THardsPet: How many researchers were there for the project?
Dr. Hogarth: I suppose I was the main scientific researcher. There was an artist who helped to design the dragons. He did some wonderful pictures and we changed them around to match what we required. I guess if that's research, there were the two of us. A lot of ideas came from Charlie Foley, the producer, but I guess I was the only scientific researcher.

rubicon: How reactive is platinum with hydrogen? Is it like sodium and water, where mixing the 2 will always produce a violent reaction?
Dr. Hogarth: If you mix hydrogen and oxygen at room temperature, and dry, and use finely powdered platinum, it will produce a reaction every time. If it's not dry, or the platinum isn't finely powdered, it's not guaranteed. And don't try it at home!

Drake26: Is it possible that a dragon could breathe air that is several degrees below zero, enough to freeze any object? Like in the movie "DragonHeart."
Dr. Hogarth: It probably could have breathed air below the freezing point, and in fact our dragons living up in the Carpathians would breathe air below the freezing point. If you're in sub-zero temperatures, although you'd be breathing air below the freezing point, you'd warm it as you breathe in, and I guess dragons would have done the same, basically.

frisco008: Dr. Hogarth, how does one become an expert on such a "mythological" subject?
Dr. Hogarth: (laughing) I was just very interested in the history of natural history, and peoples' attitudes to animals in the medieval period particularly. Why they believed in certain animals that were or weren't real. If you were living in the 13th century all you'd know about elephants or giraffes were travelers' tales, so that would be all you'd know about dragons too — what people said about them. I became interested in my subject, and mythical animals are part of that history. But it's not part of how I earn my living.

» Continued on Page 5 «