Leicester firm Harvey Ingram Owston has invented a 'nuclear-powered potato peeler' - purely for academic purposes.

The peeler formed the subject matter for a joint presentation between the firm, accountants PKF and the Royal Bank of Scotland on the importance to companies of protecting their intellectual property ideas, held recently and appropriately at Leicester's National Space Centre.

The storyline for the seminar was set in a galaxy called 'hindsight', and co-originator of the idea, Harvey Ingram partner Roy Botterill (pictured first left with Steve King of PKF, John Stobart of Harvey Ingram, Mike Siddall of the Royal Bank of Scotland, and Estelle Dimelor of Harvey Ingram ) (see printed edition Gazette [2003] 16 October, 12), said: 'We had an excellent turnout for what turned out to be an "out of this world" seminar experience.

But what Obiter wants to know is: does the peeler work?