Subtext - University of BristolSubtext 3 Summer 2007 Roads to Rome … and Athens and Troy The bug...

Subtext3Summer 2007

Roads to Rome… and Athens, and Troy

The bug squadAt war with a devious,microscopic enemy

The scholar andthe soundbiteWhy the media makesmincemeat of nutrition

Tales from the fieldOne thousand metresunder the sea

Subtext3

‘Variety’s the very spice of life,That givesit all its flavour.’So said the popular18th-century poet,William Cowper,inTheTask (1785).

One of the aims of Subtext is to revealthe diversity of the University’s staff andstudents and the breadth of their expertiseand accomplishments.Our intention is todelve beneath the surface of this exceptionalinstitution and find intriguing truths aboutthe individuals who help make it theextraordinary place it is – an untold story,anunsung talent,an uncommon experience.We hope we have succeeded in the firstthree issues of the magazine’s life.

This term sees another collection ofarticles that reflect the eclectic nature of theUniversity and its people.There’s the rabbiwho played truant from Hebrew classes as aboy (p 18),the Palestinian cardiac expertwho never expected to stay in Bristol (p 4)and the classicist with a modern take on theAncients (p 9).And there are some thingsyou never knew about theVice-Chancelloron p 12.

Variety is indeed the spice of life.

Hilary [email protected]

elcome

Subtext3Summer 2007

Roads to Rome … and Athens and Troy

The bug squad At war with a devious,microscopic enemy

The scholar and the soundbiteWhy the media makesmincemeat of nutrition

Tales from the fieldOne thousand metresunder the sea

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SubtextNo 3, June 2007©University of Bristol 2007Extracts may only bereproduced with the permissionof the Public Relations Office.

Contents

How I got here 4Saadeh Suleiman describes hisjourney from Jerusalem to Bristol,braving the Israeli military and turningdown Harvard on the way.

Feature: The bug squad 6Four to the rescue: the VetSchool’s Acarus team takeson a formidable foe.

Feature: Roads to Rome 9Captivated by the classical world:Genevieve Liveley on whythe past has such presence.

Another string 10Susan Lovatt puts the vim backinto cleaning.

Tales from the field 11Never travel 1,000metres underwater without a Piddle Pack: goodadvice from deep-sea researcher,Julian Partridge.

Profile: Confessionsof an obstetrician 12We get up close and personalwith the Vice-Chancellor,Professor Eric Thomas.

Bristol in pieces 14Dominic Hiles answers 20 questions;Daniel the gorilla bares all; and a newbook on the absurd gets a plug.

Other people’s jobs 15Dave Skelhorne – prophet of doomor guardian angel of Universitybuildings? You decide.

The scholar and the soundbite 16Media coverage of nutrition is patchyat best. Consumption be done aboutit? Sue Baic is trying.

Why I became … a rabbi 18It was the very lack of religion in RonBerry’s childhood that sparked aninterest in his Jewish heritage. That,and a scientist’s enquiring mind.

From the archives 19History in the taking: HistoricalPhotographs of China project in theDepartment of Historical Studies.

Next issue due out October 2007

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4 Subtext Summer 2007

My parents were among the many refugees who fledPalestine when the country was divided. They ended upin Damascus, Syria, where I was born.They returned toJordan (which included theWest Bank) when I was three.We lived in Amman, then Jerusalem.

I was the oldest of seven children. I shared a bedroomwith my three brothers; you pulled the beds out from underthe sofa at night.There would always be someone chatting,listening to the radio, reading, sleeping. I learned to blockout all the distractions so I could study.

All nine of us used to pile into an ancient VW Beetle andgo on a picnic every Friday during the winter. It was abit of a squash, as you can imagine.There was about an18-month age gap between each of us kids.We had toendure a two-hour drive to get to the picnic spot at theDead Sea or Jericho, but we enjoyed it when we got there.

I studied one curriculum at school and taught myselfanother at home. Jerusalem was occupied by the Israelisafter the Six-DayWar in 1967.All the state schools had toadopt an Israeli curriculum instead of the old Jordanian one.This was tricky because at 14 you had to pass a nationalexam to continue your education, but the Israeli certificatewouldn’t allow you to study at any high school with aJordanian curriculum. So I bought all the books for theJordanian curriculum, and studied these by myself in theevening while following the Israeli curriculum at school.I sat both exams and passed, so I could go to high school.

My father was arrested when I was 17. He was put inprison under ‘administrative detention’,without chargeand without trial.We never knew why.He was outspokenin his opinions, though.He was pro-peace and used towrite articles in the local newspaper.He had many Israelifriends who thought like him.We even once went to visitan Israeli kibbutz,which was unheard of for Palestinians.

I went to work in the furnaces of an Israeli copperfactory. While my father was in prison, I was head of thefamily. I had to get a job to help pay the rent. It was hard,unpleasant work.

A chance meeting led to my going to university. Mymother worked as a hairdresser.One of her customers ranan orphanage,which had links with a charity that awardedscholarships to Palestinian orphans to go to university.Thislady knew I had come second in all Jerusalem in my highschool exams. She recommended me for a scholarship,arguing that having a father in jail was like being an orphan.I didn’t want to go. I thought I should stay and help myfamily, but my mother insisted. I ended up going to Bir ZeitCollege and then the American university in Beirut.

I spent a year working in business in Jordan. My fatherwas released from prison, but expelled from Jerusalem.Hewent to live in Jordan and my mother joined him with the restof the family. I then came to the UK, to do a PhD at Essex.

My first teaching job was at Nablus University duringthe Israeli military occupation. We only had electricityevery other day, and then for only six hours at a time.Communication was difficult.The telephone exchangehadn’t changed since the ’40s, and you had to go throughan operator to place a call.You would ask for a number,and the operator would tell you you couldn’t be connectedbecause the person you wanted had gone out shopping.

Everything was run in an ad hoc way, even the university.I was never consulted about my promotion to dean ofresearch and graduate studies in 1986.My wife and I hadbeen away and when we got in the taxi atTel Aviv airport,the driver congratulated me on the appointment.He hadread about it in the paper. It was the first I’d heard of it.

We lived next door to the Samaritans.They are a uniquecommunity,with their own customs, but they are very openand friendly. Every time you went past they would rush outto ask,‘How are you?’,‘How much did you pay for thosetomatoes?’,‘What are you making for dinner?’.Then theywould give you some advice about where you could havegot your tomatoes cheaper,which ingredients you shouldadd to your dish, and so on.You could be there all day.

Life was turned upside down in 1987 by the first intifada.There was a curfew for months.The university was shutdown,we couldn’t leave the house, people were being shotat in the streets and there were food shortages.

I was worried about the laboratory animals left inside theuniversity when it was shut down. The Israeli militarygovernor agreed to let me go and get them. I arrived at theuniversity to be greeted by a convoy of Israeli armed carsand the governor himself.He didn’t believe I was there torelease the animals, he thought I was up to no good.WhenI picked up the cages to take them home, he flew into a rageand accused me of dragging out half the army just for someanimals. It was the joke all over town.

I was offered a Fulbright Fellowship to go anywhere inthe US but I turned down Harvard for a temporary positionat Bristol. When people ask why, I like to say it’s becauseI love the British weather! Really it was because I wasmore familiar with Britain, having been a studenthere, and because it was nearer to Norway (my wife isNorwegian) and the Middle East.And my mother used tosay,‘America swallows people, they go and never come back’.

