Gallery | Best of 80beats | Hot Debate Over Sun Particles
The rate at which radioactive isotopes decay is a constant. Or is it? Researchers Jere Jenkins, Ephraim Fischbach, and Peter Sturrock released a study this year claiming new evidence that they'd seen those decay rates change, and what's more, that neutrinos from the sun were the culprit. It's a wild idea that bends well-established physics--especially by bringing in neutrinos, which barely interact with matter. So we asked other neutrino scientists to comment in our August post. There was much disagreement.
