Origins: The Cosmos in Verse

by Joseph Conlon

A poetic odyssey through the origins of the universe from one of Britain’s leading physicists.There raged a thumping cosmic ballyhoo, A manic dance – a rumpus to arouse The of Higgs and W, Electrons, gluons, muons, Zs and taus… For centuries, poetry and science have been improbable, yet constant, bedfellows. Chaucer was an amateur astronomer; Milton broke bread with Galileo; and before turning to the arts Keats was a doctor. Meanwhile, scientific luminaries like Ada Lovelace and James Clerk Maxwell moonlighted as poets, composing verse between experiments and equations. Following in this tradition, theoretical physicist Joseph Conlon spins a dazzling intergalactic epic. Drawing on his own scientific expertise, Conlon reveals the origins of our universe, through two long-form poems – ‘The Elements’ and ‘The Galaxies’. Journeying from the Big Bang to the edges of our ever-expanding universe, Origins offers a witty and revelatory adventure through contemporary physics.

144 pages, Paperback

Published December 3, 2024

About the author

Joseph Conlon is professor of theoretical physics at the University of Oxford and a teaching fellow of New College, where he has been since 2012. His scientific research ranges across string theory, particle physics, cosmology and astrophysics and his 75 scientific papers include foundational contributions to these subjects.

He was a three-times British junior chess champion; a precocious childhood led to him finishing his first mathematics degree at 18, done part-time along schoolwork.

Along with his physics research, he seeks to communicate the transcendently deep and beautiful ideas of physics in the language they deserve. He is the author of Why String Theory? (CRC, 2015), a defense of the broad and enduring intellectual value of string theory, and the upcoming Origins (Oneworld, 2024), a verse account of the early universe.

Photo credit Philippa Sims.