Frontiers in Science lecture series resumes Jan. 29 with talk on neutrinos

The talk will be presented in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Taos and Los Alamos by Bill Louis of Subatomic Physics (P-25).

Free and open to the public, each lecture is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

The first lecture is in the James A. Little Theatre at the New Mexico School for the Deaf in Santa Fe. Additional lectures will be held on Feb. 5 at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque, Feb. 19 in the Duane Smith Auditorium at Los Alamos High School and Feb. 20 in the Taos Convention Center.

Louis will review current efforts to measure the mass of the neutrinos in experiments worldwide, and the importance of these measurements in our understanding of the universe.

"As well as playing a very important role in cosmology and in supernovae bursts, neutrinos may also explain why we exist, why there is far more matter than antimatter in the universe," Louis said.

By using neutrinos from the sun, atmosphere, supernovae, reactors and accelerators, such experiments are poised to shed light on some of the fundamental questions that have been asked since the dawn of civilization, Louis said.

Neutrinos are small elusive particles that took nearly 30 years to detect after they were first postulated to exist, Louis said. Though they are one of the most prevalent particles in the universe and have played a central role in the origin and evolution of the universe, little is known about them, he said.

Neutrinos were discovered 45 years ago by Los Alamos scientists Fred Reines and Clyde Cowan. Reines received a Nobel Prize in 1995 for his work.

The public lecture series is intended to inform neighboring communities about the broad range of scientific and engineering research conducted at the Laboratory.

"We want to make people aware that the Lab researches global warming, AIDS, astrophysics, biophysics, materials, nuclear and particle physics and a number of important scientific issues facing the world, said Joseph Ginocchio of Nuclear Physics (T-16), coordinator of the lecture series and Laboratory Fellow.

Sponsored by the Laboratory fellows and presented by Laboratory scientists, five lectures a year are planned. Each lecture will be presented in Los Alamos, Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Taos to ensure that Northern New Mexico residents can attend.

For more information, go to the public lecture series Web page at http://stb.lanl.gov/fellows/fellows.html online. Directions to the lecture locations also are available on the Web site.

-- Michael Carlson

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