Science In Oxford Research Articles

Nondestructive Measurement Technique for Substandard Amoxicillin Based on Thermal Approach.

In this study, we introduce a new nondestructive measurement technique based on a thermal approach for the determination of substandard amoxicillin. The quality control of amoxicillin is critical for patient safety, and one of the essential parameters for its evaluation is the content of the active ingredient. Traditional methods for assessing amoxicillin content are defined by their time-consuming nature, reliance on skilled personnel, and frequent necessity for specific reagents. The proposed device aims to provide a rapid and low-cost alternative that can accurately measure the amoxicillin content without damaging the sample. The method validation results indicate coefficient of determination (R2) exceeding 0.99, with percent recoveries falling within the range of 98.70-103.40%. The calculated values for limit of detection and limit of quantitation were determined to be 28.11 and 85.17 mg/L, respectively. Our experiments employed amoxicillin samples with predetermined concentrations, all of which were below the standard quality. It was observed that the proposed analytical device effectively quantifies the amoxicillin content in aqueous solutions. Each measurement took no more than 10 min, underscoring the efficiency of the analysis process. The experiments were validated through independent testing at the Government Pharmaceutical Organization in Thailand and the department of engineering science in Oxford, which provides strong evidence for the effectiveness and robustness of the technique. Overall, this study demonstrates the feasibility of using a thermal approach for the nondestructive measurement of substandard amoxicillin.

Notes on Contributors

Notes on Contributors

Anecdotes: Prototype Fragments from Babbage's First Difference Engine

The comparison of the various fragments of Babbage's first difference engine has led the author to conclude that there are intruder parts among the fragments of the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford. Based on a few scant mentions in early descriptions by Babbage, the author believe that some of these fragments belong to Babbage's 1822 model, in which case this represents a recovery of bits of a missing chapter in the history of calculating machines. This model was the prototype of Babbage's first difference engine on which work began in 1823, but it was abandoned shortly after the completion of the 1832 demonstration model.

The history of science, medicine and technology at Oxford

The history of science came early to Oxford. Its first champion was Robert T. Gunther, the son of a keeper of zoology at the British Museum and a graduate of Magdalen College who took a first there in the School of Natural Science in 1892, specializing in zoology ([figure 1][1]). As tutor in natural

Barbara Marchioness of Hastings (1810-1858)—Fossil Collector and ‘Lady-Geologist’

During the first half of the nineteenth century a large group of non-professional scientists still existed in British geology. For these ‘gentleman-geologists' geology was more or less a private interest. Female counterparts or ‘lady-geologists'—following an independent research program, publishing their results, and presenting them to the contemporary scientific community—were quite rare. One of these remarkable exceptions was Barbara Marchioness of Hastings (1810-1858). She was married and a mother of seven children. She was a keen collector of fossils and sold a large collection of several thousand vertebrate fossils to the British Museum in 1855. Beginning in 1845, she undertook detailed stratigraphical fieldwork in the Eocene strata at Hordle and Beacon Cliff near Milford (Hampshire), where she produced a coloured, scale-drawn section of the strata. Between 1848 and 1853, she published three papers summarising this work. Hastings considered herself a serious geological worker and her contributions were of high quality. Her high social position ensured a reasonable reception among her male colleagues, allowing her to present a short paper at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Oxford in 1847. Nevertheless her opus is rather small compared to male contemporary geologists. Being female, she had no liberal access to the geological ‘scientific community'. Additionally, family commitments held her in Hampshire, confining her work to this restricted area.

The excavation and analysis of an 18th-century deposit of anatomical remains and chemical apparatus from the rear of the first Ashmolean Museum (now The Museum of the History of Science), Broad Street, Oxford

Rescue excavation during refurbishment at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford recovered deposits which appear to have been placed in the later 18th century and comprise human and animal skeletal parts, domestic pottery, chemical apparatus, clay tobacco pipe, glass, food refuse, fuel and building material. A synthesis of the archaeological and historical information particular to this site has provided unusually fine resolution to the activities at the Old Ashmolean Museum in the late 17th and 18th centuries. The material appears to represent the disposal of unwanted equipment and specimens from the first Ashmolean Museum and the chemical laboratory which shared the premises, probably when the latter was renovated in 1781.