I never intended to stay in Britain. Political unrest continuedat home.The university was closed, and the violence wasescalating, so we stayed in Bristol and became British citizensin 1995. I would rather live in Britain than anywhere else inEurope. I like the feeling of inclusiveness here.

Everything that has happened to me has been by chance.I have never planned anything. It’s partly because life isso unpredictable in the Middle East.When you live inuncertain times, you just get on with what is in front of you.It’s also to do with the culture there,which is a bit fatalistic.I’m getting better, but I still get told off by my wife for notmaking plans in advance for the summer holidays. I usuallyget the tickets a few days before we travel.

Saadeh Suleiman is Professor of CardiacPhysiology and a member of the academiccardiac research group at the Bristol HeartInstitute.During 35 years in a war-tornMiddle East, he taught himself at home,worked in a copper factory and ran a universitydepartment on six hours of electricity everyother day.He talks to Hilary Brown abouta life marked by uncertainty and change.

SAADEH

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Summer 2007 Subtext 5

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How I got here

‘When youlive inuncertaintimes, youget on withwhat is infront of you.’


Feature

BUGSQUADI

n a secure lower-floor laboratory in the School of ClinicalVeterinaryScience at the University’s Langford site, there’s a dog with fleas.Thedog is artificial, but the fleas are real. Inside the fleas,microscopicorganisms are at large; single-celled evil geniuses bent on spreading

their offspring – and some unpleasant diseases – as widely as possible.Acarus is the Sherlock Holmes to their Moriarty.The four-person

team – plus occasional collaborators – has a three-fold mission: to detectthe presence of these organisms in companion animals; to spread theword about the issues posed by infected fleas and ticks for animals,including humans; and to increase our understanding of how theminiscule invaders do their work.

‘These organisms cause a number of bad diseases for dogs, cats andtheir owners, but they’re fascinating,’ says Susan Shaw,Director of theAcarus Laboratory.‘For example, the Borrelia organism – which causesLyme disease – is a wonderful snaky little thing called a spirochete thatmay alter the tick’s behaviour to make it more likely to find a host.’

It always helps to know your enemy. But more than that, Shaw andher colleagues rather admire theirs.

Ticking the boxesBefore we expend all our sympathy on the poor exploited tick, it’s worthzooming out to its aforementioned ‘host’ – often an animal we’re far

How do you wage war on an opportunistic lifeform that invades other life forms in ruthlesspursuit of its self-serving agenda?Throughteamwork.Nick Riddle meets the people behindAcarus, a project that charts the campaigns ofa fiendishly cunning single-cell adversary.

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Above: From left to right, sheep tick before ameal; mouth parts, salivary glandsand ‘brain’ of a tick; sheep ticks engorged on bloodAbove right: The Acarus team:from the left, PhD studentMatthewRobinson, technicians Debbie Langton andTimHillman, and laboratory director Susan Shaw

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more likely to feel sorry for.The Acarus team is concerned witharthropod-borne infectious diseases (an arthropod being a tick, fleaor fly) that strike in companion animals – mostly dogs.

The reasons behind Acarus go back to 2000,when the UK’s bordercontrols were relaxed to allow people to present ‘pet passports’ insteadof putting their pets into quarantine. Shaw was born and studied inAustralia and has also worked in the US, so her international backgroundgave her a degree of prescience about how things might develop.‘I foresaw that these animals were going to bring back a lot of diseases,’she says,‘and they did.’

Acarus was set up with funding from a veterinary pharmaceuticalcompany interested in establishing a diagnostic service for vets, scientistsand specialists using DNA analysis.The DNA tests are still unique inthe UK for their accuracy in detecting infection.‘Other tests look forantibodies, which indicate whether the animal has been exposed tothe organism,’ saysTim Hillman, one of the technicians (with DebbieLangton). But the Acarus method delves deeper: using a process calledpolymerase chain reaction (PCR), the team goes down to the molecularlevel.‘We look for the presence of the organism’s DNA in the blood ofthe animal, regardless of whether it’s active.’

The diagnostic work has steadily increased, and is nowcomplemented by research work using the same techniques. Fundingfrom the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council(BBSRC), industry and charities has helped to support a PhD student,Matthew Robinson (see panel on page 8), the man responsible for theartitifical dog, its specially bred fleas and their grisly payload.

On the teaching side, information about these diseases has found itsway into the curriculum, and Acarus also attracts visiting internationalresearchers. Shaw has travelled as widely as any of the diseases shestudies, speaking to groups and associations all over the world, and atevery level ‘from the top tier of organisations like DEFRA to localchapters of the Kennel Club.And whenever I do,Tim and Debbieknow about it soon afterwards, because we get a spike in the numberof incoming samples.’

Many vets in the UK are still getting to grips with tick-bornediseases, which ensures a steady flow of calls, emails and faxes.‘They oftensay “I’ve got a dog or a cat that looks like this, does it need your test?”’says Shaw. She adds that the traffic goes in both directions:‘We send outinformation to practitioners, and they send us blood and tissue samplesfor us to test.’

The information is making an impact, but many vets are stillunfamilar with the more exotic diseases.Many of the 400,000 or soanimals entering the UK since 2000 come from the rest of the EuropeanUnion, but a significant number from further afield – the United States,Russia, South Africa,Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and so on.‘Some are beingimported – often people rescue dogs from abroad,’ says Hillman.‘But alot of animals are just going with their owners on holiday.’

‘Many people take their animals to the south of France,’ adds Shaw.‘But there are also many travelling with their dogs and cats for workplacements – military, foreign services – to parts of the EU where thesediseases are common.Then there are all the working animals: the military,search and rescue dogs.’


Feature

Guarding the frontierNot all countries have borders as open to animals as the UK.The government of New Zealand is especially strict in thisregard; it requires that every pet must have a certificateconfirming that it is free of tick-borne organisms before itcan enter.And because the testing offered by Acarus is oneof the few recognised by the New Zealand government, theblood samples come thick and fast from all over the world.

This is an emotive area, as Shaw and Hillman acknowledge.‘We get quite a few phone calls from the owners,’ says Hillman.‘For the organisms that we’re looking at, the animal has to betested within 10 days of leaving and the paperwork has to besigned, sealed and delivered before the animal is allowed ontothe plane.That’s a fairly narrow window.’ Feelings can run high,and a spot of hand-holding is sometimes called for.‘Sometimesthe dog is virtually on the runway,’ says Hillman,‘and the ownercalls in a panic because the certificate hasn’t turned up.’

It would be nice to report that there’s always a happy ending,but the organisms at issue have a habit of spoiling people’s plans.Take Babesiosis – a potentially fatal disease with similarities tomalaria.An animal can appear perfectly healthy, but it could stillbe carrying the Babesia organism.‘If the test comes up positive,’says Hillman,‘the New Zealand government doesn’t carewhether the animal’s healthy or not – they won’t let it in.’

A significant number of samples sent to Acarus from HongKong are from animals owned by British citizens who aretravelling to New Zealand.And such is the prevalence ofBabesiosis in Hong Kong that these owners often get a nastyshock.‘One lady was in tears on the phone because both herdogs came up positive,’ says Hillman.‘And the treatment forBabesiosis is never 100 per cent effective – you very rarelymanage to clear the organism completely. So the tests kept oncoming up as positive, but her animals seemed perfectly healthyto her.The last we heard, she had to leave them behind.’

