A Visit to Cambridge Steampunk

“Cambridge Steampunk” said Facebook event page. I was curiously attracted, registered for the event, and found myself looking forward to its due date.

Armed with my trusty camera and accompanied by my chaperone, I made my way to the Cambridge Union Society, on Saturday, 14 June.

Close to the old round church, we slipped into an alley I’ve never traversed before and entered a very different world. Ladies in corsets and bussles, men in top hats or Victorian gentlemen adventurers outfits were already lounging outside at the tables in the early summer sun.

Inside the building was a veritable panopticon of tables and displays, where the well-dressed and piratical alternative Victorians intermingled. I felt singularly underdressed.

What is steampunk? For me it is conjured up in books such as the early science fiction by HG Wells and Jules Verne. But if you’ve watched the film “Stardust”, or read Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy; or perhaps even laughed at the troglodytes in the French film “Delicatessen”, then you begin to get a glimpse of the subject matter.
Steampunk is a sub genre of science fiction, dealing with alternative realities where steam power still prevails, dirigibles ply the skies and adventures are still to be had.

The things I enjoyed about the day, was the imagination, the fantasy, and the sheer good spirits of the event and the people attending. My chaperone was amused, bemused and confused, especially by the near ubiquitous use of the round goggles.

I returned home with a sudden need to acquire an Alethiometer (a sort of clockwork Oracle, from the book by Philip Pullman, “Northern lights”, also known in America as “The Golden Compass”. A few bespoke ones had been created back in 2008. They were instructions on how to make one yourself on the web.

However, I succumbed to the modern steam punk version, I downloaded the app!



Picture album accessible here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/107595387761034666575/CambridgeSteampunkJune2014

I was Infected by Evolution and survived.

I was infected by evolution last Friday. And it’s someone else’s fault! Someone who sneezed, or possibly even just breathed. Whatever, they gave me a cold. This is of course a man cold; runny nose, streaming eyes, fatigue and a hefty dose of self-pity. I would have been thoroughly safe from infection if it hadn’t been for – Evolution.

A Cold Virus. The structure is similar to that of a polio virus and also foot and mouth. Image created by merging and editing a depth map and a color coded map of Rhinovirus B14 capsid proteins by Jean-Yves Sgro

You see, normally when you catch disease, your body’s natural defences kick into action and, if you survive, that defence includes an alarm system. These are antibodies. They remember what infected you in the first place. We have even harnessed this effect as vaccination, bringing serious killers under control.

Our bodies do the same thing whenever we catch a cold. Yet we can catch colds several times a year, for the rest of our lives. Why? I asked myself through gritted teeth and streaming eyes.

What is giving us these colds?

Up to 80% of calls are caused by rhinoviruses. They are very small, even for viruses, with the typical diameter of 30 nm. You would have to string 1 million of them end to end to make a 3 mm long chain. There are at least 100 different types.

A single cold virus has a shell with 20 triangular faces, a shape known as an icosahedron. The shell, technically known as the “capsid”, protects the important instructions inside. These tell a cell how to make more viruses.

As few as 30 individual viruses breathed up your nose from someone else’s sneeze can cause infection! The virus binds to the inner lining in your nose and throat. It creates a pore and slips into a cell. The slightly acid environment inside your cells breaks open the virus. Its instructions are released and convert your cell into a virus factory.

Eventually, the cell bursts and the released viruses go on to infect more of your nose and throat. The irritation makes you sneeze, spreading the virus to others.

This carries on until your body’s natural defences battle and win against the virus infection inside you. Theoretically, you are now protected by antibodies against that virus infection in the future.

Yet you can still catch another cold. So we return to the question, why?

It’s because the viruses change. It’s evolution in action. Here. Now.

For you and me, our instructions are written in double strands of DNA. Two metres of it in every single one of our cells. Over 30,000 instructions written in 3.2 billion DNA units called base pairs. When our DNA is copied, it is checked and corrected to minimise mistakes. The error rate is as low as one error in 100 million base pairs.

A rhinovirus’ instruction is only 7000 or so bases long. It is made from a single strand of RNA, not DNA. When the cold virus RNA is copied, the error rate is as high as one in 3000. There is a real chance that each copy contains at least one or two changes.

So, returning to that initial moment of infection last Friday. When I breathed in those 30 or so virus particles, each one was slightly different from the other. Some may have been similar to a cold I’d had before. My body’s defences identified those and killed them off quickly.

But there were others sufficiently different. My body didn’t recognise these new invaders until I’d been infected and I’d had a full scale cold.

When you catch a cold, you are not just catching one cold, you are catching several different viruses at the same time. By the time your colds make you sneeze, you are passing on a different mix of viruses to your unfortunate neighbour.

When you have a cold, you are part of evolution in action.

