The recent correspondence exchanged between Dr Batman¹ and Dr Carter and colleagues (ibid) airs the issue of the use of the expression “random”, which is usually invoked to describe the approach to selecting fields or structures under the microscope for quantification. Having been initiated (from a research perspective) within the “post-Nick Wright” incarnation of the cell kinetics group in Newcastle during the 1980s, I was heavily influenced (you might say subdued) …