The 4th Flavor? Scientists Close in on a New Kind of Neutrino

By Don Lincoln, Senior Scientist, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; Adjunct Professor of Physics, University of Notre Dame | June 19, 2018 01:45 am ET

I love a good mystery, whether it turns out that the butler did it, or if it was Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick.

But I love scientific mysteries even more.

Recently, scientists doing research at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab, announced a measurement that is a real puzzler. It involves a subatomic particle called the neutrino, which is the ghost of the microcosm, able to pass through Earth without interacting. And that's BEFORE we start talking about the weird stuff.

The recent measurement, performed by a collaboration of scientists called MiniBooNE, could herald the possible discovery of a new kind of neutrino that could possibly be the source of dark matter — one of the most pressing conundrums of modern astronomy. But to understand how it all hangs together, you need to know the history of neutrinos, which is a fascinating tale with twist and turns that would make Agatha Christie's head spin. [The 18 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics]

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