Part II

On the other hand, certain massless subatomic particles called neutrinos travel at the speed of light and go through matter as though it weren't there. A beam of neutrinos could travel through trillions of miles of solid lead and come out the other end just about unaffected. Neutrinos reach us from every direction and almost every neutrino that does so passes right through the earth in less than a 20th of a second (and through us if we are in their paths).

This doesn't mean that neutrinos can't be detected. Out of many trillions, one neutrino may occasionally combine with an atomic nucleus and induce a detectable change.

Thus, huge vats of cleaning fluid made up of molecules that include chlorine atoms can serve as a “neutrino telescope”. Such neutrino telescopes can be placed in mines, a couple of miles under the earth's crust. In that case, nothing can reach them but neutrinos, and, in this way, neutrino-producing reactions deep in the sun's соrе can be studied.

Scientists can produce neutrino beams without much trouble. Some day it might be possible to send them out in Morse code or in more complicated modulation. The day may come when improved neutrino telescopes, using water rather than cleaning fluid, will be placed all over the earth, eventually television sets might be built that would incorporate the equivalent of neutrino telescopes and convert the signals directly into sight and sound.

If this could be done, communications satellites would be unnecessary and so would relay stations of any sort. Any two points on earth's surface (or in mines, or under the sea) would be connected by a mathematically straight line along which neutrinos would move at the speed of light. There is no way of communicating more quickly.

For that matter, neutrinos move in a straight line throughout the universe. They are unaffected by the electromagnetic fields and dust clouds that can disrupt or block microwaves and light.

In the end, then, it may be that communications among worlds would be carried out through neutrino beams.

Perhaps that is why we aren't detecting signals from other intelligent civilizations out there. We're looking for beams of microwaves, but perhaps we should be looking for beams of neutrinos.

25. In Russian write a content-based summary of the text you have translated.

26. Make a summary translation of the text you haven’t read.

27. Make an oral summary in English of the whole text.

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