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Our second Picture-Book Poetry Party was at Rydges Tradewinds Resort, 137 Esplanade, Cairns on Sunday 9^th October from 2-3pm. It’s like Book Week meets National Science Week … with a poetic twist!

This year’s feature author was Trudie Trewin with her picture-book Calpepper’s Place. As well as hearing an accomplished published author read some of their own work, we had the opportunity to learn aspects of Trudie’s writing journey as well.

Bringing your own Picture-Book entitled you to go into the draw for a book voucher from Collins Booksellers Smithfield.

This FREE event of Storytelling and Science Rhymes happened during World Space Week. Students from Whitfield State School recited their poems about Flight and Trinity Anglican School students shared their passions for Space and our Solar System. It’s was a cosmic event!

You can:

• View photos of this year’s event & poems here: poetry-party-2016
• View photos of last year’s event & poems here: Poetry Party 2015
• Download a PDF of the 2016 poster here:  Poetry Party Poster 2016

Hosted by Science Rhymes & Rydges Tradewinds, we plan to do it all again next year!

Please email celia@sciencerhymes.com.au to confirm your attendance and/or ask any questions about the next event.

For a while there, I imagined I was famous!

Talking with Rob Farquhar about some of the milestones that led to a modest income from my literary passions was a great honour. Rob is a fellow writer and accomplished Paid To Play Podcast host. If you have time, please check it out HERE. I hope we connect along the way – through topics including wild flowers and sci-fi writers, to the life-changing empowerment afforded by a health scare.

Informally, this is the tenth anniversary of my poetic journey which became Science Rhymes.  There’s always a present for you on the Science Rhymes website! My appreciation goes to the network and support received from talented friends and associates of many ages. And the necessary bravery and enjoyment for this interview process was thanks to my participation with Mt Sheridan Toastmasters Club.

PAID TO PLAY PODCAST: Celia Berrell, Science Poet: Episode 92

Can you write a poem about FLIGHT?  It could be about birds, insects, the freedom of flying, aircraft or even spacecraft.  To help you get inspired and in a slightly scientific mood, here are two 10 minute presentations combining science, poetry and pictures.  The Science & Poetry of Flight 1 is a PDF about FLIGHT IN NATURE.  The Science & Poetry of Flight 2 is a PDF about MAN-MADE FLIGHT.  These presentations were part of a Poetry Club project at Whitfield State School in Cairns, for Year 5 and Year 6 students.  We are now creating a collection of poems about FLIGHT and invite you to take part to help us celebrate National Science Week (13-21 August)!

This year, National Science Week has chosen to feature the technology breakthroughs we are experiencing with drones, droids and robots. Science Rhymes is focusing on fantastic flight in all its forms. So here are some links (many include videos) about drones – to fire you up and help you choose your own flight of fancy!  My favourite video is Loon Copter :)

1. Drone crashes into Empire State Building in New York http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35525702
2. Learn to be a Drone Pilot at a training school in the UK http://www.suasnews.com/2016/02/41765/
3. Loon Copter flies, floats and swims! http://www.suasnews.com/2016/02/looncopter-wins-us-1-million-in-dubai/
4. MegaKopter lifts over 60kg http://gizmodo.com/giant-voltron-drone-lifts-134-pounds-for-a-new-world-re-1754062725
5. TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson advertises Amazon’s proposed fast delivery by drone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXo_d6tNWuY
6. Can we really make a drone that’s the size of a drone (bee)?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6e8e0HR5pE
7. Solar-powered sea-floating drones can hunt in packs, looking for submarines: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2083345-submarine-hunting-drones-take-off-and-land-on-water-vertically/
8. CBS News has a collection of articles about drones: from drone-racing sports, to drones being more of a hazard than a help. http://www.cbsnews.com/drones/
9. Dutch Police train birds (hawks) to remove hazardous drones from their skies! http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-02/eagles-vs-drones-dutch-police-train-birds-to-take-down-uavs/7132096
10. Snot-Bot is helping save the whales: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3197623/Could-snotbots-save-whales-Drones-collect-mucus-sprayed-cetaceans-blowholes-hint-stress-levels.html
11. Drones will be used in Australia to help fight fires and other disasters: https://www.nsw.gov.au/news-and-events/news/drones-to-assist-firefighters-in-emergencies/

Celia Berrell’s Science Rhymes is quietly collecting book reviews! It is a great honour to receive a positive review, because someone took time to read this book and then compose a thoughtful response. A big “thank you” to all those reviewers! If you ever have the time to share your own comments or review about this book, or the Science Rhymes website, they will be most graciously received.

