This story is a class assignment in JN 325, a class on writing across media (Radio, TV, Web,) taught by Dr. George Daniels and APR news director Pat Duggins. The students are coached by Duggins, APR assistant news director Stan Ingold, and Morning Edition host Alex AuBuchon.
Jennifer Olson/Double Chooz Experiment
October 20, 2015
On October 6th, the 2015 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald for the discovery of neutrino oscillations. APR's Jennifer Olson has the details on how this ground-breaking discovery has propelled other experiments in the world of physics. The experiment is called Double Chooz. Located in Chooz, France the long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment is designed to use reactors of the Chooz Nuclear Power Plant as a neutrino source. University of Alabama Graduate Shak Fernandes has worked on the experiment since 2006. With the new discovery of neutrino oscillations, Fernandes says the world of physics is forever changed.
"Earlier in particle physics, in the standard model, it was found that ok we don’t know much about neutrinos, they probably have no mass, but what we have proven is that because they are select, they have to have mass and so that was a big break through in our fundamental understanding of neutrino particle physics."
And while the discovery may appear to you as only being significant in the world of physics, the discovery has major impacts that will eventually change the world around us.
"And so we are able to determine, for example, this reaction gave us this amount of charge for this duration of time, it gives us a certain energy and that’s effectively where we go from there. We take that energy and analyze the data and we can make certain fundamental statements, which is why these experiments are very powerful." For APR news, I'm Jennifer Olson in Tuscaloosa.