scholarly journals Deep questions about the nature of early-life signals: a commentary on Lister (1673) ‘A description of certain stones figured like plants’

2015 ◽  
Vol 373 (2039) ◽  
pp. 20140254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Brasier
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Pathways ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Early Earth ◽  
John Ray ◽  
Living Fossils ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Carboniferous Limestone ◽  
Pentagonal Symmetry ◽  
350Th Anniversary

In 1673, Martin Lister explored the preservation of ‘St Cuthbert's beads’ plus other fossil crinoid remains from approximately 350 Ma Carboniferous limestone in northern England. He used taphonomic evidence (transport, disarticulation, burial and cementation) to infer an origin as petrified plant remains, in contrast with his views expressed elsewhere that fossil mollusc shells could have formed abiogenically, by ‘plastic forces’ within rock. Lister also observed pentagonal symmetry, now seen as characteristic of living echinoderm skeletons. A postscript from John Ray supports Lister's ‘taphonomic’ observations and accepts the biogenicity of these fossil ‘vegetables’. Ray then concluded with a prophecy, predicting the discovery of comparable living fossils in remote ocean waters. These early discussions compare with current debates about the character of candidate microfossils from the early Earth and Mars. Interesting biomorphs are now tested against the abiogenic null hypotheses, making use of features such as those pioneered by Lister, including evidence for geological context, rules for growth and taphonomy. Advanced techniques now allow us to extend this list of criteria to include the nanoscale mapping of biology-like behaviour patterns plus metabolic pathways. Whereas the science of palaeobiology once began with tests for biogenicity, the same is now true for geobiology and astrobiology. This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society .

scholarly journals Formation of Thiophene under Simulated Volcanic Hydrothermal Conditions on Earth—Implications for Early Life on Extraterrestrial Planets?

Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 149
Author(s):  
Thomas Geisberger ◽  
Jessica Sobotta ◽  
Wolfgang Eisenreich ◽  
Claudia Huber
Keyword(s):  
Fatty Acids ◽  
Hydrogen Sulfide ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Organic Molecules ◽  
Metal Sulfides ◽  
Early Earth ◽  
Hydrothermal Conditions ◽  
Evolution Of Metabolism ◽  
Thiophene Derivatives ◽  
The Origin Of Life

Thiophene was detected on Mars during the Curiosity mission in 2018. The compound was even suggested as a biomarker due to its possible origin from diagenesis or pyrolysis of biological material. In the laboratory, thiophene can be synthesized at 400 °C by reacting acetylene and hydrogen sulfide on alumina. We here show that thiophene and thiophene derivatives are also formed abiotically from acetylene and transition metal sulfides such as NiS, CoS and FeS under simulated volcanic, hydrothermal conditions on Early Earth. Exactly the same conditions were reported earlier to have yielded a plethora of organic molecules including fatty acids and other components of extant metabolism. It is therefore tempting to suggest that thiophenes from abiotic formation could indicate sites and conditions well-suited for the evolution of metabolism and potentially for the origin-of-life on extraterrestrial planets.

Howard Florey - penicillin and after

1990 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-137 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Full Account ◽  
Great Scientist ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
National University ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Oxford University Press

Trevor I. Williams, Howard Florey - penicillin and after . Oxford University Press, 1984. Pp. xiii + 404. £22.50. ISBN 0-19-858173-4. Soon after Florey’s death in 1978 there appeared an admirable biography by Gwyn Macfarlane ( Howard Florey - the making of a great scientist , Oxford, 1979). It gives a full account of Florey’s early life in Australia and England including the discovery and exploitation of penicillin, with shorter accounts of his later activities in relation to the creation of the Australian National University, his period as President of the Royal Society and his last post as Provost of Queen’s College, Oxford.

Shining through the centuries: John Ray's life and legacy

2000 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-22
Author(s):  
B. J. Ford
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
John Ray

A major conference on John Ray and other clerical naturalists, entitled ‘John Ray and his successors; the clergyman as biologist’, was held at Braintree, Essex, from 18 to 21 March 1999. Speakers considered Ray's work and beliefs in the context of the theology of his day, and the interplay between religion and biology up to the present time. Some of the outstanding protagonists were, like Ray, ordained Fellows of the Royal Society.

scholarly journals Foreseeing fates: a commentary on Manton (1928) ‘On the embryology of a mysid crustacean, Hemimysis lamornae ’

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1666) ◽  
pp. 20140381
Author(s):  
Michael Akam
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Embryonic Development ◽  
Graduate Student ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Subsequent Work ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Early Training ◽  
350Th Anniversary

Sidnie Manton became best known for her work on arthropod locomotion, and for proposing radical views on the evolution of arthropods that were accepted for a generation. However, her early training was as an embryologist, and the work that she carried out at the beginning of her career still stands as one of the major twentieth century contributions to the study of crustacean embryology. Here, I review her first major paper, largely completed while she was a graduate student, describing embryonic development in Hemimysis lamornae , a small shrimp-like animal found in the seas around the UK. The clarity of her writing and the quality of her figures set a standard that laid the basis for subsequent work, and although not all of her conclusions have stood the test of time, they remain a standard reference for work today. This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society .

