The Other "God Particle"

A detail from Ray Jayawardhana's book:

A detail from Ray Jayawardhana's book: "Neutrino Hunters: The Thrilling Chase for a Ghostly Particle to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe".

Listen

Millions of them course through our bodies every minute. Understanding them may help us discover the origins of the universe, and even where rogue regimes have nuclear reactors. They're called neutrinos. Scientist and writer Ray Jayawardhana explains why he has a lifelong passion for this often overlooked particle.


Neutrino Hunters: The Thrilling Chase for a Ghostly Particle to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe by Ray Jayawardhana is published by Harper Collins.

Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life beyond Our Solar System
by Ray Jayawardhana is published by Princeton University Press.



Cosmic Gall by John Updike (1960)

Neutrinos they are very small.

They have no charge and have no mass

And do not interact at all.

The earth is just a silly ball

To them, through which they simply pass,

Like dustmaids down a drafty hall

Or photons through a sheet of glass.

They snub the most exquisite gas,

Ignore the most substantial wall,

Cold-shoulder steel and sounding brass,

Insult the stallion in his stall,

And, scorning barriers of class,

Infiltrate you and me! Like tall

And painless guillotines, they fall

Down through our heads into the grass.

At night, they enter at Nepal

And pierce the lover and his lass

From underneath the bed - you call

It wonderful; I call it crass



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