Review of Session 2010-11

The Royal Society of Edinburgh Review 2012
THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH REVIEW OF THE SESSION 2010-2011

(OCTOBER 2010-OCTOBER 2011)
PUBLISHED BY THE RSE SCOTLAND FOUNDATION ISSN 1476-4342
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CONTENTS
ACTIVITIES - SESSION 2010-11 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ORDINARY MEETINGS ............................ 3 PROCEEDINGS OF THE STATUTORY GENERAL MEETING ............ 5 PRIZE LECTURES ...................................................................... 33 LECTURES ............................................................................... 37 CONFERENCES ....................................................................... 143 PUBLICATIONS ........................................................................ 239 POLICY ADVICE ...................................................................... 241 SCOTTISH BIOINFORMATICS FORUM ......................................245 EVENTS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE .................................................. 247 RESEARCH AND ENTERPRISE AWARDS ................................... 249 MEDALS, PRIZES AND PRIZE LECTURESHIPS ........................... 255 GRANTS COMMITTEE ............................................................. 257 INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME ...............................................259 FELLOWS SOCIAL EVENTS ..................................................... 265 GRANTS, SPONSORSHIP AND DONATIONS .............................267 FRIENDS OF THE SOCIETY ...................................................... 269 SCHEDULE OF INVESTMENTS ................................................. 271 CHANGES IN FELLOWSHIP DURING THE SESSION ...................275 STAFF CHANGES DURING THE SESSION .................................277 OBITUARY NOTICES .................................................................... 279 TRUSTEES REPORT AND ACCOUNTS TO 31 MARCH 2011 ......... 377
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ORDINARY MEETINGS

The meeting due to be held on 6 December 2010 was cancelled due to bad weather. Wednesday 9 March 2011 President: Lord Wilson of Tillyorn KT GCMG PRSE Ballot The President announced that Professors Jeanne Bell and Alice Brown acted as Scrutineers for the postal ballot for the election of the President and for the election of new RSE Fellows for 2011. They reported that 42% of the Fellowship returned papers for the ballot for the election of the President. Sir John Arbuthnott was elected by an overwhelming majority. 43% of the Fellowship returned papers for the election of new Fellows and the names on the list were elected by an overwhelming majority. The announcement of the incoming President and the list of new RSE Fellows have been released to the media today. Lecture The President introduced Mr Matt McGrath, and asked him to deliver his Gannochy Trust Innovation Award Prize Lecture entitled Benbecula to Anaesthesia - and Beyond Monday 6 June 2011 Chairman Vice -President: Professor Jean Beggs CBE FRS FRSE Lecture The Vice-President introduced Professor Tim Byers, Professor of Epidemiology and Associate Dean at the Colorado school of public health in Denver, Colorado, and asked him to deliver his lecture entitled: Preventing Cancers of the Breast and Colon by How We Choose to Live Each Day. 5 September 2011 Chairman Lord Wilson of Tillyorn KT GCMG PRSE Lecture Professor Wade Allison, Emeritus Fellow, Keble College, Oxford Radiation and Reason: Straight and Open Thinking about Choosing Nuclear
PROCEEDINGS OF THE STATUTORY GENERAL MEETING

Minutes of the Statutory General Meeting held on 3 October 2011, ending the 228th Session
The Annual Statutory Meeting took place in the Societys Wolfson Theatre on Monday 3 October 2011 at 5 pm. Lord Wilson of Tillyorn KT GCMG, President, took the Chair. A. Formal Business 1. MINUTES The Minutes of the Annual Statutory Meeting held on Monday 4 October 2010 were taken as read, approved by those Fellows present and signed by the President as a correct record. 2. MATTERS ARISING The President presented a report (Appendix I) on the creation of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland and thanked Professors Peter Holmes, Geoffrey Boulton and Alice Brown, the Societys staff, and many other Fellows who had assessed the applications received, for the significant contributions all had made and the hard work they had put into successfully progressing the initiative. An update was requested on the outcome of the review of events primarily for Fellows. Professor Boulton reported that the Executive Board had considered the issue and had agreed that while the Societys activities debate many issues, very frequently it is in the aftermath of a lecture with a short time for questions and that something more structured which facilitates deliberative discussion amongst Fellows on a fairly regular basis was required. The aim was to establish this in the year ahead, but this needed to be considered in the context of the Society having to make important operational decisions in the coming year given the financial climate in which it is currently operating; and in establishing a new series of events for Fellows, one of the questions might well be what the Society would stop doing in order to make space for such a series.
Review of the Session 2010-2011
3. REPORT ON ACTIVITIES FOR SESSION 2010/11 The meeting noted the Report on Activities for Session 2010/11 distributed to Fellows in advance (Appendix II). The President suggested that any discussion of the report should take place after the Office Bearers Reports had been delivered. 4. OFFICE BEARERS REPORTS a) General Secretarys Report Professor Geoffrey Boulton gave the following report: We report annually in three ways. First through our annual Trustees Report and Accounts, which are approved by Council and are available to any Fellow through our website, or in printed format on request. Secondly, through an illustrated Annual Review, a copy of which all Fellows should have received. Both of these reports cover the financial year from April to March. Thirdly, we report by Session, and my report this evening covers some of the major issues that have occurred during this period, which is the year from the last Annual Statutory Meeting to now. The first issue, already mentioned by the President, is the planning and creation of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland. We are absolutely delighted by the calibre of the individuals who applied for membership and those whom have been elected. The Academy will be formally launched on 29 November 2011 and thereafter will evolve and its members will develop its programme of activities under the auspices of an Interim Steering Group, which will be chaired by the General Secretary. Secondly, there has been anticipation of difficult financial times ahead. We do a tremendous variety of things and some of the key questions we are probably going to have to decide upon in the coming year is which of those things should we to do less of, which should we stop doing, and are there new things we ought to be doing to replace what we already do? We have developed a process by which this might be done, through our Executive Board, which has a detailed understanding and knowledge of the individual parts of the Societys activities. Of course, should there be major shifts in the balance of things we do, then it is important that we engage with the Fellowship regarding this.
Proceedings of the Annual Statutory Meeting
The third major issue is securing the Societys financial future. This is an easy thing to say, but a much more difficult thing to do, largely because of the uncertainties with the grant we receive from the Scottish Government and the very severe pressures its budget is under, but we have engaged with and will continue to engage with Scottish Government Ministers and officials with a view to securing the best possible outcome for the Society. Looking at our activities in broad terms gives a sense of the diversity of things that the Society does and the problems that can arise if we have to adapt in stringent financial circumstances. An outcome of Scottish Government grant reductions in the last year was a moratorium, for one year at least, of offering new Research Fellowships. Funding permitting, our clear aim is, however, to reinstate this highly successful programme during the coming year. Another area which has been under pressure is our Arts and Humanities Research Awards programme, which has also been highly successful and is an area which, in principle, we would like to protect. Communicating knowledge has continued to be a vitally important activity but, like other areas, has not been free from the financial pressures. Despite this, we managed to deliver a wide ranging programme of activities consistent with previous years. In my view, an activity of particular importance is the advice the Society gives to others, usually Government. This very much involves the Fellowship, and in the last year some 170 Fellows were directly involved in groups that met either to respond to consultation papers or to produce papers of our own. Beyond that, we also circulated to Fellows who we believe have an interest in particular areas to elicit their responses. We have also outreached across Scotland and have engaged with local communities. For example, in the year past we ran an extensive programme of activities for school-aged children and adults in the Dumfries & Galloway region. This followed up on a similar project in Arbroath two years before. Both of those projects have been extremely successful partnership initiatives, not solely funded by us. They leave legacies (non-financial) with the local communities and doing similar such projects in the future continues to be our aim. Most activities in our international programme are fairly well established. There has, however, been one new innovation this year, which is the establishment of a series of FrancoScottish science
seminars. This flowed from discussions with the French Embassy in London about the possibility of jointly holding seminars on particular aspects of science. The first was held during this year and two more are planned for the coming year. Its an example of the type of activity which is relatively inexpensive for the Society when it teams up with other bodies that have resources to expend. Two of our Committees have a specific remit to consider particular areas of public policy. These are the Education Committee and the Business Innovation Forum. The Education Committee has been motoring very strongly, and has become profoundly engaged in, probably the largest development in Scottish education for three or four decades in the Curriculum for Excellence. It has made some quite sharp interventions and has also been very positive in some of the things it has done in supporting Scottish government activity. It is regarded by external organisations outwith government as a reliable, sympathetic and intelligent ear. Through it, the Society provided an exemplar of the way in which the Curriculum for Excellence may operate in chemistry. This has been very much appreciated by teachers of chemistry. Similarly, work has just begun on a Computing Science exemplar and this is being funded externally by around sixteen different companies and bodies. The most significant activity of the Business Innovation Forum in the last year has been its influential report on Digital Scotland, the follow -up dissemination of which has given the Scottish Government and others a much clearer view of what the underlying principles of broadband development in Scotland ought to be. All of these activities, and the benefits that are realised from them, would not have been possible without the very willing involvement of a very large number of Fellows and of course the support of the Societys very hard working staff, and on behalf of the Society I would like to thank all of them for their contributions. Finally, at the conclusion of todays meeting a number of our elected officers will demit office, namely the President, Lord Wilson, VicePresident Professor Hector Macqueen, Fellowship Secretary Professor Peter Holmes, Research Awards Convenor Professor Alan Miller, Young Peoples Convenor Professor Mary Bownes, and Council member Professor Ian Halliday. On behalf of the Society I would also like to thank all of them for their valuable contributions to the Societys work, whilst at the same time fulfilling the many other demands on their time.
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b) Treasurers Report Mr Ewan Brown gave the following report: First a reminder that what is presented to you in the Annual Review are the consolidated figures for the RSE, the RSE Scotland Foundation and the BP Research Fellowship Trust for the first time all with the same year end and presented over the same period. The largest elements of income and expenditure the money received for the grant of Research and Enterprise fellowships and the amounts paid out in support of these increased by 16%, a step up reflecting the implementation of earlier recommendations by Sir John Enderby. Elsewhere costs were kept under tight control, with governance and management costs representing less than 3% of income. The RSE continues to deliver much from a small and efficient centre. The consolidated operating surplus for the year was 327,000, which compares with a deficit of 62,000 for the previous year. However, as always with the vagaries of charities accounting, that is not the whole story, for the 327,000 was arrived at after a pensions credit of 240,000 and a legacy payment of 62,500. So we more or less broke even, which was a satisfactory outcome. The RSEs General Fund increased by 410,000, largely attributable to an ephemeral pension credit and reduction in the pension liability. Realised and unrealised investment gains of 524,000 accounted for most of the increase in the designated and restricted funds, but recent setbacks in the stock markets will have eroded much of this. As I said last year, and I will say every year while I am still involved, what is real, as distinct from accounting convention, is cash flow and being able to meet liabilities as they fall due. Although net current assets were down by 450,000 attributable principally to putting some funds out for longer investment, they were in excess of 1.5 million, which is still a healthy position. However, you will see from the Annual Review that the dark clouds are gathering. Our grant from the Scottish Government for the current year has been cut by 16% (equivalent to 486,000) and our only means of addressing this, short of withdrawing from one or more of our core activities, was, with regret, to impose the moratorium on the award of Research Fellowships.
We hope to know quite soon what our grant position will be for 2012/13. While Council has put forward strong arguments for resuming the Fellowship awards and supporting the wide range of public benefits provided by the RSEs various programmes, Government seems to find it easier to salami slice everyones budget rather than prioritise for the common good. Our annual grant comes from the budget of the Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser and we are increasingly looking elsewhere in government for support for arts and humanities, social sciences and business activities. The Scottish Government gets a lot from a very small annual investment in our programmes less than the in-kind contribution of our Fellows and Council will continue to ensure that Ministers understand this and are well informed about what the RSE delivers for the benefit of Scotland. We are also actively pursuing other sources of income and are pleased that recent legacies now total 3.5 million, but we need more and hope that the legacy initiative which was launched last year will encourage many Fellows to give serious consideration to leaving legacies to the RSE. c) Fellowship Secretarys Report Professor Peter Holmes gave the following report: I appreciate this opportunity to give a brief overview of the Fellowship on an annual basis. I will divide my presentation into four short sections. First to talk about the distribution of the current Fellowship, then a little about the new Fellows who were elected this year, a little bit on gender balance and age distribution, because I know those are two issues that frequently come up, and then finally I will say a few words about where we are in the new election cycle for 2011/2012. Looking at the current Fellowship, we have 1540 Fellows at the moment. The Fellowship is divided on the basis of disciplines into four main sectors. These main sectors have been in place for many years and within them we have 14 sectional groups which cover the diverse range of subjects. Within the current Fellowship, I think its interesting and perhaps not altogether surprising that 75% of our Fellows (formerly called Ordinary Fellows) are scientists and engineers and this has been the situation for sometime - so we have large groups in life sciences, physical sciences and engineering. balance of the Fellowship is not the process once the candidates name is put forward, but it is having reasonable numbers of female
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candidates being put forward. We must do everything we can to encourage the nomination of female candidates. Last year, we had only 20 female candidates to consider out of 149 in total. In other words, only 13% of the candidates were female. Which I think is not really very satisfactory. Looking at the age distribution of the Fellowship, we have Fellows aged from 37 to 98 with an average age of around 67. There are very few Fellows in the 30-39 age group and this has been commented on in the past. The age of our new Fellows hovers around the low 50s. Finally, for the new Fellows who were elected this year, a very special event as many of you will know in May is when the new Fellows come here to sign the roll. It is always an enjoyable day and I hope that will continue into the future. Turning to the new 2011/2012 election cycle, we have 171 candidates for consideration. 90 of these are new candidates, in comparison with only 53 new candidates last year, so that is a good development. However, it means that there is a large number for the Sectional Committees to consider. There are 163 candidates for what used to be called Ordinary Fellowship, and amongst this group we can see again a repeat of the distribution, with large numbers coming into Sectors A and B indeed around 73% of candidates for consideration are from the science areas. I am very pleased to say we have 34 women for consideration this year as opposed to 20 last year. 23 of these are new candidates we had only nine new female candidates last year. So things are moving in the right direction and these numbers mean that around 20% of the candidates for consideration are female, which some might argue is closer to representing the communitys which we are drawing from. However, there is still room for improvement and, as you heard earlier today, 40% of the members of the Young Academy are female. The allocation of places for Fellowship is always an important issue for Council, and there are various factors taken into account when we draw up these numbers. Every year since the review in 2007, the recommendation has been that we should hold it at 40 new Fellows a year, and this is how the places are distributed for this years election cycle (Sector A 14+1, Sector B 11 + 1, Sector C 5 + 1, Sector D 2 + 1). Last year, for the first time, we added this + 1 flexible arrangement whereby we can move places between the different groups depending on the excellence of the candidates. That flexibili11
ty for the Fellowship Committee has been extremely helpful. What also has been extremely helpful is the development of what we call the floating places. These are largely for candidates sitting between the main discipline groups, who perhaps in the past had a harder route in terms of election to Fellowship, and again this has been extremely useful. Finally then, in terms of this year, its a five-stage process which is taking place from now until Christmas. We are just finishing off some of the Sectional Committee meetings. The top candidates from each of the Sectional Committees will then move to the next stage to be considered and prioritised by the Sector Groups. The prioritised candidates from the Sector Group meetings then go for consideration by the Fellowship Committee and finally by Council. Then in December there is a ballot to the whole Fellowship. It is an important distillation process of five stages and I am pleased that we are getting such excellent candidates and such excellent Fellows elected. Before closing, I should say that this is my final report from my threeyear term of office which I have enjoyed and appreciated. I would just like to say a few words of special thanks, particularly to the Fellows who sit on the Sectional Committees. Nearly 200 Fellows are actively involved in the process on these Sectional Committees and we are very grateful to them. I would also like to thank the President, the Vice-Presidents, Council and many others who have been extremely supportive in all matters pertaining to the Fellowship, and a very special thanks to Dr Lesley Campbell who is the Fellowship Manager and who manages everything to do with the Fellowship superbly. Finally, can I say I am delighted to be handing over to Professor Alan Miller and I wish him every success. d) Questions The President invited question on the Office Bearers reports. The following were raised: i) Is there any process for disbarring a Fellow who perhaps has transgressed or lost interest in the affairs of the society? The President responded that he had never been involved in such a case, but the Societys Laws make provision for the expulsion of a Fellow should his / her conduct justify it.
