Tag: Molecule

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Surface Tension by John Hawkhead

surface tension
she dips a toe
into my silence

by John Hawkhead

Surface tension is the tendency of at-rest liquid surfaces to shrink into the minimum surface area possible. This allows objects with higher density than water to float on its surface without becoming submerged.

Surface tension results from the greater attraction of liquid molecules to each other (cohesion) than to air molecules (adhesion).

Further reading:

‘Surface tension’, Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_tension

Author bio:

John Hawkhead (@HawkheadJohn) has been writing haiku and illustrating for over 25 years. His work has been published all over the world and he has won a number of haiku competitions. John’s books of haiku and senryu, ‘Small Shadows’ and ‘Bone Moon’, are now available from Alba Publishing (http://www.albapublishing.com/).

Enjoyed John’s sciku? Check out more of his sciku here: ‘Dark matter’, ‘Chirality’, ‘Spooky Interaction’, ‘Dancing’, ‘Planetarium’, ‘Empty Space’, ‘Averages’, ‘New Beginning’, ‘Interactions’, and ‘Shell Game’.

This sciku was previous published in Human/Kind: A Journal of Topical and Contemporary Japanese Short-forms and Art, issue 1:1, p14.

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Chirality by John Hawkhead

chiral molecules
we cannot superimpose
cis/trans isomers

By John Hawkhead

In chemistry, a molecule or ion is called chiral if it cannot be superposed on its mirror image by any combination of rotations and translations. This geometric property is called chirality.  In Latin, “cis” means “on this side,” while “trans” means “on the other side.

In gender terms ‘cis’ means the gender you identify with matches the sex assigned to you at birth. Trans (gender) is when your gender identity differs from the sex on your birth certificate.

Further reading: Organic Chemistry: Chirality

John Hawkhead (@HawkheadJohn) has been writing haiku and illustrating for over 25 years. His work has been published all over the world and he has won a number of haiku competitions. John’s books of haiku and senryu, ‘Small Shadows’ and ‘Bone Moon’, are now available from Alba Publishing (http://www.albapublishing.com/).

Enjoyed John’s sciku? Check out more of his sciku here: ‘Dark matter’, ‘Spooky Interaction’, ‘Planetarium’, ‘Dancing’, ‘Empty Space’, ‘Averages’, ‘New Beginning’, ‘Interactions’, ‘Surface Tension’, and ‘Shell Game’.