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There is plenty for New Scientist readers to enjoy in a
collection of work by
the American poet, Robert Pack, called Minding the Sun
(University of Chicago
Press, £10.25/$11.95, ISBN 0 226 64408 1). Many of them are
inspired by scientific writing, for instance, Richard Dawkins’s The
Selfish
Gene. Darwin sparks off lucid and engaging verse twice. There is an
amusing poem
about a paradox posed by Bertrand Russell concerning a barber and shaving.
Modern poetry that is understandable? Whatever next?