How research into the tiniest and most mysterious particle could change our understanding of the universe

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. For the past half-century, its main business has been the study of the tiniest insubstantial bit of matter in the universe, an ephemeral fly-by-night subatomic particle called the neutrino. This is the home of the Baksan Neutrino Observatory, a warren of tunnels and laboratories burrowed two miles into a mountain, sheltered from the outside universe and cosmic rays underneath 12,000 feet of rock. The men and women of Neytrino share an underground union with scientists scattered around the world in equally deep places: the Sanford Underground Research Facility in the former Homestake gold mine in Lead, South Dakota; the Gran Sasso national laboratory, beneath the mountain of that name in Italy; the Sudbury Neutrino observatory in Ontario, Canada; the Super-Kamiokande, deep within Mount Ikeno, Japan; and IceCube, an array of detectors buried in ice at the South Pole. open image in gallery The Baksan Neutrino Observatory in southern Russia Physicists know that neutrinos come in at least three flavours, known as electron, muon and tau neutrinos, depending on their subatomic origin.