I have virtually explored the work and the world of the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) in a previous post.
A follow-up is due today since yesterday some exciting news arrived from the laboratories: one of the main experiments scientists have been carrying out at the labs confirmed the spontaneous oscillation of a neutrino from one type to another.
The experiment – first launched three years ago and named Opera (located in the Hall C of LNGS; though there is another
experiment at the LNGS studying neutrino interactions and proton decays, called Icarus) – consisted in sending via a high-intensity and high-energy beam produced from the Super Proton Synchrotron at the CERN SPS in Geneva, muon neutrinos to the LNGS (located 732 km away in Italy), and in proving that the neutrinos could mutate their nature.
Further
mutations will have to occur to take the experiment further, since only one muon neutrino among the billions of particles travelling between the LNGS
and the CERN oscillated turning into a tau-neutrino during its 3-millisecond trip from
Switzerland to central Italy, yet the first results of the Opera experiment may open up new possibilities to physics.
The neutrinos are tiny particles of matter that constantly pass through the earth, playing an important role in particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology.
There are three types of neutrinos: the electron neutrino, the muon neutrino and the tau neutrino.
Neutrinos can travel long distances without being absorbed by matter or deflected by magnetic fields, carrying data about specific astrophysical objects and events from distant collapsing stars or galaxies.
The first theories about the oscillations of the neutrinos were developed by Italian physicist Bruno Pontecorvo in the mid-1900s.
Pontecorvo claimed that the neutrinos do not have a defined mass, but they are a mix of different components that can vary their development and evolution.
Congratulations go to all the researches involved in this project, and while I'm sure they will be able to carry out further successful experiments, I would encourage fashion design students to think along these lines and be inspired by these scientific researches.
Did you ask in which way? Well, first and foremost the collaboration between the CERN and the LNGS proves that joining forces together leads to great discoveries, so collaborations between different fashion institutions and students and between fashion designs and scientists is definitely the key to innovative design.
As suggested in that first post about the LNGS, specific experiments can lead to innovative prints (think about the prints a neutrino event may help you developing and you will easily come up not with one but with ten fashion collections…), shapes and silhouettes, but the results of the Opera experiment should make us ponder about oscillations and mutations in fashion: inspired by the chameleon-like nature of the neutrino, let's wonder if it is possible to create mutating fabrics that can somehow change in shades and colours.
Besides, are there any specific technically advanced textiles we can also use to create surface elaborations inspired by the shapes and structures of the light sensors inside a neutrino detector?
Let's also try to think in metaphors: a tiny and invisible neutrino can carry an enormous amount of data and information, in a nutshell, it can tell us a tale about the entire universe, so how can we tell a wider story about the universe through what we wear or what we use to adorn our bodies?
Remember one thing: if the future of science is represented by these experiments, the future of fashion is to be found somewhere else rather than in the pages of all the men and women's magazines telling us about the latest trends to buy in and "It" items that will make us look like that famous model or celebrity.
In fact if those scientific laboratories that too many of us suspiciously see as mysterious alien spaceships carrying out experiments we can't understand represent
the future of society, they also represent the future of fashion and
maybe that's where we should be looking at if we want to find exciting innovation, powerful inspirations and dynamic interactions.
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