This was an enjoyable puzzle to solve and to blog. There is a scientific mini-theme, especially of particle physics (and a bit of biology and chemistry), in the answers and clues, plus a couple of non-scientific/unscientific Biblical references. Thanks to Phssthpok. Definitions are underlined in the clues. [[The pictures at the bottom have unidentified links to the puzzle. Please enclose any comments on them in double brackets. Thank you.]]
Across
1 Coin gets man chicken sandwich for exercise class (6)
COPECK : COCK(a male chicken;a rooster) containing(sandwich for …) PE(abbrev. for “physical education”;exercise class).
Answer: Also spelled as kopeck or kopek, currency unit of Russia and Belarus, equal to 100th of a rouble.
4 State briefly described as satisfactory (8)
OKLAHOMA : Cryptic defn: Reference to OK(satisfactory), the abbrev.(briefly described) for the US state.
9 Bounty – not a ship like Titanic (5)
LARGE : “largess”(bounty;generosity) minus(not) “ss”(abbrev. for a steamship).
Answer: Titanic with a lower-case initial letter.
10 Stars drawn around squares show optimism (9)
SUNNINESS : SUNS(stars in general, including the Earth’s own) containing(drawn around) NINES(squares of the number 3).
11 Sloth, lion, ferret: rival characters every second (7)
INERTIA : Every second letter, respectively, of(every second) “lion”,”ferret”, and “rival”.
Answer: The disinclination to move.
12 Crossing from one pole to another tunnels through property (7)
TRANSIT : { N(abbrev. for “north”;one pole) plus(to) S(abbrev. for “south”;another pole) } contained in(tunnels through) TRAIT(a property;a characteristic).
13 Bounce email header over network (4)
ELAN : First letter of(header) “email ” plus(over) LAN(abbrev. for “local area network”;a linkage of computers and peripherals within a limited area).
Defn. and Answer: Liveliness and style.
14 They extract vitamin from professors? (8)
EDUCTORS : “A”(one of the vitamins) deleted from(from) “educators”(professors in an institution of learning).
17 Subatomic particles built from junction in nerve cells (8)
NEUTRONS : T(something shaped like a “T”, eg. a T-junction) contained in(in) NEURONS(in biology, specialised cells that are the functional units of a nervous system).
19 Officer‘s winning move (4)
MATE : Double defn: 1st: An officer in a ship’s crew; and 2nd: A winning move in a chess match.
22 “Abracadabra! Hamburger slice,” declared Isaac’s dad (7)
ABRAHAM : Hidden in(slice) “Abracadabra! Hamburger “.
Answer: The biblical Isaac’s father. This same answer was in yesterday’s Guardian Cryptic. Do the editors have a sixth sense, or something else, in order to help solvers?
24 Divert right during journey, but not North (7)
REROUTE : R(abbrev. for “right”) + “en route”(in transit;during journey) minus(but not) “n”(abbrev. for “north”).
25 Play duet in comeback, presumably (9)
REPUTEDLY : Anagram of(Play) DUET contained in(in) REPLY(a comeback;a retort is a kind of reply).
26 The strength of a solution is nearer being announced (5)
TITRE : Homophone of(being announced) “tighter”(nearer;meaner;more tightfisted).
Answer: The concentration;strength of a solution as determined by titration, which we used to do in the school chemistry lab.
27 Briefly, in one of these is punishment for teachers (8)
NUTSHELL : …’S HELL(punishment for;belonging to) placed after NUT(abbrev. for the National Union of Teachers in the UK).
Defn: Refering to the phrase, “in a nutshell”. I could be missing something, but I was looking for a plural answer as indicated by “these”. I thought the clue would have been less misleading with “in this” replacing “in one of these”.
28 Dwell in this place (6)
INHERE : IN + HERE(this place were one is currently in).
Answer: To be an inseparable part of, which could also mean to be in;to dwell in.
Down
1 Miner smuggles diamond in experimental technology (8)
COLLIDER : COLLIER(a miner in a colliery) containing(smuggles) D(abbrev. for the suit of diamonds in bridge notation).
Answer: Technology, specifically a machine that accelerates and causes to collide elementary particles in, well, particle physics experiments.
2 China ran police compound (9)
PORCELAIN : Anagram of(compound) RAN POLICE.
3 Fixes, in Celsius, increases in temperature (6)
CHEATS : C(abbrev. for “Celsius”, the scale for temperature measurements) + HEATS(Increases in temperature;hots up).
Defn: To influence the outcome or actions by unlawful means, eg. a match or a jury.
5 Wobbly, rickety engine has capacity to do work, when moving (7,6)
KINETIC ENERGY : Anagram of(Wobbly) RICKETY ENGINE.
Answer: Especially in physics, the energy in a moving mass that could be converted to do work. A clever surface.
