First ferns of the season

I've returned home today after spending a couple of days away to discover that the first of the fern spores that I sowed on Easter Sunday have already started growing enough to show up as green fuzzy patches. I don't think I've ever managed to get any to develop this quickly before, but my previous attempts have been in a cool north-facing room whereas they are now in a warm south-westerly facing room. Dyce says that they can appear within a week or two (or take months) so whilst this is unprecedented for me, its clearly nothing special. This knowledge does not, of course, make it any less exciting.

Species that have shown up are:

• Dicksonia antartica
  
• Dryopteris cambriensis
• Dryopteris carthusiana
  
• Dryopteris oreades

none of which I have grown before.

At the moment, the polythene bags preclude any good 'photos, but one there are some real prothalli to show, I'll take some pictures and upload them.

My A. hispidulum seems to be doing well and has really brightened up my desk. The new fronds (there are 3 at various stages of uncurling) are very pale, though, with no real brown colour to them. Altman says this may be a sign of too much water, so I'll hold back on the water for a couple of days - the compost is still just about moist to the touch at the moment.

Robert Harris: The Ghost

WOW

read it!

That's all I'm going to say.

New Ferns

Easter has also allowed a flurry of pteridological activity. I have sown this year's set of spores (40 pots, currently cluttering my home) and purchased a beautiful new Asplenium hispidulum (Asplenium bronze venus) from RHS Wisley.

More good books

With the glorious relaxation of the Easter holidays I have been able to start reading my way through my birthday acquisitions from Foyles, which were somewhat substantial.

Having finally finished re-reading Eco's The Name of the Rose, I have sped through a superb Gervase Fen detective thriller by Edmund Crispin - Holy disorders which is a complex superposition of cathedral life, Nazi fifth columnists and devilry. In addition, I've been reading a rather beautiful volume by Hazel Rossotti (sometime member of the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford) entitled Fire - Servant, Scourge and Enigma. Originally an OUP edition (1993), it is now available as a Dover paperback (2002) that is an unabridged reproduction, though without colour prints. Rossotti divides the book in to five themes

• fire, the phenomenon
• fire for comfort
• fire for use
• fire as hazard
• fire for contemplation

and takes with reader through a gentle whirlwind of everything fire-related. Rossotti has achieved the rare distinction of being readable and yet full of content and would engage the reader, whether scientist or layman.

Next in my sights are Robert Harris's The Ghost and a monograph on the historical development of the use of chloroform, mainly focussed upon applications in anaethesia. After those, there's an Eric Ambler thriller and a biography of Lavoisier so I should be busy for the rest of the week!

Traitor's Purse

I have commented before on the wonderful service that Vintage are performing by keeping some of the country's most brilliant crime fiction in print. I have just finished Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham, a novel that I had never spotted in the Penguin Classics series but has been released relatively recently by Vintage.

It is an amazingly compulsive read. The central idea is that AC wakes up in hospital to find that he has complete amnesia and that he quickly discovers that he is supposed to be saving Britain from complete disaster in the middle of the second world war. The reader shares all of Campion's bewilderment, frustration, confusion and fear as he races to re-discover his mission and prevent the destruction of Britain - for we see (or rather don't see!) everything from Campion's perspective. See this link for more comprehensive information, but beware the spoilers!

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is completely different from The Tiger in the Smoke and indeed from all her other novels. Absolutely thrilling.

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I've also bought my first new book of the year - Pompeii (Robert Harris). I really want to read Ghost, but I'm waiting for the paperback!

LED electroscope

In preparation for teaching electrostatics next week, I was searching the web for some demonstrations that were a little more exciting than combs attracting bits of paper. The LED electroscope is one of the ones I found, and I think it's really cool.

Its beauty comes from its sheer simplicity of construction. First, you take a normal 9V PP7 battery connector, slice off the top moulding and remove the wires (if you're careful, you can keep the plastic that you slice off and re-insert it later for a neater finish). You then solder an LED and a a FET (field effect transisitor) in series across the two terminals (making sure you have the correct polarity). The gate pin of the transisitor remains unconnected and acts as the antenna.

When you connect the battery, the LED glows with around 80% brightness (there's plenty of resistance across the transistor, that's also why you don't need a protective resistor for the LED). If you charge a plastic ruler and bring it within around 15-20 cm of the transistor, the LED goes out.

I built one with a highly directional green LED, but I'm going to try a super-bright, wide-angle blue LED to see if I can get a more striking demonstration, possibly pannel mounted, if I get time.

Reading policy U-turn

I've cracked.

I just CAN'T stick to one book at a time - there are just SO many things I want to read.

Currently reading:

• Oakeshott The Voice of Liberal Learning
• Rousseau Emile
• Sire Habits of the Mind
• Arnold Culture and Anarchy
• Woodhouse Very Good, Jeeves!

As you can see, there's a flurry of philosophy of education reading just at the moment, which I'm finding really interesting, although quite challenging to get to grips with. They are really forcing me to try and decide what I think about education.


There's also a new Allingham back in print from Vintage (what a marvellous service they are doing for society) which I want to buy and read, but I think I'll leave for my Christmas list since I really don't have time to read it at present! [I saw it in Borders, Oxford Street]


Last week I applied for my Waterstones Advantage Card. When ticking the boxes for "How many books do you buy each year?" M expressed surprise that I ticked the "20+" box. But then I don't drink or smoke - there are worse ways of spending your money!




PS viva was 3 1/4 hours! Passed with minor corrections.