It was my first taste of free love — for the brain. A first visit to what Bill Clinton dubbed the ‘Woodstock of the Mind’. With just one afternoon at the Hay festival, I rolled up at the first thing that caught my eye — a distinguished prof talking about nanotechnology. Bear with me here. I was soon learning that making things nano-sized changes their essential properties. Surfaces can be made which repel water. A single drop can be made bouncier than a children’s rubber ball. So what, you ask. Well, we’ll all soon have mobile phones which we can drop in the bath, which raises the exciting — if, perhaps somewhat distasteful, prospect of my being able to broadcast on the Today programme from my favourite place — providing I’m careful not to make splashing noises.
What I had assumed would be a simple book plug (Live from Downing Street is still available in all bookshops, now you ask) was, in fact, a testing inquisition worthy of John Humphrys.
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