The Nobel for IceCube and the search for neutrinos from outer space

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

63% : Karen Andeen and Matthias Plum/IceCube Collaboration When an energetic neutrino strikes an atom's nucleus inside the ice, the event creates charged particles that streak through the surrounding ice.
60% : Today, IceCube includes 5,160 optical sensors on 86 cables, lying 1.4 km to 2.4 km under the ice, altogether encompassing roughly a cubic kilometre of ice.
55% : This is why the IceCube observatory is in Antarctica: the enormous volume of frozen water ice is the catcher, and the 5,000 sensors embedded in the ice look for the occasional evidence of a neutrino striking the ice.
55% : One of the sensors the IceCube detector array uses to spot signs of neutrinos in the ice.
54% : Using 5,000 sensors buried deep in the ice, IceCube has explored what natural processes in the cosmos can accelerate subatomic particles to energies far beyond any human technologies have managed so far.
52% : After discussing the idea with Learned, the two physicists proposed using South Pole ice as a neutrino catcher, with Halzen going on to organise the effort, funded primarily by the U.S. National Science Foundation, that eventually became IceCube.
49% : Instead, Halzen wondered if it'd be possible to track neutrinos colliding with ice by looking for small flashes of light their collisions might produce.
39% : In 1987, after being alerted to a Soviet Union plan to study neutrinos in Antarctic ice, Halzen, Thomas Stanev, and Enrique Zas concluded the approach would be unsuitable for the energies they were interested in.
32% : In particular, crews of experts dug holes in the ice to place the sensors not using shovels but by shooting jets of hot water, then lowering sensors suspended on cables fast enough before the ice froze again.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.