My main memory of final year, apart from the hard work and the chemistry, was the final Honours practical exam. In those days we had practical examinations which consisted of, in organic chemistry, a preparation which we had to make a derivative of and a spot test, you had to identify a compound.

Well, the preparation went all right. The organic spot tests could be difficult, but fortunately for me, and a stroke of luck, because I was interested in inorganic chemistry, the first thing I did was a flame test. I did a flame test and, as you well know, if barium's in a compound you get a bright green persistent flame. It was barium. So I thought, 'Barium? Organic compound?' There was only one organic compound that I'd heard that had barium: barium hippurate, which is made from horse's urine, as the name suggests, and so I thought, 'Ah, maybe barium hippurate'. And so I did all the tests that would confirm this, got the answer done in half the time and said, 'It's barium hippurate', and Norm said, 'You bugger!' he said, 'we never thought of a flame test'.