Science? Poetry.
Poetry can be valuable to scientists. Contrary to portrayals in books and other media, science is not just beakers, radiation, and whiteboards covered in equations. One of the most important parts of science is interpreting the data you have obtained, especially when the correct interpretation is hidden or non-intuitive. This is where poetry comes in. Poetry is likewise something that seldom has an obvious meaning, oftentimes requiring analysis and a great deal of thought to comprehend. This
Another important point is that the "hard sciences" (physics, chemistry, earth science, sometimes biology) is far from the full extent of science. Science also includes disciplines like anthropology, linguistics, psychology, sociology, and economics. Here, poetry has a more immediate connection. Linguistics is probably the most obvious, as poems are fundamentally things of language. Poetry can also provide psychological and sociological insight because poems reflect onto the psychology and society of the poem's author.
Science is more than a borosilicate beaker.
Poetry is not only for the English major.
Perhaps to a scientist, this rhyme
might give an insight sublime.
Another important point is that the "hard sciences" (physics, chemistry, earth science, sometimes biology) is far from the full extent of science. Science also includes disciplines like anthropology, linguistics, psychology, sociology, and economics. Here, poetry has a more immediate connection. Linguistics is probably the most obvious, as poems are fundamentally things of language. Poetry can also provide psychological and sociological insight because poems reflect onto the psychology and society of the poem's author.
Science is more than a borosilicate beaker.
Poetry is not only for the English major.
Perhaps to a scientist, this rhyme
might give an insight sublime.
This is an interesting description of some different ways science and poetry collide. I appreciated the small poem at the bottom.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of science as being in depth and reading into numbers and things. I always saw it as a multiple choice quiz that you'll likely get a 3 on and wondered why you were up till 4 AM trying to study for it. This blogpost was very enlighting, good job dude!
ReplyDeleteRobert,
ReplyDeleteI like the way that you connected science with poetry in a very practical sense. It's a very logical approach, yet it also makes the reader think a lot about their own experiences with science and poetry. The poem at the end is a nice touch!
I liked how practical the contents of this blog post is even to my life. I thought that science and poetry are separate and will always be that way, but your post showed me that both poetry and science are fundamentally grounded in the same practice of interpreting the ambiguous or obscure. This helped me shift my perspective on this issue. Good post
ReplyDeleteRobert,
ReplyDeleteThis was an excellent post regarding the very nature of science. As someone who loves biology, I often find myself using critical thinking skills learned in English. Great work!
I really appreciate the connections that you were able to make throughout this post. As people have commented, you provided practical examples of scenarios where poetry and science do indeed share a significant connection. Moreover, I enjoyed reading the poem you included at the end! It was an excellent way to round out your post. Great work!
ReplyDeleteYou found an interesting similarity between science and poetry that I never noticed. Although it seems like science and poetry are polar opposites in many respects, you have shown that reading poetry and conducting basic involve the same interpretive process. In this way, they are very closely related.
ReplyDeleteI always forget that science doesn't just mean physics and chemistry, and that it also includes subjects like psychology and linguistics. It was a really good idea to bring this up, because psychology and linguistics have a way more clear connection to poetry than the "hard sciences". But you also did a great job at pointing out how the hard sciences can be related to poetry, which I probably never would have thought of. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteI like your focus on the importance of intuition in both science and poetry, and on the numerous sciences that are less "hard." Cool little poem at the end. (I had to look up "borosilicate.")
ReplyDelete