The latest book review is by school student Leo Marland. It appears in Issue #7 of CSIRO’s Double Helix Magazine. Congratulations Leo on having your kind words printed in this fantastic publication!

In 2015 school student Harmonie Larsen’s review was published in the Cairns Post newspaper’s “Post-Ed” section. Harmonie has a selection of science poems on this website (including the first guest blog about the Mangrove Army).

You can purchase the hard-copy version of Celia Berrell’s Science Rhymes on-line from Harley’s Educational or in-store at Collins Booksellers, Smithfield. The Kindle eBook version is available through Amazon.

A fellow poet from USA, Kevin D Taylor (author of The Cosmic Oddball) gave the first Science Rhymes review, providing fatherly approval and encouragement for author and reader alike.

Do you care about the ecosystem? I do! My name is Harmonie Larsen and I am the “founder” of the Mangrove Army. This is an organization that takes care of mangroves by looking out for illegally removed and damaged mangroves.

We are ordinary people with a difference – we care. We want to help out however we can. We want to get Mother Nature back on her feet, and we are doing this because we can.

You can join the Mangrove Army by sending in a report about a damaged mangrove, a bare bank or someone illegally removing mangroves. The Mangrove Army does not require payment to be a member, just commitment to keeping a lookout for damage to our ecosystem.

Mangrove Army  by Harmonie Larsen

Long, winding branches reach for the sky
Like tall spindly animals stretching their necks
Mangroves that sway with the slightest of breeze;
these are the trees that we try to protect.

We need a group that will strive to defend
These beautiful, perfect and delicate trees
For they are important, they’re crucially vital
They are the plants that everyone needs.

So the Mangrove Army must work to protect
These trees that are so important for all
They protects our animals and cover our banks
We need your help – so answer the call …

Harmonie presenting her Mangrove Army concept to an audience at James Cook University in 2015

We used to think space and time were two separate things … until Albert Einstein challenged our common sense with his Theories of Special Relativity and General Relativity. He declared space and time are inseparable, creating a four-dimensional “fabric” made from three dimensions of space, and a fourth dimension of time.

Einstein gave us his Theory of General Relativity in 1915, but it has taken decades to prove his theories about space-time. Back in 2007, NASA’s satellite Gravity Probe B showed that the Earth really does distort the fabric of space-time.

Imagine the Earth is a big marble, sitting on a rubber sheet (representing four dimensions of space-time). The Earth-marble’s mass makes the stretchy fabric sag in the middle. A smaller Moon-marble trundling by, gets drawn towards the lower parts of the space-time fabric. Instead of travelling straight past, it curves into an orbit round the Earth. But imagining is not the same as proving. That takes clever tests and measurements.

So what happens to this space-time fabric when the Earth is spinning? Einstein suggested this would cause GRAVITATIONAL WAVES, little ripples in the space-time fabric. Well, last September we found one! It’s only recently been announced as scientists had to carefully check their data first.

They discovered a series of eight gravity waves (caused by two huge black holes spinning around and into each other) by using lasers and mirrors at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. LIGO is a system of two specialised telescopes. Instead of detecting light, they detect gravity waves. One of LIGO’s detectors is in Louisiana, the other in Washington USA.

Scientists and Einstein fans know that LIGO’s gravitational wave proof is a fantastic milestone for science. And will probably lead to new technologies, as well as enriching our understanding of the universe.

To celebrate poetically, here’s Gravity Waves and a link to The Gravity Poem by Cassy Lawrence with a video, courtesy of HSE Docs UK.

Gravity Waves by Celia Berrell
(Einstein’s right again)

Time and space
like warp and weft
of cosmic fabric set adrift
should bend for mass
by theory
of General Relativity.

Laser beams
at LIGO’s base
have captured
distance changing pace.
A travelled length
in altered time
means gravity gave us a sign!

So LIGO’s proved
how gravity
(that force of massive
mystery)
can kink and ripple
space-time’s shawl.

A wave to Einstein’s know-it-all!

