International Year of the Periodic Table

#IYPT2019

Element Limerick Competition Results

1869 is considered the birth of the Periodic Table of Elements. 2019 is the 150th anniversary of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements and has therefore been proclaimed the “International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements (IYPT2019)” by the United Nations General Assembly and UNESCO.

To celebrate this the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC) held an element-themed limerick competition. The competition was open to chemistry and poetry enthusiasts of all ages. We got so many excellent entries – thank you all for participating!

1st Prize $300 and a copy of Scientific Sleuthing

2nd Prize $200 and a copy of Scientific Sleuthing

3rd Prize $100 and a copy of Scientific Sleuthing

Entries were assessed on:

Originality and creativity
Accuracy of the chemistry featured in the limerick
Composition, including rhythm and rhyme

Prize Winners

First prize	Anna Greaney	The element Bromine - B - r A brown liquid you'll find in a jar To distinguish between An alkane and alkene Orange to colourless - ta da!
Second prize	David Perl	A hydrogen all on its own has a wavefunction, perfectly known. But combined with another, as Erwin discovered, a solution just can't be shown.
Third prize	Delene Holm	“It’s better to give than receive” said hydrogen, aiming to please. “My electron is yours. Please take it because I’m positive after it leaves.”
Highly commended	Bernard Harris	Rutherford inspired Geiger to toil, “Shoot some alpha at thin gold foil.” The nucleus revealed, Plum pudding form repealed, To our favourite son we are loyal.
Highly commended	Richard Capenhurst	The Curies – Marie and Pierre In science a well known pair But safety’s ho hum handling Curium Which is why they began losing their hair.
Highly commended	David Goodwin	Hydrogen's a gas that goes pop, But small test tubes can be quite a flop, When collected en masse, It's an explosive gas, And likely to bring in the cops.

