The Sciku Project

no, I’m not surprised—
it takes forever to digest
the horrors of war

by James Penha

In the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, archaeologists have discovered a 1,600-year-old tomb with several mummies inside including one with, unprecedentedly, a papyrus fragment from Homer’s Iliad under the wrappings on the mummy’s abdomen.

The scientists say, “We are currently studying and proposing various hypotheses.”

My sciku offers an explanation of this remarkable find.

Further reading:

‘A passage from Homer’s Iliad has been discovered inside the abdomen of a Roman-era Egyptian mummy’, 2026, Kova, A., Scientific American, available: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/passage-from-homers-iliad-discovered-in-the-abdomen-of-a-roman-era-egyptian-mummy/

‘Archaeologists Unearth a Papyrus Fragment From the ‘Iliad’ Tucked Inside the Wrappings of a 1,600-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy’, 2026, Wexler, E., Smithsonian Magazine, available: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-unearth-a-papyrus-fragment-from-the-iliad-tucked-inside-the-wrappings-of-a-1600-year-old-egyptian-mummy-180988603/

Author bio:

Expat New Yorker James Penha (he/him 🌈) has lived for the past three decades in Indonesia. His story collection  Queer As Folk Tales  was published by Deep Desires Press in October 2025. His chapbook of poems  American Daguerreotypes is available for Kindle.

Penha edits TheNewVerse.News, an online journal of current-events poetry. You can find out more about his poetry on his website https://jamespenha.com and catch up with him on BlueSky @jamespenha.bsky.social

Read more of James’ sciku here.

faster than light
the darkness
within

by Mike Fainzilber

Einstein’s theory of relativity states that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Physicists from Ido Kaminer’s group at the Technion in Israel have now observed that whirlpools in light travel faster than the light wave that forms them within⁽¹⁾. The measurements were made in a custom-modified high-speed electron microscope with a resolution on the order of quadrillionths of a second.

The findings do not negate the theory of relativity, since the ultraspeed vortices are part of the wave geometry and do not have mass or energy. For a layperson’s summary of the discovery see writeup by Michelle Starr in Science-Alert⁽²⁾.

Further reading:

(1) ‘Superluminal correlations in ensembles of optical phase singularities’, 2026, Bucher, T., et al., Nature, available: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10209-z

(2) ‘Physicists Found Something That Can Move Faster Than Light: The Darkness Inside It’, 2026, Starr, M., ScienceAlert, available: https://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-found-something-that-can-move-faster-than-light-the-darkness-inside-it

Author bio:

Mike Fainzilber’s day job is a biologist. He began writing haiku and senryu during the pandemic, and this side effect of COVID-19 has not worn off yet. Editors in his two spheres of activity have been known to suggest that he should best restrict his efforts to the other sphere. Find out more about Mike’s research via his lab’s website and connect with him on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/mfainzilber.bsky.social .

Read more sciku by Mike here.