Elusive neutrinos observed

IRVINE, Calif., July 7 (UPI) -- Scientists from the United State, Japan and Korea said they have detected the distinctive pattern of neutrinos for the first time.

The team of scientists, known as the Super-Kamiokande Collaboration, used a 50,000-ton detector located in the Kamioka Mozumi mine in Japan. The detector is designed to search for proton decay, observe cosmic rays and detect neutrinos.

One of the fundamental particles that make up the universe, neutrinos were first identified experimentally in the 1950s by Nobel Prize winner Frederick Reines, of the University of California, Irvine.

Neutrinos are light, electrically neutral and able to traverse great distances in matter. They generally pass right through the Earth unscattered, but occasionally one will interact with the Super-Kamiokande detector to produce a subatomic particle, such as an electron.

"Our findings confirm that neutrinos have mass and that they change state from one type of neutrino to another," said Henry Sobel, UCI professor and one of the principal investigators for the U.S. team.