Further reading:

Rhinovirus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinovirus#Pathogenesis

19-3 Rhinoviruses are single-strand RNA viruses that replicate in the cytoplasm of the host cell: http://www.microbiologytext.com/index.php?module=Book&func=displayarticle&art_id=477

Rhinovirus Genome Evolution during Experimental Human Infection: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0010588

Human Rhinovirus 14 images: http://www.virology.wisc.edu/virusworld/viruslist.php?virus=r14

An answer to the "I'm bored!" holiday child

Children are amazing - on the one hand, they can keep themselves occupied in the strangest games, on the other they can be bored, listless, unenthusiastic and bereft of ideas. Particularly during the holidays. Here is one solution that worked last Bank Holiday Weekend.

We had been on an outing the day before, the evening's discussion on what or where to go next had come up with no helpful ideas or solution. My daughter knew she wanted to do something - but just couldn't come up with anything that inspired her.

I was pretty desperate by the next day.
"Good Morning, have you had any idea by now what you would like to do?"
"No!" was the answer.
"In that case, this is what we are going to do.
"We are going to take a maximum of five Lego figures and a camera - and photograph their adventure exploring Milton Country Park!"

To my utter astonishment, barely had the words left my mouth, and my daughter had dashed upstairs, found the dusty Lego box and was excitedly choosing which Lego figures to take along.

We spent over two hours wandering through Milton Country Park. We aroused strange looks and passing children would wonder "Dad, ist that a Lego man? It is a Lego man!" And their parents would hurriedly rush their children by to avoid the deranged people we were.

The full adventure story of Lego Family's Day Out in Milton Country Park" can be found in the slideshow below. If you cannot see it, go to the album at https://picasaweb.google.com/107595387761034666575/LegoFamilySDayOutInMiltonCountryPark



And if you are wondering which age groups this might work with - my daughter's 23! (And I enjoyed it too).

Sourdough Bread and Romans in Horningsea

Sherds from Roman pottery Horningsea (1) showing distinctive pattern

I noticed some pottery with an interesting lined pattern on its exterior surface, amongst the pottery sherds that Rodney Scarle was sorting for the Norris Museum. To my surprise, Rodney told me that they came from the Roman potteries not far from Milton, in Horningsea. The patterning was quite distinctive for this region.

Rodney had taken part in an excavation with some colleagues from the Archaeology RheeSearch Group just north of Horningsea, where they found what was thought to be a Roman bread oven (1). This could possibly have been to support the nearby pottery.


As a bread maker myself, this was a particular interest! Since this was a historic period before the availability of commercial baker’s yeast, the Romans most likely used sourdough starters (2, 3). This is something that I’m reviving again at home. I have an established wheat culture, named William, and I’ve just started a rye sourdough culture, Reilly.

Sourdough is a mixture of natural cultures of yeast and bacteria (4). Sourdough starters (bit of live dough retained from the last loaf) are used to seed the next loaf. Some sourdough cultures can be maintained for generations.

The interesting find with Rodney’s Roman bakers oven, was the remains of a pewter dish within the rubble. We speculated that perhaps the baker had died and some of his key goods were placed in the oven which was then ritually destroyed so it could not be used by anyone else.

All speculation, but something to think about when eating my next loaf of sourdough bread.

References:

1. Rodney Scarle, (2011) Report on excavations in the garden of The Lodge, Clayhithe Road, Horningsea in 2011 (revealing a possible Roman bread oven). Report stored at the Heritage database at Shire Hall, Cambridge.
2. The History of Bread - Roman & Greek Bread http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/about/the-history-of-bread/the-history-of-bread-roman-bread-and-greek-bread/
3. Coquinaria blog article, Roman Sourdough Bread, http://www.coquinaria.nl/english/recipes/Rombread.htm
4. History of Sourdough, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sourdough#History_of_sourdough

World Gold Reserves, Swimming Pools and Pubs

My German colleague, Ulrich Heker, has lately been lamenting the increasing cost of gold for dental technicians. Well, the solution might be closer to home. Germany has the second largest stock of gold in the world, as co-director Jane found out in a fit of lateral research.

Gold Reserves indicated by height of each square 

 America leads (of course!) with an amazing 8133 tonnes of the soft precious metal. Germany follows with 3390. We Brits have a paltry 310 tonnes of the stuff – presumably mainly in bling. What surprised me was that the influencal lender to nations, the International Monetary Fund “only” has 2814 tonnes.

Apparently the total known world gold reserves amount to 31,320 tonnes, which seems a surprisingly small amount.

Gold is indeed a precious metal.It is not only beloved of for its decorative glint. The high conductivity and chemically inert metal is also used for electrical contacts and circuit boards.

Silver and Gold circuits and contacts on PCB

Gold is also very dense, at 19.3g per cubic centimetre it is 19.3 times heavier than water. To put it in context, if a large 2 litre milk bottle on a supermarket shelf was instead filled with gold, it would weigh as much as a 12 year old (38kg) .

So taking its high density into account, what would 31,320 tonnes of gold look like if collected in one place? Well, the total volume would be 1623 cubic metres. Now that is equivalent to a solid cube of less than 12m x 12m x 12m.

Typically, this is expressed as fitting into ONE olympic sized swimming pool. But I needed something I could relate to locally. Was there a suitable building with the same volume?

Yes! The Waggon and Horses pub looked large enough. I phoned publicans David and Louise to check. David and I worked out that there was cellar space and of course, soon there would be the restaurant extension at the rear.

