Thanks to Newton Public Library and Steve Richards for this.
Things James Wells writes are usually worth reading, and this is no exception. Highly recommended to anyone (like me) who is thinking a lot about the current state, and future, of particle physics. Or who is just interested in how our ideas about the fundamental laws of nature have evolved over the years, in the light of steadily accumulated data.
A sentiment I particularly applaud is this:
If it is the old static former definition, then it is uninteresting to use the phrase “Standard Model” ever again, except in nostalgic history books, and if it is the new dynamic latter definition then we should not speak of neutrino masses being beyond the Standard Model
Authors of PhD theses I am likely to review or examine, please take note…
I occasionally get asked, since the LHC is not currently providing collisions, what we’re actually doing now. Answers include Protons, Papers, Poppadoms, Preparation, Python, Pictures and Philip Pullman.

I’m on the way back to London from Genoa now, after an enjoyable visit to the Festival della Scienza. I was giving a talk to help launch the Italian edition of Atom Land/A Map of the Invisible, (Atomlandia, published by Hoepli, who organised the trip).
The talk was in the Doge’s Palace, definitely one of the grandest venues in which I have banged on about particle physics (I am more used to pubs, to be honest). It was also my first time being simultaneously translated. It was a challenge for me to speak slowly and clearly, and even more of a challenge for the translators when I failed. As you can see towards the bottom of this cartoon, they just about managed to keep up, to applause from the audience: