The Nobel Committee's official citation reads: "for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin."
Neutrinos are known as ghost particlesโthey interact with almost nothing and fly straight through the Earth. Trillions of neutrinos pass through every person every second.
Yet they arrive from the most powerful processes in the Universe in a straight line and without losing energy, so they can tell us what light cannot. To catch their extremely rare collisions with atoms, scientists froze thousands of sensors into the ice at the South Pole, where they monitor an entire cubic kilometer of ice and register faint flashes. In 2013, IceCube reported the first high-energy neutrinos that had arrived from deep space.
"Francis Halzen has led an international team of researchers and engineers who have provided us with a fantastic instrument. Hisโฆ
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