How To Detect a Neutrino

↓ More info below ↓

Why is there something rather than nothing? Well the answer may be found in the weakest particle in the universe: the neutrino. For over half a century Fermilab has been the premier particle accelerator facility of the United States and we got to visit with Don Lincoln to explore it’s science and its engineering. These days many of the super-powered geniuses of Fermilab are tackling the mysteries of the neutrino. Why? Because this elusive particle may hold powerful secrets: from the unification of the forces of nature to the biggest question of all: why is there something rather than nothing?

Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord!

Check out the Space Time Merch Store

Hosted by: Matt O'Dowd & Don Lincoln
Written by: Matt O'Dowd
Directed by: Andrew Kornhaber
Director of Photography by: Ian Krass
Graphics by: Leonardo Scholzer & Adriano Leal
Editing by: Madeleine Ro
Color by: Matt Braunsdorf
Post Sound by: Alexander Mandel
Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber

Special Thanks: Andre Salles

Special Thanks to Our Patrons

Big Bang
Alexander Tamas
Andrew & Brenna
David Barnholdt
David Nicklas
Fabrice Eap
John S
Juan Benet
Morgan Hough

Quasar Supporters
Mark Heising
Vinnie Falco

Hypernova
Chuck Zegar
Danton Spivey
Donal Botkin
Edmund Fokschaner
Hank S
John Hofmann
John Pollock
John R. Slavik
Jordan Young
Joseph Salomone
Julian Tyacke
Justin Ash
Mathew
Matthew O'Connor
Syed Ansar

Gamma Ray Burst
A G
Adrian Hatch
Adrien Molyneux
AlecZero
Andreas Nautsch
Angela Prigge
Bradley Jenkins
Brandon labonte
Craig Stonaha
Dan Warren
Daniel Lyons
David Bethala
DFaulk
Eric Kiebler
Frederic Simon
Geoffrey Short
Graydon Goss
Greg Smith
James Flowers
John Funai
John Griffith
John Robinson
Jonathan Nesfeder
Joseph Dillman
Josh Thomas
Kevin Lee
Kevin Warne
Kyle Hofer
Malte Ubl
Michael Conroy
Nick Virtue
Nick Wright
Patrick Sutton
Paul Rose
Robert Ilardi
Scott Gossett
Sean Warniaha
Sipke Schoorstra
Steve Bradshaw
Tatiana Vorovchenko
Tim Stephani
Tonyface
Yurii Konovaliuk

[paultapping]

Matt's finally back from space! Seeing him in real places is the strangest thing in this video!

[aimafirm]

Seeing these two folks in the same video -> thumbs up before even diving in the subject of it.

[TheFGrox]

The most anticipated cross-over: Fermilab + PBS Space Time.

[aasyjepale]

4:00 *we shoot 10 trillion neutrinos per second and only a handful of them will interact*


Me: so all of them?

[qwkairy]

A neutrino walked into a bar, the bartender told him "no charge for you"
He replied "I can't interact with anything anyway"

[yalex]

This is one of the most anticipated collabs in the YouTube science scene.

[biggayhomofag]

Nothing like another episode of Spacetime to delay the pain of existence another day!

[deathscreton]

This episode was far too short for how amazing it was. I love me some collabs and one between Fermi and Spacetime is amazing. Definitely need more of this!

[klauskervin]

I literally just binged all of Don Lincoln's videos last week so this crossover is a hugely welcomed surprise! Thanks Space Time and Fermi Lab for this great crossover!

[dominicditmyer]

This is the most ambitious cross-over event of all space-time

[binaryalgorithm]

5:15, that's actually a really intuitive way to think about why certain interactions are low probability.

[dmanagable]

Dr. Don Lincoln on Spacetime! Physics IS everything!

[grwithanplayz]

"Infinity war is the most ambitious crossover"
Me:

[dennisdonovan]

Thank you so much for this great piece of collaborative work ... it’s so refreshing to see people supporting and encouraging each other. 👏🏽❤️

[sixstarhorizon]

Is this some kind of crossover episode?

Awesome stuff from my two favourite science YouTube stars.

[tolis]

That Matt and Dr. Don bromance at the end is almost heartwarming, like my heart may or may not have been hit by a neutrino beam.

[PanchoKnivesForever]

WOW!!! This has been one of the BEST espisodes The Explanations are always so... CLEAR! :)

[a-blivvy-yus]

"We love you"
"And we love you"
"And that's how you study the most elusive particles in the universe"
Love confirmed to be the most important part of science - you heard it here first, folks! PBS Space Time approves of your public displays of affection!

[kinarkhar]

Im so happy that i have access to this kind of content. Thank you all, PBS Studio!

[Sara-wvms]

I visited this lab in college. One of the most amazing things. I wanted to add some details. The detector is actually tons of little cells, filled with the liquid which creates a blue lights when a neutrino hits it. The neutrino beam actually has two particles, as it travels, it splits and there is another lab being built to detect these that split from the straight beam. The cell detectors use fiber optic cables to detect these tiny blue lights and all these cells are than mapped out. I asked, so how do you know that the particles and neutrinos and not something else. We don’t know, just that it is far underground so limits possibility of most other stuff. Now, out of these trillions a second, I believe it was something like 1 or 0 neutrinos get detected per day. The amount of neutrinos detected was very low. Now the following is my own opinion and I am not physicist: we don’t actually know what these are or what is being detected, these theories aim to describe a natural phenomena, that is the extent of its truth.