antes de recomendarlos (como diría el filósofo popular Homero Simpson "duh!"). En el proceso he encontrado tantos "tesoros" de la literatura divulgativa, he pasado tantas horas agradables leyendo sobre los temas que me apasionan e incluso he aprendido tantas cosas que no sabía o no había entendido realmente (aunque se supone que tengo un doctorado en la materia) que creo que no volveré a dejar de leer divulgación en mi área en un buen tiempo (había suspendido este placer casi desde que era adolescente).

Una de las cosas que mas me impactaron de este libro fue entender que durante mi formación profesional, al final del pregrado y durante mi maestría y doctorado (que fueron justamente en esta área, la fenomenología de los neutrinos y su producción en procesos astronómicos) en realidad fue testigo e incluso participe (si me permiten decirlo así, en tanto mis primeras publicaciones fueron sobre neutrinos y su oscilación, aunque estén refundidas entre la basta literatura en el tema) de la última parte de la revolución en la historia de la física de los neutrinos. Estuve vivo y trabajaba en el área mientras el problema de los neutrinos solares estaba todavía abierto, cuando llegaron los datos de SNO resolviendo el problema, cuando se publicaron los trabajos sobre las oscilaciones de los neutrinos atmosféricos tomados por Super Kamiokande y cuando Davis y Koshida ganaron su Nobel. Esto hizo que este librito fuera aún más emocionante para mí.

[Kaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was decent, but I felt like the language could have been tighter. Close repeated himself quite often, and the flow of the ideas didn't always seem the most sensible when it came to presenting the history of the search for neutrinos. However, the science descriptions were very good, so this is a decent read.

[Chris Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

A most excellent book of history of science. Well-researched, the science clearly explained.

[Arno Mosikyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

As you read this, billions of them are hurtling, unseen, through your eyeballs at almost the speed of light.

In just a few seconds, the Sun has emitted more neutrinos than there are grains of sand in the deserts and beaches of the world, greater even than the number of atoms in all the humans that have ever lived. They are harmless: life has evolved within this storm of neutrinos.

Even you are producing them. Traces of radioactivity from potassium and calcium in your bones and teeth produce neutrinos. So, as you read this, you are irradiating the universe.
All we know is that if you had some subatomic scales, it would take at least 100,000 neutrinos to balance a single electron. Even so, their vast numbers make it possible that, in total, they outweigh all the visible matter of the universe.

The neutrinos from the Sun that have poured through you since you started reading this are already speeding onwards beyond Mars. A few hours from now they will cross the distant boundaries of the Solar System and head out into the boundless cosmos. If you were a neutrino, the chances are that you would be immortal, never bumping into atoms in billions of years.

Radioactivity occurs when the nuclei of atoms spontaneously change form: granite is not forever the same. For as long as the earth has existed, atoms of uranium and thorium, frozen into the minerals of its crust, have been eroding, transmuting into lighter elements, cascading down the periodic table until they have changed into stable atoms of lead. It is in this natural chronometer of radioactivity that neutrinos are born. That is where our story begins.

The alpha particles turned out to be relatively massive and, we now know, are pieces of atomic nuclei. They consist of tight bundles of two protons and two neutrons emitted when the strong forces that hold an atomic nucleus together are disrupted.

Being positively charged, the alpha particle can attract two negatively charged electrons and form an atom of helium. We now know that helium gas found in some rocks on Earth is the result of such nuclear transmutations.

The beta radiation consists of electrons, not ones that pre-existed in the atom but which have been created from energy released in the nuclear transmutation: alchemy.

Gamma rays are particles of light, far beyond the rainbow, having much shorter wavelengths than visible light.

The Austrian theorist, Wolfgang Pauli, refused to accept it, and put forward another explanation. He proposed that the beta particle was accompanied by an ‘additional very penetrating radiation that consists of new neutral particles’. In such an eventuality, energy is conserved but is being shared between two particles rather than carried off entirely by just one. In Pauli’s theory the visible particle, the beta, sometimes carried all of the available energy leaving nothing for the invisible neutral partner, while on other occasions the invisible one took away some of the energy leaving less for the beta particle. As a result the energy carried by the visible beta particle could be anywhere within a range, rather than being restricted to a single value.

The interaction between a neutrino and matter became known as the weak force, once it was realised that a neutrino has a trifling chance of interacting with anything. Being electrically neutral, the neutrino does not respond to the electromagnetic forces that hold molecules together. Nor does it feel the strong forces that grip atomic nuclei. It only feels gravity and the weak force.

