Neutrinos interact with matter via the [weak interaction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weak_interaction). So while indeed most of them will pass through a detector without interaction, a small fraction will interact. When a neutrino scatters off an atom, it can create a charged particle and/or break apart the nucleus. It’s these things that neutrino detectors detect. Neutrino detectors are large volumes of some kind of material that gives a detectable signal (e.g. a flash of light) in response to ionising radiation. They also need to be very well shielded from other sources of radiation, so that the background noise doesn’t overwhelm the neutrino signal.
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