There's a phrase which describes things as going ‘From the sublime to the ridiculous’. While I've often been known to speak in clichés, I found myself wondering about this particular saying, because it seems to imply that there is some sort of spectrum, and any comparison with or deviation from the sublime – the brilliant, the transcendent – becomes ridiculous. I've checked the source of the saying in the manner that our guys in IT describe as ‘asking our best friend’ – that is, Google – and it turns out it this phrase begins in ‘The Age of Reason’, published in 1793 by Tom Paine: ‘The sublime and ridiculous are often so nearly related that it is difficult to class them separately.’ The difficulty arises for me in trying to describe in this journal some very different papers which could not be more different, but which are all fascinating.

To start with one ‘sublime’: …