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ii)
Wouldnt it be nice if the average age of the Fellowship was younger as we dont want to be top heavy in terms of age and should be bringing in younger people? I would like to ask a couple of questions about the working arrangements of the Young Academy, because in order to get off on the right foot it seems to me we have to have a good understanding of what the potential is and the direction in which it is heading. Firstly engagement with the wider Fellowship - is it the intention to have some kind of shared planning or something which brings the Fellows and members of the Young Academy together on a regular basis or is this going to be subdued into the existing administration and therefore to some extent obscured from the Fellowship? Geoffrey Boulton responded: one of the things we are very sensitive to is the calibre of people who have been made members of the Young Academy. It is very high, they really are a stellar group and the last thing they want is to be told what to do. We have developed a number of options for governance, have got a programme for the first few months and after the launch will talk with the Academy members about how they think they should be developed. One of the most difficult things is to evaluate what should be the relationship between the Society, its Fellowship and the Academy members. Quite a number of Fellows have said how keen they would be to engage with them and thats very good, but I dont think we should determine how that should happen. I think we should let the request come from the Young Academy. The key thing is we want the Academy to be controllable in that it doesnt make the Society bankrupt, but we want to give it sufficient freedom so that it can be creative without having somehow to adapt to our preconceived ideas about what it ought to do. We are very well aware of the issues and are moving in a deliberate way to finding a working path thats consistent with the aspirations of the Academy members, while at the same time ensuring appropriate consistency with the structures and aspirations of the Society and the aspirations of the Fellows. Secondly, in the presentation of the accounts in future years, will there be a separate identification of a budgetary line for the Young Academy, how will the baseline be established and what are the plans for making that grow? Ewan Brown responded: we have been able to identify money and gifts to get this off
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iii)
the ground, which didnt come from our core funding. We dont know yet how much interest we have captured from the Scottish Government and to some extent its not for us to do that; its now for it to do that and we hope that it might be keen enough on this to commit some money to it. Equally, the Young Academy is the kind of body that once it starts moving itself and with the spread it has across all the disciplines and the impact it is capable of making it may be able to raise sponsorship money in a way that the Society may find difficult. We have in place a budget for year 1 which deals with front end investment, but would hope that future year budgets would be less. Moreover, the Academy will have to operate at within what the Society is able to vote for it and progressively I would hope to see it moving away from this funding arrangement with the emphasis on it finding its own money over time. iv) My impression is that Society staff are already pretty heavily loaded; will there be extra, separate appointments for administering the Young Academy? Ewan Brown responded: there is currently an additional staff appointment (a secondee from the Scottish Government) for a year. Is there is an opportunity to use the Young Academy as a leverage to help the Society achieve a broader communication within Scotland and overseas? Five to ten years ago the then Institution of Electrical Engineers were concerned about the number of people attending its meetings so formed web based communities and you didnt need to be a member of the Institution to sign up to look at whats was going on. From that the Institution got hits of many thousands a month from right across the international community. This would be a way of the Society communicating more effectively; however what you need is something dynamic and exciting to put on to this webbased community and this is a real opportunity perhaps for mature Fellows to interact with the Academy to see how we could drive the Society through a wider population and also overseas. Geoffrey Boulton responded: the Academy is such an attractive and potentially powerful body that it will be able to leverage support externally in a way that the Society itself finds a little more difficult. Secondly, there are already a number of Young Academies across Europe and we have had some fraternal greetings from all of them and indeed from the recently-formed South African Young Academy, so there is
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vi)
certainly an international opportunity, but how it could be exploited is another matter. vii) Regarding the RSE Fellowship balance between the science and the businesses and the arts and humanities, are the quoted figures indicative of matters being about right, or might they be reviewed at a later date? Peter Holmes responded: this is a very important matter, and how we allocate places really depends on a whole variety of issues, one of which is the size of the communities from which nominated candidates are drawn. We do a lot of analysis of and review the respective balances and we do know that there are under-represented areas of the Fellowship, and continually endeavour to address these, but the excellence of the candidates must of course always be paramount.
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5. ELECTION OF COUNCIL AND OTHER OFFICE-BEARERS FOR THE 229TH SESSION Lord Wilson reported that all Fellows entitled to vote had been sent a ballot paper. The returned papers had been examined by the scrutineers, Professors William Gillies and Donald Meek. All those proposed were elected either unanimously or by an overwhelming majority. The President congratulated the newly-elected Council members and thanked all those who were standing down. Membership of Council and the Executive Board for the next Session would be:
Council President Sir John Arbuthnott Vice-Presidents Professor Jean Beggs CBE Professor Graeme Caie Mr John McClelland CBE Professor Wilson Sibbett CBE General Secretary Professor Alice Brown CBE Treasurer Mr Ewan Brown CBE Fellowship Secretary Professor Alan Miller Ordinary Members Professor Cairns Craig OBE Professor Anna Dominiczak OBE Professor Sir David Edward KCMG, QC, PC Professor Susan Manning Professor Sheila Rowan
Executive Board General Secretary Professor Alice Brown CBE Treasurer Mr Ewan Brown CBE Curator Professor Duncan Macmillan International Convener Professor Sir David Edward KCMG, QC, PC Programme Convener Professor John Richardson Research Awards Convener Professor Steve Beaumont Young Peoples Convener Dr Chris Van Der Kuyl Education Convener Lord Sutherland of Houndwood
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6. ANY OTHER BUSINESS There was no other formal business. The President thanked all those who had attended the meeting and had contributed to the reports and discussions. B. PUBLIC LECTURE BY PRESIDENT Reflections on Hong Kong and China C. HANDOVER OF PRESIDENCY Lord Wilson said he was very happy to be handing over to Sir John Arbuthnott, who had previously occupied a number of important posts at Glasgow University, Trinity College Dublin and Nottingham University, and who had also been Principal of Strathclyde University. In addition to this, Sir John had received his knighthood in 1998 for his services to education and had contributed hugely to the public sector in Scotland through his Chairmanship of the Greater Glasgow Health Board, Chairmanship of the Arbuthnott Commission on Boundary Differences and Different Voting Systems and by producing the Arbuthnott formula for allocating NHS resources in Scotland. Lord Wilson handed over the Insignia of Office to Sir John. Sir John said he was enormously honoured to have been elected President of the Society and looked forward to this with great enthusiasm. On behalf of the Society, Sir John thanked Lord Wilson for his work as President and for the immense experience he had brought to the position, while also playing a very significant role in many other aspects of public life north and south of the border, not least a very busy schedule coming back and forth to Edinburgh from the House of Lords. He added that the Society had been privileged to have someone of Lord Wilsons experience who had taken forward its agenda in a very positive way. Sir John concluded by saying that one of the strands which comes through from knowing Lord Wilson is that he is an incredibly warm person, who loves talking to people, and who is very welcoming when people come as guests from any part of the world. The Society had benefited from Lord Wilsons approach to building and maintaining good relationships with others and Sir Johns aim was to continue in the same vein whilst serving as President.
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Annual Statutory Meeting 2011 - Appendix I RSE YOUNG ACADEMY OF SCOTLAND REPORT BY THE RSE PRESIDENT On 5 September 2011, the Society announced the first members of the new RSE Young Academy of Scotland. This development is the first of its kind in the UK. It will be part of a growing movement of Young Academies, particularly in Europe. A rigorous selection procedure, which considered 336 applications from outstanding young academics, entrepreneurs, artists and professionals, resulted in 68 being chosen to be the first members. The final list was approved by Council at its meeting on 5 September. In the first cohort of members, over 40 % are female; 80% are from the academic sector across a wide range of institutions and around 20% are from the professions and business. The average age of the first group is 36. They cover a very wide range of expertise from biologists, geoscientists and engineers to lawyers, social scientists, entrepreneurs and from the arts and government service sectors. There are members from all parts of Scotland, as well as those originally from elsewhere in the UK or other parts of the world. Membership is initially for a period of three years. The Society has established the Young Academy to bring together
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some of the most able and innovative young people in Scotland. Every year a new round of applications will be encouraged, bringing in a new cohort of members. The aim is to stimulate creative ideas and collaborative working that will help address some of the key challenges facing Scotland and will contribute to solving some of the global challenges of the 21st Century. The Young Academy will provide a platform for this talented group to develop for themselves a distinctive, coherent and influential voice to address many of the challenging issues facing society. It will provide a forum for its members to engage with those beyond their own discipline or profession. It is an important initiative which recognises that the future vitality of Scotland will depend on how we support and engage with the most talented and creative members of the rising generation. All of the people who have been appointed have demonstrated great ability and potential. There are likely to be many in the group who will go on the make a significant contribution, both within Scotland and internationally in the years ahead. The Young Academy will be launched at a ceremony in
Edinburgh on 29 November 2011. Its business and activities will initially be taken forward by an interim Steering Group, which will exist until 31 March 2012. This Group will be chaired by the General Secretary. The Group will operate through a transition period to allow the Academy to become formally constituted in its own right. The objective then is
that members of the Young Academy should, to the greatest possible extent, run their own affairs themselves. This initiative was made possible by a legacy donation to the Society by the late Dr David Shepherd FRSE, for which the Society is extremely grateful.
Annual Statutory Meeting 2011 - Appendix II Report on Activities for the Annual Session 2010/11 (beginning 4 October 2010) A wide-ranging programme of activities was once again delivered by the Fellowship, supported by staff of the Society and others. These activities contributed to the public benefit outcomes set in the Societys Strategic Framework for 2007-2012. This report records the various activities by public benefit outcome and also by how these activities continued to sustain and utilise our multi-disciplinary Fellowship and recognise outstanding achievement and excellence. 1) Enhancing the capacity of world-class science and culture researchers working in Scotland Our Research Awards programme continued to support some of the most outstanding young scientists and innovators working in Scotland today. It creates conditions that attract those with
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outstanding potential conducive to becoming research leaders, to establish their career in Scotland and make long-term contributions to the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics base and its application in Scotland. It provides scope to place special emphasis on areas of research key to the well-being of Scotland; for example energy, environment and biosciences, and complements similar programmes available on a UK-wide basis from the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, Research Councils and major Research Charities. It is only through valuable partnerships with key bodies such as BP, Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland and the Scottish Government that we were able to provide these awards and we offer our sincere thanks to each of these partners, for their continuing support.
The following awards in science were made during the session: One CRF Personal Research Fellowship in Biomedical Sciences Seven CRF European Visiting Research Fellowships in Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences One Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland Research Studentship Cormack awards: one Undergraduate Prize, one Postgraduate Prize and six Vacation Research Scholarships plus one Piazzi Smyth Vacation Scholarship Four Lessells Travel Scholarships One D S MacLagan Travel Grant The Scottish Government-funded Personal Research Fellowship scheme is the largest fellowship scheme administered by the RSE for postdoctoral researchers and the research fellowships lever benefits for Scottish research since 2003, 6.1m of support provided for fellowships has enabled more than 46.8m of further research funding to be obtained by research fellows. Because of Scottish Government funding reductions, we placed a moratorium on making new awards from January 2011, but aim, subject to Scottish Government funding, to lift this moratorium in 2012. Meantime, we continued during the session to support sixteen Personal Research Fellows who had received their award prior to the moratorium.
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Also funded by Scottish Government grant, during the Session our Arts & Humanities programme supported the award of: Six Research Workshops Nine Small Research Grants Four Research Networks Two Major Research Grants Two existing Research Networks were supported in their second year of a two-year grant. The Major Research Grants were awarded for the first time this year to support a new Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Works of Robert Louis Stevenson and the cataloguing, exhibition and reinterpretation of Turkey Red and other decorative textile collections held at the National Museums of Scotland. Since its inception in February 2007 this programme has enabled 57 individuals to develop links with people and organisations they would not otherwise have easily been able to work with. Early evidence shows that the objective of improving understanding of human culture past and present is being met by setting in motion long-term dialogue, both interdisciplinary and inter-institutional, across Scotland and beyond, involving artists, curators, art historians, librarians, archivists, scientists and research students.
