Author John Beacom: "Neutrinos take patience. They're worth it, and the announcement of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics recognizes that, following related prizes in 1988, 1995 and 2002. Ironically, these near-undetectable particles can reveal things that cannot be seen any other way.

 

I could begin by telling you that neutrinos are elementary particles, but that sounds condescending. They're not called elementary because they're easy to understand - they aren't - but because they are seemingly point-like in size, and we can't break them down into smaller constituents. There's no such thing as half a neutrino."