Party to a partnership

The title of your diary column, Antithesis, could be taken as a licence to get the wrong end of the stick, but your diarist on October 24 clearly enjoyed the recent party at the Royal Institution so much that he or she lost sight of its purpose.

In these days when everyone in education is being exhorted (rightly in my view) to form partnerships with the corporate sector, we were celebrating just that: what we confidently expect will be an active partnership between the longest-standing organisation in the world devoted to bringing science to young people and one of the world's leading science-based companies, Glaxo Wellcome.

In December we will be delighted to invite your diarist, along with others from the media, to another party to celebrate the first fruits of the partnership in this year's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures - and, yes, they will be given by Ian Stewart.

Peter Day Director The Royal lnstitution