The third degree

Back page gossip from the 14 November issue of Research Fortnight.

Avatar error Readers may be familiar with the avatar of universities and science minister, Sam Gyimah, deployed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to promote UK innovation. You may have seen the latest video in which a cartoon Sam explains quantum technology and its uses.

The Third Degree usually watches and wonders who on Earth at BEIS thinks these videos are a good idea. In the latest animation, a cartoon cat shrinks the minister to “quantum scale” using a machine labelled Shrink-O-Tronic v2.0. The cat then proceeds to intercept the minister’s telephone conversation in an attic and record it on a reel-to-reel tape recorder.