At temperatures of millions of degrees, as in the centre of stars like the Sun, atoms of hydrogen are ripped apart into their components: electrons and protons. When protons bump into one another there is a chance of nuclear reactions–fusion–taking place. What has become known as the ‘pp chain’ (pp for proton–proton) begins with a collision between two protons where they fuse together forming a deuteron (a loose system of a proton bound to a neutron), a positron and a neutrino. The deuteron finds itself in a crowd of protons, and almost immediately grabs one; the resulting trio is a nucleus of helium-3, consisting of two protons and a neutron. Finally, when two nuclei of helium-3 collide, they form the stable form of helium, helium-4, and throw off two protons. The net result is that four protons at the start have ended up as a single seed of helium-4, emitting energy in the form of positrons, photons and neutrinos. Whereas the CNO cycle needs temperatures above 20 million degrees to be effective, the pp chain works at 15 million degrees, as in the heart of our Sun.

In his philosophical studies, he had read Bertrand Russell. It was Russell’s remark about the insignificance of humans in the universe that inspired Bahcall’s interest in astronomy. However, his career would only come to that field by a series of chances.

Being in the Soviet Union, he missed out on the experimental possibilities, because their facilities at that time were inferior to those in the West. Around 1960, this would become possible at Brookhaven in the USA and at CERN in Geneva, but not at Dubna, the laboratory near Moscow. He was not permitted to cross the Iron Curtain until the 1980s. Others would gain this prize.

This became one of the talking points at a conference about neutrinos that was held in Hungary in 1974. Bruno Pontecorvo announced that he and three colleagues had plans for a 4 km tunnel to be dug under the Caucasus, to site a dedicated neutrino laboratory.

Attitudes were very different in the Soviet Union. Moissey Markov, head of nuclear physics at the Russian Academy of Sciences, was so enthused that he helped to realise Pontecorvo’s 1974 plan by setting up the Baksan neutrino observatory under the Caucasus mountains in Russia. Most important, Markov successfully negotiated the use of 60 tonnes of gallium, free of charge, for Russian physicists to use for the duration of their experiment.

This led to a Russian–US collaboration known as SAGE, which stood for Soviet American Gallium Experiment. However, by the time it was begun, the Soviet Union was no more and the experiment’s name was altered to Russian American Gallium Experiment, though prudently the acronym SAGE remained unchanged.

The stability of matter shows that if this happens at all it is exceedingly rare, the half life of a proton being many, many times greater than the life of the observable universe.

To have any chance, they had built huge tanks of ultra pure water surrounded with thousands of photo-multiplier tubes or PMTs to catch any particles produced when protons decayed. PMTs act like light bulbs in reverse. When electric current enters the bulb of a lamp, it gives off light; when light enters a PMT, its energy is converted into an electric current, which can be sent to a computer that records the event. Where would the light come from in these tanks of water deep underground? The answer, so they hoped, was particles flying through the water at superluminal speeds.

Neutrinos are produced in many circumstances, most around here having been born in the Sun, or in the rocks beneath our feet. In addition, large numbers of them come from cosmic rays. Far above our heads, particles smaller than atoms are showering down from the heavens. They are the result of stars that exploded long ago.

Where were you at 07.30 GMT on 23 February 1987? I was having breakfast when, unknown to me, a burst of neutrinos passed through my cornflakes. All the time, we are being bathed in the flux of solar neutrinos, but the sudden burst that February morning was quite different.

Actually, the violence really took place in the Large Magellanic Cloud 170,000 years ago. A flash of light and a blast-wave of neutrinos flew out from the debris. Travelling 10 million miles each minute, they raced away from the site, left the LMC and headed out across intergalactic space, their 1987 rendezvous still far in the future. Ahead of them lay the Milky Way, in an arm of which, on the small planet Earth, human life had advanced to the stone age. The shell of radiation travelled onwards for over 165,000 years. By this stage, 3000 light years away, people around the Mediterranean were beginning to be aware of the heavens and were inventing science. By the 1930s, their descendents were beginning to suspect that radioactive processes spawn neutrinos, though it was doubted whether anyone would ever detect one. Meanwhile, the wave from the collapsed star was approaching the Earth through the southern heavens. It was 31 light years away from Earth when Clyde Cowan and Fred Reines cleverly proved that neutrinos exist. The blast wave was still 23 light years away when Ray Davis started operating his solar neutrino detector in the Homestake mine. Although able to detect neutrinos coming from the Sun, it would have been almost blind to any from a supernova. However, while the approaching neutrinos were only a light year away – just one part in 170,000 of their journey – scientists in America and Japan had just finished building huge tanks of pure water underground, designed to look for signs that protons decay.

