Out there

London Underground is celebrating 350 years of the Royal Society with six poems reflecting on scientific thought and the changes it has wrought, from the Victorian lament for lost certainty to the loneliness of a gas molecule.

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Out There

Commentary

Blue moons can sometimes be seen – when ash particles of just the right size from volcanoes or forest fires are in the atmosphere. They are rare, but not unknown. And what about green dogs? New York dogs on St Patrick’s Day? Funky music? Or is it an allusion to sun dogs and green flashes, both of which can be seen? Certainly space, beyond a few solid lumps like the Earth, is very empty, and atoms and molecules can go for hundreds of years before encountering another. It makes you wonder how chemistry (which needs atoms or molecules to get together) ever happened in space – but there’s a patience in the Universe and time to play with.

Beyond the Earth space is hostile to human life, and dangerous. For space missions to be safe all on board have to abide by the rules, sacrificing some freedoms and individuality. Humanity now has some experience of being in space, but it’s limited to a few people and short missions. The rest of us can only guess and try to imagine what it might be like – aided in exploration by poems like this.

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, FRS

Poems on the Underground