scholarly journals J. Murdoch Mitchison. 11 June 1922—17 March 2011

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 279-306
Author(s):  
Peter Fantes ◽  
Sally Mitchison
Keyword(s):  
Cell Biology ◽  
Sea Urchins ◽  
Growth Cycle ◽  
Cell Physiology ◽  
Time Work ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
Membrane Changes ◽  
Post War ◽  
The University ◽  
Zoology Department

John Murdoch Mitchison, known as Murdoch, was elected FRS in recognition of his work on the cell cycle. This emerged from a lifelong interest in the natural sciences, interrupted by war-time work in Operational Research which developed his critical appraisal of research technique. Post-war, he completed a PhD at Cambridge, then worked with Sir Michael Swann FRS (1962) on mitotic membrane changes in sea urchins. In 1953 Murdoch joined the University of Edinburgh Zoology Department and in time switched his interest to the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe . Over the next 30 years he investigated cell growth and division, employing a meticulous approach to experiments. He considered there to be a ‘growth cycle’ in cells, independent of the DNA-division cycle. There is experimental evidence to support this idea, but further investigations of it have been limited. Actively fostering a relaxed but industrious and enquiring ethos in the lab, Murdoch ran the department jointly with Aubrey Manning. The Mitchison group's work at Edinburgh attracted students including Paul Nurse (later Sir Paul Nurse; FRS 1989, PRS 2010–2015), Béla Novak, Kim Nasmyth (FRS 1989) and Peter Fantes as well as many visiting academics. Murdoch's work on S. pombe came to both national and international recognition, forming a foundation for the current thriving community of researchers in cell physiology, cell genetics and molecular biology. Murdoch is remembered for his single-minded commitment to cell biology research and his generous, fair-minded support of younger colleagues and students. He was, additionally, an expert landscape gardener, a convivial host and phenomenally well-informed on most subjects.

scholarly journals German Genetics Society Meeting 2009: Session VI

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Fenner
Keyword(s):  
Cell Biology ◽  
Society Meeting ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
The University

Another guest post by Alex Knoll reporting from the German Genetics Society Meeting in Cologne.Saturday had two more sessions before the end of the meeting. Irina Stancheva from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh ...

scholarly journals Interview with 2020 Hooke medal winner Ian Chambers

2020 ◽  
Vol 133 (20) ◽  
pp. jcs254219
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cell ◽  
Stem Cell Research ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Embryonic Stem ◽  
British Society ◽  
Control Of Gene Expression ◽  
Erythroid Precursor ◽  
Cell Fate Decisions ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
The University

ABSTRACTIan Chambers studied biochemistry at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK. He then did his PhD in the laboratory of Paul Harrison at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, also in Glasgow. Ian studied the control of gene expression during the differentiation of erythroid precursor cells, discovering that the amino acid selenocysteine is encoded by UGA, which until then was thought to work only as a termination codon. Ian did his post-doctoral work on the regulation of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) with Paul Berg at Stanford University in California, USA. In 1991, he returned to Scotland to work on stem cell regulation with Austin Smith at the Centre for Genome Research (later the Institute for Stem Cell Research) at the University of Edinburgh, UK. During that time, Ian identified the transcription factor Nanog, which directs efficient embryonic stem cell self-renewal. Ian started his research group in 2006 at the University of Edinburgh, where he is also a Professor of Pluripotent Stem Cell Biology. His laboratory tries to understand the regulatory networks and transcription factors that control the identity of pluripotent embryonic stem cells, and how these modulate cell fate decisions during the differentiation process. Ian is now the Head of the Institute for Stem Cell Research at University of Edinburgh, an EMBO member and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Ian is the recipient of the 2020 Hooke Medal from the British Society for Cell Biology (BSCB).

scholarly journals Cell scientist to watch – Christine Faulkner

2020 ◽  
Vol 133 (24) ◽  
pp. jcs256826
Keyword(s):  
Cell Biology ◽  
Cell Communication ◽  
Plant Cells ◽  
Postdoctoral Position ◽  
Molecule Transport ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
The Uk ◽  
And Function ◽  
The University ◽  
Sydney Australia

ABSTRACTChristine Faulkner pursued her undergraduate degree at the University of Sydney, Australia. She then joined Robyn Overall's research group at the same institution to obtain her PhD in molecular and cell biology, where she characterised plasmodesmata, which are connection channels between plant cells that allow for communication and molecule transport. In 2005, Christine moved to the UK to continue studying plasmodesmata characterisation and function, as well as trying to understand their link to infection outcomes. Her first postdoctoral position was with Karl Oparka at the University of Edinburgh, followed by a second at the John Innes Centre in Norwich with Professor Andrew Maule. She subsequently joined the lab of Silke Robatzek at The Sainsbury Laboratory, also in Norwich, before starting an independent fellowship at Oxford Brookes University, in Oxford, in 2012. In December 2013, Christine returned to the John Innes Centre to establish her own lab. In 2016, she was awarded an ERC Consolidator grant. Her lab is trying to understand how cell–cell communication occurs in plants, focusing on plasmodesmata, and how this process is crucial for regulation of the plant immune response.