The Mahabharata is the longest known epic poem, written in Sanskrit around 400 BCE. In Indian culture, it is a revered text of historical and philosophical importance. Associate Professor Sukarma Thareja of CSJM Kanpur University, India, suggests our understanding of thermodynamics is no less significant than a work such as the Mahabharata.

Specialising in Physical Chemistry research, she is a fellow advocate of sharing science through poetry and visual arts. We are delighted to feature her free-verse poem and accompanying road-mind-map collage image and invite you to take Sukarma’s poetical journey into the world of thermodynamics.

(to view an enlarged version of Sukarma’s road-mind-map, click: corr Thm coll)

Thermodynamics  by Sukarma Rani Thareja

Thermodynamics is all about
Flow of heat, into and out of system
As it undergoes physical/chemical transformations.
Thermodynamics lets us know; if particular
physical/chemical changes can occur
Under a given set of conditions.

In thermodynamics, there are three laws empirical.
One must learn all
To become an innovative physical chemist.
Boundary and surroundings are environment of system.
A diathermal boundary-wall provides no insulation (to system);
Adiabatic process won’t allow heat to flow in or out (of system).

Three thermodynamic principles
Are source of my inspiration
As a student of chemistry.
Understanding them is my passion
Since I have to learn them on my own
Therefore I need to make clear
Road-mind-map of these principles.

Where does heat energy move?
Heat energy is always moving towards a state.
Concept of state we can’t abbreviate.
When two systems are in contact
And the temperature of one (system)
Is uniform and same to connected system
Thermal equilibrium is said to be attained by two systems.
When the state variables have constant values throughout (the system)
Thermodynamic equilibrium is said to be attained (by the system).

First law of thermodynamics determines internal energy (of system)
By taking difference between heat and work (of system)
Thermodynamics attempts to explain by its second law
Why energy always moves from high to low.
Why are we not able to reverse the flow?
There is increase in randomness: entropy
Is answer to this important query.
Zero is the total change in entropy (of system)
Plus surrounding: for a reversible system.
But can we do work against increase in entropy?
Yes. But in doing so, we put a drain on some energy.

As scientists, we are looking towards perfect model.
Value of entropy is zero at Absolute Zero for a perfect crystal
But with finite number of steps
We can’t reach Absolute Zero – a temperature which is so magical
This is what the laws of thermodynamics tell us.

Finally, it seems we have reached our goal
Recollecting – learning three laws – empirical
by making mental-map-road.
Was that as easy as it looked before?
This masterpiece on thermodynamics
This literary humble poem, by Sukarma Thareja
May not be as worthy as epics of Mahabharta.
But it is surely no less than
The epic struggle of Bhisham Pitahma in Mahabharta.

You can now enjoy browsing through the photos and poems from our afternoon of poetry recitals by local student authors by clicking on the blue writing below:

Poetry Party 2015

Poems & Picture-Book stories for your enjoyment.

(for a PDF version of this poster, click here: Picture Bk & Poetry Party poster A4)

We have two talented Picture-Book author/illustrators sharing their stories!

Cairns-based author Diane Finlay published “The Duck With No Quack” in 2006. It is about a duckling called Oswald who seems to have lost his quack.  His Mama sets off in search of Oswad’s quack while her babies are having an afternoon nap.

Mena Creek artist Jacque Duffy published a series of children’s books starting with “That’s Not A House” after Cyclone Larry devastated her home near Innisfail. She will be sharing her latest book, “The Bear Said Please”.  A very hungry bear looks everywhere for his favourite food. He learns how to find it and the best way to get it.

Bring your favourite picture book to the event, so we can photograph them together and see which ones rock.

We will be at the Poolside Patio, Rydges Tradewinds Hotel, 137 Esplanade, Cairns.  Storytelling and Poetry recitals will be from 2pm to 3pm.

This event is a great opportunity for young poets and future authors to meet with well-established writers with a question-time session after the presentations.

Hosted by Science Rhymes poet Celia Berrell, with generous support from Rydges Tradewinds Hotel.

Please email celia@sciencerhymes.com.au to confirm your attendance and /or ask any questions about the event.

The Science & Poetry of Light – growing brighter

Click on the blue writing above to download a visually rich 32 page (3MB) presentation of poems and science concepts about light, which takes about 12 minutes to read.  It is the culmination of a three month project, between Science Rhymes author Celia Berrell & Whitfield State School students (9-11yrs), to share the science of light which inspired them the most.  We hope you enjoy it!