Coronavirus Poem #haiku #sciku #coronavirususa #poem

Powerful be warned
Nature’s smallest form of life
Lays the largest low

Of course, this should be expected. It’s not the first time we’ve been foolishly surprised. Consider David & Goliath, where we modern people miss the point entirely.

Astronomers are all atwitter #Betelgeuse #astronomy #sciku #poetry #poem

Betelgeuse grows dim
Is the supernova blast
On its way to Earth?

by Kate Rauner, with thanks to astronomy.com

Betelgeuse is a bright star in Orion, a constellation many folk can find. Right now, in the northern hemisphere, Orion dominates the winter night sky. Betelgeuse has  dimmed and brightened before, but this is especially notable. It’s supposed to be detectable with the unaided eye. Hmm. When my current snow storms clear out, I’ll have to bundle up and check.

PS: Don’t worry. Betelgeuse is 642.5 light years away. If it goes supernova, it will be way cool to observe (even visible in the daytime) but not dangerous to life on Earth. As far as we can tell.

Cosmology #sciku #poem # poetry #cosmology #haiku

Milky Way spiral
A Local Group galaxy
Such a tiny place

Or, in longer form:

Once we thought the skies
Were calm and smooth above.
But that’s not true close to home.
Could it be uniform,
Sort of,
If extremely far
We roam?

Data now accumulates
Along an odd anomaly.
Something’s wrong,
We do not grasp
This provocative
Synchronicity.

With human eyes,
It’s hard to see
On a megaparsec scale.
With human minds,
It’s hard to know
The universal tale.

Expand our search,
Look farther still,
That’s the essential key,
Till finally we move in step
With dancing galaxies.

Kate Rauner

Thanks to astronomers led by Oliver Müller at the University of Strasbourg in France. “What I really like about this stuff is just that we are still at the pioneering phase,” said Müller. “That’s super exciting.” vice.com

Haiku for Every Element – You’ll Love This Cool Site #haiku #sciku #chemistry #poetry #ChemHaiku

I just ran into this site and have to share. If you love science-inspired poetry, you’ll get a kick out of this.

A review of the Periodic Table composed of 119 science haiku, one for each element, plus a closing haiku for element 119 (not yet synthesized). The haiku encompass astronomy, biology, chemistry, history, physics, and a bit of whimsical flair. Click or hover over an element on the Periodic Table to read the haiku. Share these poems and add your own on Twitter with hashtag #ChemHaiku. From Mary Soon Lee

One of the cool things about the Periodic Table is that it organizes elements by their physical structure

Check out this site and then write your own poems.