These new neutrino telescopes are underwater in the Mediterranean and Lake Baikal in Russia; they are under the ice in the Antarctic; they extend over a square kilometre, and have romantic names such as AMANDA and ICECUBE.

‘If you can measure something accurately enough, you have a chance of discovering something important. The history of astronomy shows that it is very likely that what you discover will not be what you were looking for.’ He then added, with typical modesty: ‘It helps to be lucky’.

[Phil Cotnoir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frank Close's book Neutrino is an enjoyable and accessible journey through the recent history of particle physics with an emphasis on the scientists involved. The author has pulled off the impressive feat of making particle physics not only (somewhat) comprehensible for the man or woman on the street but also rather interesting. Once I got into the book, I found it hard to put down.

Starting with the first time a physicist theorized about a new particle needed to explain a certain reaction, the author takes the reader on a journey forwards and backwards in time, moving seamlessly from biographical sections about the major actors involved to explanations of the physics and experiments. The scene changes often: from MIT to Japan to Soviet Russia to California to kilometers deep in mines such as the Sudbury, Ontario nickel mine.

One of the highlights was the way the February 23, 1987 supernova, the light of which reached earth just a few months after the new neutrino detectors were up and running, advanced not only our understanding of supernovas and stars but also of neutrinos.

As far as popular-level science books go (which is not a genre I know well), I think it quite an accomplishment.

[Zoffix Znet · Rating 5 out of 5]

As other books by Frank Close, this one shines as a chunk of purest gold. The book elucidates incredible perseverance and belief of key individuals who played role in the discovery of a neutrino (the subatomic particle). You are taken on an exciting journey that begins with Wolfgang Pauli proposing neutrinos and, reflecting onto how elusive they are, offering a case of champagne to anyone who finds them. Over the course of the book, the neutrino gets found, the champagne gets delivered, and the incredible new possibilities open up.

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this concise explanation of what neutrinos are and how we came to know about them. My favorite snippet of the book was an interaction between the neutrino scientists and nuclear power plant managers, with the people at the power plant insisting that no neutrinos escape the plant, believing the scientists are enquiring about an environmental contaminant instead of a harmless particle.

[Kevin Orrman-Rossiter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lucid well-written book. Provides a succinct general-science-reader level introduction to the elusive particle the neutrino. Hard to fault, I would have preferred a few more references - but I assume that the OUP editors know their audience quite well. Recommended for those who want to learn about neutrinos and also those who want an example of good science communication.

[Simon Richards]

This has enough detail and technical information to keep a specialist enthralled and enough explanation for enthusiastic non-specialists to get a grip on the main thread of this topic. As a teacher of A level Physics I know some of this story and teach some of the particle interactions and decays as part of the core syllabus but many of the historical details were completely new to me and, as with many of the important developments in Science, it shows how ideas progress through time through the dedication of many people, with numerous challenges and disappointments along the way. It's also a testament to international collaboration over many decades leading to discoveries that eventually connected together several areas of scientific endeavour, and offers tantalising glimpses of what could be possible in the future if the research continues. As of now, 15 years after the publication of the book, the masses of neutrinos are still unknown so much is still there to be discovered by future generations.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I always say, even popular science books can be difficult for the layman, and while this is written in an intelligent and approachable style, moreso than many others I've read, there were still points where I as most definitely a layman got lost. It's particle physics which means for most of us non-particle physicists, it can be tough to get your head around, though Close has done a pretty good job here of simplifying things as much as he can. In here he describes the history of neutrino research, the engineering required to search for neutrinos, what they are and where they come from. At the end of the book I felt that while I'll never understand everything about neutrinos, I knew a good bit more than when I started.

[Shāhruq Sarfarāz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a well researched and an amazing piece of literature. Not only you'll learn/read about these 'ghostly phantoms' or the 'cosmic messengers', the neutrinos but you'll also learn/read a lot on the sun, the reactions in the sun and the amazing mini bios of scientists behind the discovery of all the stuff involved with Neutrinos... especially the thrilling bio of Bruno Potencorvo, what a man!

Thanks Frank Close for producing a gem which made me fall in love with these amazing exotic 'almost' mass less particles.

P. S. I am a Graduate Astrophysics student so the language and the level of knowledge in this book was quite comprehendable.

[Julianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable read! Frank Close tells a personal and intriguing history of scientific breakthroughs.
If you still have a stress dreams of that physics final exam, or never understood math beyond algebra this book is still for you. Very little math understanding is needed to enjoy this story. And it's compelling even if you took all the science classes there are.
Really it's about the people, the passion, and the problems of trying to figure out how the sun works and discovering more about the nature of our universe.
I love science and history, so maybe I'm giving a better review than others might- but I don't think so!

[Francisco Javier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buen libro de divulgación, explica de manera asequible qué es un neutrino y sobre todo la odisea de este concepto a lo largo del siglo XX e inicios del XXI. Rinde justo homenaje a aquellos que lograron la difícil tarea de encontrar los medios experimentales para captar a esta huidiza partícula, tanto a los premiados como a aquellos que no tuvieron la suerte de ese gran reconocimiento que supone el premio Nobel, en especial a Bruno Pontecorvo.

[Susanne Kali · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent account of the history of neutrinos. My only problems were that it was non-linear in a kinda repetitive way, the use of "creation" in a couple of places, and the fact that the name Niels Bohr was repeatedly misspelled. Still, a quick, easy and informative read about a part of science that really lends itself to storytelling.

[Đạt Tiêu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells a very interesting and troublesome long story about the requests of human beings to unravel the identity of a ghostly sub-atomic particle called neutrino from the beginning of 20th century and it's still going on now.

[Sercan · Rating 4 out of 5]

akıcı açıklayıcı ayrıntılı ve basit bir dili var ve çevirisi çok güzel olmuş. konu üzerinden pek fazla bilgi sahibi olmayan birisinim bile rahatlıkla ve sıkılmadan okuyabileceği bir kitap.

[Thalia Chetwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very comprehensive, interesting to see how experiments become more accurate as technology improves, whilst on the way new theories are made allowing the truth to be found.

[Sergio Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es una excelente historia de como fue descubierto.

[Marcos Arranz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy buen libro acerca de los neutrinos, su historia, sus propiedades, sus peculiaridades y su perspectiva de futuro.

[Jordan McElwee · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘If you can measure something accurately enough, you have a chance of discovering something important. The history of astronomy shows that it is very likely that what you discover will not be what you were looking for.’ He then added, with typical modesty: ‘It helps to be lucky’.

This is the first book I've read by Frank Close, and I realise now it's high time I started! This is the story of the most illusive particle we know of: the neutrino. Close gives the full account of why the neutrino was first proposed, and what we know of it today. It is both a historical account of the people involved, and also a description of its properties.

As is usual with people talking about neutrinos, we start at the beginning with radioactivity and Pauli. We follow the story as the theories became more advanced, and more particles are discovered, leading to the eventual first observation of the neutrino. We meet all of the interesting characters involved in the history of neutrinos, like Bruno Pontecorvo, Ray Davis and John Bahcall, each of whom at some point or another was slightly ridiculed by the scientific community. (Like neutrinos) We pass through all the problems found with the Solar Neutrino Problem and the Atmospheric Neutrino Anomaly and finish in the present day, with some of the largest detectors in history, and the new possibilities of using neutrinos as a way to search into the depths of space.

I think this is a great example of popular science writing. It's at the right level for complete beginners to understand what and how we know about neutrinos, while also being interesting for readers who are well versed in neutrino physics (I'm almost certainly going to use the structure for the history component of my thesis!). Close has a very easy to read and succinct style, which explains the processes clearly and accurately, without going into the complicated mathematics behind it.

The only criticism I would have is that he often repeats himself. I understand it is probably in an attempt to remind the reader or consolidate a point, however I find it's often on points that don't need clarifying. This is a very minor criticism however, and by no means not a reason to read the book.

This is something anyone interested in physics should read. I will certainly be getting the friends who don't understand what I do to read the book, as it will really shed some (Cherenkov) light on the matter. It's easy to read and well structured, and is overall a great introduction to the area. I'd recommend this to complete novices and experts alike.

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

The neutrino is a pesky critter: nearly impossible to detect and changing flavor at the drop of a hat. Enrico Fermi and Bruno Pontecorvo were the first to realize that neutrinos must exist (based on conservation of spin), but it was to be a long time from those first conjectures to the first definitive detection of a neutrino. There are actually three flavors of neutrino (corresponding to the three leptons: electrons, muons, and tau particles), plus their anti-neutrino counterparts. It turns out that any given neutrino detection experiment can't just detect any neutrino: if you are looking for a muon neutrino and an electon neutrino happens by, you won't see it. In fact, you won't see many muon neutrinos either, because their chance of interacting with matter is about the same as your chance of winning the lottery 3 times in a row. Neutrinos that formed shortly after the big bang are mostly still zipping through space, completely unaware that anything exists in the universe.

