President Of The Royal Society Research Articles

Humphry Davy

Humphry Davy

The early education of a Nobel laureate: Henry Dale's schooldays

This paper examines the early schooling, in London and in Cambridge, of the later Nobel laureate and President of the Royal Society, the physiologist Sir Henry Dale (1875-1968). The influence of key teachers who directed the boy's interest towards science, and the impact of his schooling on his university education and later scientific career, are examined in particular. The significance of the zoologist Edward Butler of Tollington Park College, who taught Dale in his early teenage years, is highlighted.

Rekha interviews Baroness Sally Greengross

Baroness Sally Greengross Baroness Sally Greengross is an influential figure in nutritional and ageing policy through her involvement in parliamentary and advisory groups. She has been a crossbench (independent) member of the House of Lords since 2000 and chairs four All-Party Parliamentary Groups: Dementia, Corporate Social Responsibility, Intergenerational Futures and Continence Care. She is the Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ageing and Older People, and is Treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Equalities. Sally is Chief Executive of the International Longevity Centre—UK, Co-President of the ILC Global Alliance and in December 2006, and she was announced as a Commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Baroness Greengross is Chair of the Advisory Groups for the English Longitudinal Study on Ageing (ELSA) and the New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA). She is President of the Pensions Policy Institute and Honorary Vice President of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health and a Global Ambassador to Help Age International. She holds honorary doctorates from seven UK universities and is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. In this interview, Baroness Sally Greengross describes how current research is shaping public policy and identifies the areas that we need to think about in practice.

Benjamin Brodie's infamous case of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and an inhaled gold coin

Benjamin Brodie's infamous case of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and an inhaled gold coin

The Actual Nature of Light (Ⅰ) Reveal the Mystery about the Actual Nature of Light from Newton, Einstein to the Recent Mistakes

When Newton became the President of the Royal Society, he proposed corpuscle concept (wave-particle duality) to destroy the fruitions of Hooke and Huygens, because Newton mistook Hooke and Huygens as his enemies. Thereafter, this erroneous concept governed the scientific world for more than one hundred years. This paper will reveal the mystery: why corpuscle concept could govern the scientific world for one hundred years after Newton’s death. In the beginning of last century, photon, a palingenesis of Newton’s corpuscle, was proposed by Einstein again, as a sudden whim, because Planck strongly opposed this wrong concept, since 1907, Einstein strongly doubted this concept. Finally, Einstein disappointedly said: “The quanta really are a hopeless mess.” This paper will reveal the mystery: why photon concept can govern the scientific world until now, and give the evidences for the actual nature of light.

Biological diversity in a changing world

From the pioneering explorations of Joseph Banks (later a President of the Royal Society), to the present day, a great deal has been learnt about the extent, distribution and stability of biological diversity in the world. We now know that diverse life can be found even in the most inhospitable places. We have also learned that biological diversity changes through time over both large and small temporal scales. These natural changes track environmental conditions, and reflect ecological and evolutionary processes. However, anthropogenic activities, including overexploitation, habitat loss and climate change, are currently causing profound transformations in ecosystems and unprecedented loss of biological diversity. This series of papers considers temporal variation in biological diversity, examines the extent of human-related change relative to underlying natural change and builds on these insights to develop tools and policies to help guide us towards a sustainable future.

Nobelist Paul Nurse to Pilot Royal Society, London Superlab

Paul Nurse spoke with Science last week about his past, his recent suggestion to bolster U.K. funding for 100 to 150 top researchers, and his busy future as both president of the Royal Society and founding director of the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation.

A role in running UK science?

The election of a new President of the Royal Society in 1945 was enlivened by a petition, signed by 20% of the Fellowship, promoting a vision of the Society as playing a strong role in managing UK science. One of the signatories was Howard Florey. During the final year of Cyril Hinshelwood's presidency in 1960, and throughout Florey's subsequent presidency, the Society fought hard for a share of the action as publicly funded science, managed by Government-appointed bodies, grew at a sustained 15% per annum. The implementation of the Trend report in 1965 closed out the main options: the Government wanted control, and the Society, in the end, wanted its independence. It found other ways to make an impact on UK science.

From applied microbiology to biotechnology: science, medicine and industrial renewal

In the late 1970s politicians and civil servants were acutely aware of the chronic decline of the manufacturing sector as a source of employment in Britain. At a time of fear of mass unemployment, sources of new work were urgently sought. Biotechnology had been promoted by visionaries since the early twentieth century. With oil prices soaring, its potential to produce substitutes for petroleum derivatives seemed newly attractive. At the beginning of 1976, John Bu'Lock at Manchester brought the attention of the new President of the Royal Society, Lord Todd, to the developments in enzyme and fermentation technologies. Both the Society and government began to take biotechnology seriously. In 1979 the Society organized a groundbreaking meeting, 'New horizons in industrial microbiology'. In parallel, John Ashworth, the chief scientist of the government think-tank the Central Policy Review Staff, prompted by American developments in genetic engineering, its commercial exploitation and regional development, led thinking among government officials. The Spinks enquiry into biotechnology was consequently formed in 1979 as a collaborative enterprise of the Advisory Council for Applied Research and Development, the Advisory Board for the Research Councils and the Royal Society. The recommendations for far-reaching collaboration between research councils, government and industry were not fully implemented. However, even the limited implementation led to new models of science that would be significant in the emergence of a reconstruction of science.