Sir John Enderby began and is currently chairing, a review of the impact of these awards. The review will play an important part in determining future funding for this scheme and how it supports Scottish Government National Outcomes. An interim report is expected to be available by midSeptember 2011. One Auber Bequest Award was made this session, in the field of Divinity. We once again provided partner support to Scottish Crucible, which is based on the highly successful Crucible training scheme developed by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA). The Scottish programme is funded by NESTA and the Scottish Funding Council, with additional support coming from Universities Scotland. This programme enabled 31 talented researchers from across Scotland to come together to explore and expand their capacity and problem solving through a series of intensive two-day workshops. 2) Increasing Scotlands research and development connections internationally Our International Programme helps create conditions for talented people to live, learn, visit, work and remain in Scotland; and supports Scotlands reputation as a distinctive global identity, an
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independent-minded and responsible nation at home and abroad and confident of its place in the world. Since 2003, Scottish Government funding has supported the establishment of formal Memoranda of Understanding between the RSE and 12 overseas sister Academies, and also supported the development and maintenance of relationships and activities with other overseas Academies. Based on the good relationships developed, the Bilateral and Open exchange schemes support researcher exchanges that lead to collaborative projects and result in further research funding from other sources. A particularly strong part of the programme, which cements relationships and collaborations, are the joint research projects run over two years between Scottish and overseas Institutes (currently the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)), supporting longer-term collaborations and levering further funding. During the Session, 27 Bilateral and 22 Open Exchange Scheme grants were awarded, which amounted to 144 person-weeks of researcher support for visits between Scotland and over 20 countries worldwide. Seven new joint projects with the NSFC were awarded for two years from Spring 2011 in the area of
information science and 11 existing joint projects in management science, engineering and public policy, and biological sciences were supported in their first and second years. Funding was also awarded for collaboration between the University of Stirling and the Institute of Automation, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, to support a ScotlandChina Higher Education Research Partnership for PhD studies in the area of telecommunications and information technologies. In partnership with the French Embassy in London, the University of Edinburgh and the College de France, a seminar series of eight events entitled Seven Keys to the Digital Future was held in October 2010 as the first stage of a threeyear collaboration. The collaboration will consist of events run for early-career French and Scottish scientists in areas of science where there is excellence in both France and Scotland. The purpose of the seminars is to explore and publicly present areas of science in which both Scotland and France have strengths and to stimulate Franco-Scottish collaboration in science. In November 2010, the Rt Hon Lord Patten of Barnes CH delivered the annual MacCormick European Lecture entitled European Foreign Policy - is it Desirable and Possible.
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3. Improving connections between business and academia The Enterprise Fellowship schemes run by the RSE encourage commercialisation of technology-based business ideas from academic institutions into spin-out companies. The schemes help create sustainable companies with high-value jobs that make a positive contribution to the economy in the long term. We administer three Enterprise Fellowship Schemes, funded separately by Scottish Enterprise (SE), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The Enterprise Fellows selected demonstrate the entrepreneurial spirit needed to create a thriving business from a research idea. What the fellowship offers is support to develop business skills, through intensive business training and mentoring, introductions to potential collaborators, investors and other specialists to help get businesses up and running. The RSE/SE Enterprise Fellowships programme, which aims to appoint sixty Fellowships over five years has appointed twenty nine over the first three years. The fifth round took place in Spring 2010 from which three Fellows were
appointed and took up post in October 2010. The sixth round took place in Autumn 2010 five fellows were appointed and took up post in Spring 2011. This Fellowship scheme has created 61 (64% survival rate) companies, which in the last five years have secured 51m of further investment for the 5.5m funding given. Both of the Research Council schemes operate on a UK-wide basis and encourage the commercialisation of research previously funded by BBSRC and STFC. The BBSRC scheme attracted an encouraging number of applications and, following a rigorous selection process, one BBSRC Enterprise Fellow took up post in October 2010, with another taking up post in Spring 2011. Two STFC Enterprise Fellowships awarded in June 2010 began in October 2010. One RSE Entrepreneurs Club meeting took place during the Session. The meeting planned for December 2010 was cancelled due to bad weather. The Spring meeting was held in April, when thirty-five people attended a discussion dinner on The challenges of competing for funding. Since 2003, with the support of the Gannochy Trust, the RSE has awarded an annual Innovation Award of 50,000 to recognise Scotlands young innovators. The
2010 recipient was Matt McGrath, founder of life sciences firm Aircraft Medical, which has developed the worlds first fully portable video laryngoscope. This technological innovation, developed in Scotland, is designed to address the risk of failure to deliver oxygen to a patient once they have received a general anaesthetic prior to surgery and it has already been used in over 250,000 cases around the world. This was the final year of this award and we are extremely grateful to the Gannochy Trust for its generous support, which resulted in us being able to recognise the work of seven highly innovative and entrepreneurial individuals. Moreover, this support has helped contribute to Scotlands wellbeing through generating around 4 million of added value for the Scottish economy, as evidenced by an independent evaluation of the programme. The RSE Business Innovation Forum identified the crucial role of national infrastructure in supporting the national economy, with powerful digital networks being increasingly vital parts of this infrastructure, and set up a working group to look at the issues. In October 2010, the RSE published a report entitled Digital Scotland, setting out why Scotlands digital future is a crucial issue, why Scotland needs to act,
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and what needs to be done. The Scottish Governments strategy for Scotlands Digital Future, published in March 2011, reflected recommendations made in the Digital Scotland report. Members of the working group have met with key figures in the Scottish Government and the Scottish Futures Trust to promote the recommendations from the report, including meeting with Alex Neil MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment, in September 2011. In December 2010 the Forum held a joint event with the Swiss Embassy on Stimulating Innovation. This compared the experiences of stimulating innovation in Scotland and Switzerland with a view to helping improve innovation policy in Scotland by learning from Switzerlands successful approaches. The event was also used as an opportunity to launch the RSEs Innovation-Friendly Scotland Advice Paper, which identified key priorities for the support of business innovation development in Scotland. During 2011, one of the members of the Forum has gone round key figures in the business community to gain their insight into how the issues identified in the Advice Paper can best be progressed. It is expected that this will result in a supplementary paper.
We continued to develop our corporate engagement initiative entitled Friends of the Society (Corporate Partners of the Royal Society of Edinburgh) which was launched in April 2009. By September 2011 we had 13 members, up five from the previous year. The current members are Aberdeen Asset Management, Arup, BP, FES Ltd, The Herald, Lloyds Banking Group, RBS, Scottish Resources Group, SCDI, Shell, Standard Life, Toshiba and the Wood Group. 4. Enhancing the capacity of school- aged children to adopt science as a career RSE Fellows and other experts continued to share their knowledge and understanding of science and culture with school students, with a particular focus on enthusing those already engaged, and reaching those who are not in close proximity to Scottish Universities and Science Centres, and who therefore have more limited opportunity to participate and meet with experts. Our School Programme events were held throughout Scotland, with the majority taking place as part of the RSE@ Dumfries and Galloway Programme, such as the RSE Christmas Lecture. The lecture - Reporting the World in an Age of Conflict - was delivered by Allan Little, BBC Foreign Affairs Correspondent and was webcast by the BBC from the venue Stranraer Academy.
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Building on the success of the pilot RSE@ project in Arbroath, this year-long, locally-tailored programme of outreach activities was successfully delivered. Events for school children and adults took place in venues, towns and villages across the region, including Langholm, Dumfries, New Galloway, Newton Stewart, Stranraer, Lockerbie and Kirkcudbright. These focus on themes, both historical and contemporary, that were relevant to the region, and included science and the environment, history and identity, literature and the arts and entrepreneurship. The evaluation evidence gathered from participants shows that the project considerably enhanced and improved the understanding and appreciation that people, particularly school-aged children, have for their local community. Other core activities also took place outside of the RSE@ Dumfries and Galloway project, and these included: Nine interactive Start-up Science Masterclasses for S1 and S2 pupils in university venues around Scotland An additional RSE@ Schools Talk delivered at Grangemouth High School by Professor Henry Ellington, entitled A Guided Tour of the Universe. The annual RSE Discussion Forum, featuring a day of
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learning and debate between S5 and S6 pupils from two schools from Glasgow and Fife. The discussion focused on conservation and biodiversity, using the film Avatar as a source of inspiration. A resource pack and DVD were developed after the event and these are available to schools throughout Scotland via the RSE website, and shortly through GLOW. A national schools competition in liaison with the RSE Inquiry Facing Up to Climate Change - in which ten schools took part (five primary and five secondary) 5. Enhancing the publics understanding of science and culture issues We planned and organised the delivery and promotion of a multidisciplinary programme of events aimed at a wide variety of audiences. We delivered 40 events, comprising 31 Lectures, 4 Discussion Forums and 5 Conferences. Lectures Franco-Scottish Science Seminar Series: Seven Keys to the Digital Future Thomas Telford Colossus of Roads (RSE@ Dumfries and Galloway) European Foreign Policy is it Desirable and Possible?
Harvesting Earths Energy from Wind, Water and Waves (RSE@ Dumfries and Galloway) Climate Change: a Process not an Event Reporting the World in an Age of Conflict The Next Economy Why Do We need a Lighthouse? The Bell Rock and the Stevensons Now Food Security and Sustainability: One Cant Make an Omelette Without Cracking Some Eggs On Our Humble Dumfries Boards... the Plays, the Performers and some of the Politics in the First Ten Years (RSE@ Dumfries and Galloway) Gannochy Trust Innovation Award Prize Lecture The Twin Towers: Ten years Ten Lessons on Sustainable Infrastructure Galloway Waterways (RSE@ Dumfries and Galloway) Early Watchers of the Skies Makdougall Brisbane and Other Great Scottish Astronomers The European Nitrogen Cycle in a Global Context The Significance of David Hume: Scepticism, Science and Superstition The Lowland Clearances and the Transformation of Southwest
Scotland (RSE@ Dumfries and Galloway) Fantin-Latour: Flower Painter Extraordinaire (RSE@ Dumfries and Galloway) Preventing Cancers of the Breast and Colon by How we Choose to Live Every Day Seeing Scotland Afresh How we Look to a Changing World Mathematics in the Real World: From Brain Tumours to Saving Marriage (RSE@ Dumfries and Galloway) Radiation and Reason: Straight and Open Thinking about Choosing Nuclear Nation, Town, Memory Krakow Experience Lectures as part of Medieval Week held in partnership with the British Academy Monuments in Motion Portable Christianity: Relics in the Medieval (c700-120) He That All Our Comford Was? Robert the Bruce in Scottish Sources Before Barbours Bruce More than Skimble-Skamble Stuff: the Medieval Welsh Poetry Associated with Owain Glyndwr The Middle Ages A Distant Mirror Medieval Life and Death through the Centuries Personifications of Old Age in Medieval Poetry
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The Past as Propaganda: The Declaration of Arbroath The Past as Propaganda: The Mongol World History Discussion Forums A Healthy Message? Understanding the History and Exploring the Future of Public Health Campaigns in Scotland Assisted Dying: The Debate. A Mock Trial Trident Should we keep it? Facing up to Climate Change Conferences The Bell Rock Lighthouse, the Stevensons and Emerging Issues in Aids to Navigation Selkies, Kelpies & Watery Tales Family Workshop (RSE@ Dumfries and Galloway) Your Genes and Clinical Research: Being More than a Guinea Pig? Gardens in Art and Science Workshop (RSE@ Dumfries and Galloway) The Society also continued to enhance peoples appreciation and understanding through other modes of communication. The RSE website was updated regularly and provided information for the public and for Fellows. This year an increased number (20) of audio/ video recordings of events were added to the website,
and 25 written summary reports of activities in the public events and schools programme were published on the site soon after the events had taken place. We are developing our new website, launched in May 2011, to further improve the reporting of and access to our activities. We are also using and developing social network mediums such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin as a means of communicating the RSE to the outside world. Media briefings and press releases were provided for most major events and launches, and there was appreciable media coverage of many of the significant activities in the RSE programme. Four issues of ReSourcE, the RSE newsletter were published and distributed to the Fellowship and around 2,500 others, including business leaders, journalists, research institutes, schools, MPs, MSPs and interested individuals. Fellows received a monthly ebulletin, which enabled them to keep up to date with and, if appropriate, disseminate information on the RSE and its work. In addition, eight public e-bulletins were sent out during the Session to advertise various events and schools activities. Two issues of Science Scotland entitled Informatics and The Search for New Drugs were published in the year. Science
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Scotland continues to increase peoples awareness of cuttingedge science and technology activities in Scotland. Through the RSE Scotland Foundation we continued to publish two journals, Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Proceedings A: Mathematics. Copies of the journals were sent to 350 University Libraries, Academies and Institutions world wide, as part of the Societys exchange programme. The journals are highly regarded by academics as publication vehicles for their research, and they both maintained a respectably high impact factor in comparison with similar journals in their fields. Six issues of Proceedings A and seven issues of Transactions were published during the session. The digitisation of the RSEs archive journals Transactions (17851979), Transactions:Earth Sciences (19802001),roceedings (18321940), Proceedings A (19411999) and Proceedings B (19411996) was progressed by Cambridge University Press during the Session and will be marketed and made available for sale to the public during 201112, thus making the RSEs highly regarded journal archive more easily accessible to a world-wide audience.
