Reams of secret poetry by pioneering British scientist finally come to light

An 1803 portrait of the British chemist Sir Humphry Davy by Henry Howard. Photograph: Alamy

He is famous for discovering elements of the periodic table, for inventing a lamp in 1815 that would save the lives of hundreds of thousands of miners and as an electrochemical pioneer.

But it is the unpublished poetry of the British chemist Sir Humphry Davy – and the intriguing connections between his poems and scientific breakthroughs – that is now electrifying academics.