Exploring Ultra-Pure Water and Neutrinos

Would you drink this water for a million dollars?

This is ultra-pure water,

buried about 3,300 feet underground.

But don't even think about drinking it.

This water isn't for thirst, it's strictly for science.

Sure, it's cleaner than any bottled water you've seen,

but it's actually dangerous.

Touching it can make your skin itch,

and it's so aggressive it can even corrode metal pipes.

In short, ultra-pure water is seriously hazardous.

About 30 years ago, Japan stored around 55,000 tons

of this ultra-pure water deep underground.

They also installed nearly 11,000 golden bulb-shaped devices.

But these aren't ordinary bulbs, they're photomultiplier tubes,

and together they form a giant detector known as the Super-Kamiokande.

This device is specifically used to capture mysterious neutrinos.

Neutrinos have virtually no mass,

travel at nearly the speed of light, and are notoriously hard to detect.

So in order to capture their weak signals,

scientists place the detector deep underground

to shield against external interference,

so as to study these particles more accurately,

explore the mysteries of the universe.