Editorial

The European Journal of Neuroscience was founded in 1988 to provide a multidisciplinary journal for the European neuroscience community. It has, however, rapidly become an extremely high-quality, truly international neuroscience journal. Michel Cuénod has edited the journal for the past 5 years with great distinction. He has worked extremely hard in often difficult circumstances to ensure the quality and standing of the journal during the critical, second 5-year period of its establishment. He cannot be thanked enough for his enthusiasm for, and dedication to, the journal; he has presented me with a hard act to follow. However, as I now take over as Editor-in-Chief, I do so with both optimism and the anticipation that this now well-established, highly respected journal will continue its upwards trajectory. Moreover, that it will be the neuroscience journal of first choice in which leading neuroscientists all over the world will wish to publish their very best work, in the certain knowledge that it will reach a wide international audience. From January 1998, Blackwell Science takes over publication of the journal. I view this as an extremely positive development. Blackwell Science have an excellent reputation as publishers of high-quality journals, especially society journals. They have the special qualities of a family publishing company in that they retain editorial, production and publicity staff for long periods, being able to provide much-needed continuity for the successful desk-editing and production of a journal with minimal delay. They also have a futuristic view of publishing that will ensure the journal can take advantage of the new electronic era, making the European Journal of Neuroscience available on the World Wide Web early in 1998. I am fortunate indeed in having an exceptional panel of Receiving Editors who, through their standing as internationally acclaimed researchers, provide the breadth of research interests that a successful multidisciplinary neuroscience journal requires. This ensures that authors are able themselves to select and to submit their manuscripts to a highly appropriate neuroscientist who is able to secure the best possible referees and to steer the paper through an effective review process that is both fast and committed to the quality ideals of the journal. Blackwell Science has acknowledged the need for a growth in size of the journal given the exceptional increase in the number of high-quality submitted papers in the last few years (around 800 manuscripts in the last 12 months). Thus, there will be a significant increase in the number of pages in each volume over that which has been allowed in the past 2 years, which should mean that we will never be in the position of having to reject excellent papers through lack of space. In appreciating the need for fast publication, we are completely committed to reducing to an absolute minimum the time between acceptance of a paper and its publication, our target being a maximum of 10 weeks once the transition to our new publishers is complete in early 1998. In order to achieve this important objective, Blackwell Science have committed extra staff resources over those made available previously, both in the Editorial Office in Cambridge and at Blackwell Science in Oxford. However, this task has been made more difficult than it should have been by the unexpected reduction of the page extent for 1997 by the previous publisher. This has resulted in significant delays in the publication of a number of papers, despite the fact that Blackwell Science have actually purchased from Oxford University Press additional pages in the December 1997 issue in order to minimize this problem. Nevertheless, there is a backlog of papers that should have been published in 1997, but only now are appearing in early 1998 - Blackwell Science having agreed to publish larger issues of the journal in order to alleviate this problem as soon as possible. I can only apologize to authors who have been frustrated and annoyed by these events and promise them, as well as future authors, that these problems will not afflict us in the future. It is my intention to consolidate the multidisciplinary characteristics of the European Journal of Neuroscience so as to reflect the richness of our discipline, from molecular neurobiology to cognitive neuroscience, from invertebrates to humans. The primary focus of the journal is, of course, to publish original research reports. But timely reviews of areas of great contemporary interest will also be published and I welcome enquiries and suggestions about such reviews. It is already clear that papers published in the European Journal of Neuroscience have a very great impact. Supporting the journal by submitting your best-quality papers only serves to strengthen the journal and increase its impact even more. I look forward to receiving these new papers in the months and years to come.

SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE IN OXFORD SURVEY REPORT

SUMMARY A recent project to locate sources for the history of science in Oxford has uncovered a large quantity of manuscripts, printed books, photographs, and other materials that were previously little known, This has helped to strengthen the view that there was - contrary to earlier assessments - a great deal of interest in science within the University during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Clarendon Laboratory, in particular, was found to have a rich collection of source materials for the history of Oxford physics, and its holdings are summarized. The Department of Physiology and the Forestry Institute have significant archives, and smaller repositories have also been listed.

