The Royal Society of Chemistry

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Things have been progressing rapidly! There have been several recent developments which have been all rather exciting!

The first of these was attending a lecture at the Royal Society of Chemistry. With the meeting starting at eleven o’clock, peak time train fares being extortionately priced and myself travelling from Gloucestershire it was a race against time to make sure I was not late.

I found myself in Paddington station at 10.37 giving me about twenty minutes to get across London to Burlington House on Piccadilly. Striding briskly into the underground I took the Bakerloo line to Piccadilly Circus which google maps had informed me the Royal Society of Chemistry was situated almost directly above.

I arrived in Piccadilly Circus with about three minutes to spare. It would be tight, but I would just about make it. I strode out of the underground, crossed the street, rounded a corner and was confronted with … an HMV. Unless the RSC was using HMV as a front organisation then that meant only one thing.

I was in the wrong place.

Dash and blast! I remembered from my research that the Royal Society of Geography was also in a Burlington house and that this was quite probably the same one. With time slipping rapidly away I hopped onto the underground and took it one stop to Green Park because that was where I had directions from and made my way up Piccadilly. Burlington house is a very large and impressive building and difficult to miss. It also had a large banner with “The Royal Society of Chemistry” emblazoned upon it, which was rather comforting.

I strode in, past the queue of visitors for an exhibition on Van Gough in the Royal Academy of Arts and into the Royal Society of Chemistry.


I signed in with the receptionist who had the most extraordinarily perfect, cut glass, English accent.

“The meeting is just through there. There’s a cloak room for you to leave your hat and coat.”

A place to leave my hat? Excellent.

I left my hat and coat, pulled myself together, and half an hour later than planned, I stepped into the Fish room. A young, tall woman with dark hair was explaining an incredibly complex diagram displayed on the largest flat screen TV I have ever seen. I slipped myself into a seat at the back and tried to look knowledgeable, or at least, like I had a vague idea of what was going on.

The whole meeting was on radiochemistry. This particular aspect was using radioactive isotopes to understand how a certain compound controlled a certain biological pathway. I didn’t understand it all, but from what I did it seemed rather clever.

There were talks on a variety of topics including using bacteria in dealing with contaminated land in Sellafield, a UK nuclear site, what happens to the uranium used in depleted uranium munitions, (after they’ve been fired), and analysing and regulating radioactive gas. It all sounds a little bit scary but the fact that people are, some would say at last, conducting research into this kind of thing can only be a good thing. After an excellent lunch, (in which I met up with the delightful Miss Logan, my girlfriend, who had been researching ancient Arcadian cylinders in the British Museum), there were some more talks, the prize ultimately being awarded to a young lady working on the mobility of Strontium in contaminated ground water.
And with that my visit to the Royal Society of Chemistry was concluded.

There's quite a bit coming up in the next few weeks, after leaving the Royal Society of Chemistry myself and Miss Logan uncovered a mystery in that iconic purveyor of gentleman's accessories Fortnum and Mason. There is also a new edition of "Rate My Hat!" coming up soon.

Plus upon returning to Durham I found a rather interesting letter, addressed to myself, bearing the Royal seal... Stay Tuned!