Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
History is what scientists hope to make once their gear is deployed at sea.
The cable and spheres are the first instalment of a larger project known as the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment, or P-ONE. As the name suggests, its aim is to detect neutrinos, the lightest and strangest particles of matter known to science.
Neutrinos are everywhere, but interact so rarely with other forms of matter that neither people nor planets pose much of an impediment to them. It’s precisely because neutrinos are so hard to stop or deflect that they have become intriguing.
The only practical way to observe them is with a detector of enormous volume. The frigid, dark waters of the Pacific are ideal for this. When completed, P-ONE will have 70 strings with 20 optical modules each for a total of 1,400. Together, they can monitor about one cubic kilometre of water for signs of incoming neutrinos.
But step one is to risk everything to make sure the machinery is seaworthy. #science #neutrinos #vancouver
Subscribe to The Globe and Mail's Morning Update to get stories directly in your inbox: theglobeandmail.com/newsletters/subscribe-morning-update
History is what scientists hope to make once their gear is deployed at sea.
The cable and spheres are the first instalment of a larger project known as the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment, or P-ONE. As the name suggests, its aim is to detect neutrinos, the lightest and strangest particles of matter known to science.
Neutrinos are everywhere, but interact so rarely with other forms of matter that neither people nor planets pose much of an impediment to them. It’s precisely because neutrinos are so hard to stop or deflect that they have become intriguing.
The only practical way to observe them is with a detector of enormous volume. The frigid, dark waters of the Pacific are ideal for this. When completed, P-ONE will have 70 strings with 20 optical modules each for a total of 1,400. Together, they can monitor about one cubic kilometre of water for signs of incoming neutrinos.
But step one is to risk everything to make sure the machinery is seaworthy. #science #neutrinos #vancouver
Subscribe to The Globe and Mail's Morning Update to get stories directly in your inbox: theglobeandmail.com/newsletters/subscribe-morning-update