Learning, Language and Invention: Essays Presented to Francis Maddison ed. by W. D. Hackmann, A. J. Turner

344 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE than Kramer envisions. In the final analysis, this is a poor book, but an absolutely essential one. Future students on early firearms will have to accept Kramer’s Chemie, but they would be well advised to keep his Waffentechnik and his “Berthold Schwarz” at a generous arm’s length. Bert Hall Dr. Hall is associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. He is currently working on latemedieval and Renaissance military technology. Learning, Language and Invention: Essays Presented to Francis Maddison. Edited by W. D. Hackmann and A.J. Turner. Aldershot and Paris: Variorum and the Société Internationale de 1’Astrolabe, 1994. Pp. xv+333; illustrations, notes, index. $87.50. To honor Francis Maddison’s long career at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, distinguished colleagues from around the world collaborated to produce this volume. The authors share a remarkable ability to tease stories out of texts and objects. Histori­ ans who enjoy the skilled untangling of scholarly puzzles will relish this book. Those who seek broad social interpretations of the history of ideas and their consequences should look elsewhere. Historians of technology will appreciate D. R. Hill’s “From Philo to Al-Jazari,” an elegant summary of the early history of mechanical engineering, based on the four oldest surviving texts—those ofPhilo of Byzantium (circa 200 b.c.), Hero of Alexandris (a.d. mid 1st cen­ tury), Banü Musa (a.d. 9th century), and al-Jarazi (a.d. 13th century). They might read philosopher ofscience R. M. Harré’s argument that “hi-tec” science is fundamentallydependent on technology, and not the other way around. His conclusion will not surprise them. However, the best stories concern scientific instruments and re­ lated images, many with a connection to Oxford or to Maddison’s research. In 1964, Maddison identified the first known extant exam­ ple of a spherical astrolabe. The example he found, and another example found in a private collection, were Islamic. Emmanuel Poulle ’s essay, an account of the spherical astrolabe in medieval Europe, introduces an anonymous Latin treatise on the instrument, known only from a 15th-century manuscript. Maddison has also published extensively on navigational instruments. Willem Hackmann’s paper discusses an engraving from the 1570s byjan van der Straet. It shows the historian Flavius Blondus, proclaimed to be the inventor of the mariner’s compass. Hackmann considers the possible sources ofvan der Straet’s notions about Flavius and about magnetism and weighs his influence on later authors. The Museum of the History of Sci­ ence in Oxford has a small Dutch painting from about 1600, The TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 345 Measurers, which shows ordinary people using a wide variety of mea­ suring devices. A musician is in the left corner of the painting. John Bergsagel contrasts the relationship of music and mathematics in the scholarly quadrivium with that shown in this image, where a teacher beats out a simple rhythm for a student. A. P. Segonds dis­ cusses a third image of the time, described by Tycho Brahe as en­ graved on an instrument at his observatory at Uraniborg. The em­ blem contrasted the fruitfulness of scholarly study with the deathly sterility ofworldly goods. Having lost his position in Denmark, Brahe sought a patron willing to surrender worldly goods for astronomical knowledge. Segonds examines Brahe’s emblem and traces its his­ tory. In the first half of the 17th century, Pierre Gassendi carried on the tradition of detailed astronomical observation associated with Brahe. None of Gassendi’s instruments survive. Using corre­ spondence and publications, and assisted by Oxford colleagues, Allan Chapman reconstructed two of Gassendi’s instruments for the 1992 celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of his birth. Chapman’s essay suggests the wealth of historical questions that are involved in the process of reconstruction. What materials are appropriate? How big were the instruments? How should scales be divided and subdivided, to be consistent with surviving observations? Two essays recount ties between the Netherlands and England during the 17th century. Emilie Savage-Smith and Colin Wakefield examine the gores of a celestial globe at Oxford...

Book Review: Science in Oxford and Cambridge: The Mathematician's Apprenticeship: Science, Universities and Society in England 1560–1640

Book Review: Science in Oxford and Cambridge: The Mathematician's Apprenticeship: Science, Universities and Society in England 1560–1640

Osler. Regius Professor of Medicine, Oxford.

William Osler spent the last 15 years of his life at Oxford, from his arrival in May 1905 until his death at 4:30 on the afternoon of Dec 29, 1919. His funeral was in the Chapel and Cathedral at Christ Church on the afternoon of Jan 1, 1920. The Regius Chair of Medicine to which Osler was invited is an ancient and honorific office. It was one of the chairs founded by King Henry VIII in 1546. It ranks as the second or third senior chair in the University, the senior chair being the Regius Chair of Divinity, the next two being those of Civil Law and Medicine. Osler's immediate predecessor was Sir John Burdon Sanderson, who had been the first Professor of Physiology in the University. Sanderson had been preceded by Sir Henry Acland, who had been instrumental in the resurrection of science in Oxford in the mid nineteenth

Scientific Instruments and Museums - Robert T. Gunther. A Pioneer in the History of Science, 1869–1940. By A. E. Gunther, Early Science in Oxford, Vol. xv. Pp. xiii + 520. Oxford: Printed for the Subscribers. 1967. £5 5s.