Bugs, blood and bacteriaBabesiosis is extremely rare in the UK (the first case of itoccurring in a non-travelled dog on these shores was pickedup by Acarus), and long may it remain so. But we have ourown, home-grown diseases, such as Lyme disease (Borreliosis),tick-borne fever and cat-scratch disease.The Acarus team geta number of calls about these too.

All in all, there’s no shortage of work to be done. Fortunately,the diagnostic service is self–funding.‘We pay overheads to theUniversity,’ says Shaw,‘and we cover the salaries and the costs ofbuying,maintaining and updating our equipment.Any profit isfed back into the laboratory to help fund development of newtests and to support postgraduates.’

Acarus has identified several new organisms and, thanks to theteam’s expertise and its growing archive of DNA samples, it hasbecome a valuable resource for researchers all over the world.Shaw is an energetic spokesperson, and never more so than whenshe is describing the strategems of a miniscule adversary.Take theprotozoan parasite of the genus Leishmania, for example,whichpursues its ends via the sand-fly, a bloodsucking insect found inparts of mainland Europe.

‘What this organism does when it gets inside the fly isamazing,’ she says.‘It starts to produce mucous that fills up thefly’s stomach.Next time the fly bites, it has problems swallowing,and it has to stay longer on the host and bite many more times inorder to survive. So this half-starved sandfly jumps from dog todog, continuously trying to feed. Every time it sucks, it deliversthe organism back through the salivary glands into the host.Thesandfly’s saliva also suppresses the immunity of the host’s skin, sowhen the organism is introduced it has a great advantage.Theend result is a horrible disease, in both humans and dogs.’

The Acarus team can’t help but admire the devious methodsof all parasites (both big and small) whose exploits cause so much

trouble. But what do they think of the view, expressed byStephen Jay Gould and others, that these unicellular organisms– bacteria, viruses and the like – are, through sheer numberand tenacity, actually the dominant life form on the planet,and that we are merely their vessels?

‘That’s certainly a way of looking at it,’ says Shaw.‘Arthropods carry all kinds of bacteria, protozoa and viruses –the ones we look at are the tip of the iceberg.We’ve knownthat for a very long time.’

To prove it, Shaw points to a few lines by Jonathan Swift,written in 1733:So, naturalists observe, a fleaHas smaller fleas that on him prey;And these have smaller still to bite ’em;And so proceed ad infinitum.

‘Arthropodscarry allkinds ofbacteria –the ones welook at arethe tip of theiceberg.’

Tracking the troublemakersWhile the rest of the Acarus team are busy detectingpathogens (disease-causing organisms) in animal bloodsamples, PhD student Matthew Robinson is plotting thecourse of these pathogens.Like Shaw, Robinson was drawn to this research through

an admiration of the sheer ingenuity of the parasitesconcerned. ‘These little organisms can make a vector – that is,a carrier such as a tick – behave in a way that means it’s morelikely to be picked up by another animal,’ he says.Robinson is tracking the pathogens as they migrate through

the tick, using the Acarus lab’s PCR technology to operate atthe microscale. With help from colleagues at the University ofLiverpool, and industrial sponsors, he is developing newtechniques to tag organisms and antibodies and to ‘micro-dissect’ the organs of the tick (yes, a tick has ovaries and abrain and a rudimentary kidney) to come up with a workingmodel of the process of infection.‘Ideally we’d like to be able to say, “After this amount of

time, the pathogen this tick has taken up will be in this tissue,interacting with these cells”. And if an animal or a persongets bitten by a tick or a flea, we want to be able to estimatehow likely they are to be infected, depending on how long theflea is feeding.’His work is partly funded by the BBSRC, and by the

pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

Above: Nervous system, gut and reproductive organs of amale cat flea

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Feature

Classics used to form the core of a university education.Thingshave changed, but the classical world still shapes modern attitudes.Dr Genevieve Liveley, Lecturer in the Department of Classics andAncient History, talks to Nick Riddle about Latin,The Simpsonsand the enduring appeal of the subversive Roman poet, Ovid.

ROADSTO ROME

Meeting OvidI was about 12, at a nice girls’ school, andwe were given a passage from Ovid’s ArsAmatoria (Art of Love) to translate. Somethingabout going to the races to pick up girls. Itwas so clever and funny – I loved it. I wasalready one of those geeky kids who wasgood at Latin, but I fell in love with Ovidvery quickly.At the time I had no idea thatthe Ars Amatoria was an infamously racy,scandalous work – I liked it because it wasn’tCicero or Livy.And because Ovid has thesame sense of humour and wit that yousometimes find in contemporary musicallyrics, I heard the Ars Amatoria more as apop song than as some two-thousand-year-old poem.

Romans, sharks and NazisThe classical world still grips people’simaginations.Romans are a perennial favouriteforTV documentaries – along with sharks andNazis.And when students explain on theirUCAS forms why they want to do ClassicalStudies or Ancient History at Bristol, theyoften talk about the films they love – Gladiator,Troy,Alexander – or they mention readingGreek myths and the Asterix books.

I think the resurgence of academic interest inthe classical world is now being led by the focuson reception studies,which looks in part at howour culture for the past 2,500 years has been shapedby the ancient world. Bristol has been at theforefront of that; Professor Charles Martindale’sbook Redeeming theText in 1993 really opened

up the field of reception studies in classics andthe department has now become a world leaderin reception and the classical tradition.

Classical patternsThere are different models of reception studies.At the pop-culture level you can study filmslike Gladiator or Disney’s Hercules for theirclassical themes and influences – though somepeople question how intellectually rigorous thatapproach is.Recently, a lot of interesting workhas been done on classical models of politics,gender and sexuality, looking at the ways inwhich modern culture repeats a lot of thoseancient patterns.One of my particular areas ofresearch is in the parallels between ancient andmodern comedy.Athenians in the fifth centuryBCE laughed at fart gags, and Aristotletheorised about why someone cross-dressing orwearing a big padded phallus might be funny.And according to the latest interpretations ofAristotle on comedy,The Simpsons would havemade a fifth-century Athenian laugh just asmuch as an audience today.Reception studiesis about keeping a conversation going betweenthe past and the present – not just looking atthe authenticity of the armour in Gladiator.

Lenses and barriersFewer and fewer A-level students arrive atBristol with either Greek or Latin, so we doa lot more teaching of ab initio languages now.We also study a lot more texts in translation.That’s really energising the field, and it’s greatfor teaching, because you can get throughmore – and more interesting – material. If youhad to read through all 15 books of Ovid’sMetamorphoses in Latin, you wouldn’t get muchelse done in a course.

But I’m old-school about learning ancientlanguages – I think it’s essential if you want tohave a real feel for your subject.A lot of classicalstudies and ancient history students reach theend of their third year feeling disappointed thatthey’re not more proficient in the language;they love this author or that text, and they feelit’s a shame to have to read it in translation,through the lens of another writer. But thenagain, being able to read Ancient Greek orLatin doesn’t give you straightforward orunmediated access to the ancient world –there are always cultural barriers in between.

Back to OvidThere are little bits of Ovid that still surpriseme and make me laugh. I think he really is in aclass of his own.He was once accused of killingthe tradition of classical love poetry stone deadbecause of his sense of humour and his refusalto take anything seriously; after Ovid it’ssupposedly impossible to write love poetrywithout sounding insincere. It’s certainlyhard to say ‘I love you’with your tongue inyour cheek.