Waggon & Horses in Milton - Equal to World's Gold Reserves

So all the whole world's gold reserves could fit into the same space as the Waggon & Horses in Milton!

David's last comment was “When it arrives, just give me a pound of the stuff and I'll happily move out into the shed!”

The First Christmas Pudding

“Ah” sighed my mother as she finished the last spoon of our Christmas pudding “ This reminds me of the time just before you were born, when I made our first Christmas pudding”

It was November 1956, in post-war Sheffield. Pea-souper smogs were still common. A young German wife, Rose, and her British army husband 'Lofty' were expecting their first baby, living under the shadow of the university in a small mid-terrace house. With hardly a penny to their name, it was a house full of fun and laughter. The younger sister, barely 18, but trained in child care, had come over from Germany to help and keep Rose company in a foreign land.

Christmas was but a month away and Rose had read in a woman's magazine about the famous British Christmas Pudding! Furthermore, this was going to be the first time with the in-laws. The decision was made – we'll make our own!

Following the recipe to the letter, the shopping was done and huge mounds of dried fruit, carrots, apples, suet, flour, treacle and spice went into the largest bowl that could be found in the kitchen. As the only coal fire in the house was in the living room, Rose and her sister set to work there. It looked as if it was going to be a big pudding, a very big pudding – in fact a gargantuan pudding!

The pudding was covered as it now had to rest for the night. The result of all this hard work was proudly displayed to Lofty when he came back home in the evening.

All the excitement and effort had the effect of inducing another kind of labour. Rose, nine months pregnant, and Lofty had to take an unexpected walk to the maternity hospital at 2 am, on a cold winter's night. After an exhausting 22 hour labour, I was born, a 9lb giant of a baby!

Rose's young sister was now increasingly worried, not only for her sister and the baby – but the pudding mixture had been left for longer than overnight. Would all their work be for naught? As her English was not up to understanding the recipe herself, she brought it along to the very first visit of the new mother and her baby. Together, they pored over the recipe, line by line. They discovered that they had overlooked a minor detail –

The recipe was for 22 puddings!

So poor Rose's sister had to return home, carefully form all the puddings in any cloths that she could find and steam them for the rest of the day.

The puddings were a triumphant success! Having been prepared so well in advance they became their appreciated presents for all the family, both in England and Germany – arriving by post, train and boat in time for Christmas 1956.

Faizan E Medina Mosque, Peterborough

There are two ways that you can get into Peterborough from the rail station. Yesterday I chose to take the footbridge leading into Queensgate. It was a glorious morning and as I looked to my left, I could see the dome and minaret of a mosque. So, after having attended the eco-cluster breakfast, I wound my way through Peterborough streets to find the building and have a look.

At street level this was not so easy to do, as the distinctive dome and minaret were out of sight. I finally gave in, and when a petite figure in a burka appeared in front of me, I asked for and received friendly directions.

I arrived at the Faizan E Medina Mosque. It appeared shut as I wandered round, until someone opened the door and asked what I was looking for. “I’d like to have a look at the mosque, I’ve never been in one before!”

Directed to the side door, I was let in. The entrance hall contained seating so that you could take off your shoes and stack them tidily the shoe rack before going further into the building. I was introduced to the Imam Hafiz Zia Rasul, who was unfazed at my appearance at the door and generously offered to show me around an answer my questions.

Hafiz took me into hall, the heart of the mosque. A large open space, covered by a carpet with distinctive markings in regular rows; each one functioning as a prayer mat. To the front, facing Mecca, was a decorated niche flanked by two podests from where the imams could address the congregation or lead the prayer. The niche or as is better known, Mihrab, was shaped like a large gateway and the inner curves were richly decorated in different Arabic scripts. Above us was the great canopy of the dome, again richly decorated in flowing Arabic script which Hafiz told me had been done by craftsman who had come all the way from Egypt.

In between on a floating floor above us was the separate area for the women and an observation gallery. We went upstairs and made our way to the gallery where a crowd of schoolchildren were clustered near the balcony. We heard their loud excited chatter in the background but now they were quieting down. As part of its outreach, the mosque regularly receives visitors from schools, so the children can see an aspect of life experienced by some of their friends.

Earlier, Hafiz had also shown me one of the copies of the Koran. As a publisher, the first fascinating aspect was that of course Arabic script is read from right to left. The second was the beautiful flowing Arabic script within. With the avoidance of any figurative representation, calligraphy is still common and beautiful art in the Arabic world.

In a mellow singing voice, Hafiz read out the first paragraphs at the beginning of the Koran. I asked about this way reading out. “Reading out the Koran is something we make as beautiful as possible” was the simple answer.

I’d heard the call to prayer, presumably from the minaret, which had also been broadcast within the mosque. But it was time for me to go and catch the train back to Cambridge. So after giving my thanks to Hafiz and his colleagues, I put my shoes back on and set off back in the direction of the station. Already, in small groups, people were coming out of the surrounding houses and going in the direction of the mosque for the second of the five prayer times during the day.