Passage
Neutrinos are among the most abundant particles in the universe. They are also incredibly difficult to detect. In fact, they are so elusive that physicists all over the world can’t stop obsessing about them. In the past year, two experiments have returned the first results that show the obsession is far from over—and that the projects don’t need to be big to be scientifically mighty.
Neutrinos are subatomic particles that are very similar to electrons, but they don’t have an electrical charge. Their mass is so small that scientists speculate it might even be zero. They also don’t interact much with matter, which is what makes them so difficult to detect.
This all might make you wonder: Why are scientists looking for neutrinos, anyway? In short, it’s because they hold clues about the events and processes that created them—events that researchers are slowly trying to piece together.
“Neutrinos tell us a tremendous amount about how the universe is created and held together. There’s no other way to answer a lot of the questions that we find ourselves having,” Nathaniel Bowden, a scientist at the DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, told NewsWise.
Experts have compared the search for these particles to the work of archaeologists to reconstruct prehistoric artifacts in order to understand what life was like then. Better understanding of neutrinos could unlock secrets about other elements of astronomy and physics, from dark matter to the expansion of the universe.
So scientists are convinced it’s worth studying neutrinos, and they’re willing to invest in largescale projects to better understand them. The COHERENT experiment at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, for example, contains five particle detectors, each about the size of a milk jug, designed to directly observe the highly specific interaction between neutrinos and atomic nuclei. Its sister experiment, PROSPECT, takes more precise measurements of the neutrinos COHERENT detects.
Other, larger experiments in places like the South Pole use enormous machines and systems to catch traces of these mysterious particles. And though these projects make up the world’s smallest neutrino detector, they have already made some important discoveries. Last year, the researchers behind the two projects published a study in Science about interactions between two neutrinos that had been hypothesized decades before but never observed, according to a press release.
We don’t know how much these experiments cost, but you might be tempted to say that whatever money was spent on them should be allocated towards something more directly relevant to human lives, such advancing medicine or fighting climate change.
Neutrinos might not have the same headline potential of a new cancer treatment. But understanding them is the key to our understanding of the universe. Neutrinos could help us identify other forces in the universe that we have not yet been able to detect or understand. They can teach us about the core of the densest stars, and could one day lead to the discovery of new astrophysical objects. If we can understand neutrinos, maybe we could answer some of the most essential questions in physics—at the heart of our very existence.
Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 60
Try yourself:All of the following statements about neutrinos can be inferred from the passage EXCEPT:
Explanation
Option 1 is incorrect. The second paragraph states that“neutrinos are subatomic particles that are very similar to electrons, but they don’t have an electrical charge.” Thus this option is inferable and, therefore, not an exception. Eliminate option 1.
Option 3 is incorrect. The last paragraph states that “they can teach us about the core of the densest stars ...” Now, since Sun is also a star, we can conclude that neutrinos can be used to study and detect conditions at the core of the Sun. Eliminate option 3.
Option 4 is incorrect. Paragraph 2 states that “they also don’t interact much with matter ...” Thus, we can conclude that neutrinos interact very weakly with matter, i.e. other particles and fields. We can eliminate option 4.
Option 2 is correct. Paragraph 2 states that “their mass is so small that scientists speculate it might even be zero. They also don’t interact much with matter, which is what makes them so difficult to detect.” From these statements, we cannot deduce that neutrinos are massless. Scientists only “speculate” that their mass may be zero. Though the second part of this option, i.e. “[they] are difficult to detect” is correct, we cannot infer the first part.
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 60
Try yourself:According to the passage, all of the following are potential benefits of the research conducted on neutrinos EXCEPT:
Explanation
Option 1 is incorrect. The last paragraph states that“ They ... could one day lead to the discovery of new astrophysical objects.” Thus, neutrinos could help us identify new objects and phenomena in the universe. This is a benefit, which is stated in the passage, and is not an exception. So, eliminate option 1.
Option 2 is incorrect. Paragraph 5 states how “neutrinos could unlock secrets about other elements of astronomy and physics, from dark matter to the expansion of the universe.” Thus, according to the passage, we can understand the expansion of the universe by studying neutrinos. Eliminate option 2.
Option 3 is incorrect. Paragraph 4 states that “neutrinos tell us about [...] how the universe is created...” Paragraph 5 talk about how “neutrinos could unlock secrets about [...] dark matter ...” Hence, this option states one of the benefits of neutrinos that is mentioned in the passage. Eliminate option 3.
Option 4 is correct. The first paragraph states that the neutrinos “are so elusive that physicists all over the world can’t stop obsessing about them.” In the last paragraph, the author states that “neutrinos might not have the same headline potential of a new cancer treatment. But understanding them is the key to our understanding of the universe.” The author does not compare the importance of advancing medicine to that of researching neutrinos. Also, the author uses a positive tone while listing the benefits of researching neutrinos. The author does not want to get over with the research of neutrinos and then move on to more important issues, as suggested by this option. Thus, option 4 is not listed as a potential benefit and is the correct answer. Retain option 4.
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 60
Try yourself:Which of the following best sums up the research done by the COHERENT and PROSPECT experiments?
Explanation
Option 1 is correct. The 3rd last paragraph states that “and though these projects make up the world’s smallest neutrino detector, they have already made some important discoveries. Last year, the researchers behind the two projects published a study in Science about interactions between two neutrinos that had been hypothesized decades before but never observed....” Thus, these experiments proved the theory about the interaction between neutrinos, that was proposed by scientists decades before though it was never observed before. Option 1 correctly sums up the research done by the COHERENT and PROSPECT experiments. So, option 1 answers the question.
Option 2 is incorrect. COHERENT and PROSPECT are projects that aimed to prove the theory proposed by scientists, about the interaction between neutrinos, which, as the passage describes, is an obsession in science. The size is irrelevant here. Eliminate option 2.
Option 3 is incorrect. The last paragraph states that “neutrinos might not have the same headline potential of a new cancer treatment. But understanding them is the key to our understanding of the universe.” The author does not make any suggestion about the use of neutrinos in cancer treatment. Eliminate option 3.
Option 4 is incorrect. According to 3rd last paragraph, the experiments proved the theory about the interaction between two neutrinos. They did not aim to detect the existence of neutrinos with precise measurements. Eliminate option 4.
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