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nearly take = STEA(L)
on = RE
young bovine = steer/steare

Thanks - I worked out 37 shortly after submitting my post. I've also found the quotation. All rather odd - I never would have associated this author with that word! The significance of the title still escapes me. Is it an anagram, or a reference to some scientific connotation which I wouldn't know about?

It's all to do with a branch of physics which is somewhat harder to understand than rocket science.

FOSS is outside of Fo(rtre)ss