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Comment by JimTheMan | Hacker News Reader

I'm in love with the cute little figure that came with the press release: https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2026/10/fig_fy_26_3x2.jpg

I appreciate the boldness of this project, it has an element of sci-fi to it. Building a base at the south pole to bury sensors in ice to measure elusive particles. The stuff of dreams!

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The same guy (Johan Jarnestad) has been doing all the nobel prize illustrations and infographics for years!

https://www.infographics.se/

https://www.behance.net/JohanJarnestad

Looking at the behance site it's a pretty good choice, glad some illustrators are still making a living in the AI age.

To be fair, the base was already there and logistically essential. The IceCube topside building is just a part of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, about a km or so from the Elevated Station.

This image* from Wikipedia surprised me. The topside building is...you could say...the tip of the iceberg. The detectors span a huge area going over 2km deep. The predecessor AMANDA array was also down there.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IceCube_Neutrino_Observatory#/...

Yes. It spans a cubic kilometer.

The building is just for housing the data gathering and comms equipment and whatever maintenance and engineering stuff the array needs. I don’t think anybody physically works there regularly.

Umbrella corporation.

A trillion of these silly small guys pass through us every second. Funny to imagine them like that.

There are many things that my brain just can't handle, the size of the universe, more than 3 dimensions and this fact especially.

I will argue on your behalf that your brain can handle just one more dimension than the 3 you are likely referring to. :)

Is this a Gödel Completeness thing?

Most people are pretty bad at accounting for the effects of time.

If you ever feel lonely, think about all those little friends who come visit you!

We rarely bump into each other, actually. When we do it happens in a flash.

Depending on how much space you occupy, closer to 500 trillion per second

You can follow along with the researchers here https://icecube.wisc.edu/news/life-at-the-pole/2026/10/week-...

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