6. Informing and influencing public policy decisions Key outputs of our Policy Advice unit were: Two briefing papers, one for MSPs on the Curriculum for Excellence and a paper on the Future of Agricultural Support for the Scottish Parliament Rural Affairs and Environment Committee; and Seventeen Advice papers, 13 to the Scottish Parliament and/or the Scottish Government, on a range of topics including: the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill; and the Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Bill. Three of these Advice papers were proactive interventions:-Innovation-Friendly Scotland, An Agenda for Evaluation of Educational Reforms and The Teaching of History in Scottish Schools. Oral evidence to Scottish Parliamentary Committees was provided on a range of subjects including: Carbon Capture and Storage; Digital Scotland; The Future of Agricultural support; Climate change; Women in Science; The Inquiry into Preventative Spending. A Science and the Parliament event was held in partnership with the Royal Society of Chemistry and which attracted 34 exhibitors, more than 300 delegates includ-
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ing MSPs. Amongst the keynote speakers, on the topic of Science and the Scottish General Election were: Ian Gray MSP, Professor Anne Glover (Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland) Professor Paul Hagan (Director of Research and Innovation, SFC), Dr Oonagh Loughran (Life Sciences, Scottish Enterprise). Also in partnership with the RSC, a Science Question Time hustings meeting was held in the Scottish Parliament in March in advance of the Scottish General Election, with the involvement of all five parties represented in the Parliament. Our Facing Up to Climate Change Inquiry, launched in October 2009, continued its work during the Session and issued its Report in March 2011. A programme of events disseminating findings and recommendations has been taking place since then. The Inquiry took written and oral evidence from over 110 organisations, more than 40 individuals and from six public meetings around Scotland, involving some 400 people. The Committee also visited exemplar case studies, hosted or took part in over 30 seminars and conferences, and carried out a national schools competition. The Inquiry received funding from over twenty corporate and charitable supporters, and the RSE is grateful for their assistance in ensuring the Inquiry remained wholly independent.
Our Education Committee members contributed to the development of policy in relation to helping 21st Century education in Scotland, most specifically in relation to improving science, computing and history education in schools. Following its submission to Graham Donaldsons Review of Teacher Education in Scotland, members of the Education Committee met with Mr Donaldson to discuss the issues being explored by his review. In partnership with the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) we undertook a Chemistry exemplification project to support Curriculum for Excellence implementation. The RSE/RSC exemplification materials were launched in November 2010 with a class of S2 pupils at Craigmount High School in Edinburgh. The materials were developed by Dr Shona Scheuerl, Dollar Academy, who was, for a year, seconded on a part-time basis to explore the exemplification of a subset of chemistry-related Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes into classroom work, materials and laboratory or outside activities. The exemplification materials produced, including teachers and pupils guides, are hosted on the RSC website with links from the RSE, Scottish Schools Education Research Centre, Education Scotland and GLOW (Scotlands national
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intranet for schools). A similar project, in partnership with the British Computer Society, focusing on computing science began in August 2011. The materials for this are being developed by Mr Jeremy Scott, the Head Teacher of Computing at George Heriots School, Edinburgh, who has been seconded on a part-time basis. 7. Sustaining and utilising our multi-disciplinary Fellowship and recognising outstanding achievement and excellence We continued to sustain and utilise our multi-disciplinary Fellowship and to recognise outstanding achievement and excellence. In March 2011, we announced the election of four Corresponding Fellows, one Honorary Fellow and 40 Fellows. This followed the scrutiny of 149 candidates through a four-stage committee process, culminating in the postal ballot in December to the entire Fellowship. The addition of new Fellows brought the numbers in the Fellowship up to 1546 - 66 Honorary Fellows; 61 Corresponding Fellows and 1419 Ordinary Fellows. The discipline balance of the Fellowship is broadly represented by four cognate sectors. In the Ordinary Fellowship, the current balance of these sectors is 36% (Life Sciences Sector A), 37 %
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(Physical Engineering and Informatic Sciences Sector B),16% (Humanities and Creative Arts Sector C) and 11% (Social Sciences, Education and Public Service Sector D). The annual New Fellows Induction Day took place in May and was attended by 43 new Fellows. They were given an introduction to the Society by the President and met Council members and staff, before being formally admitted into the Fellowship. Fellows were once again, in various capacities, pivotal to the Societys delivery of public benefit activities. The many Committees which oversee these activities are comprised overwhelmingly of Fellows of the Society. These Committees cover governance, operational and management matters. Amongst other activities, Fellows freely gave of their time and their expertise in the selection of Research and Enterprise Fellowship awardees; the awarding of International Exchange visits, various medals, grants and prizes; participating in the planning of lectures, conferences and discussion forums; contributing to the Young Peoples programme; serving on Inquiry Committees and Editorial Boards; and providing evidence and advice to inform responses to policy and decision makers.
A major highlight of the Session was the presentation of the RSE Royal Medals, presented by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh at the Society in August 2011. Medals were awarded to: Baroness Helena Kennedy of the Shaws QC, for her outstanding contribution to human rights and civil liberties, access to education, arts and ethics. Professor Desmond Smith OBE FRS, for his eminent work in physics research, especially in optoelectronics (electronics that detect and control light), spectroscopy (the study of objects through their interaction with light) and laser technology, and its application in industry and research technology Professor Noreen Murray CBE FRS, one of Britains most distinguished molecular geneticists, was also awarded a Royal
Medal in 2011, which she received from Lord Wilson at a ceremony at the University of Edinburgh shortly before her death in May 2011. The award recognised her leading role in the development of gene cloning technology which influenced the course of biological research worldwide. His Royal Highness also presented the IEEE/ RSE Wolfson/James Clerk Maxwell Award for 2011 to Dr Marcian Ted Hoff FIEEE, recognising his developments in programmable integrated circuitry for a wide range of applications which led him to design the worlds first microprocessor the Intel 4004 in 1968, paving the way for the personal computer use that has shaped our modernday home and working lives.
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PRIZE LECTURES
The Gannochy Trust Innovation Award Prize Lecture Benbecula to Anaesthesia and Beyond Matt McGrath CEO, Aircraft Medical 9 March 2011 The Gannochy Trust Innovation Award of the Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotlands highest accolade for individual achievement in innovation. Carrying a prize of 50,000, it was first awarded in 2003. Established in partnership between The Gannochy Trust and The Royal Society of Edinburgh, the purpose of the award is to encourage younger people to pursue careers in fields of research which promote Scotlands inventiveness internationally, and to recognise outstanding individual achievement which contributes to the common good of Scotland. The prestigious award also seeks to promote Scotlands research and development capability in new technologies and areas of social importance. 2010 winner, Matt McGrath, was recently named Young Scot of the Year. In his Prize Lecture at the RSE, the 33-year-old CEO of Aircraft Medical revealed the story behind his companys products which are not just creating jobs and boosting exports from Scotland, but also saving lives around the world...
McGrath began by describing his personal background, from his birthplace in Benbecula in 1977 to the University of Northumbria in Newcastle, where he graduated with a first-class honours degree in industrial design. At school, one of his teachers brainwashed him into the culture of winning a man who made Sir Alex Ferguson seem gentle by comparison. From his parents, he inherited his entrepreneurial spirit they ran their own construction business. And Aircraft Medical, the company he founded ten years ago, was not his first venture
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into the world of big business he earned his spurs running the sweetshop at school. While still at Newcastle, McGrath twice won the Royal Society of Arts student design award, an honour he shares with only two other double winners Jonathan Ive, Head of Design at Apple Inc., and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. Doing the work for the second award in 1999 was a pivotal moment in the young mans career, because it first exposed him to a medical device called the laryngoscope, with his design brief to improve a product
largely unchanged for the past 50 years, and something he had never even heard of before. McGrath described good industrial design as a combination of skills which come from opposite sides of the brain maths, physics and art. And when he applied modern industrial design principles to the laryngoscope (a device for inspecting the larynx so doctors can insert a tube to help patients breathe during anaesthesia), he saw something which the engineers and medics who had worked together on past laryngoscope designs had missed. McGraths new and refined design proved a winner and led to the birth of a product which has since generated millions of dollars in sales and been used on more than 300,000 patients. McGrath displayed a quote throughout his lecture to sum up the scale of the problem: Airway problems remain the most frequent cause of death or brain damage associated with anaesthesia. Two years later, McGrath founded Aircraft Medical to develop the new laryngoscope design, which was not only more streamlined but also provided an onboard video image, without using cables, providing doctors with a better view inside the airway, making it easier to insert a tube and helping to reduce problems such as patient trauma, lacerations, broken teeth and
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cross-contamination plus the threat of litigation. The new design was based on feedback from hundreds of medical professionals, and also reflected what McGrath described as a trend towards designing more distilled devices with the complexity designed out and some of the level of refinement you might expect from a high-end consumer device. McGrath also explained how his company has been influenced by automotive design, particularly companies such as BMW - whose researchers have studied the potential to add humanistic content into automotive design. The same may be relevant to medical devices, which after all are humancontrolled. As well as describing some of the influences behind his companys approach to designing its devices, McGrath spelled out the human cost of breathing problems during anaesthesia, with 30 people per month in the US and Europe having suffered brain damage or death because of failed intubations. The Macintosh device, designed in 1943, is used to help millions of patients a year, but cant see round corners and is hard to insert without risking harming the patient. The first commercial video laryngoscopes, introduced in around 2002, helped to address this, dealing with the approximately 8.5 per
Prize and Bequest Lectures
cent of cases termed difficult, as well as improving the view of the user, which has proved useful in training. The McGrath Series 5 was introduced in 2006 after years of research by McGrath and his team at Aircraft Medical, and advanced the video laryngoscope in a number of ways, including portability, a better anterior view, an LCD screen and battery power. With support from a number of organisations, including the Princes Trust and the Wellcome Trust, the prototypes were developed with a super-curved blade to better follow the anatomy, and a camera stick inside the blade the first of its kind to be guaranteed sterile. The design was influenced by clinical observations, said McGrath, combined with good structural design. Rival designs were more bulky and not so portable because they used cables for power. The design has been enhanced since then, but Aircraft Medical has also addressed the limitations of the original product, particularly the need for a low-cost, mass-market device. The Series 5, which sells for up to $9,000 plus $12 each for disposable blades, is capable of addressing the most difficult cases once the user has invested some time to become expert in its use. Sales of the Series 5 have been impressive,
generating in excess of $25m in the four years since its launch. McGraths mission is to make video laryngoscopes the standard of care and introduce the lifesaving benefits of video into mainstream clinical practice. His new device, the McGrath MAC, is designed to compete with the current standard-of-care Macintosh laryngoscope which is still used in around 90 per cent of all intubations, without video capability, while use of the Series 5 and other video laryngoscopes largely remains limited to a small percentage of specialist cases due to their design and price. Manufactured in Dalgety Bay in Fife, the McGrath MAC is the worlds first high-value, low-cost portable video laryngoscope. Designed to complement the original premium McGrath Series 5, it offers clinicians the advantages of video laryngoscopy at low cost while allowing medics to maintain their hard learned skills of the traditional Macintosh technique. The benefit medics around the world already know how to use the McGrath MAC. This important dual capability is designed to raise the global standard of care for fast and simple intubation in everyday practice, by adding the capability to address more difficult cases as they arise, including potentially fatal unexpected difficult airways, through the addition of permanent video enhancement.
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The McGrath MAC system, including the handle and the display monitor, meets Aircrafts HLDi standard. Introduced in 2008, Aircrafts HLDi standard exceeds the strictest infection control requirements, which include recent advancements in vaporised hydrogen peroxide sterilisation systems. Aircraft Medical has also improved manufacturing methods and developed a new type of chassis, reducing production costs by 70 per cent. Aircraft Medical started generating profits soon after it launched its first product, and it now has over 50 patents and patent
applications in the intubation instrument and anaesthesia technology space. The company now has a network of distributors in 33 countries, with a total of 250 sales representatives trained in airway management and McGrath laryngoscope demonstration. Video is undoubtedly the future of laryngoscopy, McGrath stated. Were planning for the future medics will perform over 500 million intubations over the next ten years; tens of thousands of doctors will grow up using video laryngoscopes. And Aircraft Medical is now getting ready to scale up to meet this demand.
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LECTURES
Thomas Telford Colossus of Roads .................................................. 38 Engineering a Sustainable Scotland ................................................... 41 Harvesting Earths Energy from Wind, Water and Waves .................... 45 European Foreign Policy Is it Desirable and Possible? ...................... 50 Climate Change: A process Not an Event ........................................... 56 Medieval Week: Portable Christianity: Relics in the Medieval West (c700120) ......... 60 More than Skimble-Skamble Stuff : The Medieval Welsh Poetry Associated with Owain Glyndyr ................................. 61 Personifications of Old Age in Medieval Poetry ............................... 61 The Past as Propaganda in the Declaration of Arbroath ................... 62 The Past as Propaganda: The Mongol World History ................... 62 Reporting the World in an Age of Conflict ........................................ 63 The Next Economy ............................................................................. 71 Why Do We Need a Lighthouse? The Bell Rock and the Stevensons Now. ........................................... 76 Food Security and Sustainability: One cant make an omelette without cracking some eggs ............... 77 On Our Humble Dumfries Boardsthe Plays, the Performers and some of the Politics in the First Ten Years of the Dumfries Theatre ... 81 The Twin Towers: 10 years 10 Lessons on Sustainable Infrastructure .................................................................................. 89 Galloway Waterways ......................................................................... 93 Early Watchers of the Skies Makdougall Brisbane and Other Great Scottish Astronomers .......................................................... 101 The European Nitrogen Cycle in a Global Context ........................... 105 The Significance of David Hume: Scepticism, Science and Superstition ............................................. 109 The Lowland Clearances and the Transformation of Southwest Scotland ...................................................................... 114 Fantin-Latour Flower Painter Extraordinaire ................................... 120 Preventing Cancers of the Breast and Colon by How We Choose to Live Every Day ........................................................................... 124 Seeing Scotland Afresh How We Look to a Changing World ........ 128 Mathematics in the Real World: From Brain Tumours to Saving Marriages ........................................................................... 131 Radiation and Reason: Straight and Open Thinking about Choosing Nuclear ......................................................................... 135 Nation, Town, Memory the Krakw Experience Krakw in the European Core .............................................................................. 139
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Professor Roland Paxton MBE FRSE 13 October 2010 Thomas Telford Colossus of Roads at The Buccleuch Centre, Langholm Part of the RSE@ Dunfries and Galloway Programme Telfords achievements in early 19thCentury engineering earned him the accolades from Robert Southey, the Poet Laureate at the time, of Colossus of Roads and Pontifex Maximus. Telford was also renowned for his outstanding promotion of the importance of knowledge and education. This illustrated presentation from Professor Roland Paxton, HeriotWatt University, detailed Telfords life from humble origins in Eskdale to becoming the greatest civil engineer of his era. Thomas Telford was born in 1757 in Glendinning, to the north of Langholm. He was actually the second Thomas Telford, his elder brother of the same name having died in infancy. Initially training as a stonemason, part of his early work was on Langholm Bridge. Examining the bridge, Professor Paxton has found what he believes is Telfords mason mark an arrow with a lozenge at the top and a cross halfway along the shaft. Telford was soon to outgrow the opportunities in Langholm and moved to Edinburgh, where he worked on the New Town, and also learnt to draw and become
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an architect. A year later he moved on again, to London, where he was a stonemason working on Somerset House, and from there to Shropshire. It was in Shropshire that Thomas Telford became established under the patronage of William Johnstone (who was to become Sir William Pulteney), heir to the Earl of Bath and reputed to be the richest commoner in England. Telfor switched from stonemasonry to architecture and went on to become County Surveyor for Shropshire. Indeed, a drawing of the ruins of the Roman Baths in Wroxeter in the county, dating from 1788, is considered to be one of the earliest surviving drawings by Telford. In his County Surveyor role, Telford was involved with a variety of projects such as houses, churches, including Bridgenorth Church, roads and bridges, and canals. Additionally, Sir William Pulteney, as a patron of the British Fisheries Society, engaged Telford in some of his other favourite projects, including designing parts of the street areas and harbours in Ullapool and Wick in the 1790s.
