SOPHIA ELIZABETH BENNETT/CERN W the University of Chicago to pursue physics governs radioactivity. They were predicted force, within atomic nucleiand whichacts charge andrespond to the‘weak’ nuclear right through They have Earth. no electric 194 experimentally in1948. but two neutrinos, ahypothesis heconfirmed Steinberger attributed theenergy to notone down into anelectron andmissing energy. found incosmic rays in1936. Theparticle broke cerning thedecay of themuon,whichhadbeen coined its name, pointed him to a puzzle con worked of theneutrinoand onthetheory nuclear chainreaction. Fermi, whohadalso Enrico Fermi, whohaddemonstrated thefirst research. Hewas by supervised Nobellaureate to improve theaccuracy of aircraft bombing. of Technology inCambridge onthe use of radar with physicists at the Massachusetts Institute entered the Second World War. He worked in 1942, less thanayear after theUnited States cago. HejoinedtheUSArmy onhisgraduation attheUniversity studiedfirst chemistry of Chi reunited hisfamilythere in1938. Steinberger that hereceived ahigh-school educationand His foster parents in Chicago, Illinois, ensured to power, arrivingintheUnited States in1934. berger was evacuated soonafter theNaziscame uents of protons andneutrons. the properties of quarks,theultimate constit lifetime. Steinberger alsohelpedto pindown tron but 200 times heavier andwithashorter similartothe muon—aparticle thestable elec neutrino. They foundasecond, associated with showed thatthere was more thanonetypeof active decay. Steinberger andhiscolleagues releasedenergy alongside electrons inradio in the1930s, to account fortheunexplained an enigmaticparticle:theneutrino. revealed theexistence of two distincttypesof Leon Lederman) for a 1962 experiment that in Physics in 1988 (with Melvin Schwartz and grouping them.Heshared theNobelPrize throughout —from discovering particles to berger, whohasdiedaged 99, contributed standard model of particle physics. Stein their basic buildingblocksare inthe codified Particle physicist whoshared Nobelfordiscovering muon neutrinos. (1921–2020) Jack Steinberger Obituary After thewar, Steinberger returned to Neutrinos barely interact —they canpass Born into aJewishfamilyinGermany, Stein- |Nature |Vol 589 |14 January 2021 Today, dozens are evident, and a handfulof subatomic particles. 1945, scientists knewaboutonly Steinberger began hiscareer in hen particlephysicist Jack ------“After losing onebetwith Laboratory attheUniversityLaboratory of California, research. In1949, hejoinedtheRadiation techniques was ahallmarkof Steinberger’s which hehadearliercalculated theoretically. lived neutral electrically pion,the lifetime of the pion.Heshowed theexistence of theshort- erator to study another cosmic-ray particle, Berkeley, where heused aninnovative accel a beam of high-energy neutrinos.a beamof The team high-energy student worked Schwartz outhow to make winning experiment. Steinberger’s former his colleagues conducted their Nobel-prize slowly thanexpected. particles, so called because they decay more These included‘strange’being unearthed. about theplethora of newparticlesthatwere propane orhydrogen —to make discoveries reveals trails of fast-moving inliquid particles the newlyinvented bubblechamber —which an anti-communist oath. There, he exploited City in1950, owing inpart to hisrefusal to sign But heleft forColumbia University inNewYork aspect ofphysics,aspect hepaid theorist friends about an theorist friendsaboutan up with good wine.” It was atColumbia that Steinberger and The desire to exploit newfacilitiesand ©
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e d . - CERN, theparticle-physics near laboratory to extend his studies of strange particles. In a bubble chamber could. Steinberger used it to collectdatathousandsof timesfaster than which hadjust beeninvented there, was able Geneva, Switzerland. Themultiwire chamber, structed to spottheonesproduced. nos, anda10-tonne spark chamberwas con was used to blockallparticles except neutri from armourplates from scrapped warships, scale. A13.5-metre-thick steel shield,made visible astrails of sparks. Itwas onamassive detectorfast-acting tracks thatmadeparticle National Laboratory, NewYork, andbuilta harnessed anewaccelerator attheBrookhaven e-mail: christine.sutton@cern.ch from 2003Courier to 2015. physicsparticle and was editor of the Oxfordshire, UK. She is a former researcher in Christine Sutton is a science writer in crops up, crops up.” In hiswords: “You have onlyonelife: whatever family whogave asachild. himopportunities expressed hisdeep gratitude to theChicago He felt he been dealt lucky cards in his life, and are better thanothers[isnot]agood thing”. his belief that“thepretension thatsomeof us enjoyed mountaineeringandsailing. He hadadeepinterest inhow nature works, and of physics,an aspect hepaid upwithgood wine. after losing onebetwiththeorist friendsabout being agreat friend.Hewas notalways right— intellect as ateacher and supervisor, and for and prowess asanexperimental physicist, his ernments to limitgreenhouse-gas emissions. signing theMainauDeclaration, urging gov in 2015 joined other Nobel prizewinners in ests to astrophysics andclimate change, and until themid-1990s. Heextended hisinter continued to work withALEPHresearchers begun withhisPhDthesis. completed thatSteinberger thestory had electron’‘heavy discovered in1975. Thisneatly third associated with the tau particle, another — theelectron andthemuonneutrinos, anda can be no more than three types of neutrino 1989, ALEPHhelpedto demonstrate thatthere CERN’s Large Electron–Positron collider. In a large experiment called ALEPH to exploit 1983, he led thedesign and construction of Steinberger moved to Europe in 1968 to Uninterested in prizes, he often reiterated Jack Steinberger was admired for his instinct Steinberger retired from CERNin1986, but CERN CERN - - - -