A mosquito was heard to complain -- Dr D D Perrin

Bending the theme rules again...

(Poem #801) A mosquito was heard to complain A mosquito was heard to complain That a chemist had poisoned his brain The cause of his sorrow Was paradichloro Diphenyltrichloroethane. -- Dr D D Perrin

Note: paradichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane - the chemical name for DDT. (Also
  1,1'-(2,2,2-trichloroethylidene) bis(4-chloro)-benzene,
  1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)-ethane and
  p,p'-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane depending on how you look at it.
)

Okay, so it's not by a scientist - or, at any rate, not by a scientist
willing to admit to it. [not quite true; see Ramesh's comment - m].
But no collection of science-related poems would be complete without at
least one limerick - they seem to be one of the most popular forms of
humorous verse around.

Of course, one of the reasons limericks are so popular is that they have a
relatively low entry barrier. Any fool can write a limerick - and,
inevitably, many do. Which means, naturally, that Sturgeon's Law applies in
spades, and a limerick has to be good, funny, clever or all three in order
to stand out.

Today's has achieved a reasonable measure of fame (translation: I'd actually
read it before I thought of the theme <g>), mostly for the clever way it
fits the (long) chemical name of DDT into limerick scansion - though with
some distortion (tri CHLO ro e THANE rather than TRI chloro E thane). Not to
mention the fact that 'chloro' doesn't quite rhyme with 'sorrow' (rhyne,
perhaps). Still, I like it - long chemical names have a lovely flowing
rhythm to them, and they aren't appreciated enough :).

Links:

  We've run one limerick before - it's not a form that really lends itself
  to great poetry <g>: poem #378

  If you'd really like to know about DDT:
    A picture, in living pseudocolour:
      [broken link] http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/CHEM/DDT-st.gif

    Linked to from an extensive fact sheet:
      [broken link] http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts35.html

  The theme so far: Poem #795, poem #797, poem #798, poem #800

-martin