Plants have no brains
but scientists find
that trees seem to think
and weeds change their mind!
Mimosa we know as a
sensitive weed.
It folds up its leaves
when a threat is perceived.
Repeatedly dropped
on a soft mat of foam
Mimosa stops folding
as foam does no harm.
Days and weeks later
no folding leaves shows
when dropped on soft foam
Mimosa still knows!
Image by Leopictures from Pixabay
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
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
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!
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
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
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
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
