Number 125 (Story #3), April 22, 1993 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein NEUTRAL CURRENTS IN NUCLEI have been detected by the KARMEN collaboration using neutrinos from the ISIS neutron source in the UK. At the APS April Meeting, researchers announced that they had observed the excitation of the carbon-12 nucleus through inelastic neutrino scattering. Such scattering events, occurring as a result of the weak force, involve the exchange of neutral Z bosons, which constitute a "neutral current." Previously detected only in subatomic particle interactions, neutral-current reactions in nuclei may have very practical applications in neutrino detection schemes; the carbon-12 reaction, for example, could be triggered by muon as well as electron neutrinos arriving from a supernova. Neutral-current detection schemes based on other nuclei could be used to measure the total neutrino flux from the sun. (For additional information, contact Dr. Guido Drexlin of the KARMEN Collaboration at 011-49-7247-82-3534.)