I'm looking for the scientific term used to characterized something
that is of a penetrating characteristic.

I'm having trouble articulating this clearly, but for example:
something that allows a form of energy to pass through it would be
termed "transparent" to that energy (e.g. common window glass is
transparent to visible light) but how would the light's nature of
being able to penetrate the glass be termed; or maybe a better example
is with neutrinos ability to penetrate almost everything.

If a glass is transparent to light, what is the light to glass?

I suppose one could just say "penetrating" or "infiltrating" but I was
wondering if there is a scientific term referring to such ability.

Appreciate any insights on this.

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 25 Feb 2006 13:49 PST

gillwill...

A Google search for:

"neutrinos are"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22neutrinos+are%22

...reveals the following terminology:

"Neutrinos are the most penetrating..."

"Neutrinos are ghostly particles..."

"Neutrinos are phantomlike and pass through all matter..."

So it seems you're in good company in not having found
a better term for describing this characteristic.

sublime1-ga

Would the word illuminate be what you're looking for?

I would say 'penetrant'.

Seen most commonly these days in relating to genetic expression, e.g.
'A highly penetrant gene will express itself almost regardless of the
effects of environment'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penetrance
and in engineering testing - dye penetrant testing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_penetrant

I would say penetrating but non absorbing in terms of energy.
Or how about energy neutral. Baggsy copyright on that one.

How about "invasive" ?

In science terminology is invented all the time.  I think if there is
no word that is sufficient for answering a question, one can be
adapted or invented :)

I think "penetrating" is close, sounds like a verb.  I think you want
an adjective.  I think I'd go with "penetrative" in this context
perhaps

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/penetrative

Another good term used in biology sometimes is "permeant" which means
able to penetrate (permeate) stuff.

There's also some use of 'transversive' -that might be a stretch
though.   It depends a bit why the neutrino can get through things. 
It might be best to talk about tiny size, near-zero mass and high
energy.