Lecture Demonstration

"Lecture Demonstration" is a science fictionshort story by American writer Hal Clement. It was first published in Astounding: The John W Campbell Memorial Anthology in 1973. The story is set on the planet Mesklin introduced in the author's novel Mission of Gravity, but in the equatorial region during an earlier period when the college is still being set up by humans. In the story, a Terrestrial teacher and his Mesklinite students encounter a life-and-death puzzle which they solve using principles of geology and chemistry.