Yield! This photo shows the familiar red and white triangle of a yield sign, in the context of driving/traffic. In a lab context, the actual yield is the amount of a given chemical product you’ve obtained; the theoretical yield is what you could have obtained if the experiment went perfectly; the percent yield gives you a comparison of the two (by taking actual yield divided by theoretical yield and converting to a percentage). Evaluating all three types of yield would be common when completing a lab procedure.

After your lab,
When the data you wield,
Consider your calcs
And evaluate…

The structural formula: lending
A newfound depiction, augmenting
Compound’s connectivity
Through visual proclivity;
First step t’ward 3-D orienting.

#NaPoWriMo #SciencePoetry #Limericks
#ChemicalFormulas #StructuralFormula

Molecular formula’s mission
For compound: precise definition
Of the atoms involved.
(Sans, though, structure resolved!)
Exact chemical composition.

#NaPoWriMo #SciencePoetry #Limericks
#ChemicalFormulas #MolecularFormula

Denote compound’s key data, clerical,
In ratio set whole-numerical:
Relationship simple
For chemical symbols,
The formula known as empirical.

#NaPoWriMo #SciencePoetry #Limericks
#ChemicalFormulas #EmpiricalFormula

Two-weeks-plus of new attempts drafted,
With chem into poems adapted:
The rhyming routine
Takes its shape on the screen,
As April marks halfway point “passèd.”

#NaPoWriMo #SciencePoetry #Limericks

Approaching the term’s affirmation
Of seniors’ accomplished elation…
Lab cylinder’s code
Is a useful spring mode:
Through measured steps, reach graduation!

#NaPoWriMo #Limericks
#SciencePoetry #GraduatedCylinder

The metals denoted transition
Will occupy bridging position
Betwixt the groups main
That the Table contains
In elements’ chart-recognition.

#NaPoWriMo #SciencePoetry #Limericks
#TransitionMetals #PeriodicTableOfTheElements

Draft-revision forms, eclectic:
Underdrawings deemed authentic;
Pentimenti palimpsestic;
Process stories, most aesthetic.

#NaPoWriMo #ChemistryInArt #PaintingLayers

This photo shows an array of simple cyanotype prints, with their characteristic deep blue contrasting with lighter images of flowers and ferns, created via stencil. It is impossible not to think of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” when my classes complete these lab activities, and so it was nice to find inspiration for a limerick to highlight that link.

Cyanotype-themed in its topic,
Lab notes photochemical logic
With stencils and sun.
Once process is done,
Find prints themed in blue, most rhapsodic!

#NaPoWriMo #Limericks #ChemistryInArt #Cyanotypes #Gershwin

I learned the vocab term “crepuscular rays” relatively recently for the specific scattering effect seen when sunbeams pass through clouds; such rays are more subtle in this photo than others I’ve taken, but some can be seen at the top. “Crepuscular” comes from the Latin for “twilight” (crepusculum)… and it is a descriptor that fits well into a limerick’s rhythm!

Note light’s seeming-tangible scattering;
A sunset, ostensibly “matter-ing”;
Crepuscular rays
In these long-evening days,
With twilight depictions most flattering.

#NaPoWriMo #LimerickSunday

A small bird sits in a tree, silhouetted against the sky of the early dawn. The moon is still visible in the sky.

Post week-and-a-half trip’s duration
Of lunar and space exploration…
To Artemis 2:
Welcome back, valiant crew,
With over-the-moon exultation!

#NaPoWriMo #SciencePoetry #Limericks #Artemis

Two roles, both chem-crucial, aligned here,
In artistic combo’s reminder;
Blend a bright-vivid tint
With an adhesive’s stint:
A paint is a pigment plus binder.

#NaPoWriMo #SciencePoetry #Limericks
#ChemistryInArt #PaintComposition

In blue’s lapis-lazuli fashion,
A natural pigment’s duration;
Now ultramarine
As synthetic, too, seen—
From beyond-the-sea inspiration.

#NaPoWriMo #SciencePoetry #Limericks
#ChemistryInArt #UltramarineBlue #Pigments

Equilibrium! This photo shows what looks like a set of half-headed arrows written on chalk on the sidewalk: one pointing backward and the other forward, one on top of the other. In Intro Chemistry terms, this is typically read as an indication of chemical equilibrium: the forward and backward directions of the reaction are balancing one another. At the end of a busy spring semester, it can be a reasonable goal to achieve metaphorical equilibrium, as well!

A most helpful late-spring-term idiom,
With chalk-on-the-sidewalk as medium.
New resolve, activate;
Peace of mind, cultivate,
As we aim to regain….