Does being a classicist affect the way I lookat the world? Probably not. But being anOvidian does, I think. I’m good at seeing theless serious side of things.

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Never was there a truer phrase than‘A place for everything andeverything in its place’, according toSusan Lovatt. Lovatt is an artist

whose day job as a library assistant in the Artsand Social Sciences Library dovetails neatlywith the creative side of her life.‘Contrary topopular belief,many artists like order.Artdoesn’t just happen; it takes a lot of organisationto produce work once you’ve had an idea.Theordered environment of a library is comforting.’

It was when she first started shelving booksin the library that she came up with the ideathat was to form the basis of her MA inprintmaking and is a continuing theme in herart.‘I realised I spent a huge amount of timetidying up, both at work and at home,’ she says.

It got her thinking about how daily choresare dismissed because they are mundane andrepetitive.Yet monotonous tasks consume somuch of our time and are so necessary, arethey not worthy of attention? ‘I thought ofgenerations of my family who had neverachieved anything out of the ordinary,’she muses.‘The daily business of living –washing up,making the sandwiches, doingthe laundry, queuing for wartime rations –had no apparent value, and it seemed a shameit was never celebrated.’

She was also struck by how clearing upleaves no trace:‘If you clear up well, there’snothing to show for it. I thought it had culturalsignificance – would society fail if all the littletasks were not completed?’ Bristol-born landartist Richard Long was an influence here.Hiswork includes photographs of land he has

walked over and changed in some way; othersare unaltered landscapes, capturing ideas bothof passing without trace and leaving a mark.

And so began the process of enshrining theevidence of hundreds of thousands of us havingdone the dishes.Various artworks – including afour-foot pile of ceramic laundry, enamelshopping lists and a tiled splashback depictingLovatt and her husband washing up (mainpicture) – form an installation that is intendedto be displayed as a whole. It has theappearance of a museum set, and indeed boththe artist and the librarian in her were drawnto methods of display, classification and storage.An awareness of archaeology, geographyand anthropology is also evident, particularlyin works such as ‘Stilled life’ and ‘Half life.’

Lovatt has shown work at the RoyalWest ofEngland Academy, the Business Design Centrein London and Bristol’s Create Centre.Thereaction is always positive:‘People smile – it’s asmile of recognition.’ It’s not just women wholike it; her work is not intended as a feministstatement.‘I have no axe to grind,’ she insists.‘You could argue that women do most of theclearing up, but the chores have always beenshared in my house.’

Lovatt plans to develop the theme withlarge, two-dimensional drawings of peopleperforming everyday tasks. She would also liketo do another wall tiling, featuring Universitycleaners in action:‘Our life is so much betterfor what they do, and we’d soon notice if theydidn’t do it.’

With that she dons a pair of Marigolds.There’s work to be done.

You’ll never look at a pile of dirty dishes in the same way again.Hilary Brown talks to artist and library assistant Susan Lovatt,who is inspired by those daily chores the rest of us find so tedious.

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‘Would societyfail if all thelittle taskswere notcompleted?’

A FINE MESS

Top: Half life ‘This is one of a seriesof washing-up “fossils”. I made these to createevidence for a task that leaves nomark. Here Iput the negative space into plaster, made fromwherethe plates had been stacked. It was hard to removethe plates, I had to pick andwash the clay out. Icalled it ‘Half life’ becausewe spend half our livesclearing up, it is literally cut in half and the name isreminiscent of nuclear waste. The steel casemakesit seem powerful and industrial, like the water towersand gas tanks photographed by Berndt and HillaBecher. But when you open it out, it’s delicate andeasily destroyed.’

Middle: Soft white bread ‘This is a printof a friend’s shopping list. Her mother-in-law, wholikes soft white bread, was coming to stay. It wasn’tone of her usual purchases so she circled it toremind herself to buy it. People’s shopping listsare quite different, they can tell you somethingabout their lives.’

Bottom: Stilled life ‘I encased a stack of bowls inconcrete and got a friend to cut through it verticallywith his diamond-blade angle grinder. I was thinkingabout how core samples are taken, and how inarchaeological digs you slice into the ground, reveala bit of something and then interpret it. In cross-section, the stack is intriguing because the platesdon’t look quite as you’d expect.’

For more information on Lovatt’s work, visitwww.lovatts.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/index.html

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If you work on animal vision, you'll probably end up doing fieldwork.When the animals concerned livedeep under the sea, you’re going to need more than a snorkel. Nick Riddle meets Dr Julian Partridge,Reader in Zoology in the School of Biological Sciences, to hear his tales of life beneath the bounding main.

Imagine yourself inside a motorised chamberthe size of a wardrobe, one thousand metresbeneath the sea. Daylight doesn’t get this far.The motor and the lights are turned off. It’ssilent and dark, and cold.

Feeling uneasy?Even Julian Partridge wasn’t sure the firsttime he tried it.‘I spent most of it thinkingabout my children rather than about thisincredible experience,’ he admits. But thescientist in him eventually kicked in.

Partridge is no stranger to undersea work:he has professional diving qualifications and itwas his interest in diving that helped to steerhim towards his specialist field, namely theecology of vision (the range and variation ofvisual systems in different species).Towardsthe end of his PhD, he got his first chance towork on a big research ship, a vessel operatedby the Natural Environment ResearchCouncil.‘We were trawling just south ofMadeira,’ says Partridge.‘It was fascinatingto come into contact with bizarre deep-seaanimals that I had only seen in books.They

live in an extraordinary visual world: it’sbasically dark, with tiny flashes of blue-greenlight generated by other animals asbioluminescence. I realised what aninteresting environment this was for lookingat how visual systems evolve.’

Partridge has since collaborated withresearchers at Harbor Branch OceanographicInstitution in the US, and got experienceof working in their Johnson Sea Linksubmersibles.‘It’s a fantastic experience; thesubs have an acrylic sphere at the front, soyou have an almost 360 degree view.At theback is a separate metal chamber just bigenough for two people to lie down and peerout of two small windows.’

The advantages for a scientist of seeingthis environment first-hand are obvious, butsurprisingly few deep-sea researchers havedone it.‘It’s too difficult and too expensive,’says Partridge.‘There are very fewsubmersibles worldwide that can do it.’Remotely operated vehicles are now apopular choice, but there’s no substitute for

being there yourself.Let’s go back to that opening scene and

look at it from the point of view of ascientist, like Partridge, researching vision indeep sea animals and their bioluminescence –the emission of light by living organisms.‘Ifyou go down in a submersible and turn offthe lights and the motors, there’s almost nospontaneous bioluminescence,’ he says.‘It’sonly when these creatures get disturbed thatthey start to give off light.’ In the absence ofhumans, these disturbances mostly involvefish interacting with each other for variousreasons;‘Sex and violence, as biology tends tobe,’ says Partridge.‘But start blunderingaround in a submersible and you get all sortsof light going off all the time.’

