Name: Changing Matter by sam.illingworth
Duration: 2 min 8 s
Description: This poem is inspired by recent research, which has found that particulate matter affects both the molecular functions and physical shape of lung cells.

The Science
Climate change is responsible for a wide range of global events, from weather patterns to rising sea levels. This poem deals with the reality of coastal erosion of the East Riding of Yorkshire. It and how protecting one piece of coast adversely affects other areas through increased land loss.

The Poet
Clint Wastling’s poetry has been published widely, including Orbis, Dream Catcher and Marble. Clint has a collection – Layers published by Maytree Press. His novel, The Geology of Desire, is an LGBTQ thriller set around Whitby in the 1980’s and Hull during World War II. He also has a sci-fi novel: Tyrants Rex set 3000 years in the future, both published by Stairwell Books.

East Of Zero by Clint Wastling

The Science

The poem was inspired by a rock I came across in Aberdeen, Scotland, which had a small sign which read ‘Glacial Erratic’. I liked the sound of those two words in combination and ended up writing a couple of poems about it. A glacial erratic is a stone that was transported over a large distance by glacial ice, and ended up far from its original location when the ice melted. A dropstone can be a kind of glacial erratic, but instead of being dropped onto land, a dropstone fell out of a melting iceberg and ended up in the water, becoming embedded in sediment.

The Poet

Hannele Luhtasela is a biologist, editor, photographer, and poet from Helsinki, Finland. They write poetry in English and Swedish, and have a great love for science. One day soon they hope to publish a book of poetry. You can get in touch with them through their website or on Facebook:
http://www.luhtasela.net/
https://www.facebook.com/LuhtaselaPhotography

dropstone by Hannele Luhtasela

The Science
This poem reflects a moment as a medical student, interviewing a patient in the hospital about his sexual history, in order to determine his risk factors for hepatitis. Medical professionalism paradigms historically have dictated that doctors should be objective third parties, entirely devoid of their own identities and experiences in interactions with patients; for me, that means not disclosing my trans and queer identities. When I made the decision to reveal that I, too, was queer to that patient in that moment, I ‘failed; to meet the expectations for me as a medical provider. Yet, that ‘failure’ enabled me to help the patient feel safe bringing his whole self into his medical treatment.
The Poet
Teddy G. Goetz (he/him or they/them) is an overly enthusiastic medical student, writer, photographer, biker, runner, and research dork, with a penchant for cooking without recipes and referencing Audre Lorde, Donna Haraway, and Buffy. His goal (as both an artist and a doctor-in-training) is to help people feel seen. His prior training includes an MS in transgender hormone therapy and BS in biochemistry and gender studies, focusing on interdisciplinary scientific research informed by individual embodied experiences. More of his recent poetry and photography publications can be found at teddygoetz.com.

Community by Teddy G. Goetz

The Science:
Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian friar and biologist, who studied at the University of Vienna and served at St. Thomas' Abbey in Brno. He devoted himself to studying the methods of genetic inheritance via experiments on pea plants in the abbey's garden. He discovered inheritance’s basic foundations, including the equal passing down of genes from both parents, as well as recessive traits that could be masked in one generation but reappear inthe next. In this poem, Mendel reflects on some of his experiments and discoveries, while interweaving them with insights from his faith.

The Poet
Angie Lo is an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto, currently studying English and Physiology. She enjoys reading and writing poetry in her spare time (Shakespeare, Herbertand Rossetti are some of her favourites), and performing her pieces at various arts events. She is honoured to be a part of ​Consilience ​for the first time, and hopes to continue exploring the intersection between literature and the sciences. Connect with her via email at15angielo@gmail.com​.

Mendel's Prayer by Angie Lo

In this episode you meet Sam Illingworth, Associate Professor in Academic Practice at Edinburgh Napier University, who tells us more about his work and view on science communication.

His research revolves around developing dialogue between scientists and nonscientists and in particular giving voice to those audiences that have been traditionally under heard and underserved by science and science communication.

Sam Illingworth sees poetry as a powerful tool to develop a two way dialogue. He writes poems about  scientific studies in his blog The Poetry of Science to communicate research to a non-scientific audience.

He writes poetry about science

This poem is inspired by recent research, which has found that particulate matter affects both the molecular functions and physical shape of lung cells.

Changing Matter

The Science:
The poem deals with uncertainty about sea level rise due to the thermal expansion of the oceans and ice sheets melting in Antarctica. Eveline Pye wrote this poem with the hope of engaging her local community, encouraging them to look at the rapidly changing flood maps for their area which are predicting much higher probabilities of flooding as a result of sea rise and global warming. She adds: "I haven't gone into the science in any detail in the poem as I wanted it to be completely accessible."

To read this poem, go to: https://www.consilience-journal.com/issue-2

"Displaced" by Eveline Pye

The science:
The poem pokes at the lack of scientific grounding behind common economic theories, focusing particularly on the concept of "Rational Economic Man", an imaginary 'agent' who interacts within economic systems and theories in a manner perfectly imagined by the economist.

The Invention of Rational Economic Man by Ali Al-Jamri

The science:
Waxcaps are grassland fungi of the genus Hygrocybe. They are so-called because their caps look shiny or waxy and, being brightly coloured, they are sometimes known as grassland gems.   Their habitat is declining because they only grow on permanent pasture that has not been disturbed or compacted, nor ‘improved’ with fertiliser or herbicide. Nowadays they seem to favour sloping land as it is less likely to be intensively farmed.  Waxcaps are the fruiting bodies of a much larger network of minute tubes or 'mycelium' within the soil. The fungal fruiting bodies only emerge above ground for a relatively short time in the Autumn.  Research suggests that they prefer areas with some briophytes with which they may have a beneficial relationship.  The word bias seemed appropriate to me because of the threading mycelia underground and it seemed appropriate to carry the other sense of the word in the fungi’s preference for left-alone meadows and slopes.

Witches’ Hats and Ballerinas by Rebecca Gethin

The Science:
Maria Skłodowska Curie did not know about the destructive effects of radioactivity on the body and routinely interacted with her samples. She died of leukaemia as a result. She also fought bias against women in science (and antisemitism, and Poles) for almost her whole life.

Radioactive Skłodowska
by Ruth Aylett

My cookery book
still too hot to hold,
my papers in a lead box.

I gave you the word
for the real but unseen,
penetrating the body;

irradiating mine from
the test tubes in my pocket,
the glow in my desk drawer.

Never mere to myself,
but for them - that woman, 
irreligious, too clever by half,

and much too Polish;
until dead 
with poisoned blood,

when they made me an icon.
But give me my full name:
Maria Skłodowska Curie.

Radioactive Skłodowska by Ruth Aylett

The Science:
Sara ‘Saartije’ Baartman (ca. 1789 –1815) was an enslaved Southern African woman exhibited in European freakshows under the name Hottentot Venus. After living in poverty for most of her life, she was sold to an animal trainer. On Baartman’s death, her body was dissected by ‘scientists’ keen to validate racial stereotypes, and displayed in a Paris museum. Her brain, genitalia and skeleton were not buried in her homeland until 2002.

Hottentot Speaks by Jenny Mitchell

Hi! I'm an academic whose work is dedicated to making science more accessible to diverse audiences via the medium of poetry.

Changing Matter

sam.illingworth

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