Find the word definition

Crossword clues for concentration

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
concentration
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
attention/concentration span
▪ Most two-year-olds have a very short attention span.
concentration camp
disturb sb's concentration
▪ I couldn't work with the kids around disturbing my concentration.
lapse of concentration
▪ A single lapse of concentration cost Sampras the game.
powers of concentration
▪ As you get older, your powers of concentration may decrease.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
final
▪ Non-specifically bound polymerase was removed by the addition of heparin to a final concentration of 400 µg/ml.
great
▪ In many ways the most powerful impetus to greater concentrations came from the state.
▪ The greater the glucose concentration in the plasma, the greater the number of hemoglobin molecules that will become glycosylated.
▪ Losses in speed and agility are compensated by greater experience, concentration and motivation.
▪ The reason for the greater total lipid concentration in cholesterol gall stone patients is not clear at present.
▪ This Massiliot sphere of influence happens to correspond to those areas where the greatest concentration of Black Virgins is to be found.
▪ It takes great concentration on their part, and for weeks ahead their Teacher Phyl Bailey carefully guides them through rehearsals.
▪ I had to use great concentration and all of the strength that I had to reach up and scratch my nose.
high
▪ These agents are toxic when given systemically, and so producing them at high concentration within the tumour is an attractive goal.
▪ But the atmospheres of the Jovian planets contain astronomical amounts, and high concentrations, of both helium-3 and deuterium.
▪ Would firms move into areas with high radon concentrations?
▪ Higher-educated immigrants were less likely to resettle in states with high immigrant concentrations, the study found.
▪ There is evidence that ascorbic acid is secreted in high concentrations into the normal stomach.
▪ There was concern that such a high concentration would be too difficult to digest or lead to side effects.
▪ However, higher concentrations were shown to produce haemolysis.
▪ Use long-life electric bulbs in places that do not require a high concentration of light, such as hallways and closets.
increased
▪ A dimension of increased decision-making concentration which has attracted particular notice concerns the effects on regional diversity and development.
▪ The significantly lower plasminogen activator activity of malignant ascites is associated with greatly increased concentrations of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1.
▪ Nevertheless, we propose that the increased concentration of bile acids and increased daily excretion may predispose to the development of polyps.
▪ The increased concentration and urokinase in malignant tissues may partly explain the finding of increased concentrations of urokinase in malignant ascites.
▪ Any increased concentration among defence suppliers will depend crucially on the attitudes of individual governments.
▪ The workforce in distribution began to decline with increased concentration in retailing, rationalisation and the development of larger stores.
▪ The role of the increased serum gastrin concentration induced by H pylori in the pathogenesis of duodenal ulcer disease is also unknown.
large
▪ Surrounded on three sides by railway, it is not suitable for housing because of the large concentration of industry around that area.
▪ Gee, sorry, seems about all we have left is miles from the largest concentrations of buyers.
▪ Neuropeptide Y has also been isolated from the gastrointestinal tract with large concentrations found in the biliary tree.
▪ And five are in Phoenix, the largest concentration anywhere.
▪ The largest concentration of departments is found in the George Square/Old College area.
▪ Absentee landlords and large concentrations of landholdings were virtually eliminated.
▪ East London was especially fortunate due to proximity to the largest concentration of wealth in the country, the remainder of London.
▪ The region also has one of the largest concentrations of wildlife in the world.
low
▪ It can be seen that human sweat is actually hypotonic ie it contains a lower salt concentration than the plasma.
▪ In the rat cerebral cortex in the absence of calmodulin, calcium has a negligible effect at low concentrations.
▪ Rinse additives tend to be very expensive but are used in very low concentrations and are invariably mechanically dosed.
▪ An upward shift would be produced by changing to a new standard at a lower concentration than that required for the test.
▪ We also found lower concentrations in smokers although this did not reach significance.
▪ It is First Alert that has targeted low concentrations and caused most of the nuisance alarms, he said.
▪ HYPOKALEMlA A low plasma potassium concentration is not always accompanied by a deficit in total body potassium.
mean
▪ Simultaneously, sedimentation occurred at the base, as in previous experiments, so the mean concentration decreased with time.
▪ The mean total cholesterol concentration among women with polyps was significantly higher than that of control subjects.