A visit to the Foundling Museum.

A visit to the Foundling Museum.

Paul Nurse Chosen to Head Royal Society

Nobel Prize–winning biologist Paul Nurse is stepping down as president of Rockefeller University in New York City to become president of the Royal Society in London, the United Kingdom's science academy.

The age of wonder: how the Romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science

Richard Holmes, prize-winning biographer of Coleridge and Shelley, explores the scientific ferment that swept across Britain at the end of 18th century in his ground-breaking new biography 'The Age of Wonder'. 'The Age of Wonder' is Richard Holmes's first major work of biography in over a decade. It has been inspired by the scientific ferment that swept through Britain at the end of the eighteenth century, 'The Age of Wonder' and which Holmes now radically redefines as 'the revolution of Romantic Science'. The book opens with Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook's first Endeavour voyage, stepping onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, hoping to discover Paradise. Many other voyages of discovery swiftly follow, while Banks, now President of the Royal Society in London, becomes our narrative guide to what truly emerges as an Age of Wonder. Banks introduces us to the two scientific figures that dominate the book: astronomer William Herschel and chemist Humphry Davy.Herschel's tireless dedication to the stars, assisted (and perhaps rivalled) by his comet-finding sister Caroline, changed forever the public conception of the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy and the meaning of the universe itself. Davy first shocked the scientific community with his near-suicidal gas experiments in Bristol, then went on to save thousands of lives with his Safety Lamp and established British chemistry as the leading professional science in Europe. But at the cost, perhaps, of his own heart. Holmes proposes a radical vision of science before Darwin, exploring the earliest ideas of deep time and deep space, the creative rivalry with the French scientific establishment, and the startling impact of discovery on great writers and poets such as Mary Shelley, Coleridge, Byron and Keats. With his trademark sense of the human drama, he shows how great ideas and experiments are born out of lonely passion, how scientific discoveries (and errors) are made, how intense relationships are forged and broken by research, and how religious faith and scientific truth collide.The result is breathtaking in its originality, its story-telling energy, and not least, in its intellectual significance.

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science

Richard Holmes, prize-winning biographer of Coleridge and Shelley, explores the scientific ferment that swept across Britain at the end of 18th century in his ground-breaking new biography 'The Age of Wonder'. 'The Age of Wonder' is Richard Holmes's first major work of biography in over a decade. It has been inspired by the scientific ferment that swept through Britain at the end of the eighteenth century, 'The Age of Wonder' and which Holmes now radically redefines as 'the revolution of Romantic Science'. The book opens with Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook's first Endeavour voyage, stepping onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, hoping to discover Paradise. Many other voyages of discovery swiftly follow, while Banks, now President of the Royal Society in London, becomes our narrative guide to what truly emerges as an Age of Wonder. Banks introduces us to the two scientific figures that dominate the book: astronomer William Herschel and chemist Humphry Davy.Herschel's tireless dedication to the stars, assisted (and perhaps rivalled) by his comet-finding sister Caroline, changed forever the public conception of the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy and the meaning of the universe itself. Davy first shocked the scientific community with his near-suicidal gas experiments in Bristol, then went on to save thousands of lives with his Safety Lamp and established British chemistry as the leading professional science in Europe. But at the cost, perhaps, of his own heart. Holmes proposes a radical vision of science before Darwin, exploring the earliest ideas of deep time and deep space, the creative rivalry with the French scientific establishment, and the startling impact of discovery on great writers and poets such as Mary Shelley, Coleridge, Byron and Keats. With his trademark sense of the human drama, he shows how great ideas and experiments are born out of lonely passion, how scientific discoveries (and errors) are made, how intense relationships are forged and broken by research, and how religious faith and scientific truth collide.The result is breathtaking in its originality, its story-telling energy, and not least, in its intellectual significance.

An Editor With Punch

John Maddox, who captained Nature into the modern era with two transformative stints as editor, died on 12 April at the age of 83. Maddox was born in Wales on 27 November 1925. After studying physics and chemistry, he taught theoretical physics at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. He went on to work as a science correspondent for The Manchester Guardian (now The Guardian ) from 1955 to 1964. Maddox brought his journalistic instincts with him when he joined Nature as its editor in 1966. He had manuscripts edited to make them more punchy and put in place a stringent peer-review system. Nature also became known for Maddox's animated and sometimes controversial editorials, and the journal grew to be a platform for opinionated and incisive science journalism. In 1973, he stepped down to start his own publishing company, resuming editorship of the journal in 1980. After his resignation in 1995, he was knighted for his services to science. “He was most engaging, a real polymath,” says Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society. “He exemplified [how] a generalist and a man of culture can contribute a great deal to the stimulus of the scientific community.”

