We are all very familiar with the particles that constitute an atom, such as the proton,
the neutron and the electron. But in reality, there are dozens of other particles,
each of them with a different behaviour, and each of them interacting differently with the others.
One of the most fascinating particles is the neutrino. Neutrino is without any doubt the
most elusive among the fundamental particles, since it barely interacts
with matter and it requires gigantic detectors in order to be observed!
Do you want to know more about neutrinos? Watch this video and I will tell you more!
The discovery of the neutrino is a very interesting story. At the beginning
of the 20th century, scientists discovered radioactivity: atoms that spontaneously decay,
turning into atoms of another element and emitting other particles in the process.
One of these types of radioactive decays is known as beta-decay. In this process,
the nucleus of an atom emits an electron, and the atom turns into one of another element:
the reason for this change is that a neutron inside the nucleus turns into a proton.
When scientist observed this process for the first time, they realized that
there was something unexplained. In every physical process, energy is always conserved:
this is one of the most important laws of physics, and there are no exceptions to it.