Experimental neutrino detector. Researcher holds a tuning fork used in an experimental neutrino detector originally built by Joseph Weber in the 1980s. The tuning fork vibrates in response to neutrinos from the Sun that have been scattered by a sapphire crystal. Weber believed that pure samples of very stiff crystals, such as sapphire, could be used to detect neutrinos. Since neutrinos have extremely high frequencies, and are able to travel through the Earth, he proposed a new form of long distance telecommunication. Neutrino particles lack electric charge and have almost no mass. Photographed at the Pirelli Research Centre, Milan, Italy.