July 22, 2008
Quantum poetics
Writing about space is difficult. Since the time of Lucretius, poetry has taken science - investigations of nature - as part of its legitimate subject matter. Dante used medieval cosmography, Chaucer was well versed in astrology, alchemy, medicine and physiognomy. Milton and Donne had complicated reactions to the drastic realignments inherent in Copernican theory and Galilean astronomy. When Newton (partially) revealed the workings of the universe, Alexander Pope led the cheerleaders: "Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: / God said, 'Let Newton be!' and all was light."Now, post-Darwin, post-Einstein, post-Hawking, the questions multiply like cells and come from every direction: relativity theory, quantum mechanics, neuroscience, genetics, astrophysics ... The "melancholy, long, withdrawing roar" of religion continues and science is, for many, the main entrance to the universe. Though you can refuse to go in, of course. Yeats did, and took to superstition.
In recent times, the great science-poet was Miroslav Holub, a leading Czech immunologist who died in 1998. Often humorous and bleak, he mixed an eastern European deadpan surrealism with medicine, mathematics, philosophy.
more from The Guardian here.
Posted by Morgan Meis at 10:06 AM | Permalink
Comments
The picture looks like the nebula is flipping us off.
Posted by: andy.s | Jul 22, 2008 1:11:08 PM
Haiku of Science
by
Norman Costa, 2008
Science is one of
many ways to understand
nature and ourselves.
Science is two-fold:
It is methodology,
and it is content.
Science as method –
Observe nature carefully.
Record the data.
Science as content –
Gather data into a
body of knowledge.
Understand nature –
Observe, record data, create
a trove of knowledge.
Scientists observe,
collect data, and preserve
knowledge for others.
The basic function
of science is to describe
properties of things.
Posted by: Norman Costa | Jul 22, 2008 7:06:07 PM
For years, the one book of poetry that's remained on my desktop is A Responsibility to Awe by the late Rebecca Elson. She was a Cambridge University astronomer, as well as a remarkable poet. Here's her "The Expanding Universe."
How do they know, he is asking,
He is seven, maybe,
I am telling him how light
Comes to us like water,
Long red waves across the universe,
Everything, all of us,
Flying out from our origins.
And he is listening
As if I were not there,
Then walking back
Into the shadow of the chestnut,
Collecting pink blossoms
In his father's empty shoe.
Posted by: Andrew Dolson | Jul 23, 2008 2:47:56 PM
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