My expertise did not stretch to biomedical science, yet I was charged with delivering a lecture to the new first years.

I won them over in the first few minutes with a couple of jokes, then kept their interest by asking them to reconstruct the beginnings of a campus relationship in the early 1980s. Although they were enthusiastic with their suggestions, they really had no idea of how to build a romantic relationship without the help of mobile phone technology.

They were spellbound as I explained the torturously slow mechanics of flirting through messages pinned to departmental noticeboards.