There raged a thumping cosmic ballyhoo,

A manic dance - a rumpus to arouse

The universe: of Higgs and W,

Electrons, gluons, muons, Zs and taus...

For centuries poetry and science have been improbable, yet constant, bedfellows. Chaucer was an amateur astronomer; Milton broke bread with Galileo; and, before turning to the arts, Keats was a doctor. Meanwhile, scientific luminaries like Ada Lovelace and James Clerk Maxwell moonlighted as poets, composing verse between experiments and equations.

Following in this tradition, theoretical physicist Joseph Conlon spins a dazzling intergalactic epic. Drawing on his scientific expertise, Conlon reveals the origins of our universe through two long-form poems - 'Elements' and 'Galaxies'. Journeying from the Big Bang to the edges of our ever-expanding cosmos, Origins offers a delightful and revelatory adventure through contemporary physics.

A poetic odyssey through the origins of the universe from one of Britain's leading physicists.

About the Author

Joseph Conlon is a Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford and a fellow of New College. His research spans particle physics, string theory, cosmology and astrophysics. He is the author of Why String Theory?, a Physics World Book of the Year in 2016, and has authored over seventy scientific papers.

Reviews

'Brilliant, "restructuring the known existing facts", to make this admirable, entertaining, attractive account of the origin of the Universe.' - Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell

'The universe is intrinsically poetic, but rarely does someone with expert credentials endeavor to describe it in that mode. Joseph Conlon's two extended poems offer a glimpse into the workings of the universe in galloping verse rich with imagery.' -Sean Carroll, author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe

'Joe Conlon is a marvel. His subject - the origin of the universe and our efforts to comprehend it - is vaster and stranger than anything in English poetry. But these fizzy, nonchalantly rhymed, eminently readable poems are also a masterclass in simile. Rhyming "fun" with "Eddington" and comparing the expansion of space to a sourdough starter, "Elements" and "Galaxies" will tell you about the structure of a hydrogen atom, various intriguing characters in the history of modern physics, and why galaxies' quantum origins ("rough seas of storm-tossed noise") might resemble Twitter.' -Hannah Sullivan, T. S. Eliot Prize-winning author of Three Poems

Book Information
ISBN 9780861549115
Author Joseph Conlon
Format Paperback
Page Count 160
Imprint Oneworld Publications
Publisher Oneworld Publications
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 12mm