Friday, September 26, 2008

Wordsworth? Amateur.

As one with universalist propensities, I thought it was time that we united the worlds of the arts and sciences by celebrating some of our leading physicists with some carefully crafted verse. Please feel free to add to this list. The form need not be the Clerihew, but it is preferred. There will be a prize. The winner will get to visit Dave's blog.


Peter Ware Higgs

Was thrown out of his digs
Bosonic conviction
Could not prevent his eviction.

Steven Weinberg of Berkeley
Was looked upon darkly
When his standard model
Turned out to be twaddle.

Abdus Salam
Wanted to create an alarm
But his electro-weak theory
Was nothing but dreary

Sheldon Lee Glashow
Is pronounced I know not how
Of leptons and quarks he would sing
But cared very little for the idea of superstring.

Robert J Van de Graaff
Thought it quite a laugh
To build a generator,
But thought better of it later.

Hendrik Antoon Lorentz
Was quite sure that light bends
The transformation equations he derived in Dutch
Will never really amount to much.

Sir John Bertram Adams KBE FRS
Was responsible for yet another mess
He designed the Super Proton Synchrotron
About which he went on and on.

Richard Q Twiss
Gave playing football a miss
Quantum interference gave him renown
Along with his mate Robert Hanbury-Brown

Robert Brout
Worked quite a lot out
He conjectured a field
A theory what Higgs later stealed.

Cecilia Jarlskog
Had a thought whilst on the bog
Her theories were unified and grand
But got completely out of hand.

18 comments:

garfer said...

Robert Oppenheimer
Wasn't much of a rhymer
He split an atom or three
Whilst out of his tree.

Romeo Morningwood said...

Poor old Albert Einstein
tossin back his beer stein

I'm a genius from Germany
rappin'bout relativity
intellectual property
transitional probability
electrof*ckinmagnicity
mass energy equivalency
wicking the capillary
Riemannian geometry
constant cosmologically
solar spectroscopicly
deflecting gravitationally
Wilson Lick observatory
unified field theory
zionist in 33
retired in university
person of the century
dats da skinny on my history

Peace Out
*kiss

Dave said...

I know nothing about science. Grand prize though.

Vicus Scurra said...

Garfer. Quick off the mark, there, like a particle in a collider.
Donn. You are the man. I just hope your brilliance has not deterred others. You blizzled my mizzle.
Dave. Your honesty about your ignorance is refreshing. Have you decorated in anticipation of your visitor? He may be from overseas.

KAZ said...

Niels Bohr was a Dane
who lived up to his name
Though his Quantum theory
was excessively dreary
For the atom bomb he takes the blame.

Couldn't think of a rhyme for Max Planck (HA HA)

Vicus Scurra said...

Kaz. I had the same problem with Matlock Tucker.

Richard said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Richard said...

I'll do it right this time.

Poor young Stephen Hawking
Had given up talking and walking
So wrote a book that was very good
But unfortunately it was by nobody understood

FirstNations said...

Our lad Steven Tyler
posited the radical evanescent remiler
oh wait that was Steven Hawking
and I made up the evanescent remiler

Dave said...

Ash was the science officer in the Alien film.
An android - played by Ian Holm.
He got torn in half.
It made Ripley laugh.

Vicus Scurra said...

firstnations. I will have to be strict about the level of veracity in the verses.
Dave. It looks unlikely that you will be the prizewinner. You are probably in the best position to know what a lucky escape that has been.

I, Like The View said...

noamchomsky
knows a thingortwo (aboutgrammar)
(but doesheknow about quarks)
(&dareIask?)

(-:

(written in the style of ee cummings)(in case you were wondering)

I, Like The View said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
I, Like The View said...

I'll do it right this time

I've read the instructions now and realise it's a science competition. . .

in 1921
Edwin Powell Hubble
trained a telescope on some stars
like our sun

in 1923
he decided it was
in fact
a galaxy

Andromeda,
the first observation of which
was in 964 CE
by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi


(not much rhymes with Andromeda or al-Sufi)

Richard said...

Just a little correction, btw. Jarlskog, I think, is pronounced "Yarlskoy". If you were to apply the same rule to "bog" as in your rhyme the whole thing takes on a completely different hue.

Vicus Scurra said...

Richard. I know Different Hugh very well.

Vicus Scurra said...

I am compelled to declare Snoop Donny Donn the winner of this competition. Dave, have some traditional Norfolk dishes ready for him.

Romeo Morningwood said...

On behalf of everyone here at the massive Escapeon Foundation, I humbly accept this honour and proceeds from the award will go to the future Physicist, currently residing in my abode, who is saving up for a Hadron Collider of his own.