Neutrino [Hardcover]

Perhaps the most beautifully written as well as highly informative book on the particle that pervades every square of our Universe. Frank Close interweaves the chronological discovery and subsequent chase for the Neutrino, in a way that unfolds as a story whilst at the same time informing us all about this elusive particle. A real page turner, and exciting stuff.

I first became aware of Neutrinos in 1969 thanks to the BBC TV program 'Violent Universe' and the book of the same title by Nigel Calder. I have been intrigued by this enigmatic atomic particle ever since and even named my Laser racing dinghy 'Neutrino' in 1970, although my speed through the water was slightly slower than that of the light speed of the actual particle! As soon as I saw this book by Frank Close a couple of weeks ago I had to buy it and was not disappointed.
As an interested layman with a scientific background the book is at exactly the right level for me. There is some fascinating historical details with some famous particle physicists involved including Pauli, Rutherford and Fermi. But the book is more about John Bahcall, Ray Davies and Bruno Pontecorvo - names which I suspect very few people not directly involved in Neutrino science and the study of the nuclear reactions in the sun will have heard of. This is a serious book written in a very readable way, but there are some lighthearted moments. Like when Bahcall, after hearing news that his calculations had been proved correct after 30 years says 'I feel like dancing, I'm so happy'. Then there are the first two sentences of Chapter 10 'Where were you at 07.30 GMT on 23 February 1987? I was having breakfast when, unknown to me, a burst of neutrinos passed through my cornflakes'. Great stuff!!

"Neutrino" exemplifies perfectly the way in which science is supposed to work: induction leads to hypothesis from which predictions may be made which are testable by experiment, leading in turn to provisional acceptance, modification or abandonment. And, as usual when things turn out well, there is some unforeseen development through which we end up knowing far more than was ever envisaged.

An essentially undetectable, massless, charge-less particle, conceived of as emerging from an obscure laboratory experiment in the days when only two other fundamental particles were known, turns out to be the most numerous inhabitant of the universe and to throw light upon processes at the heart of stars and supernovae. Invented as a means of getting some energy and momentum off the balance sheet - to avoid breach of conservation laws - the neutrino is now itself suspected of infringing another conservation law, that of lepton number, and of being an accessory in parity violation.

This is an excellent long short-story in which the neutrino is not so much hero as crafty villain, a master of disguise whose character is still not entirely clear even after 70 years of investigation. The action is remarkably gripping, for all the painstaking and dogged pace of neutrino research. The scientific heros, their achievements and rewards are brought vividly to life, despite their choice of what was considered a non-charismatic field.

These few dogged characters worked for decades in isolation on different aspects of neutrino research: a visionary predictor of evermore bizarre properties who relayed his thoughts from behind the iron curtain; a theoretical refiner of calculated solar neutrino output, dismissed as hopelessly wrong but right on the money all along; and a relentless hunter of the infinitesimal who pioneered the use of gargantuan experimental apparatus - cathedral-sized caverns, miles underground, which at various times contained Canada's entire stock of heavy water and the total world output of gallium.

A most enjoyable read; thoroughly recommended.

Oddly enough, it is only the balance-sheet aspect which the author does not thoroughly address. Neutrinos and their anti-particles are constantly being created in the most abundant reactions in the universe but there is no corresponding destruction process of even remotely equivalent prevalence. Normal matter is virtually transparent to neutrinos (they react only with nuclei; and since all the nuclei on Earth would fit comfortably into a sphere the size of Hyde Park, the planet barely exists for them). Black holes would presumably achieve 100% annihilation for any neutrinos unfortunate enough to hit one. That may not be very important, but I would like to know.