Botany in the University of Glasgow: 250th Anniversary

Nature ◽  
1954 ◽  
Vol 174 (4418) ◽  
pp. 10-12 ◽  

The 250th anniversary of the birth of James Watt will be celebrated in January 1986. Watt is primarily remembered for his improvements to the steam engine, which were of such great importance in the early phase of the Industrial Revolution (1). It is less well known that throughout his life Watt was interested in chemistry. This article outlines the main themes of Watt’s chemical work. Watt learned the trade of instrument maker in London. On returning to his native Scotland in 1756 he was employed for a few months by the University of Glasgow in the repair of some astronomical instruments. During this time he met the newly appointed professor of anatomy and chemistry, Joseph Black, who may have assisted Watt in obtaining his appointment as mathematical instrument maker to the University in the following year. It seems possible that Black stimulated Watt’s latent interest in chemistry. Although Watt’s subsequent career took him away from Scotland, he remained in correspondence with Black until the latter’s death in 1799. This correspondence shows how keen and sustained was Watt’s interest in chemistry (2).


Author(s):  
Galina Krivosheina

This paper commemorates the 250th anniversary of birth of Grigorii Ivanovich Fischer von Waldheim, a German naturalist who came to Moscow in 1804 at the invitation of the trustee of Moscow University M. N. Muravyov to take the chair in natural history and the post of director of the University Museum of Natural History. The paper analyzes the historiography on Fischer von Waldheim and recounts the circumstances of his invitation to Russia. Special attention is given to his fifty-year-long work in Russia and his still underestimated contributions to the development and institutionalization of natural sciences, and the establishment of natural history education at Moscow University and Moscow Medico-Surgical Academy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  

Welcome to the fifth collection by Wyvern Poets, in collaboration with the University of Dundee. 2021 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), father of the historical novel and, effectively, of a new kind of mass ‘time travel’. Scott’s prolific output exported an image of his homeland with global appeal, if not always scrupulous authenticity. Stuart Kelly’s 2011 biography, Scott-land, is subtitled The Man Who Invented a Nation, perhaps without too much exaggeration. Scott’s antiquarian vision transformed a turbulent past into a pre-industrial landscape for the Romantic imagination, virtually overwhelming its place of origin or at least melding with it, as he rapidly became one the best-selling authors on earth. John Davidson’s ‘The Salvation of Nature’ (1891), fantasised a future Scotland bought out by an entertainment conglomerate. The World’s Pleasance Company, Ltd. demolishes anything built after 1700, ‘rewilding’ Scotland into a kind of neo-medieval theme park re-staging the past for tourists. Davidson’s story was both satirical exaggeration and backhanded tribute to Scott’s work for bringing history to life in a certain form. Hence this collection considers the many ways in which Scott’s evocative, but also problematic reimagining of his homeland remains relevant to our time and beyond.


PMLA ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 1343-1343

The fifty-second meeting of the Modern Language Associationof America was held, on the invitation of the University of Cincinnati, at Cincinnati, Ohio, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, December 30 and 31, 1935, and January 1, 1936. The Association headquarters were in the Netherland Plaza Hotel, where all meetings were held except those of Tuesday morning and afternoon. These took place at the University of Cincinnati. Registration cards at headquarters were signed by about 900, though a considerably larger number of members were in attendance. The Local Committee estimated the attendance at not less than 1400. This Committee consisted of Professor Frank W. Chandler, Chairman; Professor Edwin H. Zeydel; Professor Phillip Ogden; Mr. John J. Rowe (for the Directors); and Mr. Joseph S. Graydon (for the Alumni).


1966 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 116-117
Author(s):  
P.-I. Eriksson

Nowadays more and more of the reductions of astronomical data are made with electronic computers. As we in Uppsala have an IBM 1620 at the University, we have taken it to our help with reductions of spectrophotometric data. Here I will briefly explain how we use it now and how we want to use it in the near future.


1979 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 96-101
Author(s):  
J.A. Graham

During the past several years, a systematic search for novae in the Magellanic Clouds has been carried out at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The Curtis Schmidt telescope, on loan to CTIO from the University of Michigan is used to obtain plates every two weeks during the observing season. An objective prism is used on the telescope. This provides additional low-dispersion spectroscopic information when a nova is discovered. The plates cover an area of 5°x5°. One plate is sufficient to cover the Small Magellanic Cloud and four are taken of the Large Magellanic Cloud with an overlap so that the central bar is included on each plate. The methods used in the search have been described by Graham and Araya (1971). In the CTIO survey, 8 novae have been discovered in the Large Cloud but none in the Small Cloud. The survey was not carried out in 1974 or 1976. During 1974, one nova was discovered in the Small Cloud by MacConnell and Sanduleak (1974).


1979 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 368
Author(s):  
Clinton B. Ford

A “new charts program” for the Americal Association of Variable Star Observers was instigated in 1966 via the gift to the Association of the complete variable star observing records, charts, photographs, etc. of the late Prof. Charles P. Olivier of the University of Pennsylvania (USA). Adequate material covering about 60 variables, not previously charted by the AAVSO, was included in this original data, and was suitably charted in reproducible standard format.Since 1966, much additional information has been assembled from other sources, three Catalogs have been issued which list the new or revised charts produced, and which specify how copies of same may be obtained. The latest such Catalog is dated June 1978, and lists 670 different charts covering a total of 611 variables none of which was charted in reproducible standard form previous to 1966.


Author(s):  
Ronald S. Weinstein ◽  
N. Scott McNutt

The Type I simple cold block device was described by Bullivant and Ames in 1966 and represented the product of the first successful effort to simplify the equipment required to do sophisticated freeze-cleave techniques. Bullivant, Weinstein and Someda described the Type II device which is a modification of the Type I device and was developed as a collaborative effort at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Auckland, New Zealand. The modifications reduced specimen contamination and provided controlled specimen warming for heat-etching of fracture faces. We have now tested the Mass. General Hospital version of the Type II device (called the “Type II-MGH device”) on a wide variety of biological specimens and have established temperature and pressure curves for routine heat-etching with the device.


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