Scientist given grant to weigh neutrinos

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Nov. 8 (UPI) -- A Florida State University scientist says if subatomic particles had personalities, neutrinos would be the ultimate wallflowers.

One of the most basic particles of matter in the universe, neutrinos have been around for 14 billion years and permeate every inch of space, yet they are so inconceivably tiny that they've been called "almost nothing."

So it's easy to see why no one knew they existed until the 1930s. It's also easy to see why their masses, once believed to be zero, remain so elusive, but might help unlock the universe's mysteries on everything from dark matter to the births of galaxies.

With a Precision Measurement Grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Florida State University-Tallahassee research physicist Edmund Myers and colleagues hope to measure the precise difference in mass of tritium, a form of hydrogen, and helium-3 atoms. That will help pin down the mass of the electron neutrino.

Myers was one of two recipients of this year's Precision Measurement Grants, which have been awarded annually since 1970.

Peter Mohr, the institute's grant program manager, said: "What he's doing is very precise measurement. The results are very important."