Ø
Just a few years ago, we
witnessed how a national project, the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO),
which is to study fundamental particles called neutrinos, was subject to a
barrage of questions from environmentalists, politicians and others ever since
it was cleared. The project, which involves the construction of an underground
laboratory, was initially to be located in the Nilgiris but later, on grounds
that it was too close to tiger habitat, was moved to a cavern under a rocky
mountain in the Bodi West Hills region of Theni district, about 110 kilometres
west of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. The Magnetized Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) being set
up at INO will be among the largest ever in the world, weighing over 50,000
tonnes.
Ø Neutrinos, first proposed by Swiss scientist Wolfgang Pauli in
1930, are the second most widely occurring particle in the universe, only
second to photons, the particle which makes up light. In fact, neutrinos are so
abundant among us that every second, there are more than 100 trillion of them
passing right through each of us — we never even notice them. This is the
reason why INO needs to be built deep into the earth — 1,300 metres into the
earth. At this depth, it would be able to keep itself away from all the
trillions of neutrinos produced in the atmosphere and which would otherwise
choke an over-the-ground neutrino detector. Neutrinos have been in the universe
literally since forever, being almost 14 billion years old — as much as the
universe itself. Neutrinos occur in three different types, or flavours – v{-e},
vμ and vτ. These are separated in terms of different masses. From experiments
so far, we know that neutrinos have a tiny mass, but the ordering of the
neutrino mass states is not known and is one of the key questions that remain
unanswered till today. This is a major challenge INO will set to resolve, thus
completing our picture of the neutrino. Neutrinos are very important for
our scientific progress and technological growth for three reasons. First, they
are abundant. Second, they have very feeble mass and no charge and hence can
travel through planets, stars, rocks and human bodies without any interaction.
In fact, a beam of trillions of neutrinos can travel thousands of kilometres
through a rock before an interaction with a single atom of the rock and the
neutrino occurs. Third, they hide within them a vast pool of knowledge and
could open up new vistas in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics,
communication and even in medical imaging, through the detector spin-offs.
While this should be a moment of joy, there is also some scepticism, partly
arising due to the fact that the neutrino, though so abundant, is a silent
stranger to most people. First, neutrinos may have a role to play in
nuclear non-proliferation through the remote monitoring of nuclear reactors.
The plutonium-239 which is made via nuclear transmutation in the reactor from
uranium-238 can potentially be used in nuclear devices by terrorist groups.
Using appropriate neutrino detectors, the plutonium content can be monitored
remotely and used to detect any pilferage. Neutrino research can be our answer
to ensure that no terror group ever acquires nuclear weapons. Second,
understanding neutrinos can help us detect mineral and oil deposits deep in the
earth. Neutrinos tend to change their “flavour” depending on how far they have
travelled and how much matter they have passed through in the way. Far more
importantly, we believe that this same property might help us detect early
geological defects deep within the earth, and thereby might be our answer to an
early warning system against earthquakes. This is where an area of Geoneutrinos
is applicable. First found in 2005, they are produced by the radioactive decay
of uranium, thorium and potassium in the Earth’s crust and just below it. Rapid
analysis of these Geoneutrinos by neutrino monitoring stations — a process
called Neutrino Tomography — could provide us vital seismological data which
can detect early disturbances and vibrations produced by earthquakes. Third,
as we now know, neutrinos can pass right through the earth. They may open up a
faster way to send data than the current ‘around the earth’ model, using
towers, cables or satellites. Such a communication system using neutrinos will
be free of transmission losses as neutrinos rarely react with the atoms in
their path. This can open up new vistas for telecom and Internet services. Some
scientists further believe that if there is any extraterrestrial form of life,
neutrinos will also be the fastest and most trusted way to communicate with
them. Fourth, neutrinos are the information bearers of the universe —
which are almost never lost in their path. India’s effort in studying neutrinos
at INO may help us unravel the deepest mystery of the universe — why there is
more matter than antimatter in the universe. Some scientists believe that
formidable neutrino research can help us understand dark matter. Dark matter
and dark energy make up 95 per cent of the universe, far more predominant than
ordinary matter in the universe — but we hardly understand it. Neutrinos are
the only way to detect this great mystery which may completely alter our
understanding of the universe and physics. Searches for this dark matter can
only be carried out in INO. We believe that the neutrino is our mode of
access to some of the most unimaginable technologies, and therefore, with INO,
India is poised to take its rightful place at the helm of neutrino research.
For example, the particle detectors developed for the neutrino experiment at
INO can also be used to detect the photons in positron emission tomography
(PET) which is used to identify cancerous tumours.
Ø
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
announced on Tuesday that India would release detained Pakistani fishermen as a
gesture of peace to mark the holy month of Ramzan. Mr. Modi conveyed this over
phone to his counterpart in Islamabad, Nawaz Sharif.
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