Revista Scientific American Octubre 2017. Inglés
ISSN: 0036-8733
Descripción
The Neutrino Puzzle
The largest experiment ever to probe these mysterious particles could point the way to new physics
I’m standing on a catwalk in a giant cave crammed with industrial equipment, and I’m told that trillions of neutrinos are flying through every inch of my body each second. I reach out my arms as if to heighten the sensation, but of course, I can’t feel a thing. Nearly massless, traveling close to the speed of light, the ghostly particles traverse the empty space between my atoms without a trace. They also move mostly unimpeded through the hulking metal box that dominates the cavern. But a few times a day one will collide with an atom inside the school bus size contraption, liberating charged particles that leave light trails visible to scientists. And these trails, physicists hope, will lead them into unknown territory.
Our Love of Exotic Pets Is Driving Wildlife Decline
The wild pet trade may surpass habitat loss as a factor in the growing silence of the natural world
Conservation biologist David S. Wilcove was on a birding trip to the Indonesian island of Sumatra in 2012, when he began to notice that house after house in every village he visited had cages hanging outside, inhabited by the kinds of wild birds he had expected to see in the forest. One in five households in Indonesia keeps birds as pets. That got him thinking, “What is this doing to the birds?”