So where is it and what is it?

So I've been doing this since the late '90s, so approaching three decades now in this game.

I can tell you when I first started, it felt like a discovery was imminent.

It was right around the corner.

We thought it was a WIMP, and we were about to detect it.

That didn't happen.

We didn't detect it with the, you know, previous generation of experiments, and so we had to rethink things.

Does that, like, have an element of tragedy to it?

So where is it, and what is it?

So I've been doing this since the late '90s, so a- approaching three decades now in this game.

I can tell you when I first started, it felt like a discovery was imminent.

It was right around the corner.

We thought it was a WIMP, and we were about to detect it.

That didn't happen.

We didn't detect it with the, you know, previous generation of experiments, and so we had to rethink things.

Does that, like, have an element of tragedy to it?

And as weird as it may seem, even though they're studying the universe, the best place to do it is from deep below ground.

What is particularly unique about SNOLAB is its combination of depth and cleanliness.

It is the deepest, cleanest laboratory in the world for conducting underground science of the various types that we pursue.

As Ray Bunker explains, the first issue is the particles that bombard the Earth from deep space and from our own atmosphere.

The main challenge, the main reason for going underground, is to shield our experiments from cosmic ray muons, which are created in the upper atmosphere by primarily protons that come from outer space and hit the atmosphere.

Muons are very penetrating.

The only effective shield from them is to go deep underground and use this two kilometers of earth as shielding against the cosmic ray muons.

And as weird as it may seem, even though they're studying the universe, the best place to do it is from deep below ground.

What is particularly unique about SNOLAB is its combination of depth and cleanliness.

It is the deepest, cleanest laboratory in the world for conducting underground science of the various types that we pursue.

As Ray Bunker explains, the first issue is the particles that bombard the Earth from deep space and from our own atmosphere.

The main challenge, the main reason for going underground, is to shield our experiments from cosmic ray muons, which are created in the upper atmosphere by primarily protons that come from outer space and hit the atmosphere.

Muons are very penetrating.

The only effective shield from them is to go deep underground and use this two kilometers of Earth as shielding against the cosmic ray muons.

Work on neutrinos carried out at SNO would eventually garner a Nobel Prize.

I'm Ray Bunker.

I'm the director of research at SNOLAB.

And as weird as it may seem, even though they're studying, well, the universe, the best place to do it is from deep below ground.

What is unique about SNOLAB is its combination of depth and cleanliness.

It is the deepest, cleanest laboratory in the world for conducting underground science of the various types that we pursue.