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Poems about the universe: from the sub-atomic level to the cosmic, from bacteria to complex life and exoplanets.
The physicist Richard Feynman challenged poets to step aside from metaphor and capture the stark magnificence of the universe. Spurred to action, James Thornton opened himself to wonders and dived deep into the intricacies of science.
Let his poetry open your eyes.
Complete with an essay on Poetry and Science.
List of contents
Contents
Introduction
Census of deep life
Embodied semantics
Of mice and scorpions
Rumination and forest bathing
A dozen ways to make a living
The future of clouds
The jaguar sometimes bites
Symbiont real estate
Páramos
The apex predator guild
Your inner fish
Tomb blossoms
Long ago and under water
Traumatic matings
Quartet with parasites
The dead fish of Chad
The lodger
Like milkshakes
Hungry daughters
The rolling of the dungball
Head of glass
Fringed with teeth
E.O. Wilson’s favourite ant
Eminent Britons
Aerial wars
Penis Envy
The news about Neanderthals
Conquering Earth
A century of gorging
A bulletin from our branch
Warm wet and quantum
New equilibria
The rules of loss
Spat 1
Chiropterans
Count those lost
Coelacanths among us
Q is for cryptography
Ringdown
The end of time
Too few to fill the sky
Never forget red dwarfs
The biggest star
Cosmonautika
A time will come
By grace of the solar wind
A map of peculiar velocities
About the author
How do you conjure the inner nature of things from bacteria miles below ground all the way to galaxy clusters, and everything in between? How do you make them quiver with life, awaken our own deep intuitions, and do it all in verse? That's the task I set myself in The Feynman Challenge. The poems are spells that open worlds of mystery based on fact. Please see for yourself.
Summary
Poems about the universe: from the sub-atomic level to the cosmic, from bacteria to complex life and exoplanets.
The physicist Richard Feynman challenged poets to step aside from metaphor and capture the stark magnificence of the universe. Spurred to action, James Thornton opened himself to wonders and dived deep into the intricacies of science.
Let his poetry open your eyes.
Complete with an essay on Poetry and Science.
