A Window on the Soul

By Peter D Wilson

A manipulated photographic image with a psychological calming effect is investigated secretly for possible therapeutic applications, but an incidental problem causes abandonment of the project. A leak however arouses the unwelcome interest of the suspicious local Press which is then tricked into discrediting itself by blowing up a bubble of alarmist sensation that is promptly burst, but the frank editorial admission of being hoaxed leads to a promise of the true story in due course. The failure of the technical investigation threatens the future of the laboratory which then finds through the reporter a commercial application for the techniques developed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter D Wilson
• Release date: Dec 24, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310039096

Peter D Wilson

Peter Wilson was born in Nottingham, England, in 1936. After education at Nottingham High School, where he changed course from classics to science because he couldn’t get on with Greek, he gained an open scholarship to St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, to be taken up after National Service (1955-57) in which he was a radio mechanic at the SHAPE military headquarters near Paris. At Oxford he gained first-class honours in chemistry, then took a PhD at Leeds University.In 1964 he was appointed to a research position at the nuclear reprocessing site at Sellafield in Cumberland (the north-western corner of England), then operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Agency (UKAEA) of which the relevant division became British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) in 1971. He remained there until retirement in 2001, mostly working on process chemistry development. For the last dozen years he was chiefly concerned with certain aspects of long-term waste management and related strategic issues, helping to form the company technical policy thereon and presenting its rationale in international discussions. He was also the technical member of a team representing the UK in gaining acceptance of an extension to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to cover a possible loophole. His book "The Nuclear Fuel Cycle" (Oxford University Press, 1996) has become the standard text on the subject. Following his retirement, BNFL set up and financed a "Peter Wilson Medal and Prize" for research and communication, to be awarded annually for ten years at Leeds University.He lived in Seascale, a coastal village near to the Sellafield site. His interest in amateur dramatics dated back to the 1960s and for many years he was an active member of the society based in Gosforth, the next village inland. His collection of stories, plays and film scripts along with some factual material may be found at https://peterdwilson.wixsite.com/peterwilsonscripts

Book preview

A WINDOW ON THE SOUL

by

Peter D. Wilson

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Contents

Start

Laboratory

Reaction

Notebook

Subterfuge

Conference

Proposition

About the author

A WINDOW ON THE SOUL

What a gorgeous picture!

Not bad, is it? John Hardcastle paused for a while in manipulating the latest batch copied from his camera and joined his wife in admiring this particular image on the computer screen, trying to avoid looking intolerably smug but not succeeding very well. Ready to move on?

No, hang on a bit.

Sandra gazed at the screen for what seemed an age, then relaxed with a contented sigh and lapsed into an unwonted silence.

Are you all right, dear?

What?

I said, are you all right?

Oh, yes, John, I’m sorry. I was miles away.

Where?

Goodness knows. But it was really good. I had a marvellous feeling that all was well, and all manner of things were well ... Heavens, I never thought I’d find myself quoting Julian of Norwich.

Who?

Oh, never mind.

Don’t leave me in suspense!

All right. A mediaeval mystic – I read about her years ago. But you know how anxious I was about Mother ...

I told you there was no need to worry. It’s a perfectly standard operation.

Yes, but there’s always the ‘What if ...?’, isn’t there? But suddenly it seemed that everything was bound to be all right, and the relief was incredible.

Well, that’s something to be thankful for. Can I move on now?

John continued his task, with particular attention to possible entries in the club’s monthly competition, but nothing that altogether fitted the specification really satisfied him. He kept coming back to the one that had so fascinated Sandra, and eventually decided that if he was to enter anything at all, that had to be it. He needed a title and after racking his brains without success, asked her for ideas.

Does it have to be descriptive?

"Not