“There is no such thing as a fish”

Well of course there is, but today we use the word ‘fish’ to refer to a number of different branches of the animal kingdom rather than the single branch that was originally intended to be known as fish, so in a way the word has lost its meaning.

This was a point made by John Mitchinson, Director of Research for QI, speaking at the Little Atoms podcast recording this evening. He and fellow “elf” Dan Schreiber were talking about the inspiration and research behind the hit series. The inspiration came from creator John Lloyd deciding he wanted to rewrite the Encyclopaedia Britannica “without the boring bits” in order to properly answer his kids’ questions.

Delivering science without the boring bits is a good way to sum up my first day at Cheltenham, which has covered subjects from cancer stem cells to robot warfare via the question of whether love is a type of energy. Whizzing from topic to topic like this is what I expected of Cheltenham and the first day certainly hasn’t disappointed. So wielding my snazzy press pass I’m off to search out more new topics and fascinating facts tomorrow which promises ethics, mental health and a good dose of my favourite topic – genetics!