Origins
There raged a thumping cosmic ballyhoo,
A manic dance – a rumpus to arouse
The universe: of Higgs and W,
Electrons, gluons, muons, Zs and taus…
For centuries poetry and science have been improbable, yet constant, bedfellows. Chaucer was an amateur astronomer; Milton broke bread with Galileo; and, before turning to the arts, Keats was a doctor. Meanwhile, scientific luminaries like Ada Lovelace and James Clerk Maxwell moonlighted as poets, composing verse between experiments and equations.
Following in this tradition, theoretical physicist Joseph Conlon spins a dazzling intergalactic epic. Drawing on his scientific expertise, Conlon reveals the origins of our universe through two long-form poems – ‘Elements’ and ‘Galaxies’. Journeying from the Big Bang to the edges of our ever-expanding cosmos, Origins offers a delightful and revelatory adventure through contemporary physics.
Joseph Conlon is a Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford and a fellow of New College. His research spans particle physics, string theory, cosmology and astrophysics. He is the author of Why String Theory?, a Physics World Book of the Year in 2016, and has authored over seventy scientific papers.