Episode 71: The Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction

Okay, so I cheated and wrote about something that I actually know a fair bit about, in a sort of general, very vague way at least. I first encountered the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction in Russell Hoban's novel, Fremder, and since then, it's become one of the scientific concepts that have stuck particularly well in my brain, along with things like black holes, particle physics, string theory, and that's just the physics stuff. My brain is a veritable muddle of bits and pieces of knowledge, some more complete and intact than others, regarding very disparate subjects. I suppose you could think of me as a sort of half-baked Renaissance man? Anyway, the point is that I managed to find something on the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction in the Library, for which I intrepidly ventured into parts of the Library hitherto unknown to myself. So now I'm working at a terminal in the Library, for the first time in 10 weeks. This last week is really turning into a week of firsts. Was at Top Banana last night after all, for the first time ever, even if Samantha was sick and didn't attend it with me and Jerrick as we'd originally planned at The Benjamin Satchwell. I had fun, and there was Whitney to accompany back to Westwood, so I didn't have to walk through the freezing cold alone. Now I just need to finish this blasted piece of creative non-fiction, which doesn't feel all that creative actually, and I can finally get some sleep. Oh yeah, I got a First for the 'Howl' essay redux, so am definitely going with the 'Howl' question for the assessed essay too. I discovered a really funny thing when I got it back. I'd printed out the creative non-fiction piece from last week's seminar, and then handed it in too by mistake, stuck behind the bibliography. Adam read it anyway, and he commented that it wasn't so bad, so perhaps my creative non-fiction is not completely hopeless. Getting the essay back was the highlight of my day, I think, sad as it may sound. Acting as a cheating husband during rehearsal came a close second.