Edited by Dava Sobel

SA Meter April 2021 column.
Illustrations and hand lettering by Melissa Dehner

NOTE: A clerihew is a four-line poetic format invented in 1905 by Edmund Clerihew Bentley, who wrote humorous rhymes about all manner of persons, making frivolous fun of their names. Because Bentley rarely chose scientists as subjects, the author and illustrator seek to fill that gap.