Not that the researchers go down simplyto watch the light show.They’re busy takingmeasurements and fulfilling other technicaltasks.‘But I think exploration is hugelyundervalued by research funders,’ he says.‘It’s seen as ratherVictorian; that we’re pastthat, and now we do hypothesis-driven

Tales from the field

INTOTHE BLUE

PICTU

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SYOFDEEPOCEANEXPEDITIONS


science. I’m not saying that most scienceshould consist of rummaging around; clearhypotheses are essential for good science, butexploration by trained observers can lead tonew hypotheses – particularly in the case ofthe deep sea, which is so under-explored.’

So what of the day-to-day conditions onthose research ships which spend two to sixweeks at sea? ‘You’re locked up in a smallspace with a small group of people,’ saysPartridge,‘so you have to be willing tomuck in and make it work – you’re all init together.The work hours are long, andpeople can get quite ratty, but you have tocontrol it.’

Going down in the submersibles – usuallya three-hour dive – raises another set ofissues. Even in the tropics, sea temperaturesplummet once you hit one hundred metres.By one thousand metres it’s two to fourcentigrade, so taking plenty of spare clothingis advisable.Then there are the inconveniencesof human biology.‘There are no toilets inthese things,’ says Partridge,‘so you can’tdrink too much coffee in the morning.’If you are caught short, there’s always thePiddle Pack – a plastic bag containing drycompressed sponge – ‘but there’s little roomto use it and absolutely no privacy.’

At times, Partridge could almost bedescribing a space mission. He acknowledgesthat there are parallels, but also some strikingcontrasts.‘I once wrote a book chapter withthe astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and one of thethings we talked about was the differencebetween space exploration and exploring the

deep sea.’ Space travel requires a huge amountof energy to escape the Earth’s gravity, butvery little once you’re up there; and thevacuum of space means that there’s nopressure on the outside of your spacecraft, soit can be as flimsy as a baked bean tin.‘Butthe deep sea is the reverse,’ says Partridge.‘You need virtually no energy to get intoit, you just let some air out and you sink.But the pressure on your vessel increasesrapidly as you go down, and by one thousandmetres it’s about one hundred times greaterthan the surface pressure.’ So baked bean tinsare out, then.

Later this year, Partridge will take part inan expedition to the deep sea aroundAustralia.‘We’re planning to go down fromthe escarpment of the Great Barrier Reef –somewhere that’s never been looked atbefore.’ If this suggests that theVictoriannotion of exploration for its own sake isn’tquite dead, Partridge happily agrees.‘We’vegot a schedule of work mapped out but we’renot going down with hypothesis blinkers on.I don’t know what we’ll find,’ he says,‘butwe’re bound to find something unexpected.We just have to be open to it.’

After Australia, who knows what mightbe next? Maybe Partridge has been undulyinfluenced by his meeting with Aldrin, but atone point he says:‘If they asked me whetherI wanted to be shot up into space, of courseI’d say yes – I mean, what an opportunity!’

Main image:A species of squid found at about500metres’ depth Top inset image:Partridge holds a polystyrene cup that wasstrapped to the outside of a submersible andcrushed to a fraction of its original size by thepressure at a depth of 1,000metresBottominset image: The cover of The Blue, ananthology of striking images and essays to whichPartridge and co-author Buzz Aldrin contributed

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Tales from the field

Q: What originally inspired you to studymedicine? How do you feel about yourcareer having moved away from this?A: I think it was as straightforward aswanting to help people. I don’t missclinical medicine although I do miss theindividual consultations, the interactionwith a single human being in which youreally can help them. Some of my mostprofound experiences have occurred inthose circumstances.There was also neverany doubt that it mattered – to them andto you.

Q: What do you love and hate mostabout your job?A: The best bit is just revelling in theexcellence of the work done by all thestaff and students here.The bit I dislikethe most is people who only see a glass ashalf empty.

Q: Have you got or ever had a mentor,role model or guru?A: Professor Ian Cooke at the Universityof Sheffield who was my doctoratesupervisor was a great mentor and rolemodel.A genuine academic, a greatleader, a very good doctor and great fun.

Q: Do you think we’re so focused onresearch that teaching gets short shrift?A: No, I don’t believe that has happenedhere.There has been inevitable pressureon teaching as the unit of resource perstudent dropped over 20 years but I

Who was his first crush?What’s the difference between a vice-chancellor and aSainsbury’s shopping trolley? Professor EricThomas answers the questionsthat really matter.

have always been impressed by howour academics take their teachingresponsibilities so seriously.

Q: The Independent said you were one ofthe ‘big beasts’ of higher education. Doesthat mean you’ll be leaving us soon?A: A university of Bristol’s qualitydeserves a vice-chancellor who is leadingon the national and international agendain higher education. If that is what a ‘bigbeast’ is, I’m happy to be called that. It’smy opinion that I have the best job inhigher education in the UK, and we havea big Centenary celebration coming upin 2009. I have no intention of goinganywhere – unless the Chair of Councilthinks differently!

Q: Why do you support a football teamthat consistently underperforms?A: Because I was born there [Newcastle]and have supported them for as long as Ican remember.This is about what definesme rather than a performance assessment.

Q: Why are so many of our studentsso posh?A:The overwhelming majority of ourstudents come from Birminghamsouthwards.That part of England isposher than the rest.

Q: Tell us a joke.A: What’s the difference between avice-chancellor and a Sainsbury’s

shopping trolley? It’s almost impossible tofill either of them completely with foodand drink, but at least one has a mind ofits own (the shopping trolley).

Q: A university vice-chancellor ends upin the firing line a good deal. How welldo you deal with criticism?A: Not too badly. It hurts more if it isunjustified or simply wrong, but you dolearn to grow a thick skin in this job.

Q: Complete this sentence: ‘Whatpeople don’t understand about being avice-chancellor is ...’A: ‘…just how complex it is.’No job hassuch a diversity of culture within theinstitution and so many different externalpartners.Makes for an interesting life,mind you.

Q: Who was your first crush?A: Janice,who I worked with as a waiterat the Red Lion pub in Chester-le-Street,Co Durham in 1970. She made a seriousimpression on a 17-year-old boardingschool boy. I wonder where she is now.

Q: Where would you like to retire?A: London – the most exciting city on theplanet.We could live in a manageable flatwith no garden and really enjoy what thecity has to offer.

Q: Are there any parallels betweenobstetrics and running a university?A: Almost none, except that clearcommunications are the order of theday for both.

Q: What do you do to unwind?A: Walk. In Bristol I love walking aroundClifton and the Downs.On occasionalweekends at our house in Hampshirewe enjoy the riverTest. I also play golfrather badly.

Q: If I find myself in the lift with you,what’s a good way to break the ice?A: Say hello and ask how my family is.

Q: If I wanted to beat you at a boardor card game, which game shouldI choose?A: Virtually any game you care tomention.My work life is so competitivethat I just can’t be bothered to competein things like board games.

Q: What are you bad at?A: I can’t do detail.When I go to hell,I’ll have an eternity of Audit Committeemeetings as my punishment.

Many thanks to readers who sent in questionsfor ProfessorThomas.You will find a fullCV, biography and some of his speeches andarticles at www.bristol.ac.uk/university/vc

Profile


NICKSMITH CONFESSIONSOF

ANOBSTE

TRICIAN

Q: Do youplay amusicalinstrument?A: ‘House ofthe RisingSun’ on theguitar and‘Z Cars’ onthe piano.


Dominic Hiles is a seniortechnical researcher in theInstitute for Learning andResearch Technology, with a loveof the sea and a good dinner.

