The preamble to Genius 130 states: “Before being entered in the grid, six solutions must undergo 24 down 9, while another six must undergo 26 15. In the process only valid words may be created.”
So, first stops must be 24D/9A and 26A/15A – which initially gave BETA <something> and ELECTRON <something>. And my initial assumption was that maybe I should be looking for Bs (beta) and Es (electrons?), to apply the aforementioned ‘undergoing’ to.
With not much else to go on it was down to some straight solving, bearing in mind that crossing letters may not be trustworthy. It was a while back, but I remember this being a puzzle of many visits over a few days…at the time I was travelling around Burma (Myanmar) on a family holiday, and we’d flown out the day before the puzzle came out, so I was solving on my PC when I was able to fire it up, rather than my usual/preferred paper copy…although a paper copy would have rapidly deteriorated in the continuous 35-40 degree heat…
A few clashes started to materialise – NUTTER and PRETTY starting in the same cell; POTATION needing to be NOTATION from the N of ADJOINS…and with NYLONS vs PYLONS I gave up on those Bs and Es to concentrate on Ps and Ns.
To cut an embarrassingly long story short (given my A grade in A-level physics, albeit 30-odd years ago!) I eventually worked out that we were looking at ELECTRON CAPTURE (the change of a proton – P – into a neutron – N – by absorption of an electron) and BETA DECAY (where a proton – P – splits and emits an electron, leaving a neutron – N).
So there are six examples of a P turning to an N, and six vice versa. Not all of these are clashes, which delayed me somewhat as I searched for more clashing letters…
In summary – a ‘particular’ly challenging and educational puzzle. (I was going to say ‘quark-y, but maybe that is a physics pun too far?!) Difficult enough to fit the Genius genre, and, in my case at least, it helps that there is only one of these a month! Thank-you to Qaos…
NB. On a technical note – I have not been able to submit my entry to this puzzle – the Guardian website just tells me that it could not ‘serve the page you asked for’ whenever I hit ‘Submit’. Has anybody else had this problem? I reverted to e-mailing a screenshot of my completed grid to the Guardian crossword editor (crossword.editor@guardian.co.uk) and asking if they could use that to enter me in the draw.)
UPDATE: As of Tuesday 6th I seem to be able to Print Genius 131, which before was giving the same error as the Submit button for 130, so hopefully this has now been fixed?…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution (if changed) | Entry | Definition (with occasional embellishments) |
Clue / Logic/Parsing |
| 8A | ACCEPTED | ACCENTED | Orthodox | Orthodox Catholic church priest welcomed by Goddess and God, at last (8) / A_TE (goddess) around C (Catholic) + CE (Church of England) + P (priest), followed by D (last letter of God) |
| 9A | DECAY | waste | Time to suppress city waste (5) / D_AY (time period) around (suppressing) EC (city – postal district of City of London?) |
|
| 10A | WIMP | dark matter, possibly (physics – weakly interacting massive particles) | I”m into tungsten, copper and dark matter, possibly (4) / W (tungsten) + I + MP (military policeman) |
|
| 11A | PRECEPTORS | PRECENTORS | Teachers | Teachers creep around before playing sport (10) / double anagram – CREEP (around) + SPORT (playing) |
| 12A | CLINES | CLIPES | Biological gradations | Biological gradations using 100 rules (6) / C (100, Roman numeral) + LINES (rules, or rulers) |
| 14A | ANTINODE | ANTIPODE | greatest disturbance here | Nation riots – Germany’s greatest disturbance here? (8) / ANTINO (anag, i.e. riots, of NATION) + DE (Germany, Deutschland) |
| 15A | CAPTURE | Catch | Catch cold? A noble without shirt, perhaps (7) / C (cold) + A + P_URE (noble), around T (tee shirt) |
|
| 17A | ADJOINS | borders | No aid travels across Japan’s borders (7) / AD_OIN (anag, i.e. travels, of NO AID) laid ‘across’ J (Japan), plus S (possessive ‘s) |
|
| 20A | IN THE CAN | double def’n | Prisoner’s location, ready for release (2,3,3) / A movie, TV programme or musical recording is ‘IN THE CAN’ when it is ready for release; and a prisoner could be said to be IN THE ‘CAN’ – slang for jail/prison. |
|
| 22A | PRETTY | Very | Very small minded to kidnap queen (6) / P_ETTY (small minded) around (capturing) R (queen, Regina) |
|
| 23A | PLAINCHANT | religious music | Clergyman shifts tea, books and religious music (10) / PLAINCHA (chaplain, or clergyman, shifting CHA – tea – to the end) + NT (New Testament, books) |
|
| 24A | BATH | &lit-ish (‘here’ being the bishopric of Bath, UK) | Bishop at home here? (4) / B (bishop) + AT + H (home) |
|
| 25A | PIECE | NIECE | piece (as in article or stoty in a publication) | Story still on the radio (5) / homophone (i.e. ‘on the radio’) – PEACE (stillness) |
