Welcome to The Sciku Project – the latest scientific and mathematical discoveries, thoughts and ideas as scientific haiku.
Latest:
Squishy by Kelly Westhoff
we all started out
by Kelly Westhoff
squishy like a grub before
growing June bug shells
June bugs appear for just a short time each year. Even so, their bulky shells and clumsy movements make quite an impression as they stumble around trying to secure a place in the light.
These scarab beetles might seem like they have a very short life, but in reality their life span can last years. Most of a June bug’s life is spent underground. Once it hatches from the egg, the larva takes the form of a white grub. The grub feeds on roots, descending deeper into the soil when winter comes and rising closer to the surface in warmer months. A June bug grub can spend up to three years feeding in the ground before becoming a pupa and emerging as the awkward adult beetle with the hard, rounded shell that we readily recognize.
Further reading:
‘Pest . . . or snack? June bugs are the ‘croutons of the sky’’, 2021, Manning, P., Dal News, available: https://www.dal.ca/news/2021/05/26/pest——-or-snack–june-bugs-are-the–croutons-of-the-sky-.html
‘June bug’, Encyclopaedia Britannica, available: https://www.britannica.com/animal/June-beetle
Author bio:
Kelly Westhoff loves fitting words into the 5-7-5 format of traditional haiku. For her, haiku is a practice in mindfulness. She enjoys discovering parallels between her life and nature. She lives in Minnesota where the ever-changing seasons are a constantly-renewing source of inspiration. Find more of her haiku on Instagram @KellyWesthoffWrites.
Read more sciku by Kelly: ‘The Sound of a Worm’ and ‘Your Roots’.
Tectonics by John Hawkhead
tectonic plates
by John Hawkhead
she finds faults
everywhere
The Earth’s rigid outer shell (lithosphere) consists of the crust and the upper mantle and is fractured into seven or eight major tectonic plates depending of definition. The boundaries where tectonic plates meet are known a faults or faultlines. Faults tend to be geologically active, causing earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain building and the formation of oceanic trenches. A fault can also mean a mistake or defect in an object…
Further reading:
‘Plate tectonics’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics
Author bio:
John Hawkhead (@haikuhawk.bsky.social) is a writer and artist from the south-west of England. His work has been published globally over the last 25 years, including three books of haiku / senryu: ‘Small Shadows’ and ‘Bone Moon’ (available from Alba Publishing. http://www.albapublishing.com/) and ‘Four Horse Parable’ (available from Nun Prophet Press).
Your Roots by Kelly Westhoff
the soil at your roots
by Kelly Westhoff
determines much of your life
rosy hydrangea
Hydrangea are synonymous with summer. These leafy shrubs filled with profuse balls of blooms grace boulevards, lawns, parks, and patios. Cut hydrangea blooms are also popular in floral arrangements. Hydrangea flowers appear in many colors: white, green, pink, lavender, and blue. Sometimes, one hydrangea bush might boast blooms of two different colors. Hydrangea flowers can even change color, going from white one year to blue the next.
How does this happen?
It all depends on the chemical composition of the soil in which the hydrangea grows–the acidity and the aluminum levels are key. Backyard gardeners have all sorts of home remedies to alter the soil composition under a hydrangea bush and thus change the color of the blooms. Some say a bed of pine needles will do the trick while others believe in burying rusty nails by the roots. The most reliable tactic, however, is to stop in a local garden store, ask the advice of a master gardener, and purchase the specialty fertilizer they suggest.
Further reading:
‘Curious Chemistry Guides Hydrangea Colors’, 2014, Schreiber, H., American Scientist, available: https://www.americanscientist.org/article/curious-chemistry-guides-hydrangea-colors
Author bio:
Kelly Westhoff loves fitting words into the 5-7-5 format of traditional haiku. For her, haiku is a practice in mindfulness. She enjoys discovering parallels between her life and nature. She lives in Minnesota where the ever-changing seasons are a constantly-renewing source of inspiration. Find more of her haiku on Instagram @KellyWesthoffWrites.
Read more sciku by Kelly: ‘The Sound of a Worm’ and ‘Squishy’.
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