Lectures
Returning to Shropshire, Telford was to proceed with a number of significant bridge-building projects, including Montford Bridge, a chunky masonry bridge that still carries traffic today, and the more architecturally attractive bridge in Bewdley. Around the same time, he also began working with iron, utilising it for the beams of Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct on the Shrewsbury Canal. Iron and masonry were subsequently combined in his major aqueduct works at Ellesmere and Pontcysyllte, which were described by Professor Paxton as the greatest structural engineering achievements of the canal age. The latter uses a cast iron arch to support the 1000 ft-long trough above it, a unique state-ofthe-art design for 1805, and making it deserving of its World Heritage Site status now. An artefact from the time that Professor Paxton has acquired personally, and is the only one known to still be in existence, is a wax-seal on a Telford letter carrying the initials TT and images of both Pontycysyllte and Chirk aqueducts. Focusing on ironworks and developing from the first major iron bridge at Coalbrookdale, Telford looked for opportunities to use iron more effectively, i.e. using less in total but at the same time increasing the span. Putting this into practice, his design for the Buildwas Bridge used 50%
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less iron than the original Coalbrookdale Bridge, yet had a 30% greater span. Indeed, although it wasnt actually built, this inspired Telford to design a 600 ft-span iron bridge, remarkable when considered in comparison with the fact that 100 ft was the maximum possible at the time. Other major bridge and road building projects works continued in Scotland. In Dumfries and Galloway, this included a road scheme in Kirkcudbright, the Tongland Bridge and the Glasgow to Carlisle road passing through the region. In the Highlands, this included over 1000 miles of roads and bridges, including Bonar Bridge, Glen Shiel Bridge and Dunkeld Bridge, the largest of the Highland bridges. Canals also feature significantly in Telfords work, most notably the Caledonian Canal running across Scotland from Fort William to Inverness, linking Loch Linnhe to the Beauly Firth through Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and Loch Ness. Particular achievements are the eight-lock Neptunes Staircase at the southern end at Corpach and the sea outlet lock at the northern end, where the ground clay was so soft it had to be preconsolidated with stones to force it down before the lock could be built up. Telford was also involved in other canals, especially in the Midlands, where he was a consulting
engineer to 30 companies. This included development of Ellesmere Port, which was to become the most important interchange between the canal network and the sea. His general approach was to maintain straight lines and levels where possible, which explains the number of high bridges that are encountered along the routes of his canals. Other maritime developments were substantial, sophisticated dock works, such as St Catherines in London. A further strand to Telfords civil engineering was his work on roads, both as the lead engineer on specific major projects such as the London to Holyhead connection and in his provision of a manual of his general rules for preparing and repairing roads. All the Turnpike trusts utilised this manual, which was more comprehensive than McAdams book on road making that was published at a similar time. The key differences were that Telfords guidelines dealt with foundations, profiles and gradients, whereas McAdam focused on the top surfaces. Internationally, Telford was engaged as a consultant engineer by the King of Sweden, who was
to recognise and refer to him as Sir Thomas Telford. As well as all his work on actual projects, Telford continued to consider new ideas and from 1814 to develop designs for bridges, including a 1000 ft-wide iron wire suspension bridge. This established some important principles on which future designs for major suspension bridges, such as at Runcorn and across the Menai Straits, would be based upon. The Menai Bridge, engineered by Telford, was the worlds first great suspension bridge. Professor Paxton concluded with a few comments on Telford himself, reporting that he never actually married as he was always working. His philosophy on civil engineering was that it was about the art of directing great forces of nature for the use and convenience of mankind, and indeed no one did more to put this into practice. Recognition for his contribution included being the first president of the Institute of Civil Engineers and, following his death in 1834, he was buried in Westminster Abbey. However, the biggest testaments to Telford are the multitude of civil engineering projects that he directed, a number of which last through to today, some two centuries later.
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Mr Brian Veitch 13 October 2010 Engineering a Sustainable Scotland The Buccleuch Centre, Langholm Part of the RSE@ Dunfries and Galloway Programme Scotland faces a challenging future. Economic, climatic and social issues, coupled with depletion of resources, will drive change. How will Scotland respond and adapt? Brian Veitch, from the global consultancy practice Arup, discusses how we can move to a sustainable future by employing our strengths in engineering, science and technology to harness and benefit from these drivers of changeand by building on the legacy of Telford. Whilst engineering a sustainable Scotland is a challenge for today and the future, there are interesting parallels with the work of Thomas Telford some 200 years earlier. Telfords prodigious engineering output of roads, bridges, canals, harbours and buildings represented significant advances that resulted from the drive for economic and social development that existed at that time. Brian Veitch argue that, although todays engineering challenges may be somewhat different, these too result from a drive to provide much needed improvements that respond to present-day economic, social, and environmental issues at the
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forefront of which is climate change. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was another 19th-Century giant of engineering. Like Telford, he responded to the challenges of his time, designing and building railways, steamships, bridges and buildings. Recognised by many as his greatest work, the Great Western Railway, running initially between London and Bristol, was driven by the economic need to improve communications between the capital city and the countrys main west coast shipping port. Brunel famously broadened his involvement by actively participating in promoting his projects, and particularly by taking a proactive role in raising the finance required to make them happen. Brian Veitch suggests that in this time of economic uncertainty, todays engineers may need to take a similarly broad and proactive approach to making their projects happen. Arup is a 10,000-strong global consultancy practice which advises on the planning, design and management of building and infrastructure projects in Scotland and around the world.
Its work revolves around meeting the transport, health, education, housing and energy needs of today and includes the new Forth Crossing, the two main new buildings for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, the Scottish Parliament, the Falkirk Wheel, Europes largest wind farm at Whitelea near Glasgow, the Edinburgh to Glasgow Rail Improvement Project, residential development at Quartermile on the site of the former Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Bio-Quarter and new, rapid-assembly grandstands for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. With a growing awareness of how the Earth is changing climatically, engineers have responded by increasing the proportion of energy generated using lowcarbon, renewable devices, such as wind turbines, and by developing the technologies required to deliver more energy-efficient, lowcarbon building and transport solutions. This even extends to the planning of entire new lowcarbon cities, including several by Arup in China. Additionally, there are social and economic factors which, in conjunction with climatic drivers, are likely to dictate the future agenda for infrastructure. A key social factor is the anticipated growth in global population from 6.5 billion up to 9 billion by 2050, coupled with
mass population movement from the countryside into cities, creating increased energy demands and congestion issues. At the same time, the trend over the last 200 years of increasing CO2 in the atmosphere will continue to increase steeply, accelerating the greenhouse effect which most scientific opinion associates with the rises in average temperature now being observed. These changes can be traced back to the industrial revolution, when the burning of fossil fuels commenced, but the increase in CO2 emissions and rise in average temperature have been especially marked in recent years. Looking ahead, the impact of the rising temperatures will be a possible melting of the ice caps and glaciers, with a corresponding rise in sea level, possibly by up to one metre, with catastrophic flooding implications. With a better understanding of the climatic factors, the emphasis now is on how to bring emissions under control so that temperature rise can be contained within acceptable limits. Considering economics, there is a close correlation between wealth and energy consumption, as illustrated by the USA which has both the largest GDP and the highest energy consumption. Conversely, less developed countries have lower energy consumption; however this will
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change as these countries become more developed. One question is whether this will be energy from renewable sources or from more traditional polluting sources. However, the means of development can also affect this. For example, transport is a significant energy use which is correlated to population density, with more dispersed communities consuming more energy for transport. Thus, developing on the Hong Kong model of very densely populated cities will use less transport energy per capita, in comparison with the American model where city dwellers are more dispersed and car use is more intensive. The rapidly rising global population is leading to a depletion of resources. For example, in terms of land resources, in 1900 there were on average 7.9 hectares of the Earths surface per person, which has reduced to 2 hectares now and is projected to continue to fall to 1.4 hectares by 2050. At the same time, existing oil resources are becoming depleted and the discovery of new reserves is diminishing whilst consumption is increasing. Similar pressures are being exerted on food and water supplies. Current rates of consumption in any of these are unsustainable, and indeed could create significant issues in as little as 50 years time.
Facing such challenges, Brian Veitch suggested that there is pressure on engineers to come up with solutions. With regard to energy, this relates to controlling the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere, realistically recognising that fossil fuels will continue to be used in many parts of the world and that renewables are not the answer to everything, although they will be of increasing significance. In addition to wind turbines, both onshore and offshore, other renewable energy sources are solar energy and tide and wave power. Another approach is carbon capture and storage where carbon and CO2 are removed before combustion or captured afterwards and stored underground. Indeed there is considerable engineering and scientific work ongoing at present on how these techniques can be best applied, with Scottish universities taking a leading role with this research. One example is the development of a prototype for offshore wind turbines that are easily maintainable with working parts at low level, yet able to generate four times as much electricity as an onshore turbine. Whilst engineers can design and supply the solutions, it is only possible to deploy these with sufficient financial investment. In Scotland, significant investment will be essential if it is to achieve the targets it has set for the coming decades.
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For example, this may include: Offshore wind (60 bn); Low carbon / energy efficient new & retro-fitted buildings (60 bn); Sustainable transport / high-speed rail (30 bn); Improved transmission grid between source and consumption (20 bn);Biomass heat and power plant using sustainable timber and forests (2.1 bn); Sustainable cities (1.5 bn); University campus low-carbon retrofits (300 mil); Development of offshore wind turbine manufacturing sites at ports and harbours (225 mil) Securing the funding for such projects is as important as the technical challenges. As such,
engineers must interface with the investment community and government to consider value for money and prioritisation. For example, in terms of return on investment, improved building insulation offers one of the most cost-effective measures, with the benefit quickly exceeding the cost of deployment. In conclusion, whilst todays world is very different from the world of Telford and Brunel two centuries earlier, the scale of the engineering challenge has not diminished. It can only be hoped that todays engineers can match their achievements in meeting these challenges.
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Professor Geoffrey Boulton OBE FRS FRSE 09 November 2010 Harvesting Earths Energy from Wind, Water and Waves Lockerbie Academy Part of the RSE@ Dunfries and Galloway Programme Dumfries and Galloway has a rich natural heritage. The waterways and climatic conditions have long played a key part in the economy, culture, history, landscape and the regeneration of the region. This lecture explored the importance of wind, water and waves to Scotland and discussed how recent developments in renewable energy technology will help us achieve carbon reduction targets. The energy in wind, water and waves is derived from the Earths rotation and solar heating. Humans have harvested the energy from these sources from time immemorial and will continue to do so in future. The landscape of Dumfries and Galloway is an important resource in the drive to increase the production of renewable energy and lower Scotlands carbon footprint. It is important that its development is managed properly, recognising and harnessing the contribution it can make in a way that benefits local communities and is sustainable for the future. Our energy originates from two sources, both nuclear. The first is from the nuclear fusion reactor of the Sun and the second an
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internal nuclear fission reactor in the centre of the Earth. The evidence for the latter is evident in the landscape around us in the form of extinct volcanoes such as Ailsa Craig and Ben More on Mull. The work of Isaac Newton in the 17th Century was the basis on which our subsequent understanding was built. We now recognise kinetic, potential, thermal, electromagnetic, chemical and nuclear energy. One form of energy can be readily converted into another. For example, in the swinging of a pendulum, potential energy is converted into kinetic and then back to potential energy. If there were no friction and air resistance in the system, the pendulum would swing forever. Energy cannot be lost, but is transformed into another form that can range between highly energetic and localised forms to very weak and dispersed forms. For example, by pulling atoms apart, massive quantities of energy are released. If the Earth receives more energy from the Sun than is radiated back into space, the Earth will get warmer and vice-versa; if the Earth
gives out more energy, then the planet becomes progressively colder. Thus, to maintain a constant temperature, the heat that the Earth receives from the Sun must be lost to space at exactly the same rate as it receives energy from the Sun. The clouds and gases in the atmosphere play an important role in regulating what this steady temperature will be. The surface temperatures of the planets of the Solar System depend on their distances from the Sun, but also on the gas composition of their atmospheres. Over the last 25 years, satellite imagery shows that the Earths temperature has risen slightly, although the complex manner in which energy fluctuates across the surface, turbulently transforming energy between light, heat, sound and other forms, can make it difficult to distinguish these trends at any one locality. We now know a tremendous amount about how the energy/ heat regime of the Earth has changed dramatically in the past. Some of the best evidence comes from the Earths great ice sheets. From Antarctica, radio-echo images show the depth of ice over the mountain ranges and valleys varying between 1 km and 3 km, whilst closer analysis of the chemistry of the layers of ice and gases in small bubbles within it provides much information on the climate over the last million years.