What is your favouritemeal?Scallops that I’ve dived for in theafternoon and cooked simply thesame evening.

If you were offered onesuperpower, what would youchoose? The ability to teleport –I’d walk out of my office at the end ofthe day and head into the ScottishHighlands for a spot of fresh air.

Cat or dog?Definitely dogs, not justbecause I have one, but because I’dnever trust anything that keeps itsclaws hidden.

Which historical figure would youinvite to dinner? Pablo Picasso,though I suspect that he’d decline.

What keeps you awake at night?My girlfriend, but I rather enjoy it.

Favourite smell? The sea – I can’thelp smiling as soon as I smell thesea air.

Native Americans believe we allhave a Spirit Animal. What wouldbe yours? A snow leopard, thoughless glamorously I had a childhoodobsession with stag beetles (whichhavemade regular appearances inhistory as anything from sacredsymbols to a cure for gout).

Favourite spot in the world?25metres underwater somewheretropical, with my torch switched off,playing with the phosphorescenceand eyeing up themoray eels.

Least favourite spot? The gym –I’m just not a Lycra kinda guy.

One book, one piece of music,one film.Down and Out in Paris andLondon (George Orwell);Wish YouWere Here (Pink Floyd); The ItalianJob (directed by Peter Collinson).

THINGS YOU NEVER NOTICED3. DANIEL THE GORILLAThis is the skeleton of Daniel, a lowland gorillaborn at Bristol Zoo on 10 August 1971. Hewas the first gorilla to be raised successfully incaptivity in Great Britain. He died on 22 August1994 of a heart attack. At the time he weighedapproximately 160 kg. The post-mortemwascarried out at the Vet School in Langford and thebones were subsequently sent to the Departmentof Anatomy for reconstructive work. A team oftechnicians, including JohnWhite, Bill Wrigleyand Steve Gaze, prepared the bones andarticulated the skeleton, which is now on displayin the lobby of the Pre-Clinical Veterinary Schoolon Southwell Street.

Bristolin

pieces

TWENTY QUESTIONS

NICKRIDDLE

NICKRIDDLE

Your biggest life-changingexperience (so far)?Challengingmy now-girlfriend to a chilli-eatingcontest, which proved to be therather inauspicious start to ourrelationship.

Whowould you like to banish to adesert island? ‘Dr’ Gillian McKeith*– I probably can’t say why, butGoogle might provide some insight.

Youcanmakeonenew law.Whatwould it be? I’d bring back thestocks for people who wind downtheir car windows and fling out theirrubbish. It could be ceremoniallythrown back at them.

What is the University of Bristolfor? Propping up the local pubscene?

Something youwish you’d knownabout lifewhen youwere 18? Fastcars merely attract speeding ticketsmore rapidly.

‘My philosophy is this…’ Treatpeople with the same respect andgood will that I would hope for fromthem. Fulfil my part in our collectiverole as caretakers for theenvironment as diligently as I’m ableto. Eat well, drink well and offer bothto friends as often as possible.

Where will you be ten years fromnow? As far away from a computeras possible, somewhere close to abottle of wine.

Howwould you sumyourself up inone line?Occasionally grumpy buteasily swayed to a state of happinessby a goodmeal.

When andwherewere youhappiest?Most recently, swimmingwithmy girlfriend in crystal clear wateroff a tiny bay, near Achmelvich, in theNorth-West Highlands.

Is there a question you’d like to beasked?Would youmind taking careof the DB5** for the weekend?

*Nutritionist, TV presenter and author; her nutritional advice and the validity of her qualificationshave been questioned by health professionals. **The Aston Martin DB5, the James Bond car.

THE PLUG

The absurd in literatureby Neil CornwellProfessor Neil Cornwell of the Department ofRussian has published the first study of theliterary absurd since Martin Esslin’s TheTheatre of the Absurd. Unlike Esslin’s study,The absurd in literature covers fiction as wellas theatre. It presents an historical survey ofabsurdist literature and its forbears, coveringa range of artistic movements, literary figuresand selected works. This is complementedby fuller case studies of four authors: FlannO’Brien, Samuel Beckett, Franz Kafka andDaniil Kharms. The final chapter (‘Beyond theabsurd?’) looks at how the absurd hasinfiltrated literary and artistic forms into the21st century, touching as well on popularculture, media and contemporary thought.The book should appeal to students ofcomparative, European and Englishliteratures, to those concerned with theatrestudies, humour theory, the avant-gardeand the history of ideas, as well as to thegeneral reader.Manchester University Press, £17.99, paperback


Other people’s jobs

If you’ve ever had a blocked drain,thank your lucky stars you don’thave responsibility for helpingmaintain the plumbing in some of

the University’s oldest buildings.That’spart of Dave Skelhorne’s job, the job hestill relishes after 13 years.

Having previously worked for acontractor that had done numerous jobsfor the University, he was no stranger tothe vagaries of the precinct’sVictorianinfrastructure.But he soon found thatworking on the inside was very different.‘As a contractor, you’re only interested inthe project you’ve been brought in towork on. Inside it’s a different story.As theliaison between Building Services, thecontractor and the customer – thedepartment where the work is beingcarried out – you can’t walk away fromthings. If there’s a problem, it becomesyour problem;you’re only ever a phonecall away from disaster.’

Skelhorne has become something of anexpert in identifying potential pitfalls andaverting disaster.This is a particularlyhandy skill when many of the buildings inyour remit – such as theWills MemorialBuilding, theVictoria Rooms,BiologicalSciences and the Physics Building – arealmost a century old.

‘One of the main tasks is making surewater doesn’t get in,’ says Skelhorne.‘Oldbuildings have more than one roof, andmany roofs means many gutters,whicheasily get blocked.Chip papers and plasticcoffee cups are the usual suspects in themiddle of a city.’

Many gutters also means many drains;it’s not just a case of stopping water getting

in, but also helping it get away.One of themajor causes of blocked drains is tree roots– there are lots of mature trees around theprecinct – and the chances are that whenthere’s a problem it’s under a road or insomeone’s driveway.

There are some things that can’t beanticipated, such as a six-foot-wide ceilingrose crashing down in the Centre forReproductive Medicine.‘It was severalinches thick,’ remembers Skelhorne,‘and itdestroyed the ends of two beds, fortunatelymissing the patients in them.’

Then there are the things you knowabout, but aren’t quite sure how to handle– the construction of a loo for a visit fromthe Queen in 1997, for example.‘That wasa daunting task,’ says Skelhorne,‘becauseyou don’t know what standards areexpected. I carefully created a toilet forher, a conversion of two cubicles into one.To conceal an old drain cover, I installeda throne, consisting of a box with anupholstered top in University red.Unfortunately, her visit was cancelled duetoTony Blair entering Downing Street!’

Skelhorne is nearing the end of one ofthe biggest projects he has overseen: therestoration of theWills Memorial Buildingtower.Construction work is disruptive atthe best of times, but in a working buildingit’s particularly difficult.‘Dust isunavoidable,’ he says,‘and noise is anotherproblem,not just in terms of teaching; alittle bit of noise can ruin an experiment,for example.’

Managing such a project is all aboutkeeping people in the picture.‘Peoplesometimes see me as the prophet ofdoom,but I try to be fair to everyone.

LABOUROF LOVE

‘You’re onlyever a phonecall awayfromdisaster.’

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As a facilitator, being seen to be fair is animportant part of the job.’

