Slime (2021)

On a clear spring day, I make my way to the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. It’s located in a part of the university campus which has a whiff of Hogwarts about it, with a maze of courtyards, the entrance hiding somewhere within. The Hunterian is the oldest public museum in Scotland, more cabinet of curiosities than modern scientific institution. Roman artefacts, feathered Maori cloaks and fossils sit side by side in this museum, which reminds me of a church with its pointy gable and simple rosette glass window, the high ceiling worked in the same dark wood as the carved balustrades. But it’s neither the neo-Gothic charm nor the wonderful collections that brought me to the Hunterian. I am here to see a glass bottle, about as big as a hand, fitted with a fat stopper and two gilded labels, handwritten. I’m here to see an old phial filled with slime. Some forms of matter seem to unite the properties of solids and liquids. For example, cats: which category do they fall into? The answer should ... Read full article.