One Christmas, my aunt Barbara gave me a poetry book. Nestled among the pages of verse was a single haiku. For those as unfamiliar as I was, haiku is a short form of Japanese poetry presented in the West across three lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Haiku are quick to consume, but they linger in the mind. Frequently, they concern the natural world-one famous haiku describes a frog jumping into a pond-so the leap to scientific haiku, or "sciku," is easy. (In fact, author Mary Soon Lee published a periodic table of sciku, with a verse for every element, in the 4 August issue of Science.) Sciku are an easy-to-digest form of public engagement. And I have found that writing sciku can be a form of career therapy, forcing me to view research through a different lens and gain a novel perspective on my own work.