Evolving from the event series of the same name created and hosted by Maria Popova, founder of the website The Marginalian, each essay in this collection focuses on an enchanting facet of science—entropy and dark matter, symmetry and the singularity, octopus intelligence, and the evolution of flowers—and is paired with a poem reflecting its subject by an array of poets, including Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Maya Angelou, Sylvia Plath, Tracy K. Smith, and Marie Howe. Throughout the book are colorful illustrations by artist Ofra Amit. “Poetry and science—individually, but especially together—are instruments for knowing the world more intimately and loving it more deeply,” writes Popova in the introduction. “We need science to help us meet reality on its own terms, and we need poetry to help us broaden and deepen the terms on which we meet ourselves and each other.”
