Poetry And Science

Poetry and Science? But what could be more different? For, science concerns facts, whereas poetry involves feelings. Thus, they seem to represent diametrical opposites, incompatible things. Well, let's see. Undoubtedly, in poetry imagination and originality soar and triumph. They play a central role in creating memorable lines and significant works of art. Now, on the other hand, imagination and originality in Science are much less obvious performers. Instead, accuracy, reliability and repeatability are applauded here as the protagonists. Consider, however, that in reality there is poetry in science and science in poetry. The use of language, for example, constructs a solid bridge between them. Furthermore, such cardinal concepts in physics as space, time, matter, energy; or quarks and atoms, are essentially metaphors. Another fundamental common denominator of poetry and science concerns intuition, hunches and gut feelings, the ability to know or discover something without analytical reasoning. Take, for instance, Johannes Kepler, the great astronomer, who discovered the cosmic laws of planetary motion with a poetic heart and disposition immersed in the music of the spheres. And Isaac Newton's genius, his creative, imaginative mind discovered the laws of motion, and gravitation and calculus, and a science of light wherein the rainbow is enmeshed reverberating in a colorful poetic vision. The greatest scientist of the 20th century, Albert Einstein wrote poetry and was also an accomplished violinist. His Theory of Relativity, a magnificent scientific accomplishment absorbed in stunning originality, which also reveals paramount poetic imagination wherein space and time defy common sense andgravity emerges as geometry. And just as great scientists can be seen as remarkable poets, some outstanding poets reveal themselves as uncommon scientists, too. Goethe, for example, had also contributed to the development of Botany and his Theory of Colors endures as a challenging thesis to Newton's Optics. Another salient example can be found through the work of Allen Edgar Poe, whose "prose poem", Eureka, represents a valid hypothesis of a cyclical universe undergoing cosmic births and destructions.