Tag Archives: science week

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

Who? by Graham Seal

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Now UFOs are UAPs,

can someone please explain 

who was it who decided

UFOs must be renamed?

Of course, I do not have a clue

who might have been that author,

but I have a question for them:

what’s wrong with ‘flying saucer’?

“The Strange Boat Drifted Ashore on the Fief of Lord Ogasawara” from Hyoryu Kishu (Archive of Castaways), Japan, ca. 1868 or before.

Note: Unidentified Flying Objects, or UFOs, are now officially known as Unidentified Aerial (or Anomalous) Phenomena, or UAPs.

We Are The Champions by Dannielle Viera

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Some called us lost from Earth’s great zoo
Extinct beyond a doubt
But we are here to claim our prize
As champs of hiding out

Men sought us over Lord Howe Isle
(And brought their rats as well)
So we jumped ship and hid upon
A stack that spikes the swell

Beneath a tea-tree clinging to
The stark Balls Pyramid
We waited to be found by folks
Before we flipped our lid

It took some eighty years before
Two scientists arrived
But even then they couldn’t see
Our black butts had survived

That night we nosed out from our nook
To let them know we’d won
The longest game of hide-and-seek
Insects had ever run

And now we’d like our trophy, please
We phasmids are for real
If you do not acknowledge us
We’ll give you stick – so deal!

Unpacking The Webb Telescope by Celia Berrell

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First, un-pleat some solar cells
and wag that space antenna tail
to give our telescope some power
for data-sending mail.
Open sides, like two long arms,
then stretch-out layers of silver veils
to make a heat-shield from the Sun.
Too hot, our Webb could fail.
Next, erect the smaller mirror
then a radiator,
before reflective parts hinge wide.
That giant mirror’s locked, both sides,
to make a golden-petal flower
with infra-red its viewing power,
to be an ancient star-locator.
Deepest history translator!

Inspired by animation of deployment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzGLKQ7_KZQ

You can find more poems for Science Week here:

Bright Ideas for Science Week 2023
The Webb Telescope

August is POETRY MONTH and SCIENCE WEEK!

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So much poetry happening this month! Put your pens to paper or fingers to keyboards and get those wonderful words in to us. Funny, lyrical, scientific, out of this world, romantic, serious or silly, we look forward to receiving your poems.

Send them to ozchildrenspoetry@gmail.com