Pearl John at the Royal Society

Pearl John invited me to join her for a soirée at The Royal Society, to view their Summer Science Exhibition, in which she had some work, and to enjoy a slap-up dinner in a marquee outside.


Discovering at the last minute that it was a black tie do, I dug my dinner jacket out of the wardrobe with some trepidation as, the last time I did, I found that moths had eaten half the trousers - requiring an expensive trip to my tailor. To my relief, this time all was well.

Pearl had been commissioned by the South East Physics Network (SEPnet) to create a series of lenticular prints, illustrating research by various scientists at Southampton University, where she is based. The subjects ranged from Supernova to Nanotubes and included one showing data from a particle collision at the ATLAS  detector at CERN which, following the announcement of the discovery of the Higgs Boson there, was generating particular interest.

Pearl is pointing at the Higgs Boson image above. And you can read more about her work and the scientists involved here.


As a non-scientist many of the exhibits went over my head, but it was a splendid occasion with the great and the good of the science world assembled, all in their best bib and tuckers, with medals worn by some. One elderly gentleman looked like an extra in a Ruritanian costume drama. Dinner was pretty good too. I had the roast leg of Sussex pork - slow-cooked for 8 hours the chef told me - followed by the cheese board and a Nutmeg Posset Tart, which was a first. It wasn't much to look at or I would post a picture, but did taste good.