Researchers acknowledged for detecting energy from single electron for 1st time
December 11, 2015 
RICHLAND, Wash. - What is the energy of a single electron whirling? Physics World, the magazine published by the U.K.'s Institute of Physics, has named work that answers this question one of the top 10 breakthroughs of 2015. The collaboration that made this discovery, called Plan 8, contains over 20 members and spans many institutions.
Precisely measuring the energy of single electrons by detecting their so-called cyclotron radiation will allow researchers to determine the mass of the neutrino, a subatomic particle known to weigh something but not very much. The finding that it weighs something rather than nothing at all received the Nobel Prize in Physics this year, work led by the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Canada.
Physicist Brent VanDevender, one of the Plan eight collaborators and based at the D.O.E.'s Pacific Northwest National Lab, said, "It's gratifying and relieving to gain this recognition."
Gratifying because it's an important discovery. Relieving because so many people have worked so hard and so long on Plan 8, and the process of science doesn't always reward hard work.
The 2 dozen or so team members on Plan 8-so called because physicists sometimes give their experiments cryptic names, inadvertently reflecting the mysteriousness of the universe they're trying to work out-include researchers from PNNL, the University of Washington, where the experiment is based, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, Santa Barbara and Yale University.
Read more about Physics World's Top 10 Breakthroughs here.
This work was supported by the D.O.E. Office of Science.
Tags: Fundamental Science, Physics
Interdisciplinary teams at Pacific Northwest National Lab address many of America's most pressing issues in energy, the environment and national security through advances in basic and applied science. Founded in 1965, PNNL employs 4,400 staff and has an yearly budget of nearly $1 billion. It is managed by Battelle for the D.O.E.'s Office of Science. As the single biggest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, the Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information on PNNL, visit the PNNL News Center, or follow PNNL on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter.