Other Entries

A. Brooke	I once knew an unusual grasshopper, who was made entirely of copper. He jumped so high, that he touched the sky, and on the way down he came a cropper
A. Brooke	There once was a woman of zinc who in the sun never turned pink. She was hearty and hale, And drank ginger-ale, Her complexion would make you blink.
A. Brooke	There once was a man made from tin, who grew surprisingly thin. It made him so light, that in a terrible fright, he fell in the garbage bin.
A. Brooke	There once was a funny old man, who thought “I’ll see if I can drink arsenic neat till it reaches my feet!” Alas, for a terrible plan…
Amy Brooke	There once was a bright lad called Jim whose parents were quite fond of him. alas, the poor child, growing exceedingly wild licked lead paint and grew rather dim.
Amy Brooke	I shine with a tungsten-like glow - as silver or gold do below - you can look far and wide but in darkness I hide I’m phosphorus, as you well know!
Amy Brooke	Have carbon and oxygen, each an old friend truly combined for a dubious end? Or have they I wonder like lightning and thunder some sort of timely message to send?
Amy Brooke	My poor brain is tired, and they say magnesium is needed each day as my nerves are quite shredded with this notion embedded I’ll keep woolly thinking at bay.
Amy Brooke	There once was a young boy called Jim who, so very able learnt the periodic table at one sitting - just on a whim.
Amy Brooke	I’d like to fly high like a kite with helium, as high as I might but alas, as you see I’m not quite lead-free so I don’t think I’m ready for flight!
Amy Brooke	Potassium please! said my heart fruit and veggies will make a good start, if you’re not eating well it’s not hard to tell you and I are destined to part.
Andrea Mascarenhas	Helium is element two Discovered in space first, who knew? You are so gassy It's just so classy That our voice goes squeaky, it’s true!
Andrea Mascarenhas	Krypton you are a noble gas You’re a rare one on earth to pass You’re not reactive Some go inactive That being Superman, alas!
Bernard Harris	We used to do plumbing with lead But folks kept on falling down dead, It seems much more proper, To make pipes of copper And put lead in batteries instead.
Bernard Harris	You’ve all heard of the element: krypton? It’s not the one Superman tripped on. That’s krypton-ite, A fictional blight Which weakens that Marvel-lous icon.
Bernard Harris	Claiming our sustainable dream, Small carbon footprints are our theme. “But,” said Fed Farmers, “Lest it should harm us, Ban the Emissions Trading Scheme.
Brayden Carr	I have a box of manganese My friend Yan can speak Chinese Yan drank mercury and later died If I said mercury was magnetic I would've lied His corpse was put into a cryogenic chamber and he would freeze
Brayden Carr	I had a spoonful of bromine It was quite irritating So please don’t inhale it in It’s way more toxic than yttrium But at least it’s not chlorine
Brayden Carr	There was an old man who ate some Lead Surely he’d soon be dead He felt hyperactive But he’d decided to be inactive That’s all that he’d had said
Brian Wilkins	There's not much to see in an orbital But the faithful believe it's all logical Whatever we think With a nod and a wink They tell us it's just philosophical
Chris Allen	To ignore Group One Would be utterly wrong Cos after they’ve glowed, They’ll always explode So your lessons never last too long
Chris Allen	An old man addicted to caffeine, tried swapping his coffee for chlorine, He turned deathly white, and felt utterly shite, So tomorrow he’s changing to fluorine
Claudia Beal	There once was a man called Sadium Who had a great big Cranium He worked away And needless to say He managed to create titanium
Colin Ogle	When about to take to the podium 'Twas apparent I'd had too much sodium My arteries had hardened From speaking I was pardoned And the fright gave me need for immodium!
Colin Ogle	Hydrogen you're a powerful gas, With oh so very little mass. Though not coloured green, You burn so clean, Handled poorly all is gone, alas!
Colin Ogle	Hydrogen you're a powerful gas, No, not the kind we think is crass. You're clean and green, And can power a machine. But let you slip out....kaboom! Alas!
Colin Ogle	Some say you cause catastrophic pollution That surely will end human evolution But Carbon you are everywhere, In earth, the sea, up in the air. And so in your cycle we seek a solution.
D. Brooke	A ride on a coppery yak costs a nickel, and her silvery hairs they do tickle. The golden sun laughs, at her mercurial path, and her sulfurous wind makes me sick-ill.
David Goodwin	Oxygen's an element with sass, 32 is its atomic mass, It combusts rather freely, A liquid that tealy, And a reactive, colourless gas.
David Perl	[please note, stanza 1 of this limerick won the second prize] A hydrogen all on its own has a wavefunction, perfectly known. But combined with another, as Erwin discovered, a solution just can't be shown. Nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, are formed in the centres of stars from nuclei smashed together by gravity's pressure 'til all the light elements are gone. Those four are what life's mostly based on but they aren't quite enough just on their own. To truly be prosperous, life also needs phosphorus in esters in DNA's backbone. After a few billion years some hominids came to appear and for ages they didn't define what's 'an element' until one Antione Lavoisier. Soon the known elements trebled, but no one was ever quite able to make a good system to arrange the list, then Mendelev came up with his table. A burner created by Bunsen (the very same guy who had found the element caesium) couldn't make heat to the point where it would melt some tungsten. Neon is a noble gas, inertness almost unsurpassed, but right next door in spot number nine's fluorine, so careful for which one you ask! Haber and Bosch made ammonia for bombs, over iron or osmium, but we realised it could be fertiliser so now I can grow my begonias. After nineteen twenty-two we saw there was much work to do: though Hafnium's stable, since then we've been able to create some unstable ones too. There was a chemist named Wittig, desiring some nucleophilic attack by a carbon and that was a hard one so he formed a phosphonium ylid. Akira Suzuki was struggling to perform a carbon cross-coupling, but palladium and base put a smile on his face, and he gained a Nobel for his puzzling. These chemicals, we've come to know 'em, and this year's the year that we show 'em: what we see here today, in some kind of way, is that elements wrote us this poem.