▪ We chose linear regression for describing the overall changes in mean sperm concentrations, but other statistical models have also been tested.
▪ There were no significant differences in the mean albumin concentrations between the first and second visits and the first and third visits.
total
▪ In this study, a significantly greater total lipid concentration was found in the hepatic bile of cholesterol gall stone patients.
▪ From the latter part of 1927 through the first half of 1928, I lived in a cocoon of total concentration.
▪ The reason for the greater total lipid concentration in cholesterol gall stone patients is not clear at present.
▪ There is a deep total and gentle concentration on what is going on in the body and in the breathing.
▪ To meet these standards the worker needs total concentration and freedom from time pressure.
▪ Everything I do in future I will tackle with total concentration and self-assurance, and I will do it well.
▪ T m measurements were made using total single strand concentrations of 18 and 8µM for duplexes 1 and 4 respectively.
▪ So, supposing I tried, the task would demand total concentration.
■ NOUN
acid
▪ This was coupled with an increased faecal bile acid concentration and proportion of secondary faecal bile acids.
▪ Supplementary dietary phosphate decreased the fatty acid concentration only on the low calcium diet.
▪ The bile acid concentration in faecal water also decreased with increasing dietary calcium, and this was not influenced by dietary phosphate.
▪ An extensive nutritional screen was performed, including measurements of blood mineral, vitamin, and fatty acid concentrations.
▪ Total bile acid concentration was calculated as the sum of all gas liquid chromatography detected individual bile acids.
▪ A reduced short chain fatty acid concentration has also been reported in pouch contents from patients with pouchitis compared with those without.
▪ In contrast to fatty acids, the total bile acid concentration was hardly influenced by the different diets.
▪ The oleic acid concentrations used are in the range encountered in patients with steatorrhea.
camp
▪ Anybody who was in a concentration camp as a guard could use that argument.
▪ There were the political prisoners, sent to concentration camps, who continued to help the Allies.
▪ He can defend us, can separate us from the past, from the concentration camps and lost wars.
▪ When he spoke of liberating the concentration camps, he assigned himself a place among the liberators.
▪ One character is in the Resistance, another witnesses Hiroshima, another goes to a concentration camp, others stay at home.
▪ At least seven died in concentration camps, Williams says.
▪ And we kept another hundred and twenty thousand between 1945 and 1954 in Hitler's old concentration camps.
▪ I felt like a guard in a concentration camp.
gastrin
▪ Serum gastrin concentrations did not correlate well with changes in the endocrine cell density.
▪ Helicobacter pylori increases plasma gastrin concentrations by 50% to 100% and values fall to normal after the organism has been eradicated.
▪ Hence, many of these patients may actually have supramaximal gastrin concentrations.
▪ They found that patients with the highest serum gastrin concentrations did not necessarily have the highest enterochromaffin like cell counts.
▪ Similarly, basal serum gastrin concentrations do not alter with ageing in healthy men.
▪ The finding of enhanced fasting gastrin concentrations in H pylori positive subjects and in duodenal ulcer disease can not easily be explained.
▪ The plasma gastrin concentrations increased from group to group as expected from the dose given.
▪ At this time the basal and meal stimulated gastrin concentrations were reassessed as described above.
glucose
▪ Risk of death increased with increasing blood glucose concentrations.
▪ The greater the glucose concentration in the plasma, the greater the number of hemoglobin molecules that will become glycosylated.
▪ Plasma glucose concentrations did not differ between the two groups.
▪ As glucose concentration falls, severe volume depletion may be unmasked.
▪ Figure 1 shows mean serum glucose concentrations reached during clamping.
▪ Recently several studies have emphasised the importance of serum glucose concentrations in the regulation of gastrointestinal function.
▪ When audits have gone beyond counting activity alone they have focused mainly on blood glucose concentration as a proxy measure of outcome.
▪ Neither the size of the responses nor the glucose concentration at which they began during stepped slow fall hypoglycaemia was different.
haemoglobin
▪ They had all had a normal haemoglobin concentration.
▪ Our management included a measurement of haemoglobin concentration and the treatment of any identified anaemia.
▪ A positive correlation was found between glycosylated haemoglobin concentration and the prostacyclin concentration necessary to inhibit ADP-induced platelet aggregation by 50 percent.
ozone
▪ Here we present observations of a large summer minimum in ozone concentration in the unpolluted marine boundary layer of the Southern Hemisphere.
▪ Initial ozone concentrations were taken from a mid-December climatology.
plasma
▪ Its usefulness in this disease has been questioned, and a maximum efficacy was obtained in one report at lower plasma concentrations.
