Neutrino scientists win Nobel Prize for Physics

Japan's Takaaki Kajita and Canada's Arthur B. McDonald won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physics for their discovery that neutrinos have mass, the award-giving body said on Tuesday.

This Sept. 2011 photo shows Takaaki Kajita of Japan, director of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research and professor at the University of Tokyo, at the university's Institute for Cosmic Ray Research in Kashiwa, near Tokyo. (Kyodo News via AP) Source: Kyodo News

"The discovery has changed our understanding of the innermost workings of matter and can prove crucial to our view of the universe," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement awarding the 8 million Swedish crown ($962,000) prize.

Physics is the second of this year's Nobels.

The prizes were first awarded in 1901 to honour achievements in science, literature and peace in accordance with the will of dynamite inventor and business tycoon Alfred Nobel.

($1 = 8.3151 Swedish crowns) (Reporting by Stockholm Newsroom; Editing by Alistair Scrutton)