What do continental drift, nuclear power stations and supernovae have in common? Neutrinos, as Susana Cebrián explains.

Susana Cebrián is a professor at the University of Zaragoza, Spain, working on several experiments in the field of astroparticle physics at the Spanish Canfranc Underground Laboratory.

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Neutrinos are strange particles – small but fascinating. This article describes their origin, properties and detection in an accessible way and with sound facts. It makes good background reading for physics teachers, but can also be a starting point for students doing a presentation project on the topic or to stimulate further discussions, e.g. about particle physics in general, the standard model, detector physics, CERN, astrophysics or radiation.

The article is mainly useful for physics lessons, but it contains links to earth science. To make the topic accessible to younger students (about the age of 14) as well, I would suggest the teacher selects parts of the article to discuss.