Nine leading poets have written original poems in response to Royal Institution Discourses given by nine leading scientists. In 1808, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, at Humphrey Davy's urging, gave a series of hugely popular lectures at the Ri on 'Principles of Poetry'. In 2001, the Ri's Poet in Residence Jo Shapcott commissioned fellowpoets to create new poems to address the extraordinary contemporary scientific research revealed in the famous Friday night public Discourses. Subjects include scar-free healing in alligators, environmental prediction and turbulence, and the viability of artificial life. There is an ode to a transgenic pig, Dan Dare at the Cosmos Ballroom coping with the cryptic self-assembly of matter, and a poem that revels in the invention of new colours. Then there are poems dedicated to the latest research into the role of ion channels in the release of insulin for the better understanding of diabetes, the success of engineers in stabilising the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Big Ben, and the design of new materials, 'from metals with a memory to brilliant light-emitting solids'.The anthology demonstrates how vigorously current scientific research informs the world we live in, not just materially but as a rich source for imaginative speculation and the invention of ingenious new scenarios and metaphorical languages. The Poetry Archive has produced a CD of the poets reading their poems as a companion to the book. Scientists: Frances Ashcroft, Philip Ball, Margaret A. Boden, John Burland, Mark Ferguson, Colin Humphreys, Julian Hunt, Sheila McLean, Tom McLeish Poets: Michael Donaghy, Lavinia Greenlaw, David Harsent, John Hartley Williams, W.N. Herbert, John Kinsella, Ruth Padel, Jo Shapcott, Matthew Sweeney.