▪ The results of gastric juice against plasma concentrations according to H pylori status are shown in Figure 3.
▪ The acute phase response also involves changes in the plasma concentrations of a number of liver synthesised proteins.
potassium
▪ Proton concentrations for each sample were then calculated from the hydrogen ion activity and the combined sodium and potassium concentrations.
▪ This is effective not because it lowers serum potassium concentration but because it directly antagonizes the membrane depolarizing effect of hyperkalemia.
▪ The electrocardiogram provides a graphic indication of the membrane effects of altered potassium concentrations.
▪ HYPOKALEMlA A low plasma potassium concentration is not always accompanied by a deficit in total body potassium.
▪ Occasionally, a substantially increased platelet or white cell count may lead to apparent increases in plasma potassium concentration.
▪ What is actually observed in this Circumstance is an increase in serum potassium concentration.
▪ As a result, extracellular potassium concentration decreases.
▪ This causes an increase in extracellular potassium concentration.
protein
▪ Biliary protein concentration was similar between the two groups.
▪ The binding is reversible so that factors that decrease the protein concentration will increase the ionized fraction of calcium in the blood.
▪ Cholesterol nucleation time, biliary lipid concentration, vesicular cholesterol distribution, and biliary protein concentration were measured and compared.
▪ The total protein concentration did not differ between the two groups as shown by Yamazaki etal.
▪ The nucleation time did not correlate with either total lipid concentration or total protein concentration.
▪ All lysosomal enzyme assays were linear with respect to time and protein concentration.
▪ Tissue protein concentrations were determined by the method of Lowry etal.
▪ The oedematous patients had similar lung function, smoking histories, and plasma protein concentrations to the patients without oedema.
serum
▪ All patients had normal serum concentrations of liver enzymes and bilirubin and were included consecutively in the study.
▪ This results, even in steady state, in a rapid decline in serum concentrations.
▪ Integrated meal stimulated serum gastrin outputs were determined by calculating the area under the serum concentration time curve.
▪ The serum concentration of IGF-I and growth velocity both improved with increased calorie intake.
▪ We also made it clear that both dose and frequency should be adjusted as dictated by serum concentrations.
▪ Certain IgG heavy chain markers are associated with the serum concentrations of IgG subclasses.
▪ Several studies have disclosed relations between IgG markers and IgG subclass serum concentrations against particular antigens.
▪ Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and Wilson disease were excluded by determining serum concentrations of alpha-1 antitrypsin and ceruloplasmin, respectively.
sodium
▪ Duodenogastric reflux was identified when intragastric sodium concentrations exceeded 50 mmol/l.
▪ Extracellular osmolal concentration is approximately twice the sodium concentration.
▪ Duodenogastric reflux is indicated when sodium concentrations rise above 50 mmol/l.
▪ A significant difference between plasma sodium concentration and tonicity can thus occur.
▪ Measurement of sodium concentrations is simple to perform and offers the possibility of prolonged continuous monitoring.
▪ A high urine sodium concentration is a variable but frequent confirmatory finding in this disorder.
▪ Furthermore, restricting intraluminal sodium concentration in jejunal perfusion does not seem to limit glucose absorption.
▪ Serum sodium concentration or tonicity are functions of water content relative to total body sodium content.
■ VERB
break
▪ His remarkable doggedness led him to carry on regardless when two stink bombs broke everyone else's concentration.
▪ It broke Woosnam's concentration and also impaired his confidence.
▪ It broke the concentration of my players and led them into serious defensive errors.
▪ And when I was throwing my rackets and talking to the umpire it was breaking my concentration.
contain
▪ A horse's sweat is hypertonic ie it contains a higher concentration of salts than the plasma from which it is derived.
▪ In general, lunar rocks differ from terrestrial rocks in that the Moon contains much lower concentrations of easily vaporized elements.
▪ It can be seen that human sweat is actually hypotonic ie it contains a lower salt concentration than the plasma.
▪ Further, soft coal sometimes contains dangerous concentrations of toxic materials such as arsenic, antimony, and cadmium.
▪ Pancreatic juice for example contains a high concentration of sodium ions, and variable concentrations of chloride and bicarbonate ions.
▪ It does contain shocking footage of concentration camps.
▪ The Dead Sea waters contain a high concentration of salts composed of potassium, bromine and magnesium as well as other minerals.
▪ The disease, however, may be triggered in moles containing unusually high concentrations of melanin.
determine
▪ We subsequently determined the soluble faecal concentrations of calcium, phosphate, fatty acids, and bile acids.