Delene Holm	There once were grey atoms of iron who wanted some colours to try on. They lost all their sheen Turned rust or soft green when changing from atoms to ions.
Delene Holm	There once was a boy from NZ who made pots and pans out of lead. He grew very strong But didn’t last long When he sickened and ended up dead (he should have studied chemistry)
Delene Holm	“My red-brown is better than yours” said Copper to Silver “because no other’s like me you’re all grey you see which makes you no better than bores.” Said Silver to Copper “It’s true, But what happens when I couple with you? Your reddish-brown colour will quickly turn duller and make you become very blue.”
E. Brooke	There was an old horse called tin, he went for a ride on a pin, He found some metal, as soft as a petal… …that metal was sodium.
Ethan Woolly	Oxygen is needed to breathe Without it you’ll be down on your knees Not in a fun way But in utter dismay Choking, gasping, aggrieved
Ethan Woolly	Lithium and sodium is a salt Mixing water and Potassium was my fault I didn't read the enchantment Now there is fire in the apartment That's what I get for joining a cult.
Ethan Woolly	Tungsten is a trickery fellow Perhaps because it's symbol is W (said double y'all) Known as Wolfram for the Germans But I'm a little uncertain Of the speed of a unladed swallow
Ethan Woolly	Near the end is Element one two one, Being so large Isn't very fun It's hypothetical you see In the proposed island of stability I doubt we could make a ton.
Ethan Woolly	Helium is lighter than air Fly without a care Don't use hydrogen to float It's flammable you dope! Your Hindenburg within the year
Gary McSweeney	Here on Earth we tend to think Carbon Is better to make humans than Argon. Superman said “Pardon “ As he didn’t like Carbon “Why don’t you all try Krypton ?”
Georgie Snelder	There was a young man called Della Mente Who by chance discovered the element Unfortunate for him, It was done on a whim So now he is sadly irrelevant
Ian Thomas	Always eating his food far too quickly, Ate Carbon to feel much less sickly. Now full of gas, He’s a pain in the ass And wobbles from side to side fickly
Jenna Davison and Amy Hay	There once was a chemist called Dimitri Whose love for science ran deeply He organised the table Then started to label And changed science completely
Joel Cornelio	I tripped on a stone back in Sweden With elements this stone was laden Some lanthanides, it all made sense With sharp lines of fluorescence Now their chromatography, oh what a burden!
Joel Cornelio	In Scotland, we were drunk and messy Seeing crimson flames, turned us fussy Burn in water, burn in air This one’s got no flair That was Strontium, trying to be Nessie!
Joel Cornelio	I loaned electrons from the manganese bank Only seven I could take, they were frank Return the seven, at least five Or Sir Permanganate would oxidise me alive Took only two away, yet manganese shrank
Joel Cornelio	Life is difficult, if you’re always greedy Lady Fluorine, for one electron she was needy Even glass blew his stopper Until she passivated copper They’re a couple now, opened a bar, very seedy.
Johnnie Fraser	There was a young man who was asanine, He tried to gather up all the Astatine, There isn’t much in the earth Which has a massive girth So it was rather an utter waste-of-time.
Joshua Plieger	Caesium was kinda aloof Her friend hydrogen was a goof He gave her some water I'm Sure That Has Got Her And Boom he was out on the roof
Karen Lyons	There was a French Man named Lavoisier Who said, “there’s something odd in the air, Forget your Phlogiston, it’s all down to oxygen. Combustion is really extraordinaire.
Rose Thompson	Dimitri Mendeleev one day, Created what we know today, Hydrogen first, Plutonium worst, The table of elements display.
Ryan Tait	Magnesium Beryllium Bromine Chlorine Vanadium
Sam Currie	The beautiful princess Elizabeth Had palaces built out of Bismuth Their fine iridescence Exalted her presence And left the king all in a tiz-muth
Sam McIntyre	A typical day of Chemistry Outreach It begins with the spectacular cauldron of fire, With colourful flames, and sparkles to admire. Red from strontium, With glittery magnesium, A dazzling display guaranteed to inspire. A super-saturated solution, of sodium acetate, Is the perfect way, to challenge a mate. To build a stalagmite, Both tall, and white. A simple, yet exothermic, trihydrate. How about, the red cabbage indicator, An experiment, that can be tried later. With household acid and base, And, a smile on their face A young scientist, becomes, a painter. Now it’s time to make a mess Some crosslinking chemistry, take a guess Slime you say. Borax and PVA, Never anything, short of success. It finishes up with liquid Nitrogen, The wart removing, cryogen. A long white fountain cloud, Never fails to please a crowd But, nothing beats, a teddy bear explosion!
Sarah Masters	There was an element called sodium That wanted to be on the podium It tried very hard But still ran like lard And the prize went instead to rhodium
Shane Telfer	There was a young man from Massey Who thought himself quite sassy But he tried a reaction With too much potassium And the flaming lab was not classy. Had he learnt his lesson, you wonder But the store still had plenty to plunder Ammonia and iodine when combined Is not an elixir for mankind But awakes the gods with its thunder
Sienna Garrick	There are one-hundred and eighteen elements which were discovered with lots of intelligence First came hydrogen then along came nitrogen and the rest we could call irrelevant
Sophie Palmer	Out in the sun with my zinc I realized it was pink I put it on my nose and toes My skin went rose To the doctor is best I think
Sue Frost	There was a young man called Tom, Who liked to eat Boron, He ate it night, With all his might, And now he’s a total moron
Tristan Riley	Take a deep breath of oxygen Next inhale invisible phlostigen. Only two mice and myself Have inhaled from the beehive shelf Pure air may become fashionable again
W. Brooke	There once was an old man called Brian, who thought he had muscles of iron until he was told, they were actually gold! That metallic old man known as Brian.
W. Brooke	I’ve heard of a man known as phosphorus who dreamt he was beautifully lustrous. Until he awoke, and went up in smoke, That flammable man known as phosphorus.
W. Brooke	I knew of a man made from tin Who was quite incredibly dim. Until he met radon, who said he’d been rained on, That extremely dim man made from tin.
W. Brooke	A girl I knew once smelt of sulphur, she was a most talented golfer. When she hit the ball, it flew over them all, That girl golfer whose perfume was sulphur.

NZ Institute of Chemistry