Welcome to The Sciku Project – the latest scientific and mathematical discoveries, thoughts and ideas as scientific haiku.
Latest:
Librocubicularist by James Penha
no, I’m not surprised—
by James Penha
it takes forever to digest
the horrors of war
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
The Darkness Within by Mike Fainzilber
faster than light
by Mike Fainzilber
the darkness
within
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 .
Canopy Anyone? by James Penha
the orangutans
by James Penha
will finally cross that bridge
when they come to it
Two years ago, conservationists in North Sumatra, Indonesia built a rope bridge in the jungle canopy hoping that orangutans whose habitat had been truncated by a busy highway would learn to use the bridge and so safely travel throughout their habitat. The Sumatran Orangutan Society set up a time lapse camera awaiting the first simian pontist to dare to cross. In April, they recorded it!
Further reading:
‘Cries of delight’ as Sumatran orangutan filmed using canopy bridge to cross road for first time, 2026, Tomkins, I., The Guardian, available: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/25/first-footage-endangered-sumatran-orangutan-using-canopy-bridge-cross-road-hope-species-aoe?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
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
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