Chasing a ghostly particle to unlock the secrets of the cosmos

Astronomer and award-winning author Professor Ray Jayawardhana will give a public talk about the incredibly small and elusive particles of matter called neutrinos at UNSW next week.

Every day trillions of neutrinos, which have virtually no mass, pass through our bodies without effect. Yet these subatomic particles could provide the answers to many questions such as why antimatter is so rare, how stars explode and what the universe was like seconds after the Big Bang.

Professor Jayawardhana, who is Dean of Science and a Professor of Physics and Astrophysics at York University in Toronto Canada, uses many of the world’s largest telescopes to explore the origins of planets.

He will deliver the Australian Academy of Science Selby Lecture at UNSW on Tuesday evening titled: Neutrino Hunters: Chasing a Ghostly Particle to Unlock Cosmic Secrets.

Scientists have built a variety of detectors in some of the most remote place on Earth, including deep under the ice in Antarctica, to try and understand neutrinos – a cosmic detective story with a colourful cast of characters.

Professor Jayawardhana’s book Strange New Worlds, was the basis of a TV documentary called the The Planet Hunters. And his book, Neutrino Hunters, won the Canadian Science Writers’ Association 2014 Science in Society Book Award.

He is a frequent media commentator overseas and is available for interview while in Sydney.

Who: Professor Ray Jayawardhana, York University, Toronto, Canada.

What: Public talk on the topic: Neutrino Hunters: Chasing a Ghostly Particle to Unlock Cosmic Secrets.

When: Tuesday 4 August 2015 – 18:00 to 20:00

Where: Scientia Building, UNSW Kensington campus

Cost: Free but registration is essential at https://www.science.unsw.edu.au/events/unsw-selby-lecture-ray-jayawardhana