▪ We measured circulating gastrin to determine the concentrations of gastrin required to produce half maximal acid secretion.
find
▪ I found a concentration of priming fish one morning and dropped baits in amongst them.
▪ If you find the concentration more than your risk tolerance allows, look for a value fund or one in another sector.
▪ We also found lower concentrations in smokers although this did not reach significance.
▪ Meanwhile the monstrous and unmanageable dreams about Sethe found release in the concentration Denver began to fix on the baby ghost.
▪ Discovery of Stalinist victims' graves During March a number of mass graves were found near former concentration camps or prisoner-of-war camps.
▪ The study also found that the concentration of immigrants has increased over the past quarter-century.
increase
▪ Helicobacter pylori increases plasma gastrin concentrations by 50% to 100% and values fall to normal after the organism has been eradicated.
▪ The increased saturation is due to the increased iron concentration in the serum.
▪ Risk of death increased with increasing blood glucose concentrations.
▪ Therefore, the jaundice is caused by an increased concentration of unconjugated bilirubin.
▪ It should be pointed out that despite increasing income concentration, there has been a general improvement in the quality of life.
▪ So it seems that Ras can be activated by merely increasing the total cellular concentration of activator, without requiring receptor-dependent modification.
▪ There are, in our society, increasing limits on the concentration of power.
▪ Cholesterol was added to increase the intestinal concentration of bile acids, because dietary cholesterol stimulates bile acid synthesis in rats.
lose
▪ But seeing Damien made her lose concentration and before she knew what was happening she found herself boxed in yet again.
▪ We go for a while, then we lose concentration and focus.
▪ She lost concentration, and the pygmy vanished.
▪ And each time the child has to make a new conscious effort like that, there is an opportunity to lose concentration.
▪ They lost concentration at times with a big lead behind them.
▪ There was a danger he'd lose his concentration if too much warmth built up.
▪ Once, for an instant, she lost her concentration and a smile cracked across her features.
measure
▪ Bile salt and peptides were measured in molar concentrations.
▪ For clinical purposes, one means of measuring overall concentration would be to measure the serum osmolality directly.
require
▪ Crusting for chub is an art that requires concentration and constant attention to the performance.
▪ Such mastery requires absolute concentration, the full deployment of oneself.
▪ And it also had the benefit of requiring very little concentration, leaving her thoughts free to roam.
▪ It required some concentration to pick up the coffee cups and carry them out to the kitchen.
▪ Analytical reading requires good levels of concentration, however.
▪ Use long-life electric bulbs in places that do not require a high concentration of light, such as hallways and closets.
▪ It required enormous concentration and a lot of physical changes - each one accompanied by different music.
▪ Flying an aircraft requires great concentration when landing or taking off.
show
▪ He would listen in, showing more powers of concentration than he ever did at work.
▪ This proprietary blend shows tremendous depth and concentration, with generous blackberry fruit and hints of chocolate and blueberry.
▪ The short report included a table showing the concentration of streptomycin which stopped the growth of various organisms.
▪ But later in the day, a detailed analysis showed the concentrations to be safe.
▪ Kirschner etal, on the other hand, showed low serum IGF-I concentrations in children with Crohn's disease.
▪ Early reports showed reduced concentrations of IgM, but later studies showed normal or even raised immunoglobulin concentrations.
▪ Early studies by Cooke showed that ethanol in concentrations of 1% to 20% did not stimulate gastric acid secretion.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
break sb's concentration
▪ I never listen to music when I'm working - it breaks my concentration.
relax your concentration/vigilance etc
▪ I forced myself to open my fingers, to relax my vigilance, to fall asleep.
▪ Once they lose those bright feathers they can afford to relax their vigilance.
▪ Take care not to relax your concentration on the way up. 2.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A good night's sleep will improve your concentration.
▪ His face was solemn with concentration.
▪ Plummer said she plans to continue her concentration on the 3,000 meter race.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A lack of response would suggest that the high concentration of alcohol is the principal factor.
▪ It was only later that the aesthetic dimension of literary study became emphasized, with an accompanying concentration on the fictional genres.
▪ So, supposing I tried, the task would demand total concentration.
▪ The result is that the concentration of neurotransmitters in a synapse increases and the normal actions of the neurotransmitter is enhanced.
▪ Used in the right concentrations, they colour hair for up to six washes and add a protective film.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
concentration

