Two scientists have won the Nobel Prize for Physics for their work on subatomic particles called neutrinos.

Takaaki Kajita, from the University of Tokyo, and Arthur B. McDonald, from Queen¡¯s University, in Kingston, Canada, share the 2015 prize for discovering how neutrinos change identities and therefore must have mass.

¡°The discovery has changed our understanding of the innermost workings of matter and can prove crucial to our view of the universe,¡± said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences as it the award this morning.

The pair¡¯s work has helped to explain why neutrinos from the Sun were not disappearing on their way to Earth, as previously thought, but had actually changed identities, the Nobel panel said.

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¡°A neutrino puzzle that physicists had wrestled with for decades had been resolved,¡± a spokesman said in a release issued on 6 October.

According to the Nobel panel, neutrinos are ¡°nature¡¯s most elusive elementary particles¡±, which constantly bombard the Earth ¨C with thousands of billions of neutrinos streaming through our bodies each second.

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¡°New discoveries about their deepest secrets are expected to change our current understanding of the history, structure and future fate of the universe,¡± the Nobel panel said.

The win for Professor Kajita follows Japan¡¯s success in last year¡¯s physics category after three Japan-born scientists shared the prize for the invention of the blue light-emitting diode (LED).

Yesterday, Youyou Tu, an expert in Chinese traditional medicine who developed a breakthrough treatment for malaria, was named as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine ¨C China¡¯s first homegrown Nobel science laureate.

jack.grove@tesglobal.com