Ancient Shipwreck to Aid Ghostly Neutrino Search

[Xipe Totec]

You wouldn't think a sunken ship from 2000 years ago could hold the key to the success of a neutrino detection experiment, except perhaps in a Hollywood movie, or a NOVA special on Jacques Cousteau. But sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction. Scientists with the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE), a neutrino observatory buried under the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy, hit the motherlode when archaeologists discovered a Spanish ship off the coast of Sardinia, filled with lead that dates back two millennia.

Yes, lead. Really, really old lead. That might not seem very exciting to you, but for CUORE scientists, it's a godsend. They use lead (also copper) as a shielding material for their neutrino detection materials. See, neutrinos -- dubbed "ghost particles" because they so rarely interact with everything (billions course through you every second) -- are extremely difficult to detect, in part because their signals can be obscured by things like cosmic rays, and the natural radioactivity in rocks, for example.
Shipwreck WATCH VIDEO: Another ship, the Odyssey Marine Exploration, is the best at finding deep-sea treasure. Kasey-Dee Gardner meets the crew and learns how they do it.

CUORE is looking for an even rarer event, known as neutrinoless double-beta decay. Among other things, such an observation would provide a handy means of directly calculating the mass of a neutrino (which is very, very small -- so small that for decades physicists believed neutrinos had no mass).

http://news.discovery.com/space/ancient-shipwreck-to-aid-ghostly-neutrino-search.html

[NutmegYankee]

1. That is cool! Ancient lead supporting modern science. nt

[Jackpine Radical]

2. That topic is just too

heavy for this time of morning.

[Xipe Totec]

3. What lead you to that weighty conclusion?

[Jackpine Radical]

4. I'm plumb out of answers,

but if it's sinker swim, I'll solder on and give it a shot.

[bluedigger]

5. Always nice when archaeology has a direct application to applied science.

But I can't get over the idea of a 2000 year old ship carrying a cargo of lead. That was one seriously over-ambitious captain and crew, I'd say.:crazy: :shrug:

[Nihil]

9. On your side comment ...

> But I can't get over the idea of a 2000 year old ship carrying a cargo of lead.
> That was one seriously over-ambitious captain and crew, I'd say.

How else would they get it over a body of water between the supply and the demand?

:shrug:

Most times, it worked fine and they had a profitable trade.
Occasionally, a storm or other mishap intervened and they sank.

The sailors that I feel sorry for are those in the 18th & 19th centuries
where the owners (on dry land) sent them out on leaky hulls with a cargo
of lead (or even boxes of stones that were labelled as lead!) in the sure
knowledge of sinking so that the owners could collect on the insurance.

:-(

[AlecBGreen]

6. a question

Shouldnt "modern" lead and "2000 year old" lead still contain the same ratio of radioactive:stable isotopes? In other words, how does mining it & casting it 2000 years ago affect the radioactivity?

[Xipe Totec]

7. Good question!

Lead 210 (210Pb) is a radioactive form of lead, having an atomic weight of 210. It is one of the last elements created by the radioactive decay of the isotope uranium-238 (238U). 210Pb forms naturally in the sediments and rocks that contain 238U, as well as in the atmosphere, a by-product of radon gas. Within 10 days of its creation from radon, 210Pb falls out of the atmosphere. It accumulates on the surface of the earth where it is stored in soils, lake and ocean sediments, and glacial ice.

So lead-210 is constantly being created from uranium and Radon, and mixing into existing lead ores. Once you smelt the lead and cast it, there is no more lead-210 being added to the cast and the remaining lead-210 decays away.

http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/info/lacs/lead.htm

[AlecBGreen]

8. very interesting link

I teach Earth Science so this will be useful in class. Thanks! :hi: