The Doctor and The Nightingale {1}

school reunion 3.1

A school bell rang and students flooded into the classroom. The Doctor, posing as a teacher, entered the classroom and approached the front desk. "Good morning, class. Are we sitting comfortably?" In red ink, he wrote PHYSICS on the whiteboard. "So, physics. Physics, eh?" He capped off the maker and threw it onto the desk. "Physics. Physics. Physics! Physics. Physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics. I hope one of you is getting all this down. Okay let's see what you know. Two identical strips of nylon are charged with static electricity and hung from a string so they can swing freely. What would happen if they were brought near each other?" A young boy with spectacles raised his hand. "Yes, er, what's your name?"

"Milo" the boy answered.

"Milo! Off you go!"

"They'd repel each other because they have the same charge"

"Correctamundo! A word I have never used before and hopefully never will again" The Doctor proceeded with asking another question. "Question two. I coil up a thin piece of microwire and place it in a glass of water. Then I turn on the electricity and measure to see if the water's temperature is affected. My question is this. How do I measure the electrical power going into the coil?" Milo raised his hand again. "Someone else" The Doctor looked around at all the other students. They looked bored out of their minds. "No? Okay, Milo, go for it"

"Measure the current and PDs in an ammeter and a voltmeter" Milo answered on the dot again.

"Two to Milo. Right then, Milo, tell me this. True or false. The greater the dampening of the system, the quicker it loses energy to its surroundings"

"False"

"What is non-coding DNA?"

"DNA that doesn't code for a protein"

"Sixty five thousand nine hundred and eighty three times five?" Now he was The Doctor was straying even farther away from physics.

"Three hundred and twenty nine thousand nine hundred and fifteen" Milo answered in a single breath without pause.

"How do you travel faster than light?"

"By opening a quantum tunnel with an FTL factor of thirty six point seven recurring"

The Doctor's jaw dropped.

______

A few classrooms down in the science hall, Nova wrote her name on the whiteboard. She was posing as a Biology teacher. "Alright, students. My name is Miss Galvin" She turned to face the students. "And I don't know about you, but I love biology! How about we play a game, hmm?" Nova suggested. None of the students seemed to interested in what she had to say, except for a girl sitting in the front, twitching with eagerness. Nova noticed and smiled at the girl. "What's your name?"

"Chelsea, ma'am" the girl answered.

"Chelsea!" Nova repeated. "Alright, Chelsea. Let's see if you can answer this question. What is the largest living structure on Earth?"

"The Great Barrier Reef found in Australia" Chelsea answered. "Reaching over 2000 kilometres or 1240 miles in length"

"Bingo! Let's get to another question, and this time I'd like to see some hands go up" Nova asked the next question. "Moulds, yeasts, and mushrooms are a type of what?"

Chelsea's hand was the only one that shot up. Nova pointed at her, and the young girl proceeded to answer. "Fungus"

"Bingo again!" Nova's eyes scanned over the other students. "Come on, guys. Chelsea's winning the game. Surely there is someone who can match her mind" Another question was asked. "What was the first mammal to be cloned from a single cell?"