About 150 years ago, James Croll from Perthshire had a theory of climate change which was only shown to be correct some 100 years later. His theory, refined by a Serbian mathematician called Milankovitch, predicted, and subsequent observations confirmed, a strong correlation between changes in the Earths orbit around the Sun and the Earths climate. A Belgian mathematician then calculated that the fluctuations of global temperature arising from this should be a maximum of half a degree Celsius, but geological reconstructions have shown actual differences of around six degrees Celsius between the coldest part of the last Ice Age, 20,000 years ago, and the present day. The amplification of the Solar signal is attributed to atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, noting that the oceans give out CO2 in warmer temperatures, thus exacerbating the climate change effect. At end of the last Ice Age over Scotland and Europe, the landscape was bare and devoid of trees and animal life; covered by raw mineral soils much like areas of northern Greenland and Iceland from which glaciers have recently retreated. Using the evidence of pollen grains, insects and carbon dating of peat particles, we can create a picture of environmental evolution since that time. This shows that broad-
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leaved forests expanded in importance until about 6000 years ago, and then declined dramatically to be replaced by herbs and grasses. This latter reflected the first largescale human clearances of the forest to create space for agriculture. One of the unintended consequences of deforestation is that flooding has become more frequent and more devastating. The reason is simply because the speed of run off is determined by the amount of vegetation which physically obstructs the flow of water to the rivers. Trees also absorb the water and transpire rainfall back to the atmosphere, thus reducing further the amount of rainfall reaching the rivers. The extent of human progress has been largely determined by the extent that we are able to take energy from the Earth. This has increased through time from early tool making, to early agriculture, to efficient agriculture in the mediaeval period, to the industrial revolution and to todays technologically-intensive world. Energy consumption has increased dramatically throughout this evolution, taken up in food, heating, devices (e.g. computers, television) and transport, and because of the large growth in population. Consequently, we abstract from nature much more energy than we did in the past, although this only represents a
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small amount of the total energy available in the Earths system. As fossil carbon has been the dominant fuel behind this development, global carbon emissions can be considered a proxy for the amount of real energy being used. This is illustrated by viewing a map showing the irradiance over the globe now compared with one for 15 years ago, which has much more of India, China, other parts of Asia and South America lit up as a result of globalisation. At the same time, most oil experts are persuaded that we have passed peak oil supply and resources will decline quite quickly, depending on population growth and global economy. Indeed many analysts now presume that by 2050 there will be a real scarcity of oil and prices will rise even more sharply than they currently are. The burning of fossil fuels results in an increase in CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere such that there is now a CO2 concentration of 380ppm compared with 270 ppm in previous periods when the Earth has been similarly warm. Furthermore, global temperature data over the last 130 years shows a strong rise and, whilst many variations are due to natural causes, the overall trend in the last 30 years in particular is highly likely to be due to human activity. There is also considerable varia-
tion between countries in terms of levels of atmospheric pollution, with the UK ten times higher than the Democratic Republic of Congo; half as much as the US and Canada. Qatar is off the scale, with the highest figures per person. It is a very contentious issue politically. The use of energy involves conversion processes and transitions; for example, chemical energy is burnt to produce heat energy, often in a machine as mechanical energy or used as electrical energy. At each one of these transitions, there are losses of energy in forms that we dont use, reducing the amount of energy available. Consequently, for greater efficiency, the ideal would be to reduce the losses in these transitions, or indeed to minimise the number of transitions. One answer is to use renewable energy, e.g. wind/solar/ geothermal/wave/water/biomass. Dumfries and Galloway is well placed for wind, wave and tidal energy. With regular, strong tides in the region, the latter is a reliable energy source, whereas wind is less predictable. There is also a significant opportunity for hydro power. But there is also much hot air in talk about the potential of renewable energy sources. For example, if there were wave devices all along 750 km of the west coast of Scotland, the
raw power would be the equivalent of 16kWh per person, which after inefficiencies would drop down to 4 kWh per person, a fraction of the 195 kWh per person that we typically use. Tidal barriers would be slightly better, but after allowing for inefficiencies, would still only be around 11 kWh. At best, these systems might support small communities, but could never meet the needs of national and global economies. Similarly with wind, even with exaggerated assumptions on numbers of wind farms, at best they might yield just about half the power currently used to run our cars. For hydro, harnessing every drop of water in Britain would provide just seven kWh/ person. A fundamental problem with renewable sources is that they have a large footprint when compared with conventional power stations. For example, wind generates 2 Watts per m2 whilst a power station gives 1000 Watts per m2. As such renewable initiatives have to be on a massive scale and in combination to make a significant contribution, they tend to be subject to NIMBY (not in my back yard) reactions. If we look at all the options, a Green Plan would maximise all the renewable options, in particular wind and solar power in deserts, whilst an Economists Plan would focus strongly on
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nuclear, with renewables making a small contribution. However, the social current questions are: who chooses, and indeed is there any political drive to take action when we have so much else on our minds? Another important element is the transmission system for transporting energy. Whilst there may be plans for major networks that go beyond national boundaries, political factors also come into play, making the achievement of such networks more difficult in practice. In principle, the larger the scale the better. For example, solar power from desert areas of North Africa could provide the energy requirements for one billion Europeans in ways that would benefit both supplier and receiver countries. Britain could create a system of energy generation that would serve our current needs using a combination of bio-fuels, major power stations, enhancement of hydro and solar power from the deserts. To maximise this will require a network that operates with maximum efficiency and minimal losses. However, any strong drive to create such an integrated solution will be
difficult to mobilise whilst so many remain highly sceptical of the reality of anthropogenic climate change. Nevertheless, the climate changes that are being anticipated are unprecedented and can be considered as presenting significant challenges on a similar scale to the challenges associated with the Industrial Revolution. Given that energy is going to be more expensive and less available, and the fact that energy is a key requirement for all our social and cultural development, changes will impact on almost all of us, and therefore will require a political coherence and consistency of the type we havent yet known, if we are to successfully address these issues. Like the engineering achievements that brought about the Industrial Revolution, and contributed heavily to our current problems, we need another heroic age of engineering to engineer into the environment in ways that are clever, sensitive, intelligent and coordinated. Certainly, there is no going back to the simple life with a global population of its current size.
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The Rt Hon Lord (Chris) Patten of Barnes CH 10 November 2010 European Foreign Policy Is it Desirable and Possible? The Royal Society of Edinburgh MacCormick European Lecture
After describing the difficult birth of the European Union in the wake of the Second World War, and weighing up its strengths and weaknesses, as well as the UKs mixed feelings about its relations with Europe, Lord Patten said if Europe can learn the lessons from its own history, it may be able to devise a more effective foreign policy in future and play a more constructive global role. Henry Kissinger once famously asked, If I want to call Europe, who do I call? And this was the question Lord Patten attempted to answer... Lord Patten, who is Chancellor of Oxford University, began his talk by paying tribute to the late Sir Neil MacCormick, describing how he took Oxford by storm not just because he played the bagpipes but because he got a brilliant first in jurisprudence in only two years, despite being half an hour late for one of his final exams. MacCormick had a genius for making friends, added Patten. He was one of the treasures of the University of Edinburgh and a jewel in the crown of that curious institution better known as the European Parliament.
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The EU: Where does it come from? The former prime minister of Italy, Giuliano Amato, once described the European Union (EU) as a UFO he had a vague idea where it came from but no idea where it was going. Lord Patten traced the origins of the EU by saying how remarkable it was that it took so long for the countries of Europe to come together in the first place, and how that was explained by the other remarkable fact that Europe had been torn apart by three major conflicts in the previous 70 years the Franco Prussian War and two World Wars. Many politicians had their ideas of Europe shaped by their experience in war, and Patten pointed out that the war memorial in Oxford University mentions not only UK and Commonwealth students but also the Germans who perished. It was an immorality, he added, that these young people went to Oxford to learn about European civilisation then returned to their own countries to slaughter each other. Lord Patten then described the role of the United States in the emergence of the European
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Union. In 1945, Europe was desperately keen for the US to stay and protect Western Europe from the Soviet Union, and the price asked by the US was a more united Europe, to share the burden of world leadership. The UK was initially reluctant, however, with Churchill saying that a more united Europe was a good idea for everyone except the UK. We were non-believers and patronising sceptics, said Lord Patten, quoting Labour Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin, who said that a united Europe was a Pandoras box you never know what Trojan horses will jump out. Eventually, however, Britain joined, but by that time, said Lord Patten, the EU had a French imprint, and since then the media, especially the tabloids, have been highly critical, as if the EU was some kind of conspiracy to rob us of our national heritage. The EU was no super state or superpower, Lord Patten continued. It would also be misleading to compare the founders of the EU with the founding fathers of the US, since the EU was composed of proud nation states prepared to share their sovereignty democratically elected governments not individuals. The EU Treaty begins with the words, The King of the Belgians, not We the People, he added. It is also remarkable what the EU has achieved, he contin-
ued. Some of these achievements may seem prosaic, but the EU is the largest single market of diverse trading states in the world, with seven per cent of the worlds population accounting for 22 per cent of its output more than the US, twice as much as China and four to five times more than India. As China increases its share of world exports, Europe holds on to its share better than major competitors. The EU has done very well in terms of economic success, but several major challenges face us today, including demographic changes and how we influence global affairs. Our population is ageing and our economy has to evolve. The EU once declared that it would become the worlds leading knowledge-based economy by 2010 a target now revised to 2020. We face very difficult choices on policy matters such as pensions, etc., and one leading European politician commented that we know what we have to do but not how to get re-elected if we do it. In the EU, many people fear their quality of life will be threatened by political changes, especially if our economic power is eroded. Foreign policy: serious guidelines Some people used to believe that the EU was an economic giant, but a political seven-stone
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weakling, Lord Patten began, as he moved on to describe the issues shaping current EU foreign policy and how it may develop in the future. The need to play a bigger international role was triggered by events such as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, when Europe stood on the sidelines while 200,000 Bosnians were slaughtered, and ethnic cleansing reared its ugly head again, despite all our pledges. Nation states may be the building blocks of the Union, he added, but weve found it hard to resist the forces around us. The UK doesnt manage very well on its own, but despite our special relationship with the US, its better for the US for the UK to be in the heart of Europe. Is it possible to have a common security policy? Kissinger may have wondered whom he should call, but now we have a President (Herman Van Rumpoy) and a foreign policy chief (Baroness Ashton). But we also have 27 prime ministers and 27 foreign ministers, which may explain the weaknesses of EU foreign policy until now. The challenge is to reach decisions quickly and develop political will not just build institutions, said Lord Patten. The EU is good at communiques, he said, but not very good at action. For example, the EU issued 22 statements on the Middle East in the last year,
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but where we stand is still not very clear. Is the EU Venus while the US is Mars? If we are Venus, and hesitate to use military force, that may not be such a bad thing, said Lord Patten. The rest of the world paid a high price when Europe was Mars. We used to worry Germany spent too much on defence now we worry it is not spending enough. Lord Patten then described the major issues facing the EU today, including dialogue with China and relations with Russia. He said that it must be confusing for China to speak to the EU one day then the next day meet the representatives of several individual states with individual policies. Russia has used energy as a weapon to extend its sphere of influence, he added, and rather than developing a single energy policy for the EU, we have dragged our feet and several European states have signed individual agreements with Russia. We have no coherent policy on Russia, he added, and in order to develop some serious guidelines for foreign policy, there are lessons to learn from our recent experience as well as our history. The EU has been successful in some spheres, he said, including regime change in Greece, Spain and Portugal in the sense that we encouraged democratic elections
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as one of the conditions of joining a role we have continued with the former member states of the Soviet Union. Peaceful dismantling of the Soviet Union was not a given, he added, and today we are playing a similar role in the Balkans. Turkeys membership of the EU may become a victim of enlargement fatigue, he continued, despite what it offers as an energy hub, a security player (as a member of NATO), and its role as a secular state with a large Islamic population, acting as a bridge between Europe and the Middle East. If we deny Turkey membership, Lord Patten stated, it would be hard for us to be taken seriously on the world stage. At various times, Europe has either defined its foreign policy in contradistinction to the US or acceded to US demands, but we should be much clearer about our own interests, Lord Patten continued e.g. when it comes to Iran and the problem of nuclear proliferation, we should think in terms of the impact on us, as well as on others. We are Israels biggest trading partner at the same time as providing aid to Palestine, but we have simply settled for the job of holding Americas coat, he said. Supporting US policy is all very well, but isnt such a good idea when when the US is doing nothing or getting nowhere.
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We should rein in our rhetoric, Lord Patten said, and focus on what we are actually going to do and are able to do. European countries spend 200 billion on defence, but the money is not wisely spent. The EU needs to understand that we cant matter everywhere like the US, and should focus on playing a a bigger role in areas such as Africa. We should not make extravagant claims about what weve achieved or could achieve in future, but we can provide an EU dimension, by learning from our own past experience. I do believe, Lord Patten concluded, that we can develop a more effective foreign policy, but Im not holding my breath. Questions and Answers Q: What advice for the Prime Minister on his current visit to China? A: It is significant that David Cameron visited India first, said Lord Patten, since there is a qualitative difference in our relations with China and India. Even though India has a very similar value system to the UK, we should also seek a more positive relationship with China and be more realistic about its role as a world leader. We are not witnessing the sudden rise of China, he added. China has been the worlds greatest economic power for 18 out of the last 20 centuries, and in the 21st Century, will again
be a dominant force; even though by 2040, India will be the nation with the largest and the youngest population. There are reasons to be nervous about Chinas relations with the US and its neighbours, and how it manages political change, but we should still want China to succeed, not fall apart. We may also be keen to close the export gap with China, now standing at 18 billion a year, but recent trade promotion efforts will not have a serious impact, at least in the short term, despite the talented business people visiting China this week. China will always seek the best deal. There is no sentiment involved in seeking economic progress. But Lord Patten hoped relations with China would continue to improve, noting that his own university has more than 700 Chinese students, including a third of all the mathematicians at Oxford. We should hope China spends more on imports and hope its currency rises in value, while its political model improves, but one visit is not enough, he concluded. Q: What about the policies of France and Germany concerning the Roma people? A: Europe talks a lot about exporting its values, Lord Patten began, but what do we really mean? We would be taken more seriously if we were less hypocritical and more consistent in pursuit of our principles. A little more
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humility would seem to be in order, he added. Q: What about the elephant in the room the euro? A: The challenge is how to sustain a single currency that benefits some but not others, Lord Patten replied. Germany may have borne a lot of the burden and exerted fiscal discipline while some other countries pursued their selfinterest, but Germany has also benefited from the euro. The reunification of Germany was dependent on losing the deutsche-mark, but if the German people had been asked to decide in a referendum, they would never have agreed. The euro was designed to close the gap between different economies, including labour costs, but some nations feasted on low interest rates, then asked Germany to bail them out when things went wrong. Germany, however, sells more to its partners in Europe than to China, and its exports are cheaper because of the euro; it had to accept that these benefits came at a cost. The euro zone may be a triumph of politics over economics, but there is still a lot of passionate support for the euro amongst countries such as Spain, despite the fact there can be attractions to devaluing your own currency when times are hard. Q: How can NATO and the EU work together to counter the terrorist threat?
