Public Lecture—Neutrinos Get Under Your Skin

Lecture Date: Tuesday, August 30, 2005. The enigmatic neutrinos are among the most abundant of the tiny particles that make up our universe. They are a billion times more abundant than the particles of which the earth and we humans are made. Thus, to understand the universe, we must understand the neutrinos. Moving ghostlike, almost invisibly, through matter, these particles are very hard to pin down and study. However, dramatic progress has recently been made.

In this lecture, the neutrinos will be introduced. Their behavior, so different from that of everyday objects, will be explained, and recent discoveries will be described. The open questions about neutrinos, forthcoming attempts to answer these questions, and the role of neutrinos in shaping the universe and making human life possible, will all be explained. Lecturer: Boris Kayser, Fermilab.