Since the fall of parity in electroweak interactions the discrete transformations of parity, charge conjugation and time reversal are under close scrutiny for any sign of deviation from maximality where symmetry breaking seems to be complete (like P violation in β decay) and for any sign of symmetry breaking when this has not yet been observed (like T violation in β decay).The Standard Model (SM) of electroweak interactions remains robust in explaining the outcome of all experiments with β rays. Bounds set by P-and T-reversal tests are tightening but remain stubbornly within the SM. However, the solar-neutrino issue enters the era beyond the SM by requiring ν oscillations and a non-zero ν mass. This review emphasizes experiments with β rays, but includes solar-neutrino and ββ-decay findings and devotes some attention to the broken symmetry in biochirality.Theoretical descriptions attempt to implement the symmetry breaking in a causal way, pointing to a possible earlier manifest left-right symmetry, and stimulating searches for deviations from the above maximality as a 'fossil' remnant of symmetry at a deeper level. Topical review 6.2 Neutrino masses searched for in β-ray spectra 1263 6.3 ββ decay 1263 6.4 Solar neutrinos 1265 6.5 ν-oscillation sites 1267 6.6 ν oscillations in vacuum and in dense solar matter 1268 7 Bounds on right-handed V + A currents 1270 7.1 Bounds on the mass of the W 2 boson obtained with β decay 1270 7.2 Bounds from other sources: astrophysics, non-leptonic decays 1272 7.3 Universality of lepton interaction and CKM unitarity 1273 8 Testing PCT invariance and searching for T violation 1274 8.1 PC violation in kaon decay 1274 8.2 Tests of T symmetry with triple correlations in nuclear β decay 1275 8.3 Constraints on T violation by β decay 1277 8.4 Decay of RaE and T asymmetry 1278 9 β decay: an unlikely cause of biological chirality 1279 10 Epilogue 1281 References 1282