Project poltergeist

While Project Poltergeist was looking for ghosts

They discovered neutrinos, and reckoned

That ten trillion of the little blighters, had been passing

Through their brains, every second

 

These tiny guys, come in three flavours

Electron, Muon and Tau

They’re ace. They change their taste, in haste

So, what was a Tau one, when it entered your brain

Is probably a Muon one, just leaving Mars…

…. Now

 

But this identity-switching crisis, is nothing

Compared to their unique ability

To change their mass, as they go past

Or through any, heavenly body

 

Most of those that got through your thick skull, just now

Came directly from the surface of the Sun

After fighting their way out, from a war in the core

When their journey to, or through, you begun

 

Yet many of these oddies, that penetrate our bodies

Came from far neutron stars colliding

Or black holes, quasars, pulsars and blazars

After avoiding events on the horizon

 

We don’t know their mass – yet

But seems less, than a millionth of an electron

They’re nearly too small, to affect anything at all

So, it’s almost impossible to detect ‘em

 

They don’t interact with visible light, or any waves of electromagnetism

And unless you seek to give em’ a peek, they’ll just hide in a superposition

Yet they can ring hells bells, and mess with stuff in your cells

And while they fly by, other nuclei, they can trigger nuclear fission

 

Or simply be heroes

On chips, they don’t miss

To flick ones, into zeroes

And that’s nothing, get this…

 

Unlike almost all other ‘physics’

All light, and the strong force

These tiny weak mites, don’t do left or right

Can’t turn clockwise, or counter

When plotting their course

 

See, neutrinos have no mirror image

All left-handed, and so it transpires

These ghostly particles have no reflection

Making them the cosmos’ vampires