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EU states dont spend wisely on defence or co-operate enough. The big issue is that the greatest threats dont come from strong but from weak and failing states, including Somalia, Yemen and Afghanistan and, in the future, maybe even Mexico. Problems with countries such as the Congo and Zimbabwe cannot be ghettoised, he continued, by building a wall around them, and drugs and AIDS also pose serious threats to our welfare 90 per cent of the heroin injected in Edinburgh tonight came from Afghanistan. Q: What advice does he have on the teaching of languages, including Chinese? A: Before the 1930s, said Lord Patten, French and German were not taught at Oxford because the students were expected to know them anyway. The UKs decline in languages is a disaster, he said. There is too much emphasis on easy subjects. Politicians could reverse this trend, not just for utilitarian reasons but also because its an important discipline which teaches us about other civilisations. We should also encourage more people to move into teaching. History and geography also appear to have been sidelined, he added. Q: Should the EU have its own diplomatic service? A: There are questions about the recent setting up of Europes Action Service, most concerning
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budget and professional staffing. There may be a case for an EU diplomatic service, but how would we use it? Lord Patten hoped Baroness Ashton would get tougher on budgetary issues, since it may not be wise for the EU to spend more at a time when individual states are tightening their belts. Q: You seem to be in favour of Turkey becoming a member, but how would we deal with immigration from Turkey, bearing in mind how much we underestimated emigration from Poland? A: We may have underestimated Polish migration, but we have done very well from it, Lord Patten said. If Turkey joins, we should not assume there would be free movement of labour, but some countries (e.g. Italy) need more economically active people. The situation changes all the time, and Turkey will accept limits. In fact, we need Turkey to join the EU now more than Turkey wants to be a member. We must discuss migration in a grown-up way, he concluded. Immigration caps could cause huge problems, but it is reasonable to talk about the issues and try to address them. There will be social tensions and economic problems ahead, but we have to discuss how to put some limit on immigration to Britain.
Professor Sir John Lawton CBE FRS 11 November 2010 Climate change: A process not an event Facing up to Climate Change Lecture, Aberdeen
One of the first victims of a change in Britains economic climate will be the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP), which will cease to exist on March 31 next year. The Commissions penultimate report on Adapting to Climate Change (published in March 2010) came with a warning we are making slow progress but urgently need to do more... The cover of Adapting UK Institutions to Climate Change features snakes and ladders, to symbolise the threats and opportunities that climate change presents to UK institutions including statutory bodies, institutions of governance and industry organisations (e.g. the NHS, schools and utility companies). Sir John Lawton, Chair of the RCEP, said there is an urgent need to understand the issues involved in adapting to climate change. The report did not focus on how to mitigate climate change or on global issues, but on whether UK institutions are fit for purpose in how they respond. Although there may be some degree of uncertainty, which makes adaptation more difficult, the evidence of climate change is
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now overwhelming, and its vital to look at the scale of its impacts, said Lawton. We may not be able to stop it but we need to decide what to do when it happens, at both local and national levels. Lawton started by describing the scale of the problem. Global temperatures are expected to rise by about four degrees centigrade by 2100 about the same as the increase from the Ice Age till now. The result for the UK will be warmer, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters, leading to various problems including droughts, floods and coastal erosion. The emphasis until now has been on mitigation, but Lawton said that even if we do reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, we still need to adapt to the long-term effects of historic emissions. What is adaptation? It means reducing our exposure to the risk of future damage, developing our capacity to cope with unavoidable damage, and taking advantage of the opportunities e.g. in industry and agriculture. Water management will be a major issue, to maintain water quality as
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well as supplies. It will be impossible to maintain the status quo for biodiversity and nature conservation (e.g. salt marshes and bird sanctuaries) because of different geographical effects. If there is climate change, said Lawton, areas of nature conservation will simply be in the wrong place. Lawton then outlined a few of the problems. Adaptation, he said, is a continuous process a series of difficult actions. Local impacts vary and therefore we also need local solutions. There is no end point there is not one single thing we can do. It is hard to make predictions, and there is a lot of uncertainty about the magnitude of climate change and local impacts. There are complex institutional arrangements too many uncoordinated, overlapping organisations involved, e.g. dealing with coastal erosion. We need a step change in approach because traditional methods will simply not work. We need to build our adaptive capacity. And although he welcomed progress on some fronts, Lawton said more urgent action is needed. We also need to cut through the complexity: Its committee spaghetti gone mad. By contrast, said Lawton, the insurance industry is way ahead and really understands what climate change will mean. The challenges for institutions are uncertainty, complexity, path dependency (an over-reliance on
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what we have always done), equity (different impacts on different places and how to work out fair compensation), efficiency and how to build capacity. To address these different challenges, the RCEP report makes several recommendations, with the focus onframing, implementing and learning. First, its important to ask the right questions. Its easy to ask the wrong questions and solve the wrong problems, said Lawton. Short termism can also be a problem, and organisations should think about how climate change may impact their corporate mission. We need to do the key things and upscale local initiatives. We need to engage public support, coordinate the different agencies involved and allocate resources. Adaptation will cost money, said Lawton, but the sooner we act and the sooner we put things in place, the sooner we will save money. Learning is also essential, to generate and share information, and we should be careful not to lose strategic memory the expertise we already have. It is important to integrate adaptation to climate change into all decision making, public and private, to reduce the exposure to risk and develop the capacity to cope e.g. dont build new houses on flood plains. One project singled out by Lawton as a model example was Thames Estuary 2100. This initiative has
long-term vision, he said. It is flexible and sees its task as a process, not a single event, bringing together a number of bodies to act in a coordinated way. Public bodies have a duty to adapt to climate change, said Lawton, But many institutions are not close to realising how complex and nebulous it is. There may be no blueprint for all institutions, and geographic differences are also a factor, but to help address the issues, the RCEP has drawn up a list of ten points an adaptation test for UK institutions: 1. identify the range of impacts on activities and responsibilities (some may be affected more than others) 2. understand the nature and limitations of climate projections (uncertainty) 3. recognise it is an open-ended process not one single action 4. frame the questions correctly and identify risks 5. identify options and devise flexible plans/strategies 6. embed adaptation into the organisation and make senior people accountable 7. is the institution fit for purpose, aware of its powers and duties, and are there actions that would make it
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more difficult or impossible to adapt? 8. identify barriers and stakeholders 9. establish mechanisms to respond to alternative views 10. planning and investment cycles make allowances for new information There are also 24 recommendations, including policy framework, specific institutional arrangements, resources needed to build capacity, equity and public engagement. For example, we need better land-use planning, and organisations should review their missions and objectives from an adaptation perspective. Lawton fears that local authorities may ignore the issues because of short-term budget constraints, so resources must be freed up to ensure we can cope e.g. we must continue to fund important organisations such as the Met Office. Equity is one of the most complex issues, because the costs of climate change are so uneven socially, temporally and geographically. Flooding and coastal erosion affect different places at different times, but how do we compensate the parties involved and take account of the effects on the community? Lawton admitted that even the RCEP found it hard to agree about this, and that is why public engagement is vital.
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People dont like change, he said, so we have to engage them, frame the issues right and gather public feedback to inform decision making. Adapting to climate change is difficult and full of complexities, Lawton concluded, but we cant afford not to take action now, because the costs will be much
greater in the long term if we dont. There has been some progress, but we need a step change in initiatives at the same time as embedding adaptation throughout institutions. So far, he added, the Government has not responded to the RCEP report since it was published.
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Professor Julia Smith 15 November 2010 Portable Christianity: Relics in the Medieval West (c700 1200) The 2010 British Academy Raleigh Lecture British Academy Medieval Week Medieval Christians treasured tiny objects culled from biblical holy places and saints shrines. Using previously neglected evidence of the contents of medieval reliquaries and ecclesiastical treasure collections from western Christendom, the first part of this lecture brought historical specificity to the generic terms relics by exploring what they actually comprised and how they were conceptualised by those who garnered and collected them. This opened up for inspection the jewelled reliquaries, silk purses and ivory caskets in which relics were stored and reveal relic material characteristics as minuscule objects of no intrinsic material value. The second part of the lecture asked how these paltry items came to be highly valued for both social and religious reasons. By mapping the networks through which relics circulated, it identified the multiplicity of contexts which gave relics social meaning and enabled them to be widely collected: as heirlooms, tokens of political affiliation, gifts, personal mementos, and much more. Juxtaposing these social meanings with their religious meanings proposes a new approach to the social practices of medieval Christianity in Western Europe.
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Professor Gruffydd Aled Williams 16 November 2010 More than Skimble-Skamble Stuff : The Medieval Welsh Poetry Associated with Owain Glyndyr The 2010 Sir John Rhys Memorial Lecture British Academy Medieval Week In Shakespeares Henry IV, Part 1, Hotspur is made to refer to the partiality of Owain Glyndwr (Glendower) for prophecies, which he characterises dismissively as skimble-skamble stuff. This lecture explored the authentic medieval Welsh literary corpus associated with Glyndwr, consisting in the main of bardic eulogies rather than prophecies and mostly composed before the outbreak of the 1400 revolt. The poems were examined in historical context, including some of Scottish interest (alluding to Glyndwrs participation in the English invasion of Scotland in 1385).Themes considered include their possible utility, both before and during the revolt, as political propaganda designed to further Owains cause.
Dr Ad Putter 17 November 2010 Personifications of Old Age in Medieval Poetry The 2010 Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture British Academy Medieval Week Medieval poets were fond of personification allegory for reasons that modern readers do not always find easy to appreciate. This lecture explored some of the advantages of the allegorical mode by focusing on personifications of old age in some of the finest medieval English and French poets: John Gower, Geoffrey Chaucer, William Langland and Charles dOrlans. Each poet in his own way shows why old age is suited to personification. Growing old may be a
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gradual process objectively, but writers from all periods confirm the subjective experience that medieval allegories bring to life, i.e. psychologically, the awareness that we have aged takes us by surprise. These personifications of old age are also sensitive to the social dimension of ageing, to its indignities and humiliations. By imagining old age as a person with whom we have to interact socially, medieval poets were able to capture the bewilderments and embarrassments of the ageing process.
Professor Alexander Brodie FRSE 18 November 2010 The Past as Propaganda in the Declaration of Arbroath British Academy Medieval Week
The Declaration of Arbroath (1320), the most famous document in Scottish history, is a letter to Pope John XXII that maps out Scotlands history, and uses that history as propaganda on behalf of a request about the Scottish throne. The largely fanciful history presents the Scots as a chosen people, protected, at Jesus
behest, by St Andrew, and it compares Robert the Bruce to Joshua and Judas Maccabeus. It was argued that, aside from the fantasy, there is also a powerful and persuasive intellectual underpinning to the Declaration, one closely associated with Scotlands greatest medieval thinker, John Duns Scotus.
Professor Robert Hillenbrand FBA FRSE 18 November 2010. The Past as Propaganda: The Mongol World History British Academy Medieval Week The fragmentary copy of Rashid al-Dins World History held in the University of Edinburghs Library is of extreme rarity, huge size, lavish illustration and very early date (1314). It is perhaps the worlds most valuable illustrated Islamic manuscript. This lecture explored its art-historical significance, highlighting its multi-racial and multi-confessional flavour, with Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and shamanistic elements that aptly reflect the largest continuous land empire in world history. The manuscripts pictorial and textual cycles of Biblical figures, the Prophet Muhammad and the mythical past of Greece, Arabia and Iran break new ground, while its propagandist intent finds expression in courtly and battle scenes galore.
