The universe in verse : 15 portals to wonder through science & poetry
Publication Information
North Adams, MA : Storey Publishing, [2024]
Physical Description
95 pages : color illustrations ; 21 cm
Summary
"Poetry and science, as Popova writes in her introduction, "are instruments for knowing the world more intimately and loving it more deeply." In 15 short essays on subjects ranging from the mystery of dark matter and the infinity of pi to the resilience of trees and the intelligence of octopuses, Popova tells the stories of scientific searching and discovery. Each essay is paired with a poem reflecting its subject by poets ranging from Emily Dickinson, W. H. Auden, and Edna St. Vincent Millay to Maya Angelou, Diane Ackerman, and Tracy K. Smith"--
Contents
- Poetry, science, and the cosmos of the possible
- The singularity and our elemental belonging
- Singularity (after Stephen Hawking) / Flowers and the birth of ecology
- [Bloom] / Entropy and the art of alternative endings
- The more loving one / Henrietta Leavitt, Edwin Hubble, and our hunger to know the universe
- From My God, it's full of stars / Dark matter and our yearning for light
- Let there always be light (searching for dark matter) / Emmy Noether, symmetry, and the hidden order of things
- Figures of thought / Trees and the optimism of resilience
- Optimism / Pi and the seductions of infinity
- Pi / Euclid and the dazzling beauty of universal truth
- Euclid alone has looked on beauty bare / Radioactivity and the mystery of matter
- Power / The octopus and the unknown
- Impossible blues / This mote of matter
- A brave and startling truth / The search for life
- We are listening / Mushrooms and the creative spirit
- Mushrooms / Singularity squared
- Singularity (after Marie Howe)