It’s not the people who have causedSkelhorne problems on theWills project somuch as the bird life.‘When the buildingwas fully scaffolded,pigeons would perchon the rails on the western elevation andwarm their rears in the afternoon sun.When it got dark they would come insidethe scaffolding and nest among thepinnacles.We had to encase the scaffoldingin horizontal netting to stop them.’

With retirement looming, it’s fittingthat the restoration should be one ofSkelhorne’s legacies.He’s an avid fan ofthe building’s architect,George Oatley,and his enthusiasm spills over into thetours he leads, the proceeds of which goto theWallace and Gromit GrandAppealat Bristol Children’s Hospital.‘I’m alwayslearning something new about thebuilding,’ he says,‘and the more we restore,the more we discover. I’m cataloguing thegrotesques on the side of the tower andam at the point where all the mythicalcreatures have been used up, and ordinarypeople’s faces are being depicted,probablypeople who once worked on the building.’

Never mind that the restoration hastaken three hours of each of Skelhorne’sworking days for the past year; it’s beenworth it.‘If the designers could come backand see it, they’d say it looks as good as theday it was built,’ he declares. I think we’d allagree with that.

Tours ofWills and other University buildingscan be booked at www.bristol.ac.uk/cms/cpe/university-tours.html

When Dave Skelhorne took the job ofcontracts supervisor for Building Services,constructing a royal toilet wasn’t in the jobdescription. But, as he tells Hilary Brown,he has had to do that and much more.

Thanks to the nation’s current obsession with healthy eating,Sue Baic gets a lot more calls from the media these days. Butif they want an endorsement of the latest exotically namedmiracle fruit or fad diet, they go away crestfallen.

Baic’s field is evidence-based nutrition,which has little in commonwith the turf patrolled by primetimeTV’s ‘diet doctors’. Since shebecame programme director of the Masters course in Physical Activity,Nutrition and Public Health in 2001, she has seen nutrition becomea key area of media interest – and confusion.

Take superfoods, for example.‘Focusing on blueberries orpomegranates isn’t particularly useful,’ says Baic.‘The media loves to grabhold of particular foods, but you should be looking at your overall dietand pattern of eating.’At the same time, she understands why the mediaseize on the singular.‘I’m a big reader of newspapers,’ she says,‘and ifsomething doesn’t hook me in, I don’t read it.’

Nothing hooksTV viewers in quite as well as the prospect of aslanging match.On at least one occasion in her role as media expert,Baic has found herself in the ring.

‘It was on a live daytime chat show,’ she says,‘one of those showswhere the audience can attack you.’ Baic was brought on to discuss thepros and cons of obesity surgery with an audience concerned abouttheir weight. But there was something she didn’t know.‘They told theaudience before I came on that I was going to tell them where they’dgone wrong. I couldn’t understand the air of hostility before I’d evenopened my mouth.’Wisely, she avoided the strident tones the audiencehad been expecting:‘I’d prepared what I wanted to say in advance, soI carried on and explained the procedure, and outlined the risks andbenefits of gastric banding and stomach stapling.’

Baic’s other media work has included interviews for DietTrials,a BBC-commissioned study of commercial weight-loss treatments,appearances on the Today programme on Radio 4, and a segment on

Pity the academic who has to deal with an outbreakof explosive flatulence from the camera crew on livetelevision. Sue Baic, Lecturer in Nutrition and PublicHealth in the Department of Exercise,Nutrition andHealth Sciences, has endured this and other indignitiesto get her message across to a diet-weary public. Shetalks to Nick Riddle.

The scholar and the soundbite

FOODS& FADS

BBC 2’s Don’t DieYoung, presented by Bristol’s Alice Roberts. She hasalso ventured where many academics would fear to tread: kids’ telly.‘The programme was called TheTopTen of Everything, and the producerswanted me for a segment on the ten most flatulence-inducing foods.It was based on a Canadian study which a fellow academic had actuallycarried out, and my role was to talk the audience through the list. I saidI’d do it, because I hoped kids might get the message that it can be funto eat fruit and veg.’

But what’s the dress code for children’sTV? She borrowed a hoodedtop from her partner’s teenage daughter.‘After the dry runs, the floormanager said:“OK, Sue, you can get changed – we’re doing the live onenow”.Then it dawned on me that kids’TV is all about glamour; thefemale presenters wear boob tubes.And there I was in my casual kit,looking a bit rough with nothing to change into…’

There was one more surprise in store:‘At the end of the liveprogramme, the camera crew rigged up this big flatulent explosion inthe studio, just to see how I reacted.And I leapt out of my skin!’

A more common (and less traumatic) challenge is simply to makemainstream nutrition interesting – perhaps because so much of it iscommon sense.‘But it is possible,’ Baic insists, and cites as an examplethe now standard five-a-day guideline for eating fruit and vegetables.‘From what you hear onTV, you’d think they have to be fennel andalfalfa seeds, or at least all fresh produce.’Not so, says Baic.‘It can befrozen, tinned, fresh or dried. It can even be juice or smoothies.’ Frozenpeas count as one, and so do tinned tomatoes, baked beans and raisins.

Another common-sense angle is that, contrary to the media’sfondness for black-and-white statements about nutrition, the truth is –as always – more of a greyish colour.‘A lot of it is about relative risk,’says Baic.‘We think that having five portions of fruit or veg a day helpsprotect against some forms of cancer, but nobody’s proven that.The mostwe can say is that this is our best interpretation of the knowledge as itstands at the moment.’

Last year’s controversy over oily fish, says Baic, provides an objectlesson in taking media coverage with a pinch of salt.A new studycontradicted the conventional view that oily fish can help prevent heartdisease.‘It was one trial among hundreds, and the others suggested thatoily fish is beneficial. But the press jumped on it and said:“This provesthat fish oil is useless after all”.’When the media approached Baic, shesuggested that the trial’s methodology might not have been tight enough.‘But they printed something along the lines of “Nutritionists cannotagree about oily fish”.’

Thankfully, some questions have clearer answers.Baic often writes inresponse to health queries on newspapers’Q&A pages.‘A reader recentlyasked:“Does a pint of cider count as one of my five daily fruit and veg?”I wrote in to tell him no:with clear apple juice or cider, all the pulp hasbeen removed, and that’s where most of the antioxidants are.You’d haveto drink at least a litre of cider to get the equivalent of one apple.’

Appearing in the media can have some advantages, says Baic.There issome evidence that scientific research covered in the media is more likelyto be cited by other academics, and it helps to inform the public about thework that universities do.‘What’s more, our current and potential studentssay they enjoy seeing the department and the University in the news’.

Neither are university lecturers averse to seeing themselves in print.Baic has co-authored several books, including Nutrition for Dummies,GL for Dummies and the forthcoming Living Gluten-free for Dummies(for people with coeliac disease).‘The publishers hired escalators on theLondon Underground to promote GL for Dummies, with the cover ondisplay all the way up both sides.We made a special trip to London justso we could go and find them!’ D

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‘The media lovesto grab hold ofparticular foods,but you shouldbe looking atyour overall diet.’



My father was a card-carrying member of theCommunist party and would have nothing todo with religion, so I grew up knowing verylittle about my Jewish heritage.My motherdid enrol me in religion school attached toRomford Synagogue, and for a while I went toHebrew classes on Sunday mornings. I wasn’tvery good at it; we didn’t speak it at home andthere’s a limit to what an eight-year-old boycan learn in two hours a week, so I startedplaying truant. I used to get off the bus half waythere, spend the return bus fare on ice creamand walk home.