Constructing Hidden Narratives

2018 ◽  
pp. 173-197
Author(s):  
Charlotte Lauder
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
History Of Education ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Postgraduate Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

This chapter reviews the history of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh. The IASH, formally established in 1970, is the oldest Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Britain’s first, and Scotland’s only IAS. However, in its nearly fifty-year history, no effort has been made to tell IASH’s story. This can be partly attributed to a lack of understanding of IASs within the history of education, as well as a gap in the literature concerning IASs more generally. Investigating the history of IASH and its role in the development of postgraduate study not only adds to the scholarship on post-war Scottish higher education but also highlights the impact of academic research in Scotland since the 1960s.

Of Men and Machines

Colossus ◽  
2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Randell
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
National Physical Laboratory ◽  
Machine Intelligence ◽  
Official Document ◽  
Alan Turing ◽  
Physical Laboratory ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
Post War ◽  
The University ◽  
Digital Computers

The first inkling I had of the work done at Bletchley Park during the Second World War on electronic codebreaking machines resulted from my efforts to find out what Alan Turing had done during the war. I had been assembling a set of original documents and papers for reproduction in a book on the origins of digital computers, when a colleague questioned the fact that Turing did not figure in the book. At this stage I knew only of Turing’s pre-war work on what we now term ‘Turing machines’, which was purely theoretical, and of his post-war work at the National Physical Laboratory, which did not lead to a working computer in the pre-1950 period on which I was concentrating (see Chapter 9). I responded to the implied challenge and gradually tracked down various brief published allusions to wartime work by Turing and others at Bletchley Park (in particular an article by Jack Good), which were then assembled into a draft article. This draft persuaded various people, especially Donald Michie and Jack Good—both of whom worked with Turing at Bletchley Park—to provide additional, although very guarded, information. I decided to try to get the British wartime work on electronic computers declassified. I wrote directly to the Prime Minister at the time, Mr Edward Heath. The reply I received, signed by the Prime Minister himself, although it politely refused my request, nevertheless constituted for several years what I think was the only unclassified official document admitting that there had been a wartime electronic computer project in Britain. The result of this investigation was my ‘On Alan Turing and the Origins of Digital Computers’, which I presented at Michie’s annual machine intelligence workshop at Edinburgh in October 1972. The proceedings of the workshop were due to be published by the University of Edinburgh Press, and after I had given my presentation I overheard two people connected with the University Press voicing concern over whether they dare include it in the book. The conversation ended with them agreeing that it would be all right to go ahead since, if there were any repercussions, it would be the head of the University Press, namely Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who would be held responsible.

John Robertson Henderson (1863–1925): Scotland, India and anomuran taxonomy

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-75
Author(s):  
P. G. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Christian College ◽  
Apparent Absence ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
Marine Station ◽  
The University ◽  
Crustacean Taxonomy

John Robertson Henderson was born in Scotland and educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he qualified as a doctor. His interest in marine natural history was fostered at the Scottish Marine Station for Scientific Research at Granton (near Edinburgh) where his focus on anomuran crustaceans emerged, to the extent that he was eventually invited to compile the anomuran volume of the Challenger expedition reports. He left Scotland for India in autumn 1885 to take up the Chair of Zoology at Madras Christian College, shortly after its establishment. He continued working on crustacean taxonomy, producing substantial contributions to the field; returning to Scotland in retirement in 1919. The apparent absence of communication with Alfred William Alcock, a surgeon-naturalist with overlapping interests in India, is highlighted but not resolved.

The training of a polar scientist: Patrick Geddes and the student career of William Speirs Bruce

2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. N. SWINNEY
Keyword(s):  
Future Career ◽  
New Information ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
The University

ABSTRACT: The university career of the polar scientist William Speirs Bruce (1867–is examined in relation to new information, discovered amongst the Bruce papers in the University of Edinburgh, which elucidates the role played by Patrick Geddes in shaping Bruce's future career. Previous accounts of Bruce's university years, based mainly on the biography by Rudmose Brown (1923), are shown to be in error in several details.

Adam Ferguson and the Idea of Civil Society

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Smith
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
David Hume ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
Scottish Enlightenment ◽  
Commercial Society ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
The University

Adam Ferguson was a Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and a leading member of the Scottish Enlightenment. A friend of David Hume and Adam Smith, Ferguson was among the leading exponents of the Scottish Enlightenment’s attempts to develop a science of man and was among the first in the English speaking world to make use of the terms civilization, civil society, and political science. This book challenges many of the prevailing assumptions about Ferguson’s thinking. It explores how Ferguson sought to create a methodology for moral science that combined empirically based social theory with normative moralising with a view to supporting the virtuous education of the British elite. The Ferguson that emerges is far from the stereotyped image of a nostalgic republican sceptical about modernity, and instead is one much closer to the mainstream Scottish Enlightenment’s defence of eighteenth century British commercial society.

Thinking About Scots Law

1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Rodger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
British Empire ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Memorial Lecture ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
The University

This article is the revised text of the first W A Wilson Memorial Lecture, given in the Playfair Library, Old College, in the University of Edinburgh, on 17 May 1995. It considers various visions of Scots law as a whole, arguing that it is now a system based as much upon case law and precedent as upon principle, and that its departure from the Civilian tradition in the nineteenth century was part of a general European trend. An additional factor shaping the attitudes of Scots lawyers from the later nineteenth century on was a tendency to see themselves as part of a larger Englishspeaking family of lawyers within the British Empire and the United States of America.

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