| 26A | ELECTRON | (Something that is) a tiny bit negative | Is it a tiny bit negative to vote for Reagan? (8) / if you voted for Ronald Reagan (American politician) then you might ‘ELECT RON’ |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution (if changed) | Entry | Definition (with occasional embellishments) |
Clue / Logic/Parsing |
| 1D | ACHILLEA | yarrow (plant) | Sick? In pain? Take a yarrow? (8) / ACH_E (pain) around ILL (sick) + A |
|
| 2D | KEEN | KEEP | double def’n | Piercing cry (4) / KEEN as an adjective can mean piercing; as a verb to KEEN means to lament, mourn |
| 3D | STONES | STOPES | Shakespeare’s mirrors | Sun colours Shakespeare’s mirrors (6) / S (sun) + TONES (colours) |
| 4D | ADRENAL | from a gland | Advanced medic raising a new drug line from a gland (7) / A (adanced) + DR (doctor, medic) + ENA (A + N – new – + E – drug, ecstasy, all raised), plus L (line) |
|
| 5D | ADVERTED | referred to | Referred to victory in trade war with Germany (8) / anag (i.e. war?) of V – victory + TRADE + DE (Deutschland, Germany) |
|
| 6D | SCOTOPHOBE | I hate him (someone who hates Scots, i.e. ‘him’ = various King James of Scotland ) | State photo shredded by order of King James – I hate him! (10) / SC (South Carolina, state) + OTOPH (anag, i.e. shredded, of PHOTO) + OBE (Order of the British Empire) |
|
| 7D | HYBRID | cross | Olympian loses ring, new wife’s endlessly cross (6) / H(O)Y (Olympian, Sir Chris Hoy, losing O – ring) + BRID(E) – new wife, endlessly |
|
| 13D | PITCH-PINES | PITCH-PIPES | trees | Throw sticks over European trees (5-5) / PITCH (throw) + PINS (sticks) around E (European) |
| 16D | RECYCLED | &lit-ish | Er … used again? (8) / ER’ = ‘RE’ CYCLED round |
|
| 18D | POTATION | NOTATION | Liquor | Liquor made from vegetable – one’s drunk by Navy (8) / POTAT_O (vegetable) around (drinking in) I (one), plus N – navy |
| 19D | SPEAKER | SNEAKER | Presiding officer (e.g. in a parliament) | Presiding officer keeps rudely being interrupted by acting monarch (7) / SPE_KE (anag, i.e. rudely, of KEEPS) around A (acting), plus R (rex or regina, monarch) |
| 21D | PYLONS | NYLONS | Artificial legs | Artificial legs are only worn in afterthought (6) / P_S (post script, afterthought) around YLON (anag, i.e. worn, of ONLY) |
| 22D | NUTTER | PUTTER | Fruitcake | Fruitcake with last bit of marzipan, say (6) / N (last letter of marzipan) + UTTER (say) |
| 24D | BETA | product that’s not quite ready | Gamble on a product that’s not quite ready (4) / BET (gamble) + A |
|
Hi mc_rapper 67
Good blog.
I too could not submit my entry and did as you did, e-mailed a copy to Hugh. I also complained to him that problems with the Genius puzzles happen almost every month, one way or another.
I only got a ‘D’ A level physics, but did go on to get a 2.1 in Physics at Liverpool University. Much good that did me too, as I also struggled for a while with the P/N swap.
I liked the puzzle but have two gripes with it. First there were tow instances [14A and 5D] or using DE for Germany. Durely something else could have been used for one of these? Secondly I liked the 9 P/N swaps where there were clahing letters, but did not think the three ‘blind’ changes helped much. When I added up the 6 of each incorrectly once, I even thought I had to change Sneaker to Speaker [19D] and make 20A In The Cap.
I liked that with Pylons becoming Nylons though, the clue still reads fine, as Nylons could well be taken as ‘Artificial legs’.
Hi
I also think that 17A must be an anagram of O AID, rather than NO AID. You have one too many Ns, otherwise. I also then struggle to see how J and N meet the instructions of ‘travels across’. This must be an error by QAOS I think?
Hi Gordon
I don’t think there is an error in 17ac. It is an anagram of NO AID around J (Japan) with the definition ‘borders’
and the ‘s simply a connecting device (wordplay is definition).Sorry, please ignore the end of my comment (after ‘borders). The ‘s provides the S at the end of ADJOINS.
Hi Gaufrid
Yes, I see what you say about what I put, but surely “Around Japan’s”, would be an anagram around JS, not an anagram around J with an S tagged on? I still think it is a clumsy clue.
Thanks for the blog – I love the animation 🙂
We got BETA DECAY and ELECTRON CAPTURE quite quickly, but this didn’t help much as I initially interpreted this as some solutions losing a B whilst others gained an E.
But eventually the penny dropped, though I agree having the ‘blind’ exchanges was a little unsatisfactory.
We never got it quite finished due to having 12a as CLADES (despite not being able to explain lades=rules) and DUTCH PIPES for 13d. I had entertained PITCH PINES, but couldn’t find a satisfactory combination of crossing letters and N/P swaps.
A plus point was the number of sciency words for a change: as well as the key phrases, there were 10a, 12a, and 1d, 4d and 7d to some extent.
