Barbara Levi

Stalking Solar Neutrinos
In caverns deep under the ground,
They sniff SNUs* like hungry bloodhounds.
But maybe their prey
Can change 'long the way
And sneak by without being found.

* An SNU is a solar neutrino unit, a measure of the flux of neutrinos from the sun.

Alternate
Oh, why don't we see enough SNUs?
For years, it's been something to muse.
Though Gallex sees more
It's still a low score.
Can electron's neutrino be mu's?

The Pairing State
Electrons once wanted to mate
In a superconducting s-state
As they circled around
Was isotropy found
Or was d wave their ultimate fate?

The Quark Quest
We looked up and down, high and low
For the quark whose strange mass we don't know
Oh charm please don't fail;
The bottommost tail
Of top's mass is starting to show!

The Ozone Hole
Have you heard of the latest resort,
Where uv rays aren't cut short?
The Great Ozone Hole
Down at the South Pole.
You can tan while the penquins cavort!

For Roy Woodruff of Los Alamos National Lab on winning the 1993 APS Szilard Award
X-ray lasers might calm public fears,
But if tests of Excalibur spears
Are successful, some claim,
At what do they aim?
The missiles or Senator's ears?

For Kurt Gottfried, Cornell University, on receiving the Szilard Award April, 1992
Now SDI never made sense
(Not to mention its soaring expense)
With Kurt in the lead
Have we now Gott-fried
Of such foolish plans for defense?

In honor of Richard Wilson, Harvard University, winner of the 1990 Forum Award given by the Forum on Physics and Society. He was cited for work in comparative risk assessment and he had studied water pollution standards. April 16, 1990
In pollution the world seems to wallow.
Dick gives us a guide we can follow.
What risk, do you think,
In water we drink?
For some, it is too much to swallow.

To Gary Taubes on winning the APS Forum Award, April, 1994
Put palladium down in a pot,
Add water and see what you've got!
Cold fusion, said some.
Most turned down a thumb:
The studies showed clearly it's not.

There once was a hard gamma ray
And a nucleus it forced to decay
A resultant bambino
Was called the neutrino
You ask if it had mass? No weigh!