Life With LUCA by Celia Berrell

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LUCA is the Last Universal Common Ancestor

We don’t know how it started:
this awesome life on Earth.
Were muddy ponds or thermal vents
the source of all our births?

Life is so incredible
and beautiful as well.
Growing many Earthly forms
from LUCA’s lovely cell.

And when our Earth eventually dies
engulfed by ageing Sun,
five billion years or so from now,
will ALL of life be gone?

Or should we plan a rocket-launch
of microbes to the stars
and set life’s cycle off again
on planets wide and far?

Image from Pixabay

Puzzling Poppies by Celia Berrell

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How can those poppies
with flimsy-thin petals
blaze in bright red?
The answer’s now settled.

With three layers of cells
for light to shine through,
the mid-layer is colourless,
leaving just two.

Their red-pigment cells
are packed in a muddle,
shaped like the pieces in
jig-saw puzzles.

With red hues so dense
and gaps in odd ways,
those bobbing field poppies
can dazzle our gaze.

In response to November prompt Remembrance Day

Inspired by https://www.zmescience.com/science/poppy-color-petal-structure-2463625341/
‘How poppy petals create striking colors despite being thinner than your skin’

Science Questions Everything by Norah Colvin

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An infinity of questions

To ignite imaginations

To wonder

How and what and why

And where it all began

First observations

Then explorations

Sought answers

To these central questions

Posed by curiosity

Behold –

A single singularity

Big bang!

That’s where it all began

From one united infinity

Now diverse plurality

A myriad variety

Evolving

Throughout history

A complicated tapestry

Including all

The large and small

Everything and

You and me

Questing for elucidation

Clearing any obfuscation

Defying myths

And superstition

Disproving pseudo- explanations

Based on weak interrogation

Of the vast enormity

Of the universe miscellany

Engaging disputation

Sparks

Research investigation

Inspires ingenuity

Seeks understanding, clarity

Until with evidence

Reveals

The mysteries no longer sealed

No longer fraught with

Trepidation due to

Ignorant misperception

For Science and discovery

Unveils what is

For all to see