“Beyond all the other risks, this was what really made the project possible – and that was pure luck.” We got hold of the new physics laureate Francis Halzen right after he learned of his Nobel Prize. In this conversation, he speaks about the hurdles that he and his team had to overcome in the process of creating the neutrino detector on the South Pole – and how one of the crucial discoveries was ’totally unexpected.’ Halzen also talks about how his work on neutrino detection could lead to clues about the universe’s black holes.

BREAKING NEWS The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2026 #NobelPrize in Physics to Francis Halzen “for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.”