Cirrus@Austlit

'Combining hormonal teenagers with the open flames of a Bunsen burner  always seemed like a recipe for disaster. Perhaps this was why I was so over cautious when entering the  science classroom at high school. Experiments in the wrong hands: that scalpel might slip on a sheep's eyeball into a pumping vein; a cheeky cube of sodium could explode the fish tank; there's another ponytail set on fire... All that danger, kept in check by the casual" supervision of a mildly interested teacher, gave me butterflies. (True, I was a nervous kid). Yet still, when I'd perform the assigned task and achieve the predicted result, there was definite excitement there, some satisfaction that the world could 'make sense.' (Jessica L Wilkinson, Editorial introduction)