From the introduction:
The Wolfson-Radcliffe-Nuffield Institute for Thought Experiment was set up at some unidentified point in the history of Oxford University to carry out experiments too abstruse for the various science faculties. Special features of the Institute include the Molecule Room, in which a single air molecule bounces around an otherwise empty room exerting a carefully-measured amount of pressure, and a continuing project to send a one-man mission into space at something approaching the speed of light, currently in suspension while the Institute advertises for one of a pair of identical twins to undertake the trip. Also of note is the Finite Improbability Project, currently located in the canteen for quick access to Brownian Motion generators, and a dangerous ongoing quest for immortality, involving an irrational particle accelerator, a whole succession of liquid lunches, and many pairs of rubber bands of varying sizes.