If You Think Physics is Just for Grownups, Think Again

When it comes to the tiny particles that make up our universe, do you think you know more than a seven-year-old? 

You might — if you’ve been reading the Meet the Universe! children’s book series authored by Assistant Professor of Physics Eve Vavagiakis, a cosmologist who studies the remnants of the Big Bang and builds telescope cameras with an unprecedented ability to measure the oldest light in the Universe.

Vavagiakis’ interest in science began as young child, reading books about animal species and weather phenomena. 

But children’s books about physics? The study of how the universe works? Those were harder to come by. Afterall, how would someone write a children’s book about tiny particles that children can’t see or touch, like a bird in the sky or snow on the ground? 

Evidently in rhyming stanzas, according to Vavagiakis. 

“I’ve always written little poems,” she said. “They just kind of fall out of my head.”

As a graduate student in a particle physics class, Vavagiakis wrote a poem about a neutrino. She sent the poem to her mother, a visual artist, who thought it would make an adorable children's book with “little neutrino characters.”  

Vavagiakis and her mother got to work and created a fully illustrated draft, which in 2022 became her first book “I'm a Neutrino,” followed by “I’m a Black Hole” in 2024. 

This month, Vavagiakis’ third book, “I’m a Photon” hits shelves as part of her series introducing young readers to the study of physics — specifically, particle physics and astronomy — through playful language and illustrations. 

“I was insistent on rhyming language because I think the cutesiness offsets some of the heaviness of the topic,” she said. 

But writing non-fiction children’s books that stay entirely accurate about complex scientific concepts, all while using fun, palatable, rhyming language is no small feat. 

“I realized, gosh, I need to summarize properties of physical and astrophysical concepts with six words that rhyme?” 

Vavagiakis would spend hours deciding which word to use, conscientious of making the text approachable for young readers while staying consistent with physical truth. “Should I say mass? Should I say density? Should I say compact?”

“Would you like to know how I fly by so fast? 
I weigh nothing at all! I do not have mass.
So if you and I find ourselves in a race, 
as hard as you try, you will not match my pace,”

declare a group of neon-glowing photons, each shaped like a little ghost swooping across the page.

Rhyme and word choice weren’t the only literary devices Vavagiakis used to draw in young readers. She also thought about narration and point of view, giving voice to the particles and allowing them to speak as characters with a first-person POV.

“In each book, the object is talking. It's not an expert scientist telling the story, who may or may not look like the reader. It’s the particles themselves, which are inherently gender neutral, race neutral, class neutral,” she said. “To me, my holy grail for society and science is that any person who is interested in contributing to science, feels that there is an avenue for them.” 

A plump, glowing photon wearing protective lab goggles says it best:

“The world still holds secrets scientists wish they knew. 
Who will find out with me? Will it one day be you?”

"I'm a Photon" by Eve Vavagiakis, Ph.D and illustrated by Mike Malbrough will be released May 27, 2025 from MIT Kids Press.