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Article: Physics Bedrock Cracks, Sun Shines In.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- June 23, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By solving a decades-long mystery about the sun, researchers have set off a scientific ripple that could alter conceptions of the universe as a whole.
In the first scientific data to emerge from the Sudbury (Ontario) Neutrino Observatory (SNO) in Canada, physicists have found evidence that their most fundamental theory of the universe--the so-called standard model (SN: 7/1/95, p. 10)--contains a major flaw. They've also uncovered a new clue to the composition of the dark matter thought to make up 95 percent of the mass of the cosmos (see p. 394, this issue).
The revelations arise from a new study of the neutrino, an elusive form of matter. Neutrinos ...