Drooling Electrons: the Poetic Form

What do atoms feel on a molecular level? That's among the concerns of Mala Radhakrishnan PhD ’07 who has intertwined her love of chemistry and her poetic side. Sometimes she even describes chemistry as a soap opera—attraction, loss, perhaps a love triangle?

An assistant professor of biochemistry at Wellesley College, she recently published a book titled Atomic Romances, Molecular Dances. Poem titles include "The Flirt and the Inert," "Bridge Over Troubled H20," and the "Amalgam in the Middle."

Listen to a recent PBS NewsHour segment, “Drooling Electrons, Thermodynamics and Beta Decay ... in Verse,” that profiles her work and hear her read a poem, “The Radioactive Dating Game.”

Radhakrishnan earned her AB in chemistry and physics from Harvard College and her MIT PhD in physical chemistry. She has also taught chemistry at the high school level through the Teach for America program. In fact, she began using artful descriptions of  chemistry to help her high school students understand concepts such as thermodynamics, kinetics, and molecular reactions.

She’s also shared her work as part of the Boston poetry scene, though she acknowledges she’s been typed as the “chemistry poet.”