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Celebration of glass at the Smith Centre
A wealth of retorts
14 June 2012
Leech jar, with oxygenating cones
Across to the Smith Centre at the Science Museum this evening for a reception in celebration of glass, particularly its scientific applications. As I left, I thought of a book I bought way back in the 1970s, The Glassmakers, by T.C. Barker, published in 1977 - and cataloguing the history of industrial glassmaking. Fascinating. Science Museum Director Ian Blatchford illuminated the wonders of glass in the world of science, including the ability to both hold a vacuum and allow us to see the results.
One of my favourite exhibits was a jar designed to hold leeches, with oxygenation cones to keep the creatures from suffocating. Put me in mind of a visit I made in the early 1980s to a leech farm near Swansea, run by an American, Roy Sawyer. His firm, Biopharm, still seems to be running.
Among others I met, were Max and Fiona Whitby, of Touch Press - and I was blown away by the online books they showed me on their iPad, particularly The Elements and, my favourite by far, Skulls, by Simon Winchester. In these wondrous days of 3D printing, it's strange to think of evolution doing something of the same with our bones, skulls and teeth.
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