Nowhere could I find any support for ‘scotophobia’ meaning ‘hatred of Scots’ – (though I too had made that assumption.) Besides, ‘phobia’ usually means ‘fear’ and scotophobia, according to all the sources I have checked, means ‘fear of darkness’ – or am I just lacking a sense of humour?
@#7 Yes.
Chambers has Scotophobia as fear of Scotland and its people. Also the suffix ‘phobia’ can mean fear or hatred in common use. For example xenophobia is not fear of foreigners, but hatred. Chambers also has Scotophobia as fear of darkness, as said at @#6 and @#7. Perhaps someone visiting the northern parts of Scotland in winter thought it was much the same thing! [Chambers online has neither though.]
Chambers also points out that the prefix for darkness is ‘scoto’, whereas that for Scotland is ‘scot’ or ‘scoto’ when preceded by a consonant. Collins has nothing on either, which I suppose is why the Guardian recommends using Chambers.
The OED has this as a definition too. Here is a wiki entry aboit it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Scottish_sentiment
I couldn’t enter either. A number of email exchanges with technical support just resulted in requests to “clear my cache” and “log off and log on” even though I explained, quite clearly I thought, that it was the submission web page missing that was the problem. I didn’t get my entry in at all – never thought of emailing the editor.
I’ve also been unable to print this months Genius, but on checking again I see there is now a note on the crossword page saying they are “having problems”!
Hi all
Here is the e-mail exchange I had with Hugh. I have not had a second reply. Perhaps if Gaufrid is monitoring this he can start some sort of fifteensquared response to the Guardian who clearly are not taking this seriously and also giving Hugh duff technical information. For clarity I have put my original query first then his response then my response.
Hi Hugh
I have tried several times from three different computers in different locations to submit my Genius 130 solution today. Each time I get a ‘failure page’ from the Guardian website. This is not the first time I have had similar problems submitting the Genius solution. It has happened at least 3 times in the past 12 months. Other months grids for the Genius puzzles always seem to have gremlins too, with characters being entered twice instead of once as I type [which I know is not me as that problem is confirmed to me by others who also get it]. I don’t understand why the Guardian cannot get this relatively simple technology right.
I have attached a word document with a copy of my ‘online’ solution and a copy of the error page that I repeatedly get. I hope this can be included as a submission from me as it is not my fault that I cannot do this through your website.
Please get the techies at the Guardian to fix these problems once and for all.
Best wishes
Gordon
Subject: Re: Website problem
The most likely problem is that you have wittingly or unwittingly uploaded the latest version of Java, which has stronger security settings than the previous versions and which is rejecting the Guardian crossword site as not being recognised as ‘safe’.
Via your control panel, bring the Java add-on to your screen. Go to its ‘security settings’ and there insert http://theguardian.com in the box for “exceptions”. Switch off and re-boot.
If that does not work, please ask userhelp@theguardian.com for further advice, giving them the type of computer you use and your operating system.
HUGH STEPHENSON
Hi Hugh
Thanks for the info, but that is not the problem, as I tweaked Java to allow me to run the interactive crossword, which it would not if my security settings were off. Also the error message is one from the Guardian, not Java [see below].
The blogger for the Genius at 15 squared has also had the same problem, as did a friend of mine in UK.
Also the next version of Java will NOT allow any way to ignore its warnings, so no matter what anyone tries to do Java will not work on the interactive crossword. Unless people simply use an old version of Java, not likely, this will cause major problems.
I really think that the Guardian will need to come up with a different technical approach.
The error the Guardian sent back was called a 404 error, which your own server generates.
Here is a link to explanation at Wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_404
Please ask your techie staff again to check this.
Thanks
Gordon
Afternoon all.
As ever, thanks for the comments and to mc_rapper67 for the blog. That animated gif is superb!
For the theme, I toyed with gaining/losing E (an electron) as part of the transformation process (neutrions aside). But this turned out to be far too restrictive when generating the grid, as you’d have been dictionary crawling for most of the solve.
Having some of the letter changes being in non-clashing positiona was very much deliberate. If everything could be confirmed by clashes alone, it might have meant being able to solve the puzzle without understaing how/why the changes were happening. So I thought a 9/3 split was fair to have 75% of the changes confirmed.
Best wishes,
Qaos.
… neutrions should be neutrinos, of course.
Thanks for all the comments and feedback – and also to Qaos for giving some background on the process of creating the puzzle. All credit for the animated grids goes to kenmac, who shared the wisdom on how to do those!
Apologies that I didn’t parse ADJOINS very well! I think there were some better efforts – will update that.
Qaos has explained the reasoning behind some of the substitutions being in non-clashing squares – and I think at the time it seemed reasonably easy to track them down, given that there were only a couple of each left.
As Gordon points out – Scotophobe is in Chambers, along with Scotophile, referring to hatred of and fondness for the Scots, respectively.
On a positive note – I now seem to be able to PRINT Genius 131 (I was getting the same error message as the Submit button on 130 when I tried to Print 131), so maybe the Print function at least has been fixed. It’ll probably be a while before I try to Submit 131 – hopefully that will also be fixed by then!