This interview originally aired on In the Moment on SDPB Radio.
Tantalum-180m is nature's rarest isotope. Scientists like Sam Meijar are seeking to detect, observe and measure its decay. No one has ever done that successfully before.
Meijar's tantalum experiment is happening at the 4,850-foot level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility. It uses the repurposed detector from the Majorana Demonstrator.
He joined In the Moment ahead of Neutrino Day to discuss scientific collaboration, what he hopes to find in the experiment and how it could impact physics.
Meijar is a staff scientist at Los Alamost National Laboratory and co-principal investigator of the tantalum experiment.