Scientific Instruments and Museums - Robert T. Gunther. A Pioneer in the History of Science, 1869–1940. By A. E. Gunther, Early Science in Oxford, Vol. xv. Pp. xiii + 520. Oxford: Printed for the Subscribers. 1967. £5 5s. - Volume 4 Issue 2

Museum of the History of Science Oxford

NEARLY twenty-five years ago the Lewis Evans Collection of historic scientific instruments was opened at Oxford by the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, president of the Society of Antiquaries. The collection consisted chiefly of astrolabes, dials and mathematical instruments, and was at once augmented by the transfer of many interesting pieces of philosophical apparatus’ from many of the Oxford colleges. Dr. R. T. Gunther, the curator, was most assiduous and persuasive in acquiring interesting exhibits, and it was not long before the collection had outgrown the Musæum Ashmoleanum in which it had so suitably been placed. In 1935 the Lewis Evans Collection became the Museum of the History of Science, and the need for further space was met by the promise that the whole of the Old Ashmolean Building would be transferred to the Museum in 1942, thus trebling the space available. Unfortunately, Dr. Gunther did not live to see this promise fulfilled, for he died in Kerch 1940, leaving the Museum and his fourteen volumes of “Early Science in Oxford’ as a lasting memorial to his labours for the history of science. The War delayed the occupation of the Museum's new galleries ; and even after the Ministry of Labour had vacated the building, it was necessary to instal a new system of lighting and heating. Thus it was not until October 11 of the present year that the collections were permanently arranged and, by a happy concurrence, opened by the present Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, chairman of the National Art Collections Fund.

Early Science in Oxford. Vol. XIV, Life and Letters of Edward Lhwyd. Gunther, R. T.

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsEarly Science in Oxford. Vol. XIV, Life and Letters of Edward Lhwyd. Gunther, R. T.M. F. Ashley MontaguM. F. Ashley Montagu Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Isis Volume 37, Number 1/2May, 1947 Publication of the History of Science Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/347978 Views: 3Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1947 History of Science SocietyPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article: George Sarton , and Frances Siegel Seventy-First Critical Bibliography of the History and Philosophy of Science and of the History of Civilization (To October 1947), Isis 39, no.1/21/2 (Oct 2015): 70–139.https://doi.org/10.1086/348945

EDWARD LHWYD : GEOLOGIST, BOTANIST AND PHILOLOGIST (1660-1709)

ACCOUNTS of the lives, work and writings of some of the more prominent naturalists and men of science who flourished during the second half of the seventeenth century and the early years of the eighteenth, among whom may be mentioned Newton, Boyle, Hooke, Ray and Plot, have provided the subject-matter of a number of books published in recent years. A further addition to these studies has now been issued as a result of the labours of the late Dr. R. T. Gunther*. It forms volume 14 in the series “Early Science in Oxford”, and has been published posthumously, thanks to the cooperation of Dr. John Johnson, of the Oxford University Press.

Early Science in Oxford. Vol. XI. Oxford Colleges and Their Men of Science

Early Science in Oxford. Vol. XI. Oxford Colleges and Their Men of Science

Early Science in Oxford

Early Science in Oxford

Early Science in Oxford

Early Science in Oxford

The Sycamore Maple in A.D. 1300

IN his description of the carvings of the sycamore on the shrine of St. Frideswyde in the Oxford Cathedral, Dr. Burtt Davy1 gives a list of ten species of plants that were in all probability growing in or near Oxford about A.D. 1300, when the shrine was being carved. It is only fair to note that the remarkable truth to Nature of the carvings of the fruits and leaves of this tree, and of the nine other species of plants mentioned by Dr. Davy, had already been recognised by Mr. S. A. Warner, with the addition of two more, the water crowfoot, Ranunculus aquatilis, and the hogweed, Heracleum sphondylium, to the list which, with three illustrations, is printed in my “Early Science in Oxford”, vol. 3, p. 198.

Early Science in Oxford

Early Science in Oxford