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Sunday Science Poem: The Stark Dignity of Self-Organization
William Carlos Williams’ “Spring and All” (1923) After an unintentionally long hiatus, our Sunday Science Poem is back. April is National Poetry Month, and this month we’ll read the poetry of the...
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Sunday Science Poem: Straining Minds versus Nature’s Single Gesture
William Carlos Williams’ “Labrador” (1948) It’s National Poetry Month, and we’re continuing our focus on the poems of William Carlos Williams. As much as we might wish to have a unified understanding...
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Sunday Science Poem: George Herbert and our psychic connection with nature
George Herbert’s “The Storm” (1633) Why does nature move us? Driving through the South Dakota Badlands this summer was a moving experience. The bare, jagged landscape evoked feelings of calm,...
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Science Denial Then and Now
George Herbert’s “Vanity (I)” (1633) Science has always made people uncomfortable. Witness the recent comments from the U.S. House Science (Denial) and Technology Committee: We’ve had climate change...
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Astronomy + Poetry from CosmoAcademy
As you know*, we like to mix our science and our poetry. Mike has generously loaned this Philistine the reins to the Sunday Science Poem franchise, which I promptly moved to Tuesday; but I had to move...
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Sunday Science Poem: The Geometry of Love
Andrew Marvell’s ‘The Definition of Love’ (1681) Why are 17th century poets like John Donne, George Herbert and Andrew Marvell called ‘metaphysical’ poets? You can trace the name back to John Dryden,...
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Sunday Science Poem: The Number Pi
“The Number Pi”, Wisława Szymborska (1976) While in Chicago for the Drosophila genetics conference last weekend, I managed to visit some Polish bookstores. My haul included a volume of poems by the...
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Sunday Science Poem: How Fossils Inspire Awe
Lindley Williams Hubbell’s’ “Ordovician Fossil Algae” (1965) To become a fossil, it takes a lot of luck. Your carcass needs to be buried rapidly and then lie undisturbed for tens of thousands, hundreds...
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The Proto-Trolling of Charles Babbage
No one, not even his closest friends, would deny that Charles Babbage was a first rate pedant. In 1842, Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote a poem entitled “The Vision of Sin”, which included the following...
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Sunday Science Poem: Darwin and Happy Endings
Wisława Szymborska’s “Consolation” (2002) Evolution has always been more controversial socially than scientifically. After Darwin published the Origin, the idea that all species descended from common...
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