The First Poem Published in a Scientific Journal

An ode to the ocean’s bioluminescent marvels.

Image courtesy of the J. Woodland Hastings Lab, Harvard University

We’ve already seen science as a muse of painting, music, sculpture, and design. In 2001, the poetic muse struck Smith College life sciences professor and clock researcher Mary E. Harrington who, smitten by the circadian rhythms of the bioluminescent algae Gonyaulax polyedra, penned a poem about these whimsical organisms. It appeared on the pages of the June 2001 issue of the Journal of Biological Rhythms and is considered the first poem to be published in a strictly scientific journal. (I discovered it through a passing mention in the excellent Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You’re So Tired.)

If the lazy dinoflagellate

should lay abed

refuse to photosynthesize,

realize:

the clock will not slow

but it will grow fait

weaker

weaker

barely whispering at the end

”rise”

”rise”

to little effect.

The recalcitrant Gonyaulax

arms crossed

snorts

“No longer will

they call my life

(my life!)

‘just hands’.

I am sticking to the sea bed!”

ORIGINAL: Brain Pickings

by Maria Popova

The First Poem Published in a Scientific Journal

An ode to the ocean’s bioluminescent marvels.

Image courtesy of the J. Woodland Hastings Lab, Harvard University

We’ve already seen science as a muse of painting, music, sculpture, and design. In 2001, the poetic muse struck Smith College life sciences professor and clock researcher Mary E. Harrington who, smitten by the circadian rhythms of the bioluminescent algae Gonyaulax polyedra, penned a poem about these whimsical organisms. It appeared on the pages of the June 2001 issue of the Journal of Biological Rhythms and is considered the first poem to be published in a strictly scientific journal. (I discovered it through a passing mention in the excellent Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You’re So Tired.)

If the lazy dinoflagellate

should lay abed

refuse to photosynthesize,

realize:

the clock will not slow

but it will grow fait

weaker

weaker

barely whispering at the end

”rise”

”rise”

to little effect.

The recalcitrant Gonyaulax

arms crossed

snorts

“No longer will

they call my life

(my life!)

‘just hands’.

I am sticking to the sea bed!”

ORIGINAL: Brain Pickings

by Maria Popova

New Science Journal to Launch

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, publisher of the journal Science, announces plans for a new digital open-access publication, Science Advances.

 

ELIZA GRINNELL, HARVARD SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCES

At the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago today (February 12), the organization announced the launch of its newest journal, a broadly focused, online-only publication called Science Advances. The journal will be fully open access, with authors paying article processing fees for publication, and will cover topics from life science to the social sciences to technology, engineering, and mathematics.

“This new publication is designed to encourage transformative research and attract a wide readership,” Science Editor-in-Chief Marcia McNutt said in a press release. “Science is becoming more integrated and interdisciplinary. This is why we decided to establish a single new journal with the broadest possible array of outstanding content, encompassing all fields of science.”

Science Advances is expected to debut next year. Manuscripts submitted to Science, Science Translational Medicine, or Science Signaling that receive favorable reviews will be automatically considered for publication in the new journal. “The goal is to speed publication, alleviate the burden on the reviewer community, and reduce the risk to authors of having to resubmit elsewhere,” McNutt and Alan Leshner, the association’s chief executive officer and executive publisher of Science, wrote in an editorial published this week.

“Since the mid-1990s, technology has posed new challenges for traditional scholarly publications, but it is also creating new opportunities, particularly for online collaboration among researchers,” Leshner said in a statement. “Our new journal will expand authors’ choices as well as the amount of scientific information that reaches the public.”

Tags technology, STEM, science publishing, publishing, open access publishing, open access, mathematics and bioengineering



ORIGINAL: The Scientist

By Jef Akst

February 12, 2014