Tag Archives: Celia Berrell

Brilliantly Dotty! by Celia Berrell

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Quantum just means very small.
A quantity so tiny,
electrons in its atoms will
behave constrained and tidy.

Quantum Dots are very small.
They’re nano-sized or less.
When energized by radiant light,
they vividly fluoresce.

Many modern TV screens
now use such Quantum Dots,
creating glowing hues for scenes
from brightly coloured spots.

Carbon Dots fluoresce in red.
If silkworms on those dots are fed,
they’ll glow in daylight – not in red …
their skin and silk glow PINK instead!

First published in Double Helix #70 magazine by CSIRO Publishing.

Image from Pixabay

Man Made Diary by Celia Berrell

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When did we start
having so much stuff?
To go without
would be cold and tough.

Two-and-a-half
million years ago
a few stone tools
was all we could show.

Three hundred thousand
years before now
we’d arrows and spears
and fire knowhow.

By seventy thousand
an Ice Age had stressed
those poor chilly humans
and made them get dressed!

Image from Pixabay

The Mysterious Marriage of Spacetime by Celia Berrell

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Time’s a kind of mystery,
not made of anything.
We treat it like a measurement.
A time-line piece of string.

But NOW-time can be different,
depending where things are.
We look back over many years
when gazing at a star.

The speed time passes, tick & tock
depends on where things go.
If gravity’s extremely strong
that tick & tock go slow.

Since Einstein showed us Spacetime,
THEN & THERE were surely wed.
And WHEN & WHERE got married too …
and share a Spacetime bed!

Image by dlsd cgl from Pixabay

The Desert Party by Celia Berrell

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It hardly rains
but when it pours
on sleepy desert ground
the speedy changes
to the land
will certainly astound.

A dried-up creek
now overflows
expanding to a lake.
And dormant life-forms
eggs and seeds
immediately awake.

The dry red dirt
transforms into
a carpet made of flowers.
And tiny creatures
start to hatch
within a few short hours.

With decorations
all in place
the waterbirds arrive.
Providing
lots of music.
Now the party’s come alive!

First Published in CSIRO’s Scientriffic #66 2009

Image by G.C. from Pixabay

Recycling Rabbits by Celia Berrell

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Beneath The Forest Floor by Celia Berrell

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Trees talk.
Conifers converse.
So do evergreens ever shut up?
Or do eucalypts evoke?

Do beech and birch trees
blather and babble?
Do pine trees
permanently prattle,
or tall trees
tittle-tattle?

Silently they do,
through fungal threads.

Moist underground,
a tangle of mycelium,
like mushroom wires,
like strands of chemistry,
sends messages,
warnings and nourishment.

From root to root.
From tree to tree
en-route connecting
their own internet community.

Photo from Pixabay

Bold Heart by Celia Berrell

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The Night Sky by Celia Berrell

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Find yourself a place where there’s
no artificial light,
after sunset’s peachy glows
have dwindled into night.

Feast your eyes on darkness
so, your pupils will enlarge,
taking-in night’s wonderment.
A myriad of stars!

Awesome, spacious,
trancing, spinning,
mesmerising lights are bringing
messages of time’s beginning.
Histories of cosmic meaning.

It makes us question why we are,
compared to just one single star.

The more we look,
the more we see
the endlessness.
Infinity.

Image from Pixaby by Nini Kvaratskhelia

Heavenly Jingle Bells by Celia Berrell

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Horses trotting happily while
pulling on a cutter sleigh
was quite a common sight to see
in winter’s north-west USA.

This was the eighteen-fifties, when
Pierpont made his catchy song.
Created for Thanksgiving, then
it stayed ‘til Christmas came along.

New gramophone technology
soon spread this song across the seas.
Now JINGLE BELLS stars frequently
in winter-time festivities.

Two astronauts on Gemini Six,
December nineteen-sixty-five,
with sleigh bells and harmonica
performed this song in space – yes LIVE!

https://www.britannica.com/one-good-fact/what-was-the-first-song-played-in-space

Image from the book CHRISTMASTIME RHYMES

The Raman Effect by Celia Berrell

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(Chandrasekhara Venkarta Raman was born 7 th November 1888)

Chandrasekhara
Raman’s a knight
and Nobel prize-winner
for physics in light.
A new radiation
he came to detect.
A scatter of rays
named “The Raman Effect”.

This change in light’s wavelength
when passing-on through
a gas or some substance
in spectroscope view,
reveals the ID
of its chemistry zoo.
A tool to make
scientist’s dreams come true!

Doing no damage
discerning gem quality;
checking a pill for
content and purity.
Uses: amazingly
varied and rife.
Such as scanning remotely
for Mars signs of life.

For Teachers: The Nobel Prize in Physics 1930 was awarded to Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman “for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him” https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1930/

Photo from Pexels by Barcelos_fotos