Professor Sir Gordon Robson, CBE, President of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1986-1988

Professor Sir Gordon Robson died on 23 February 2007 aged 85. As President of the RSM, he did much to help Dr Carice Ellison and her late husband Dr Percy Cliffe establish their annual Lecture, the first being given during his term. He also encouraged the setting up of the now thriving Section of Clinical, Forensic and Legal Medicine.​Medicine. Figure 1 He was born in Stirling, and did his medical training in Glasgow. After qualifying in 1944, he was abruptly thrown into the realities of home deliveries in poor households where expensive medical help was often sought too late: this experience ignited his lifelong determination to improve standards of practice. He then joined the RAMC and became a trainee anaesthetist to East Africa Command in Nairobi, where his skills were quickly appreciated by the Army surgeons. After the war he worked in Glasgow, Newcastle and Edinburgh, and then for eight years as the Wellcome Professor of Anaesthetics at McGill University, Montreal. In 1964, he returned as the first Professor and Chairman of the Department of Anaesthetics at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and Hammersmith Hospital. During his 22-year tenure the standing of the department and its research had the highest acclaim. Sir Gordon did much on the national scene to improve standards of anaesthesia and patient care. He took an active part in the Faculty of Anaesthetists and was later its Dean. He introduced the inspection of anaesthetics departments for training purposes—having the temerity to remove trainees from a number of well-known departments in London where insufficient supervision was taking place, often because senior staff were absent. In 1979 he led invaluable work on the definition of brain death, which is so important in transplant surgery. The criteria he developed are still used worldwide and almost unaltered today. This work, and his other research interests, led to his long contribution to the RNLI, as Chairman of its Medical and Survival Committee and a Life Vice-President. In 1984 he became the last doctor to be Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Distinction Awards. He ran this system with scrupulous fairness and care for nine years—the longest since Lord Moran. Very seldom were his judgements—always formed through carefully sought professional opinion and based on strict, if unpublished, criteria—proved wrong. Gordon Robson received many medical honours, and was the first Anaesthetist to be Vice-President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He was appointed CBE in 1977 and was knighted in 1982. He married his first wife, Dr Martha Kennedy, in 1945. She had a successful medical career, moving workplace with him. She died in 1975. Gordon had a long final illness which he bore with great courage. He used his own expertise to look after himself, and in this was given calm and invaluable support by his second wife, Jenny Kilpatrick, whom he had married in 1984.

Professor Sir Gordon Robson, CBE, President of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1986-1988

Professor Sir Gordon Robson, CBE, President of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1986-1988

Living for the dying

Ilora Finlay is a consultant and professor of palliative medicine. She is also Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, a member of the UK House of Lords and president of the Royal Society of Medicine. She shares some thoughts with David Metcalfe

The Life and scientific legacy of George Porter

Sir George Porter (Lord Porter of Luddenham) was one of the most highly regarded and well known scientists in Britain. He was appointed Director of the Royal Institution in 1996, awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967, and was the only Director of the Royal Institution to later become President of the Royal Society (1988-1990). Porter had a marvellous gift for communicating his infectious enthusiasm for science, and as President of the Royal Society, he worked hard to improve the status of science, and employed his communication skills ably in the defence of British science under attack from inadequate government funding, of which he was fiercely critical. It was for his work on flash photolysis in Cambridge that ultimately led him to win the Nobel Prize. Together with Ronald Norrish and Manfred Eigen, he shared the 1967 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, for their work on techniques for observing and studying extremely fast chemical reactions during the processes of combustion, explosion and chain reaction. In this volume, his peers, former colleagues, students and friends - themselves highly regarded and well known scientists in their own right - come together to honour and celebrate the enormous contributions of this man. They comment on their respective personal and working relationships with Porter and on his work. The contributors include: Mary Archer, James Barber, Godfrey Beddard, Graham Fleming, Michael George, Anthony Harriman, David Klug, Harry Kroto, Edward Land, A J MacRobert, David Phillips, Martyn Poliakoff, F Sherwood Rowland, Brian Thrush, George Truscott, James Turner, Barry Ward, Frank Wilkinson, Keitaro Yoshihara, and Ahmed Zewail.

Ashok K. Vijh, O.C., C.Q., FRSC - Elected President of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of Science (2005-2007) [D & EI Folks

Ashok K. Vijh, O.C., C.Q., FRSC - Elected President of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of Science (2005-2007) [D & EI Folks

George Douglas Pinker

George Douglas Pinker