Neutrinos and things you need to know

Neutrinos are some of the most mysterious particles in nature, capable of passing through the Earth like it wasn’t there. Neutrinos are tiny subatomic particles, often called ‘ghost particles’ because they barely interact with anything else.

Neutrinos are, however, the most common particle in the universe. Believe it or not, approximately 100 trillion neutrinos pass completely harmlessly through your body every second! Their tendency not to interact very often with other particles makes detecting neutrinos very difficult, but it does not mean that they never interact — the probability that any given neutrino will interact with another particle is just very small.

Despite these small odds, the fact that there are so many neutrinos means that statistically, some will be seen to interact. For example, there is a 1 in 4 chance that a neutrino will interact with an atom in your body at some point in your life. Given that throughout your life an estimated 2.5 x 1021 neutrinos will sweep through you, the probability of any given neutrino interacting with you is about 1 in a trillion trillion (1 in 1024).