Tiny particles called neutrinos are everywhere: more than a billion of them pass through us every second — even though we can’t see them. This ability to slip through solid objects has led them to being dubbed “ghost particles”. Most neutrinos reaching Earth come from the Sun, but a tiny proportion originate far away, in the depths of space. These rare cosmic neutrinos come from different sources, such as black holes that accelerate particles to extreme energies. This year’s Nobel prize in physics has been awarded to Professor Francis Halzen for designing an experiment to detect them. He came up with the idea of using ice at the South Pole as a natural, transparent medium to capture the faint flashes as neutrinos collided with matter. Noelia Noel from the University of Surrey explained why Halzen’s work is considered so important.
This summer broke records around the UK for maximum temperatures and dry weather. Recent polling shows the majority of people in the UK say they’ve directly experienced extreme heat. This is a shift from a few years ago, when many saw summer heat as desirable.
Meanwhile, Taylor Swift gets into character in her new video inspired by Daphne Du Maurier’s Gothic novel, Rebecca. It’s a natural next step for the singer, who has previously expressed her deep admiration for the tragic tale.
