Poems with a scientific bent

 

This month I'm focusing on poems with a scientific bent. I found a poem by David Hathwell, "Hidden Force Observed" (2015) that employs scientific themes.

 

Here's a poem written by a poem by a poet who is new to me, Charlotte Turner Smith, but its written much earlier(poets.org).

 Sonnet XLIV ("Sonnet Written in The Church Yard at Middleton in Sussex")

Press’d by the Moon, mute arbitress of tides,
    While the loud equinox its pow’r combines,
    The sea no more its swelling surge confines,
But o’er the shrinking land sublimely rides.
The wild blasts, rising from the Western cave,
    Drives the huge billows from their heaving bed;
    Tears from their grassy tombs the village dead,
And breaks the silent sabbath of the grave!
With shells and seaweed mingled, on the shore,
    Lo! their bones whiten in the frequent wave;
    But vain to them the winds and waters rave;
They hear the warring elements no more:
While I am doom’d—by life’s long storm opprest,
To gaze with envy, on their gloomy rest.

 

I love the phrase "mute arbitress of tides" and "silent sabbath."

The surprise in the end is that the speaker/narrator is envious of the dead. 

Charlotte Turner Smith was a poet and novelist of the Romantic age. 

Snakes survived by going underground

Snakes widely diversified after the Chicxulub crater event that ended the dinosaurs reign. An interesting study shows that the extinction event allowed snakes to diversify, innovate, and thrive. Findings are reported in Nature Communications.

Snakes survived even though all other reptiles perished by moving underground. Their survival which researchers call "creative destruction" was the direct result of the destruction of other life forms. 

Klein, C.G., Pisani, D., Field, D.J. et al. Evolution and dispersal of snakes across the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. Nat Commun 12, 5335 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25136-y

How one animal survived the asteroid that killed dinosaurs (inverse.com)

9/11

Photo by Lars Mulder from Pexels
 

Here's what I remember. The day seemed ordinary. I was working in a library--a different one than the one I work at now.

Earlier that morning I heard about a plane hitting one of the towers. No one knew it was terrorism at that time. 

I think by the time I got to work the 2nd tower had been hit. Newscasters were already theorizing terrorism.

Then, at the library, someone had a TV going in the off desk area. This was before web streaming became common place and before smart phones.

The TV was only turned on at the library when important or tragic events were happening. For instance it was on when the Columbine shooting happened.

The towers started falling. 

I had to prepare the desk because we were opening soon. Suddenly, a colleague started crying. He and his fiancee had just been on a trip to see the twin towers in New York scarcely a week ago.

"We were just there," he said, but I knew he wasn't talking only about the place. He was thinking of the senseless deaths, the lives cut short.

 

That colleague, who was also a friend, has passed away now. His marriage didn't work from what I heard.

His was the first honest reaction. Every one else was trying to maintain professional distance I think.

They were in shock but the reality had not settled in. They were still pretending, not letting their guard down, even me. In a library or any job, you have to keep going, provide service, no matter what. This is the mantra of service type jobs. 

That is probably what the stewardesses on the plane did, the captain and the crew.