Dephlegmation \De`phleg*ma"tion\, n. [Cf. F. d['e]flegmation.] (Chem.) The operation of separating water from spirits and acids, by evaporation or repeated distillation; -- called also concentration, especially when acids are the subject of it.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
concentration

1630s, "action of bringing to a center," noun of action from verb concentrate (v.). Meaning "a mass so collected" is from 1670s; "continuous focus of mental activity" is from 1846.

Wiktionary
concentration

n. 1 The act, process or ability of concentrate; the process of becoming concentrated, or the state of being concentrated. 2 # The direction of attention to a specific object. 3 # The act, process or product of reducing the volume of a liquid, as by evaporation. 4 # The act or process of removing the dress of ore and of reducing the valuable part to smaller compass, as by currents of air or water. 5 A field or course of study on which one focuses, especially as a student in a college or university. 6 The proportion of a substance in a whole.

WordNet
concentration
  1. n. the strength of a solution; number of molecules of a substance in a given volume (expressed as moles/cubic meter)

  2. the spatial property of being crowded together [syn: density, denseness, compactness] [ant: distribution]

  3. strengthening the concentration (as of a solute in a mixture) by removing extraneous material [ant: dilution]

  4. increase in density

  5. complete attention; intense mental effort [syn: engrossment, absorption, immersion]

  6. bringing together military forces

  7. great and constant diligence and attention [syn: assiduity, assiduousness]

Wikipedia
Concentration

In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: mass concentration, molar concentration, number concentration, and volume concentration. The term concentration can be applied to any kind of chemical mixture, but most frequently it refers to solutes and solvents in solutions. The molar (amount) concentration has variants such as normal concentration and osmotic concentration.

Concentration (game)

Concentration, also known as Match Match, Memory, Pelmanism, Shinkei-suijaku, Pexeso or simply Pairs, is a card game in which all of the cards are laid face down on a surface and two cards are flipped face up over each turn. The object of the game is to turn over pairs of matching cards. Concentration can be played with any number of players or as solitaire. It is a particularly good game for young children, though adults may find it challenging and stimulating as well. The scheme is often used in quiz shows and can be employed as an educational game.

Concentration (game show)

Concentration is an American television game show based on the children's memory game of the same name. Matching cards represented prizes that contestants could win. As matching pairs of cards were gradually removed from the board, it would slowly reveal elements of a rebus puzzle that contestants had to solve to win a match.

The show was broadcast on and off from 1958 to 1991, presented by various hosts, and has been made in several different versions. The original network daytime series, Concentration, appeared on NBC for 14 years, 7 months, and 3,770 telecasts (August 25, 1958 – March 23, 1973), the longest run of any game show on that network ( Wheel of Fortune was a month shy of tying that record when the initial NBC run ended on June 30, 1989). This series was hosted by Hugh Downs and later by Bob Clayton, but for a six-month period in 1969, Ed McMahon hosted the series. The series began at 11:30 AM Eastern, then moved to 11:00 and finally to 10:30. Nearly all episodes of the NBC daytime version were produced at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City.

A weekly nighttime version appeared in two separate broadcast runs: the first aired from October 30 to November 20, 1958 with Jack Barry as host, while the second ran from April 24 to September 18, 1961 with Downs as host.

The second version of Concentration, the first to be made in southern California, ran in syndication from September 10, 1973 to September 8, 1978 with Jack Narz as host.

A pilot for a third version was attempted in 1985, hosted by Orson Bean, but did not sell. After some reformatting, a remake called Classic Concentration, hosted by Alex Trebek, ran on NBC from May 4, 1987 to September 20, 1991 (with reruns broadcast to December 31, 1993).

Despite numerous attempts to develop a new version in recent years, NBC-Universal Studios, owners of the Concentration copyright, have not yet authorized a new version of the program.

Concentration (disambiguation)

Concentration or concentrate can refer to:

Concentration (album)

Concentration is a music album by artists Machines of Loving Grace which was released in 1993. The song "Butterfly Wings" achieved moderate success and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Punisher: War Zone, as well as the TV Series Due South.

