Variations On Mr Tompkins: 1. Stupefied 2. Mr Velikovsky Poem by Margaret Alice

1. Alice Stupefied

In Merlin’s workroom Alice saw
nuclear particles of a quantum
material leak through obstacles:
Merlin had a model of a volcano
representing the repulsive force
surrounding an atomic nucleus;
when Merlin flipped a ball up the
slope, not hard enough to reach
the top, it disappeared half-way
up, saw the wide-eyed Alice;
then the ball re-appeared in the
middle of the slope and rolled
down again: radioactive alpha-
decay, said Merlin; Alice’s eyes
growing wider still; the quantum-
oak barrier is a repulsive electric
force - could be so dense particles
would escape only after billions of
years, such as in the nucleus of
uranium - Alice was stupefied by
all she saw…

2. Mr Velikovsky

When Alice woke up she
enjoyed tea with the Mad
Hatter and then ran off to
visit Mr Velikovsky, the author
of Worlds in Collision – he
explained to the curious Alice
that Venus could have been
circling Jupiter and then was
thrown out of orbit, destabilising
earth long ago; exploding
supernovae might have caused
the earth to move on its axis;
the earth’s rotation was once
in an upright position and
it was nearer to the sun;
the days were longer,
there was a permanent
cloud cover and people’s
lives seemed to be longer
also – Alice was quite
overcome on hearing
all these wonderful
things!



Based on “Mr Tompkins in Paperback”, George Gamow