about me
The neutrino was first postulated in 1931 by Wolfgang Pauli to explain the energy spectrum of beta decays, the decay of a neutron into a proton and an electron. Pauli theorized that an undetected particle was carrying away the observed difference between the energy and angular momentum of the initial and final particles. Because of their "ghostly" properties, the first experimental detection of neutrinos had to wait until about 25 years after they were first discussed. In 1956 Clyde Cowan, Frederick Reines, F. B. Harrison, H. W. Kruse, and A. D. McGuire published the article "Detection of the Free Neutrino: a Confirmation" in Science (see neutrino experiment), a result that was rewarded with the 1995 Nobel Prize.
Wait, that's not me.
Moody yet effervescent. [[Librarian]] yet chaosmonger. Perpetual student. Endless literary allusion-maker. No book too big or too small. [[Vegetarian]]. Overeducated. Underemployed. Cynical, but mainly in the original etymological sense of "doglike." I exist in a superposition of alive and dead states until you observe me, at which time the wave function collapses and I am either alive or dead. (Hopefully, alive.)