Concentration (UK game show)

Concentration originally aired from 16 June 1959 to 7 June 1960 by Granada and was hosted by Barry McQueen in 1959 (Chris Howland and David Gell each hosted in 1960).

It was later revived by TVS from 4 September 1988 to 1990, hosted by Nick Jackson and Bob Carolgees.

Both versions were shown on ITV, while the American version with Alex Trebek was also shown by Sky One in the 1990s.

Concentration (Netherlands)

The Concentration was a coalition of Dutch liberal parties between 1901 and 1918. The Vrijzinnig Democratische Bond, Liberale Unie and the Bond Vrije Liberalen participated. The main issue which united these parties was universal suffrage and their opposition to equal financing for religious schools. The Concentration governed between 1905 and 1908, led by the Theo de Meester with support of the social-democratic SDAP and 1913 and 1918 led by Pieter Cort van der Linden in an extra-parliamentary cabinet. In 1921 two of the component parties, the League of Free Liberals and the Liberal Union form the Liberal State Party, the Freedom League.

Category:Political history of the Netherlands

Concentration (Australian game show)

Concentration is an Australian game show series based on the children's memory game of the same name. Matching cards represented prizes that contestants could win. As matching pairs of cards were gradually removed from the board, it would slowly reveal elements of a rebus puzzle that contestants had to solve to win a match. It aired on the Nine Network in 1959 until 1967 later aired on the Seven Network in 1970 until revived in 1997, It hosted by Philip Brady, then in the 1970s with Lionel Williams, and then again in 1997 with Mike Hammond.

Category:Nine Network shows Category:Seven Network shows Category:Australian game shows Category:Black-and-white Australian television programs Category:1959 Australian television series debuts Category:1967 Australian television series endings Category:1970 Australian television series debuts Category:1970 Australian television series endings Category:1997 Australian television series debuts Category:1997 Australian television series endings Category:1950s Australian television series Category:1960s Australian television series Category:1970s Australian television series Category:1990s Australian television series Category:Television series revived after cancellation

Usage examples of "concentration".

Keeping her concentration firmly centred in the falcon, she transferred her consciousness up a level to the etheric plane.

Niffa glanced around and saw the townsfolk staring at Admi with terrified concentration.

In the still-glowing afterwash of nuclear detonations, Tasia saw a greater concentration of the enemy than humans had ever faced before.

The anchorman, hooks in hand, stood at the prow, peering forward, tongue sticking out the side of his mouth in concentration.

Reason for high concentration of gravitational anomalies in and around center of winter storm system.

One had headed straight toward the concentration of anomalies, while the other had swerved off to the north and vanished in a small town.

Reichstag fire, the Roehm Blood Purge, the Anschluss with Austria, the surrender of Chamberlain at Munich, the occupation of Czechoslovakia, the attacks on Poland, Scandinavia, the West, the Balkans and Russia, the horrors of the Nazi occupation and of the concentration camps and the liquidation of the Jews.

Himmler and Heydrich also took advantage of their stay in Austria during the first weeks of the Anschluss to set up a huge concentration camp at Mauthausen, on the north bank of the Danube near Enns.

A patent ductus arteriosus makes a continuous shushing murmur, soft, but audible with a little concentration, particularly in the supraclavicular and cervical regions.

Geological Survey regularly finds alarming concentrations of atrazine in drinking water across the corn belt.

She had the ritual concentration of a Balinese dancer evoking postures handed down through the centuries.

It happened not only in her own house, where Matthew and her father paced the rooms at night without the concentration to read or even watch television, but all over Bedford, and it felt like a bubble of latent energy, suppressed for half a year, about to burst.

A heterogeneous collection of navigable balloons of all sizes and types gathered over the Bernese Oberland, crushed and burnt the twenty-five Swiss air-ships that unexpectedly resisted this concentration in the battle of the Alps, and then, leaving the Alpine glaciers and valleys strewn with strange wreckage, divided into two fleets and set itself to terrorise Berlin and destroy the Franconian Park, seeking to do this before the second air-fleet could be inflated.

I perform a similar form of mental concentration, one of my own devising, which combines the memory palace with elements of Chongg Ran, an ancient Bhutanese form of meditation.

As she formed the first letter, all the bibliophages stopped moving, and everyone felt their sudden focus and concentration.