Making things more difficult for the experimenter is that neutrinos change flavor in flight: solar electon neutrinos spontaneously become muon neutrinos on their journey, and change back with a now known frequency, resulting in 2/3 fewer electron neutrinos reaching the earth than were predicted.

Frank Close does a good job telling this story. I would have liked to see more diagrams and maybe an equation or two, and photographs of the gigantic neutrino detectors would have been nice, but he gets the story across even without the visual aids. So, kudos.

[Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book weaves together two different books. One is a qualitative description of what neutrinos are and how they behave. This makes interesting reading, and it is the reason I originally picked this book up. However, the other part of this book is an exciting historical account of the way scientists have thought about, sought, and found neutrinos. This aspect of the book reads as easily as a fictional narrative, and this is what made this book a page-turner that I had trouble putting down. None of that is to say this book has two separate parts. Both features are woven together smoothly throughout the book. This interwoven dualism captures and reflects (probably not coincidentally) the interplay between theoretical and experimental physics at the frontiers of science in the last century.

After reading this book, I went and added several more books by Frank Close to my future reading list.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reasonably detailed and (as far as I can tell) well-rounded account of the discovery, proof, and application of neutrinos in 20th and early 21st century science. In addition to explaining what neutrinos actually are and how they behave, the author also describes the life and work of the many key scientists who contributed to the field.

The fact that they were discovered at all is remarkable, and is a testament to the dedication of a tiny handful of people. This fact is brought forward very clearly in this book. The coverage of potential uses for neutrino detectors going forward is fascinating as well.

The writing is quite clear and engaging. My only criticism is that some information seems to be repeated, especially towards the end.

It's worth noting that this book was published before the infamous experiment which mistakenly seemed to show neutrinos travelling faster than light. As such, it's obviously not mentioned (unless the book has been updated since then).

[Randy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only two chapters in.. but Close is immediately, obviously a wonderful story teller.

This is (apparently) the story of Wolfgang Pauli, he of the Exclusion Principle, and Ray Price. Pauli for being the visionary who realized neutrinos must exist. Price for being the experimentalist who observed them, after decades of effort, and in the face of much naysaying.

I'm very pleased with the depth of the science, and also the lack of math and higher physics. It's an easy read, yet very informative.
=========================================

A short read. Interesting coverage of Pauli in particular, less of Price. Neat factoids on how neutrinos can be used for assessing the inner processes of stars (since they don't interact with the stuff of the sun, they make it here pretty unaffected. and if you can catch some and know they came from the sun, you can study them).

[Noah Soudrette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book because of all the recent news about the possibility of faster-than-light Neutrinos. I had decided to read all I could about them. About two years ago I had begun reading Frank Close's book on antimatter and in looking at his bibliography saw he had a book on Neutrinos. Since his book is the only non-textbook about said particle, my choice was simple. This slim volume is cleanly written and a relatively easy read for the layman. There were only a few times where I became admittedly confused, but I found if I just kept going, most of my confusion cleared up. In the end, this book is really a human story. A tale of a handful of men who dedicated their lives to proving what they thought was unprovable.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short book, but a comprehensive one, covering the initial conceptualization of neutrinos, the original attempts to actually detect such an evasive particle and the incredible improvements in detection in the modern era that have validated our models of the solar interior and the details of supernova explosions, and may provide new insights into gamma ray bursts and the core of the Milky Way. It's both interesting and inspiring to read about the immense effort involved in discovering new science, and the determination of the scientists to ensure that their conclusions are correct, by resolutely investigating and eliminating all sources of error in their measurements.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great work of popular science writing, just the right level of depth. Close tells the story of the elementary particle known as the neutrino and the many scientists who studied it. At its least interesting, it reads like particularly friendly physics textbook. I most enjoyed reading about the one most dramatic experiment in neutrino history, which involved building massive tanks of cleaning fluid in the deepest caverns of abandoned mines to detect neutrinos emitted from the Sun while eliminating all other cosmic ray interference.

[Andy Iverson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books narrates the story of how we know what we currently know about neutrinos. As a byproduct, it also teaches exactly what it is we know about neutrinos. This was an easy-to-read book, which is quite an accomplishment for such a sciency piece of work. There was no math or anything. I was honestly a bit disappointed that it didn't go very in-depth on any complex concepts, especially the weak force and symmetry breaking (it essentially says "some people found out symmetry breaks"). But that might be a good thing for a lot of readers who don't necessarily care about the details.