The Standard Model of physics predicts and explains every particle that scientists have ever had the good fortune to discover. It’s so good that it’s more or less shut down progress in particle physics for the last few decades.
But it’s incomplete – and nobody really knows why. Among other problems, it can’t explain how neutrinos – one of the universe’s most common particles – can shift from one kind to another. Neutrinos are so common that they were once a popular candidate to explain dark matter – and yet the best model for the universe is seemingly unable to elegantly explain how they behave. Dr. Heather Ray from the Los Alamos National Lab just blogged a wildly informative post about her recent experiments trying to figure out why exactly neutrinos are oscillating:
Her conclusions exemplify the best in science. The failure to explain something in one way prunes the range of potential explanations, in the process providing interesting data and anomalies for scientists to chew over. And it’s happening on the blogosphere before it gets played out in the journals. The first few sections of her post are a very basic introduction to the Standard Model that even novices will enjoy. You really should click through – it’s fantastic stuff by really smart people.
References:
* MiniBooNE Neutrino Result – Guest Blog from Heather Ray [Cosmic Variance]
Previously:
* Neat! Proof Of Martian Meteorites On Earth Found… On Mars
* Video: Neat – Blueprint For The 21st Century
* Neat: Ancient Pyramid Found… In Europe