A chem-in-art term: hue-degrading;
Intent of the artist, evading.
The “fugitive pigment”
As putative figment,
With color scheme, speedily fading.

#NaPoWriMo #SciencePoetry #Limericks
#ChemistryInArt #FugitivePigment

Today’s early-April notation:
A moment of chem-contemplation.
Past efforts, perennial,
Reach sesquicentennial,
In STEM-centered spring celebration!

#NaPoWriMo #SciencePoetry #Limericks
#AmericanChemicalSociety #ACS150

Some flowers in sharp focus against a blurry background of tree branches and spring blossoms.

Beneath the term’s frantic veneering,
Find spring: fundamental, endearing.
New-long daylight hours;
Return of the flowers:
The wonders routine, reappearing.

#NaPoWriMo

This photo shows a sign for a road named “VESPER WAY.” This is both the name for the road and the punchline of the poem. VSEPR (valence-shell electron-pair repulsion) theory, typically pronounced "vesper theory," is a first step toward more complex depictions of three-dimensional molecular geometries in Introductory Chemistry courses. One key idea underlying VSEPR theory is that “electron regions will repel.” (Obviously, this poem takes many shortcuts to achieve a reasonable rhyme scheme!)

“A first step t’ward
Molecular depictions,”
Chem profs say.
“Electron regions
Will repel!”
This is the…

The Table for chem settings formative
(With info, analyses normative),
Routine here oft frequents
In early-spring sequence:
Its hist’ry and themes tend exhortative!

#NaPoWriMo #Limericks #SciencePoetry
#PeriodicTableOfTheElements

This poetic form ever-thrifty,
With rhyme scheme predictable-nifty,
Here yields jubilant frame
Via element’s name:
Tin-tinnabulation! Post fifty!

#FiftiethPost #Tin #AtomicNumber50
#NaPoWriMo #Limericks #SciencePoetry

An April routine starts anew, here;
Five lines and their rhyme scheme will do, here.
Eighth time at routine
Of the verse-science mien:
Thus, chem-themed “octet” to ensue, here.

#NaPoWriMo #EighthAttempt
#Limericks #SciencePoetry

A red cardinal is barely visible behind several tree branches on a winter afternoon.

Whose tree this is I think I know.
He hides past yonder branches though.

#StoppingByWoods #Frost

Paper, paper, everywhere,
And all the desk space shrinks;
Paper, paper, everywhere,
Awaiting pen and ink.

#EndOfAutumnSemester #RimeOfTheGradingProfessor

A Chem Week verse, from Scarborough four--
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme--
Theme varies slightly given the score,
For Mole Day mention, via quick rhyme.

#NationalChemistryWeek #MoleDay #ACS_NCW
#TheHiddenLifeOfSpices #AndHerbs

A science-art phrase diagnostic
Will center a compound base-caustic;
Attention un-wavers
On limelight’s behavior,
As trips the light koniaphostic.

chemphasis.com/2025/10/08/l...

#Limelight #SciArt #Limericks #SciencePoetry

A great blue heron stands in a nearby creek.

A great blue heron spreads its wings while standing in rushing waters.

Observed in a day’s late through-farin’;
Impressive, a bird’s state (due sharin’):
With water-rush weathered
In stature quite feathered,
A sudden surprise… great blue heron!

#LimerickSunday

A small red cardinal is visible in the center of trees in the midst of a rainstorm. (This limerick takes poetic license in alluding to Hooke’s Law, used in physical science to define the movement of a spring via a “spring constant,” to reference the reliably back-and-forth nature of the changes in May’s spring weather.)

Blue skies are already visible on the opposite horizon, reinforcing the theme of dramatic weather changes as a constant aspect of this season. (This limerick takes poetic license in alluding to Hooke’s Law, used in physical science to define the movement of a spring via a “spring constant,” to reference the reliably back-and-forth nature of the changes in May’s spring weather.)

A cardinal’s hue, vivid-winging
As rainstorm sets branches to swinging;
Soon, blue skies aplenty
On day one-and-twenty
In back-and-forth-steps of May’s springing.

#SpringConstants #Limericks

To celebrate day metrologic
With global theme, STEM-philosophic,
This May marks attention
To Metre Convention
As sesquicentennial topic!

#WorldMetrologyDay #Limericks

Merits May Fourth an ode systematic
To far galaxy’s guide enigmatic,
Whose shifts anastrophic
With themes philosophic
Will invert lines to fame cinematic.

#LimerickSunday #Yoda
#MayThe4thBeWithYou

The month’s new-complete contribution
Re: concepts, reactions, allusions;
A break from spring’s stressing:
Chem-terms, verse-addressing,
In welcome routine’s resolution.

#NaPoWriMo #Limericks #NaPoWriMo2025