Japan's Takaaki Kajita and Canada's Arthur McDonald - both physicists - were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics on Tuesday for their joint discovery that neutrinos have mass after all. Before their discovery, it was generally believed that these elementary particles did not have mass.

The term "neutrino" was originally devised by Italian physicist Edoardo Amaldi. It literally means "little neutral one" in Italian - denoting the fact that these particles do not possess any electrical charge and mass.

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The experiments conducted by Kajita and McDonald proved that neutrinos have mass - even if it is almost negligible.

Both physicists conducted their experiments in their respective countries, a kilometer or two beneath the surface. The two observed that the tiny particles can actually change from one state to another as they rapidly travel in space, which can only mean that the neutrinos have mass after all.

The Nobel organization said the recent discovery of neutrino's capability to change states will greatly impact man's understanding of matter and the universe as a whole.

McDonald told reporters that he was euphoric after discovering that he has won a Nobel prize and is happy to share the fame and money with his peers. Kajita said he could not believe the news that he is one of the recipients of the Noble physics prize. He said he is grateful to the neutrinos and their creators, the cosmic rays. Both physicists will not only share the award, but also a prize money worth more than a million dollars.

The universe's is teeming with neutrinos and their numbers are estimated to be in the trillions. Most people are not aware of the fact that trillions of these sub atomic matter pass through their bodies second by second.

Most of them were originally created during the Big Bang. Neutrinos are still being created even today by stars either through their rays or explosions. Even the Earth is producing neutrinos by way of radioactive decay.

Scientists first suspected their existence more than 85 years ago. But it was only in the 1950s that  neutrinos were confirmed. The Americans that actually detected them found out three kinds namely; electron, muon neutrinos and tau.

Mcdonald's and Kajita's neutrino experiments answered the puzzling question of why less are actually detected when there should be more of them. Scientists had not taken consideration of the fact that they changed from one state to another.

Tagsneutrinos, nobel peace prize for physics, Big Bang Theory, electron, muon, tau, neutrino mass, little neutral one, Takkaki Kajita, Arthur McDonald