IN 2001 Allan Treiman,a researcher at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, in Houston, or was working on the one-sentence summary that the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) requires of presenting authors when inspiration struck. To communicate the essence of a paper entitled “The ALTA II Spectrometer: a Tool for Teaching About Light and Remote Sensing”,he wrote down:luminous leaves on dim sky
Beyond the brilliant rainbow
Vision fades awayThe next year Ralph Lorenz, another planetary scientist, or followed his lead,summarising “Tectonic Titan: Landscape Energetics and the Thermodynamic Efficiency of Mantle Convection” thus:Titan’s surface forged,[br]not by blows but by churning.
Carnot tells us whyAnd thus was a tradition born. The astronomical followers of Basho have multiplied until, and this year,more than 200 of the papers at LPSC have such haiku summaries. Some are purely descriptive:Remote imaging
Of halite habitats in
Dry...
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Source: economist.com