Number 28 (Story #2), April 4, 1991 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein SOLAR SEISMOLOGY studies seem to discount theories that call for the existence of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPS) at the Sun's core. Much as geologists study the Earth's interior by following the reflection of earthquake shocks, astronomers can use the observed oscillations of the Sun's surface to infer temperature and density for points in the interior. Yvonne Elsworth and Rachel Howe of Birmingham University in Great Britain assert that their measurements of waves on the Sun's surface agree better with the standard models of the Sun than with those that invoke WIMPS: "This did not appear to be the case a few years ago; it is the models which have changed while the observations have remained substantially the same but with improved accuracy." They believe therefore that the so-called solar neutrino problem--the discrepancy between the expected number of solar neutrinos and the number actually seen--has more to do with neutrino physics than with solar physics. (Physics World, March 1991.)