Neutrinos change their identities and we don't know why

The standard model of particle physics explains many things, but the strange behaviour of neutrinos isn’t one of them, writes Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

By Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

THE standard model of particle physics is so named because it is a model of our subatomic universe that is now the standard description of reality for physicists. It is not only widely accepted, but also extensively tested. Although it is unable to account for gravity, it describes every other force and every particle we have ever seen in a laboratory or particle collider – from the familiar electron, which carries a charge and makes up the outer layers of atoms, to the Higgs, which is a complex part of the picture, one that gives mass to …