Science history haiku

Written for STS 3301.

On narrow interpretations of Francis Bacon

Baconianism:
an army of ants? merely
a side of bacon.

A disclaimer

These haiku are forced.
But everything is forces,
there is no free will.

On Max Planck

Suffering upright,
revolution unasked for,
walk a middle plank.

To the theorists,
blessed are the peacemakers
and the go-betweens.

Planck, from Einstein's perspective

A splendid fellow,
careful incrementalist,
imperialist.

Epitaph on writing about Peter Galison

In which the author
finds himself critical of
an opalescence.

On the American who went to Europe

Augustus Rowland
Elite grating on our nerves
very precisely.

On Bernoulli's disciple

Monsieur Maupertuis
enjoyed a tour of England
brought back some Newton.

On the Forman Thesis

What makes physicists
do the crazy things they do?
Social craziness?

On the engulfing tide of scientific progress

Don't try to fight it.
The scientific progress
will engulf us all.

On history's battles

I will use Kevles
to disagree with Kevles
on US physics.

On isolation

One thing not to do:
Put all your eggs in one basket.
Even if it's Texas.

On why I went to Cornell, my first choice in 1986-1987, to study physics and chemistry

Chemistry textbook,
sidebar on the SSC,
I wanted a role.

On the demise of internationalization of the SSC in 1992

George Bush left us out
of his visit to Japan.
He's too busy barfing.