A Belgian-American scientist was awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for his pioneering work studying “ghost particles” in the Antarctic.
Francis Halzen established a laboratory at the South Pole after discovering that the unusual clarity of its ice could be used to track subatomic particles called neutrinos, which otherwise pass undetected through the Earth and the human body: “We could catch them in ice, that was the goal,” Halzen said, adding that his discovery was comparatively minor compared with those the technique could eventually unlock.
“This is a new way of looking at the universe, and it will take bigger telescopes, many more telescopes, to become real astronomy,” he said. “And what this will bring is impossible to predict.”