scholarly journals ‘Vividness’ in english natural history and anatomy, 1650–1700

2012 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Wragge-Morley
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Medical Discourse ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
Rhetorical Device ◽  
John Ray ◽  
The Mind ◽  
It Knowledge ◽  
The Brain

This article concerns the use of rhetorical strategies in the natural historical and anatomical works of the seventeenth-century Royal Society. Choosing representative works, it argues that naturalists such as Nehemiah Grew, John Ray and the neuroanatomist Thomas Willis used the rhetorical device known as ‘comparison’ to make their descriptions of natural things vivid. By turning to contemporary works of neurology such as Willis's Cerebri Anatome and contemporary rhetorical works inspired by other such descriptions of the brain and nerves, it is argued that the effects of these strategies were taken to be wide-ranging. Contemporaries understood the effects of rhetoric in terms inflected by anatomical and medical discourse—the brain was physically altered by powerful sense impressions such as those of rhetoric. I suggest that the rhetoric of natural history could have been understood in the same way and that natural history and anatomy might therefore have been understood to cultivate the mind, improving its capacity for moral judgements as well as giving it knowledge of nature.

scholarly journals From plant extract to molecular panacea: a commentary on Stone (1763) ‘An account of the success of the bark of the willow in the cure of the agues’

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1666) ◽  
pp. 20140317 ◽  
Author(s):  
John N. Wood
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
Bark Extract ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Willow Bark ◽  
Inflammatory Drugs ◽  
Anti Inflammatory ◽  
350Th Anniversary

The application of aspirin-like drugs in modern medicine is very broad, encompassing the treatment of inflammation, pain and a variety of cardiovascular conditions. Although anecdotal accounts of willow bark extract as an anti-inflammatory drug have occurred since written records began (for example by Hippocrates), the first convincing demonstration of a potent anti-pyretic effect of willow bark containing salicylates was made by the English cleric Edward Stone in the late eighteenth century. Here, we discuss the route to optimizing and understanding the mechanism of action of anti-inflammatory drugs that have their origins in Stone's seminal study, ‘An account of the success of the bark of the willow in the cure of agues’. This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society .

scholarly journals XVII. On an Anomalous Case of Vision with regard to Colours

1826 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-262
Author(s):  
George Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Proper Names

As the following anomalous case relating to the vision of colours, appears to possess some remarkable peculiarities, I have considered it of sufficient importance to be submitted to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.J. B., aged 60 years, served in early life an apprenticeship to a farmer; but, disliking agricultural pursuits, became a tailor, and afterwards entered into the Navy, and served in several general actions. After quitting the sea-service, he resumed his trade, and in the employment of which he now continues. From his childhood, it appears, he was unable to point out colours by their proper names; or, excepting in a few cases, to distinguish one colour from another. From the nature of his avocation, this circumstance must have often been to him the source of much inconvenience; and during his whole life, he has found the utmost embarrassment from it.

scholarly journals Memory, modelling and Marr: a commentary on Marr (1971) ‘Simple memory: a theory of archicortex’

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1666) ◽  
pp. 20140383 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Willshaw ◽  
P. Dayan ◽  
R. G. M. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Brain Structure ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Partial Information ◽  
Hippocampal Formation ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Theoretical Neuroscience ◽  
Memory Modelling ◽  
Contemporary Context ◽  
350Th Anniversary

David Marr's theory of the archicortex, a brain structure now more commonly known as the hippocampus and hippocampal formation, is an epochal contribution to theoretical neuroscience. Addressing the problem of how information about 10 000 events could be stored in the archicortex during the day so that they can be retrieved using partial information and then transferred to the neocortex overnight, the paper presages a whole wealth of later empirical and theoretical work, proving impressively prescient. Despite this impending success, Marr later apparently grew dissatisfied with this style of modelling, but he went on to make seminal suggestions that continue to resonate loudly throughout the field of theoretical neuroscience. We describe Marr's theory of the archicortex and his theory of theories, setting them into their original and a contemporary context, and assessing their impact. This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society .

scholarly journals The early evolution of land plants, from fossils to genomics: a commentary on Lang (1937) ‘On the plant-remains from the Downtonian of England and Wales'

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1666) ◽  
pp. 20140343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dianne Edwards ◽  
Paul Kenrick
Keyword(s):  
Early Evolution ◽  
Plant Genome ◽  
Land Plants ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Earth Systems ◽  
Organ Systems ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Early Land ◽  
Great Simplicity ◽  
350Th Anniversary

During the 1920s, the botanist W. H. Lang set out to collect and investigate some very unpromising fossils of uncertain affinity, which predated the known geological record of life on land. His discoveries led to a landmark publication in 1937, ‘On the plant-remains from the Downtonian of England and Wales’, in which he revealed a diversity of small fossil organisms of great simplicity that shed light on the nature of the earliest known land plants. These and subsequent discoveries have taken on new relevance as botanists seek to understand the plant genome and the early evolution of fundamental organ systems. Also, our developing knowledge of the composition of early land-based ecosystems and the interactions among their various components is contributing to our understanding of how life on land affects key Earth Systems (e.g. carbon cycle). The emerging paradigm is one of early life on land dominated by microbes, small bryophyte-like organisms and lichens. Collectively called cryptogamic covers, these are comparable with those that dominate certain ecosystems today. This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society .

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