The Forces Carrying Particle by Rogelio G. Dela Cruz, Ph. D (September, 2006)

The neutrino is a pernicious concept. Humans normally require narrative and relationship in order to function, yet here we are faced with a sublime indifference. Not only that but particles are strange, and neutrinos are not the strangest. About 100 years ago Einstein figured out a bunch of really unsettling things about light waves acting like particles. Now we're saddled with a whole pile of elementary and force carrying particles, which are strangely behaving.

My old understanding of force was one thing pushing on something else. But in fact force is an exchange, two objects tossing tiny particles back and forth. There are four basic forces and a special force carrying particle associated with each. The particle for gravity is the graviton, the particle for electricity is the photon. The strong force operates within the atom and keeps all the bits together. This is why we can't pass our hands through walls by rearranging our atomic particles to fit between the spaces of the walls' atomic particles. The quarks inside the atom are all involved in tiny, fierce game of catch, throwing little particles called gluons back and forth to each other.

The fourth force also operates at the atomic level. It is called the weak force and the particles associated are called intermediate vector bosons. The weak force is interesting because it allows for a type of radioactive process called beta decay, which occurs in the sun and creates neutrinos.