RSC Blog

Another gruelling day at the RSC. Sorry.

Today saw people flooding in to Burlington House’s courtyard from Piccadilly to try the RSC’s authentic Dickensian gruel. Held to order by the terrifying Mr Bumble, the public tucked into their traditional 1850s London workhouse cuisine.

The gruel was cooked up by our own chef Fabien Aid, and received mixed opinions: most thought the gruel itself was a tasty porridge, but the addition of onions certainly ruined a few officer-workers’ afternoons – or at least their colleagues’.

Giving out gruel – and thereby feeding the masses – serves to highlight the RSC’s upcoming report on food, “The Vital Ingredient“, which is launched later this month, and the RSC’s theme of food for 2009.

The pictures below were taken for the Press Association. Click each thumbnail to see the larger image, and the wide variety of faces people pulled while eating the gruel!

And if photos aren’t enough for you, here’s the news footage that appeared on Virgin news, MSN news and Daily Mirror videos… follow this link (goes to MSN News Videos).

Towering geniuses were often underappreciated in their day – Picasso, Stravinsky and the like. So when presented with an entry to our Italian Job competition that is so complex as to border on unreadable, I hesitated to immediately label it “bonkers”.

From Mitch Groves (”a.k.a. Mitch Groves”) in Pasadena, California, I received a mind-boggling submission. It seems to include a complex understanding of chemical bonding and fundamental principles. I think. It’s a bit hard to tell.

I reproduce it here (after the jump) in the hope someone with greater cranial capacity than I can make sense of it: perhaps Mr Groves’s entry will be the Petrushka of the 22nd century.

We will be announcing the winner of our competition on or around the 20th January, having searched through nearly 2000 entries for the most rigorously proven hypothesis. Thank you for a puzzling but enjoyable read, Mr Groves.

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As expected, even an offer of £1 million hasn’t brought the next Nobel Prize winner out of the woodwork to present me with a 100% chemical free material. In light of some exceptional dedication and tenacity, however, I have awarded a “Highly Commended” prize.

Stephen George, from Australia, sent us by FedEx these sample vials, containing semiconductor nanocrystals in toluene solution:

CdSe/ZnS Core Shell nanocrystal quantum dots in toluene - not exactly 100% chemical free but the best we've had yet!

Mr George’s claim is based on the exciton confinement properties of such nanocrystals – they create a so-called  “quantum dot” where electrons are restricted in three dimensions.

The claim was that an “electron is not a chemical and that the solution/matrix is just a container.” Like other less well thought out claims we’ve heard, the necessity of the container rules this entry out from winning the prize. Mr George’s contention that a material’s properties are defined by its electrons only was also in dispute.

Having said all that, Mr George set about this challenge in a scientific manner, not regurgitating the same nonsense the advertising companies do, but methodically assessing the best candidate based on his own research. His entry is clearly streets ahead of claims of “100% chemical free organic olive oil” that I have received!

The following day I had an invoice from FedEx for the postage. In recognition of Mr George’s enthusiasm and creativity, although his entry is not eligible for the £1 million, I will reward him by paying the FedEx bill of £42.44. Not a bad second prize, but I won’t be giving out any more.

Thanks again to Stephen George for his creative entry.