Later on, a teacher encouraged me to takelessons for my Bar Mitzvah. I can’t say I learnedmuch Hebrew for that either, just a few linesparrot-fashion to get by.Nevertheless, I hadalways had a religious inclination and took toreading the Hebrew scriptures with a torchunder the bedclothes at night.

I gained a degree in Zoology from theUniversity of London, and went off to Nigeriato work as a volunteer for the developmentcharityVSO. I was laboratory superintendent in

the veterinary section of the Nigerian InstituteforTrypanosomiasis Research.Many of theNigerians I worked with were Muslims.Theyhad an attitude of respect towards me becauseI was Jewish.On the other hand,many of theex-pat English vets there seemed anti-Semitic.

During this time, I befriended the Catholicpriests who ran the mission schools in the bush.They were always asking me questions aboutJudaism which I couldn’t answer.All this wasa formative influence: it made me want tounderstand the reasons for anti-Semitism andto satisfy the priests’ curiosity – and my own –about my Jewishness.

In 1974, after a spell in Zambia as a tsetsecontrol officer (working on the prevention ofdisease spread by these flies), I went to Israel todo the ‘kibbutz thing’ and to find some answersto my questions. It turned out to be a secularkibbutz, so I learnt nothing about Judaism, but Idid have a lot of fun! Back in Britain, I workedin Southmead Hospital in the pathology lab ofthe human cytogenetics unit, which led to atwo-year secondment in Reykjavik.

From scientist to rabbi was not such a leap of faith, as ProgressiveJewish chaplain Rabbi Ron Berry explains to Hilary Brown.

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Why I became ...

When I returned to Bristol, I became ascience teacher.While teaching at HartcliffeSchool, I became a member of the Bristol andWest Progressive Jewish Congregation. I learnedthe main prayers of the regular service ofworship and become a lay preacher.

One of the rabbinic students who visited thesynagogue suggested I attend a summer schoolat Leo Baeck College, the rabbinic trainingseminary in London.Here I discovered howwonderful it was to study rabbinic texts. By thistime I had done a PGCE at Bristol’s GraduateSchool of Education and got a job teachingchemistry at Lockleaze Secondary School.I enjoyed it, but the summer school made mewant to study full-time to become a rabbi.

After three years as a rabbi in Newcastleand Darlington, I returned to the SouthWest.I wanted to write a torah scroll, which containsthe five books of Moses and is used in worshipin synagogues.To prepare, I needed kosherparchment and quills cut from turkey feathers.My plumber directed me toWest SomersetCommunity College,where the students raisedturkeys to sell to staff and parents at Christmas.I was invited to collect the wing feathers fromthe slaughtered birds,which, as it happens,wereslaughtered in the traditional Jewish way.

Then a strange thing happened. I had toleave the quills to dry out for a year until theywere resilient enough to use. It was a year laterto the day that I received a commission fromtheWest London Synagogue to write a torahscroll. I said to my wife,“It’s a sign!”. It took me15 months to write the scroll, 42 lines a day.

I now serve the Bristol andWest ProgressiveJewish Congregation. I am also a teacher in theDepartment ofTheology and Religious Studiesand a member of the multi-faith chaplaincyteams at both Bristol and the University of theWest of England.

The move from science, to teaching science,to teaching theology and preaching has had akind of inevitability about it. It’s as if I’m beingled along a certain path. I have no regrets; I enjoyeverything I do. It’s all meaty,meaningful stuff.

... A RABBI


From the archives

In 2008, ‘China Now’, a celebrationof modern Chinese culture, will berunning across Britain, but in atticsacross the country lie unique piecesof evidence about ‘China then’:photographs of the pre-revolutionaryera. The intimacy of Sino-Britishrelations – not always welcome,of course –meant that tens ofthousands of Britons visited orworked and lived there before the1949 communist revolution. Manytook photographs, and where theysurvive these private records ofChinese places and people offerunique glimpses of a country nowchanging irrevocably. Working with

British and French collaborators,a team in Historical Studies led byProfessor Robert Bickers and JamieCarstairs is locating and digitisingsuch collections, and placing themonline. That snapshot in yourgrandmother’s albummight be theonly surviving record anywhere ofa slice of the Chinese past. Theproject website offers a researchresource, and a way of sendingthese images home:http://chp.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr

IMAGES OF CHINA,LOST AND FOUND

Clockwise from top: Panoramic views of amountain path in western China and of the riverin Shanghai, a hundred years ago; outside HongKong’s Botanical Gardens; inside the tea tastingroom of Oswald and Co in Foochow

1 ‘Rigoletto, Sadler’sWells Opera atthe New Theatre, London’, by designerFrederick Crooke, is one of the imagesin the University of Bristol TheatreCollection’s Visualising Theatre project.More than 1,000 images from thecollection have been digitised to providea fully searchable online picture libraryat www.bristol.ac.uk/theatrecollection/search.html.

2 ‘Watching’, by 16-year-old NathanAl-Shehab, was the winner in the16 years and over open category ofa photography competition run by theVet School in February. The competitionwas part of the Spring Hop event atLangford to celebrate rabbits andbrighten up the winter months.

3 Image from ‘Muerte, ¿Bienvenida?Images of Death inMexico’, anexhibition by Helena Hernández Tapiaat last term’s Semana Cultural (CulturalWeek). This annual event, organised bythe Department of Hispanic, Portugueseand Latin American Studies, celebratesLuso-Hispanic culture.

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4 Local schoolchildren construct amodel building before testing it todestruction on the shaking-table atthe Bristol Laboratory for AdvancedDynamics Engineering. They werecompeting in the sixth annual IDEERS(Introducing and DemonstratingEarthquake Engineering Research inSchools) challenge, organised by theDepartment of Civil Engineering andfunded byWidening Participation. It isrun in collaboration with At-Bristol andBristol City Council Children and YoungPeople’s Services.

5 Local artist Phillipa Fawcett, who hasrepainted the heraldic shields on theWills Memorial Building as part of therestoration of the 68-metre-high tower.

6A cranium reconstructed from 40,000-year-old bone fragments showing bothmodern human and Neanderthal traits.The boneswere recovered and analysedby Professor João Zilhão of theDepartment of Archaeology andAnthropology and Professor ErikTrinkaus ofWashington University and

colleagues. Their findings indicate thathumans continued to evolve long afterthey were established in Europe, andinterbredwith Neanderthals as theysettled across the continent.

7One of the world’s oldest and rarestplants, theWollemi Pine (Wollemianobilis) is a new addition to the plantcollection at the University’s BotanicGarden. From the time of the dinosaurs,the species survived undiscovered inWollemi National Park, Australia untilspotted in 1994.When the plant is largeenough it will be planted in the garden’sEvolutionary Dell, where it will find ahome in the Cretaceous section.

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65If you need allor part of thispublication in analternative format,such as in Braille,in larger print oron tape, pleasetelephone+44 (0)117928 8895

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Subtext - University of BristolSubtext 3 Summer 2007 Roads to Rome … and Athens and Troy The bug...

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Transcript of Subtext - University of BristolSubtext 3 Summer 2007 Roads to Rome … and Athens and Troy The bug...