Special Episode: Investigating the Birth of the Universe with Neutrino Research

The scientific world's attention is being drawn again to research on elementary particles called neutrinos, an area in which Japan excels. J-PARC, a research facility in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, is hosting experiments conducted to gain clues about the origin of the universe from the properties of neutrinos. Dr. Atsuko K. Ichikawa, an associate professor at Kyoto University, is leading an international research team of 500 that has already achieved numerous results. In May of 2020, she received the Saruhashi Prize, a Japanese science award given to outstanding female scientists. In this program, we'll follow Ichikawa's neutrino research as she investigates the unsolved mysteries about the universe's formation.

J-PARC's proton accelerator, which produces the neutrinos used in experiments
J-PARC's electromagnetic horn that utilizes Dr. Ichikawa's ideas

Transcript