Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

that all neutrinos are left-handed? 🫲✨

In 1958, scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory discovered this strange fact using an ingenious tabletop experiment.

In physics, "handedness" describes which way a particle spins relative to the direction it is traveling.

Other particles—like electrons and quarks—come in both left- and right-handed varieties. But neutrinos are the ultimate rebels. Every single neutrino we have ever detected is strictly left-handed.

Today, we are still hunting for hypothetical "right-handed" neutrinos. If they exist, they could be very different from the left-handed neutrinos we know and love.
https://neutrinos.fnal.gov/mysteries/handedness/

📸: Brookhaven National Laboratory

Poltergeist detected! 👻🔍

After Wolfgang Pauli proposed the neutrino in 1930, the particle spent the next 26 years ghosting the scientific community.

To catch a ghost, you need the right trap.

Los Alamos National Laboratory physicists Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan launched "Project Poltergeist" to finally catch this cosmic ghost. They set up their experiment next to a nuclear reactor at the Savannah River Plant to flood their detector with neutrinos.

In 1956, their patience paid off. They successfully recorded the first-ever neutrino interactions, proving Pauli right and changing physics forever!

"Dear radioactive ladies and gentlemen..." ✉️

That is how physicist Wolfgang Pauli began a famous 1930 letter describing a new idea.

At the time, physicists were facing a crisis: energy seemingly vanished during nuclear decay. To save the law of conservation of energy, Pauli proposed a solution — a neutral, nearly massless particle that carried the missing energy away.

But Pauli feared he had proposed something impossible to find, worrying that no one would ever be able to observe it.

Enrico Fermi later named this elusive particle the "neutrino", but it took experimentalists 26 years of chasing this cosmic ghost to finally prove Pauli right.

As we celebrate , we honor the decades of curiosity that turned Pauli's "impossible" idea into a new era of science. 🌌

📸: Pauli Letter Collection, CERN

Christina Wang, a postdoctoral researcher and Lederman Fellow at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, has been awarded the American Physical Society’s 2026 Mitsuyoshi Tanaka Award in Experimental Particle Physics for her pioneering work in particle detection.

Her innovative techniques, which open new pathways for identifying elusive dark matter candidates, are advancing the search for physics beyond the Standard Model.

Christina Wang of Fermilab receives prestigious award for advances in dark matter detection Christina Wang, a postdoctoral researcher and Lederman Fellow at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, has been awarded the American Physical Society’s 2026 Mitsuyoshi Tanaka Award in Experimental Particle Physics for her pioneering work in particle detection. Her innovative techniques, which ope...

It’s our 59th birthday! 🎂 🎊

Since 1967, we’ve been exploring the smallest building blocks of the universe — including our favorite particles, neutrinos — to enhance our understanding of the world around us.

Fermilab is one of 17 national laboratories of the U.S. Department of Energy. We are America's particle physics and accelerator laboratory. Our researchers are:

🌎 Leading the world in neutrino science

⚛️ Pushing the frontiers of discovery

✨ Shaping new technologies to drive progress

Together with our international partners, we expand our understanding of matter, energy, space and time — and inspire the next generation of explorers.

Here’s to decades of discovery, and many more to come! 🙌

Learn more at https://www.fnal.gov.

The is building a new era of AI-driven scientific discovery. To support this national effort, Fermilab’s Fermi Data Platform is providing secure, large-scale data infrastructure needed to make advanced AI research possible.

Fermilab storage infrastructure enables AI-driven scientific and research discovery for DOE’s Genesis Mission The U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission is building a new era of AI-driven scientific discovery — and it requires far more than powerful supercomputers to succeed. To support this national effort, Fermilab’s Fermi Data Platform is providing secure, large-scale data infrastructure neede...

Functional, large quantum computers would enable scientists to solve complex problems, driving innovation and benefitting society.

Fermilab is working with industry partner Harmoniqs to bring together the company’s open-source quantum optimization software, called Piccolo.jl, and QICK to enable precise qubit control at larger scales.

The partnership lowers barriers to experimentation and accelerates progress toward larger, more reliable quantum systems, bringing the promise of practical quantum computing closer to reality.

🔗 Learn more:

Fermilab and Harmoniqs integrate open-source tools to advance qubit control optimization Fermilab developed the Quantum Instrumentation Control Kit, or QICK, as a compact, customizable and cost-effective quantum readout and control option for scientists. Harmoniqs, a quantum computing software company, developed Piccolo.jl, a quantum control and calibration software package. Together, t...

Olivia Seidel’s work draws on Fermilab’s deep expertise in microelectronics and cryogenic devices to support key goals of the Genesis Mission — a sweeping U.S. Department of Energy artificial intelligence initiative.

Using AI, Fermilab researcher probes how transistors behave in extreme cold Olivia Seidel’s work draws on Fermilab's deep expertise in microelectronics and cryogenic devices to support key goals of the Genesis Mission — a sweeping U.S. Department of Energy artificial intelligence initiative.