Question: What is the most disusting experiment have you done.

I conducted some research more than 30 years ago to find out what happens to fish bones after people use the fish for eating, and the bones become part of the archaeological remains that we find today.

First, I needed to obtain some fish bones from dead cod. I obtained filleted cod bodies from some generous fishermen at a fish market in Grimsby. I then carried the cod back to London (where I was working) in a giant black plastic sack on the train. Unsurprisingly I got some strange looks from other passengers.

To get the bones, I had to dissolve the flesh off them using an enzyme (a protein that speeds up chemical reactions such as those involved in breaking down flesh) called “papain” that comes from papaya fruit. To do this, I soaked the cod bodies (some of them 1 metre long) in the warm enzyme solution for several days until the flesh dissolved, then sieved the bones from the horrible gelatinous gunk and then washed and cleaned them individually before drying them.

Although I carried this work out in a fume cupboard (a cupboard with fans in it to suck away fumes and toxic compounds) the smell of dissolving fish filled my university department, making me very (more?) unpopular with my academic colleagues. I also chose to do the work dressed only in a lab coat, underpants and trainers, to avoid having all of my clothes smelling of rotten fish. I didn’t do it more than once…