6 Wild drinkers got it out (7)
AGITATO : Anagram of(out) [ AA(abbrev. for Alcoholics Anonymous, the organisation of ex- or would-be ex-drinkers) + GOT IT].
Answer: A musical direction to play in an agitated manner, which, I guess, could be described as “wild”.
7 In court, turn up mouldings (5)
OGEES : Reversal of(up) [ SEE(to court;to date one of the opposite sex, as in “are you currently seeing someone?”) + GO(a turn;an attempt, eg. in a game) ].
Answer: In architecture, a moulding with its cross-section in the shape of an S, more or less.
8 Property in square owned by idiots (6)
ASSETS : T(another T-shaped object, this time the T-square, a ruler used in mechanical drawing) contained in(owned by) ASSES(idiots).
10 Flag display is currently the best, in theory (8,5)
STANDARD MODEL : STANDARD(a flag used as an emblem, say, of a military unit) + MODEL(to display,by wearing or posing).
Double defn. and Answer (I think): 1st: The standard that is the best example to follow; and 2nd: The theory, in the science of particle physics, of the forces acting on subatomic particles, including quarks and neutrinos, and the Higgs boson.
15 You heard eel start ripping apart other marine creature (3,6)
SEA TURTLE : Anagram of(ripping apart) [ homophone of(heard) “you” + EEL START ].
16 Female ancestor’s spliced into DNA of some Swiss people (8)
GENEVESE : [ EVE(the biblical first woman;female ancestor of the human race) ‘S ] contained in(spliced into) GENE(the basic unit of heredity carried by DNA).
Answer: The inhabitants or natives of the Swiss city of Geneva.
18 Part of endless witch-hunt is rescheduled (7)
UNHITCH : Anagram of(rescheduled) { “witch-hunt” minus its first and last letters(endless), “w” and “t” }.
Answer: To part;to disconnect.
20 Tiniest thing fooled Reagan (6)
HADRON : HAD(fooled;tricked, as in “I’ve been had! She cleaned out my bank account!”) + RON(short for Ronald, Reagan, former US President).
Answer: Any of a class of subatomic particles consisting of quarks and antiquarks.
21 One is positive in declaring opposition to BBC accent, on reflection (6)
PROTON : Reversal of(on reflection) { [NO TO](a declaration of opposition) plus
(to) RP(abbrev. for “received pronunciation”;the accent or pronunciation part of “Standard English” or “BBC English” }.
Answer: A stable subatomic particle that is positively charged.
23 Publish no conclusion in liver transplant (5)
REPOT : “report”(to publish for widespread reading, eg. in a newspaper) minus(no) the last letter(conclusion in) “liver”.
Defn: Nicely hidden in the clue; and Answer: To transplant;to move, well, a plant from one pot to another.
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For answer to pic#1 please click here and for pic#4 here together with here.
Inhabitants of Geneva are called Genevois. Genevese are I believe inhabitants of Genova in Italy. But do keep up the good work!
simon, both Collins and Chambers give Genevese or Genevan as singular nouns, or adjectives, and the plural nouns Genevese and Genevans. The comparable singular/plural nouns/adjectives relating to Genoa are Genoese or Genovese.
Thanks for the blog scchua. I agree that this was an excellent crossword. I was held up for a while by entering COUP instead of MATE for 19 ac. It works nearly as well!
[[Picture 7 is a large HADRON COLLIDER]]
Nice puzzle and blog – thanks, both.
SW had me convinced 20D and 25A were anagrams so I was nicely misled for a fair while.
27D looks OK to me: the saying does specify a singular, so fair game to have “one of” in the clue, I think.
[[You’re right, Muffyword. Pic 6 is of the location of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland.]]
[[Late to the party, but picture 3 is Satyendra Nath Bose, the Indian physicist whose name is linked with Einstein’s in the Bose–Einstein condensate – not sure if he has a more specific connection to the puzzle. And 5 is James Chadwick, discoverer of the NEUTRON.]]
Living just 5 km from the border with Geneva and less than 2 km from one of the 6 (I think) principal CERN LHC wellheads I felt extremely silly when Genevese was one of my last answers in. The insects that we used to think were fireflies fluttering around in the spring twilight have now been proved to be large flocks of bosons which come out to feed around that time. Very pretty, but they move far too fast to catch.
Thanks, scchua. [[I don’t know about all those intellectual questions, but the floozie in picture #2 is Shirley Jones from Elmer Gantry who was also in OKLAHOMA.]]
Cheers…
[[Right, Andrew, grandpuzzler (and Muffyword). The boson is named after Bose, and bosons are amongst the particles the LHC are studying or searching for. I’ll post links to the answers for the last 2 pics.]]
Checking the blog a few days late, I’m surprised to see no one has commented on the mini-Nina: HIGGS (as in the Higgs boson) appears in the first row of unchecked letters.