Two share Nobel physics prize for neutrino research

Takaaki Kajita of Japan and Arthur McDonald of Canada have won the Nobel Prize in physics for discovering the “chameleon-like” nature of neutrinos, work that yielded the crucial insight that the tiny particles have mass.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the two researchers had made key contributions to experiments showing that neutrinos change identities as they whizz through the universe at nearly the speed of light.

Neutrinos are minuscule particles created in nuclear reactions, such as in the sun and the stars, or in nuclear power plants.