Neutrinos transmit message through solid rock
Cool...
First there was the telegraph, then there was the wireless radio, fibre optics and now… neutrinos? Yes, the scions of physics have successfully transmitted a message from a particle accelerator to an underground detector using the ghostly particles.
Unfortunately, this newest medium is completely useless (for now, anyway).
Neutrinos are electrically neutral, almost massless particles produced in nuclear reactions. The only way to detect them is to use huge, extraordinarily sensitive instruments that are shielded deep underground from other sources of radioactive interference.
Physicists have been happily building such detectors for years because neutrinos are pretty interesting little guys. Contrary to theoretical expectations, they appear to have a tiny mass, and nailing down the mass relationships between neutrinos is helping to inform the current theories of particle physics. Other recent studies have suggested neutrinos may travel faster than the speed of light, but according to the latest coverage, this seems unlikely.
http://www.nature.com/news/neutrinos-transmit-message-through-solid-rock-1.10241
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