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Allan Little 10 December 2010 Reporting the World in an Age of Conflict Christmas Lecture 2010 Stranraer Academy, Stranraer Part of the RSE@ Dunfries and Galloway Programme How is power distributed in our world today? What are the principal challenges to the liberal democratic, market economy models that have shaped our own societies, in the modern era? How has the rise of anti-western sentiment in volatile parts of the world compromised our ability to report that world? How has changing technology altered the way the news is brought to you? Is journalism, as we understand it, still a going concern? From the collapse of European Communism, to the deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq, Allan Little has been reporting the changing shape of our world for the last two decades and more, from a seat in the front row of history. During his Christmas lecture at Stranraer Academy, where he spent his school years, Allan Littles colourful and entertaining telling of his reporting experiences brought scenes that many of us view somewhat remotely on our television sets vividly to life and clearly demonstrated how journalism has changed over the last 30 years. Journalists tell stories and Allan Little possesses the astonishing genius of making the world
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come alive to the public through the telling of his own life stories. Much of this lecture report, therefore, has been left in Allans own words after all, they are his stories and he tells them best.. I heard the blast of the first explosion and wished it away, wanting to believe that it was the sound of something heavy and metallic dropped from a height by a construction worker. But the unmistakable dug-a-dug-a-dug of machine gun fire left no more room for wishful thinking and soon the air of central Kabul rang with noise of the fight. It is quite a moment, this sudden descent into violence. Once it starts, it seems carried by an unstoppable momentum. You want it to be amenable to reason. Your pulse quickens. Your stomach lurches. Suddenly you are on heightened alert. As the chaos was unleashed outside we headed for the basement, down the winding stairwell where we met, on their way up, Afghan National Policemen, flak-jacketed and heavily armed. They took up gun positions on the roof, firing volley after volley into neighbouring
buildings. We followed what was happened by listening. Violence moved in an arc around us, engulfing what was supposed to be the fortified heart of the Afghan capital. You could taste on your tongue and in your throat the acrid gunpowder burn of spent rifle rounds. Soon, four Afghan police came down into the basement carrying one of their comrades, gravely wounded or, more probably, dead. Two held him by his arms and two by his legs. They carried him past me, perhaps three feet away and I looked into his motionless face, streaked with blood, his still, glassy eyes. They took him to a separate room. The hotel staff began to ask whether there was a doctor among us. There wasnt. From our listening post it seemed the city centre had exploded in an orgy of violence, grotesque, indiscriminate, chaotic. However, Allan Little drew to our attention to the fact that this seemingly chaotic violence is anything but; it is in reality highly organised and coordinated, with targets clearly identified and allocated to attackers almost with military precision. Neither is it indiscriminate; with, on this occasion, very few casualties. If their intention had been to kill as many people as possible, it would have been easy. But they didnt. They ordered everyone shoppers and shopkeepers alike out. Soon
the building was on fire. The Taliban fighters were then to die, as they must have known they would, amid the flames, all but one shot down. The last man alive blew himself up. Maintaining or gaining positive public opinion is as vital to the Taliban as winning hearts and minds is to the NATO Forces both believing that public relations management is as crucial as the co-ordination of the attack itself. Both are engaged in a battle not just for power and territory but for the trust, of the Afghan people. Political leaders know that if you want to take a democracy to war you have to take public opinion with you and you have to keep it with you. There is no doubt that the Taliban know this too. Allan Little continued by describing the way conflict and access to conflict has changed. My first sustained encounter with war and the reporting of it was the first Gulf War. I was thirty years old and just beginning to establish myself as a BBC network reporter. Allan described his feelings at being asked to go to report from Iraq as both terrified and thrilled at the same time. Thrilled because I was heading into the biggest most urgent story of the day, terrified because I didnt really know whether I was up to it. All decent reporters live with the constant fear that theyve been getting away with it all these years
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and that this time theyll be found out. And terrified too because I didnt know whether, in the event of war breaking out while I was in the enemy capital, I would survive it. One day, about three weeks into the war, I came back to the BBC office in the Intercontinental Hotel, Amman, and there was a red light on the phone. It was, at last, my visa. I went to the embassy at 7 pm as instructed. They stamped my passport, and those of two colleagues my BBC colleague Jeremy Bowen and his cameraman Rory Peck. Jeremy and I would, in the years ahead, become great friends. Rory would be killed two years later in the failed anti-Yeltsin coup in Moscow. We would leave Amman at midnight and cross the Iraqi border at dawn. We would drive up what was known as Scud Alley a road through the desert hundreds of miles long that was under daily aerial bombardment, only to get to a city that was, itself, gradually being dismantled by repeated daily air assaults. For the first time I asked myself that most searching of questions. Why? Why are you going to risk your life to do this? Martha Gellhorn was one of the greatest of the twentieth century war reporters. In a book written in 1959, she stated, When I was young, I believed in the perfectibility of man and in progress, and
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thought of journalism as a guiding light. If people were told the truth, if dishonour and injustice were clearly shown to them, they would at once demand the saving action, punishment of wrong-doers, and care for the innocent. How people were to accomplish these reforms, I did not know. That was their job. A journalists job was to bring news, to be eyes for their conscience. I think I must have imagined public opinion as a solid force, something like a tornado, always ready to blow on the side of the angels. Did Allan Little think of public opinion as a solid force? Maybe. He described the first time he realised why he does this job when, upon meeting a colleague who was also preparing to leave for Baghdad, he was asked, Why are you doing it? I didnt know the answer until I heard myself say it out loud. Because its what I trained for. Its why I came this far. And because if I dont I will never forgive myself. I will have chosen a safe and cosseted life and I will spend the rest of it regretting that when I was tested I didnt go. And so off we went that night, crossing the border at dawn, not speaking but sitting in silence as we drove wide-eyed into the heart of the enemy citadel. Once we started working there we soon had to ask ourselves another important and searching question: is there a conflict between
my responsibility as a journalist and my obligations as a British citizen? Some of the British newspapers denounced us for giving succour to the enemy; for allowing ourselves to become mouthpieces of the Iraqi regime. One morning allied aircraft fired bunker-busting missiles into a building that was thought to be a military command bunker. It was in fact an air raid shelter. Hundreds of people almost all of them women and children were sleeping in there. Almost all of them died instantly. Soon I was on the air reporting what I had seen. The Iraqi authorities were claiming that between 700 and 1100 people had been killed. We went to a nearby hospital where some of the bodies had been laid out on the forecourt. I counted forty or fifty. Some of them were children three, four, five years old, still lying curled on their sides as though they had died instantly in their sleep. In Baghdad we had no idea about the political storm our reporting had unleashed at home. Some of the British newspapers had turned on the reporters, saying the BBC stood for Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation. Some backbench MPs began to argue for legislation that would criminalise what they were doing. Allan noted that is was his first direct experience of how an appeal to patriotism can be used to close
down argument; to suppress knowledge that contradicts or contaminates with uncertainty or doubt the prevailing narrative. And the prevailing narrative of the 1991 war was one of smart bombs that could identify only military targets, make their way down Saddoun Street, turn left at the traffic lights and make possible a war waged from fifteen thousand feet in which civilians would not have to die. Within hours BBC colleagues in the UK were challenging him and his reporting, asking who was controlling what I said? Is there an Iraqi minder sitting there with you? Is he telling you what to say? Is he stopping you saying other things? Whose word was I taking? The purest and most decent of the journalism that we do is eyewitness journalism. So I went to the morgue and I counted the bodies, one by one. I got to three hundred and eleven before giving up. Did that reporting damage the war effort? Would it have been better if news of that bombing had not been made public? Or better if the only journalists there to witness it had been Iraqi reporters totally beholden to a regime they feared? I dont think so. I am, almost always, on the side of the public knowing, verifiably, reliably, what has happened. It is in the end the only defence against mythmaking.
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Allan Little then invited the audience to go forward with him in time a few years to late 1992 in Bosnia. War at this time unfolded before your camera lens. It was hard and dangerous but it was accessible. All those days, all those years, all those reports, the endless radio despatches, the impassioned and graphic television packages that we put out during the four years of that war and to what end? None of the reporting we did changed anything a jot. The injustice, the dishonour, were not overturned. Public opinion did not blow on the side of the angels. It didnt really blow at all. I found it harder and harder to say to my Bosnian friends, who wanted only the freedoms that we enjoy, that the thing about freedom, as we practise it, is that it includes the freedom not really to care about injustice and dishonour. One day, an American arms dump exploded in a residential suburb. Nearby houses that had withstood weeks of allied bombardment were obliterated. Families were wiped out. But what was striking was how quickly public anger was channelled. Within an hour there was a spontaneous demonstration of Iraqis hundreds, perhaps thousands, strong already with printed placards and leaflets blaming the Americans for deliberately endangering the lives of Iraqis. I went along. I marched
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with them, interviewed them for television. One man told me, in fluent English, that the United States of America is the enemy of Islam, it is written so in the Holy Koran. (The Koran was in fact written in the seventh century, more than a thousand years before the United States was founded.) I said in my report for that nights news on BBC 1: The explosion has ignited an antiAmerican fury. Within hours that fury was organised. It hasnt taken long for this to turn into a demonstration of rage against the Americans. ... today, nothing the Americans can say will be heard amid the din the organised and carefully marshalled chorus of anti-American sentiment. But still we filmed. Still they let us film. This happy state of freedom was not to last long. In 2003 Allan went to Kuwait to try to cover this second Gulf War as an independent, nonembedded reporter. As the invasion began, braver souls than me headed north, unembedded, under their own steam. I stood in the lobby of an international hotel, just after dark, on the first or second day of the invasion. A US Army major was talking urgently into a mobile phone to a journalist who had got lost in southern Iraq. These voices you can hear the major was saying, are they English or Arabic? Arabic. I see. Then lie flat on the ground. Do not move. Switch off your
mobile phone because if it rings it will give away your position. Stay there all night. When you hear American forces arrive, wave something white and put up your hands. Now, is there any message you would like me to pass on to your next of kin while you still can? That same day we heard news that an ITN crew had gone north with the invasion forces, unembedded, and was now missing. The correspondent was a friend of mine, Terry Lloyd, whom Id come to know in Bosnia a decade earlier. Id run into him a day or two earlier, we promised to stay in touch and swap notes. He was killed the next day as he tried to make his way to Basra, killed in pursuit of being first in to a liberated city. And so the portents were there for us to read. By 2004 they were unmistakable. The kidnap, in Pakistan, of the American reporter Daniel Pearle was an early indication of how utterly changed the world was for independent reporting. Pearle was beheaded in front of a video camera and the pictures were posted on the internet. A new phenomenon was born that of the exhibition killing. It created a market in western lives, a way for Islamist and other anti-western or insurgent groups to advertise their own radicalism and attract a global community of support. In Iraq, the murders of the British contractor Kenneth Bigley and the
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British-Irish aid worker Margaret Hassan and many others turned this phenomenon into an everpresent danger. In 2004, two French journalists were kidnapped while driving from Baghdad to the southern Iraqi city of Najaf and held for more than four months. On their release, they gave a remarkable insight into the organised and disciplined nature of their captors thinking. They were told that there were four categories of people who, when captured, deserved execution. These were: foreign combatants; anyone working for the occupying, or coalition, forces; anyone carrying the passport of one of the occupying, or coalition, countries; and spies. This continuing situation has required international news organisations to invest in providing security for their reporters. It has placed a screen of security between us and those whose stories we need to hear. What is life like in those great swathes of Afghanistan that are controlled by the Taliban? We can only know a small part of the picture. We can listen to the stories of those who flee to government-controlled territory. But we can no longer get in our cars in Kabul and drive unmolested into the countryside to see for ourselves. The world is now very hard indeed for the kind of independent, free-roaming eyewitness journalism we used to
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pursue with such vigour and such commitment. There is a pessimism among my older colleagues who lament the passing of the old freedoms. Patrick Cockburn is one of the most experienced and perceptive and wise members of the tribe. The Iraq conflict is the great crisis of our era, but television has found it impossible to cover it properly... watching Tony Blair claim progress in Iraq as he announced a partial withdrawal last week, I was struck for the hundredth time by the favour done to him and President George Bush by the Iraqi insurgents and militias. By killing and kidnapping journalists and thus making so much of Iraq a mediafree zone they have ensured that the White House and Downing Street can say what they like and get away with it. Blair spoke of British achievements in security and economic development in Basra, but there were almost no journalists on the ground to check the truth of this. To me the changes that had taken place in our industry in the twelve years between the first Gulf War in 1991 and the second in 2003 were now starkly evident and alarming. In 1991 there was no internet. No mobile phones. The satellite phones we were using were in their infancy they were enormous, took two men to lift and
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had to be carefully programmed each time you used them. There was crucially no twenty-fourhour rolling news culture. When I reported the Amariyah shelter bombing that morning in February 1991, I had time to gather, to interview eye witnesses and survivors, to listen carefully to their accounts, to make an assessment about what tallied and what didnt, to challenge, to ask for corroborating detail. And then I had half an hour in the car to order my thoughts and make sense of it. Then I wrote it down as coherently as I could, and only then did I lift the phone to make my broadcast. Now, that would not be acceptable. Now I would be expected to go live immediately and almost certainly not from the hotel but from the scene. It imposes different challenges. Twenty and more years ago the shape of the world was easy to grasp. It was divided between east and west. In 1989, that ended. For a few years, it became fashionable to believe that liberal democracy had won the great battle for the loyalty of the entire human race. We have learned in the two decades since then that that is not so; that liberal democracy as a system under which to live is still largely confined to the countries in which it is properly entrenched. Communism no longer offers a challenge to liberal democracy. But other challenges have emerged. Other parts of the
world, including China and Russia, now offer the human race real, dynamic, powerful alternatives to democratic ways of living. Allan Little returned to Martha Gellhorns philosophies. Why, when she had lost her youthful delusion that journalism could change things, that honest reporting could expose and then correct injustice and dishonour, did she keep on doing it? Why did she go on putting herself in harms way to try to find out something of the truth of what is going on in the world? This is what she said in the end: I now think that the act of keeping the record straight is valuable in itself. Serious, careful, honest journalism is essential, not because it is a guiding light but because it is a form of honourable behaviour, involving the reporter and the reader. Years ago, you returned from war slowly, by ship or longdrawn-out journeys overland. You had time to adjust, to decompress. Now it is all much quicker. One month ago tonight I was standing in a smart cocktail bar in a swanky media hotel in Dubai, surrounded by bright vertiginous shining modernity. Thirty six hours earlier I had been in a basement in Kabul listening to men blow themselves up, knowingly going to their own deaths in order to show the world what they were capable of. And then, suddenly I am beamed down into another reality. I felt like a time traveller,
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disoriented, disconnected. Kabul is three hours from Dubai and a million miles away. Soldiers and war reporters talk a lot about this sense of disconnection when they come home. This too is something they share. They know what it is to walk through a London park instinctively sticking to the hard surfaces for fear that there might be land mines in the grass; or to walk along Oxford Street scanning the windows and the roof tops above the shops for snipers. The brilliant American newspaper reporter Dexter Filkins described the sense of dislocation he felt when he got home after a decade of reporting Iraq and Afghanistan like this: People asked me about the war, of course. They asked me whether it was as bad as people said. Oh definitely I told them, and then, usually, I stopped. In the beginning Id go on a little longer, tell them a story or two, and I could see their eyes go after a couple of sentences. We drew closer to each other, the hacks and the vets and the diplomats, anyone whod been over there. My friend George, an American reporter Id gotten to know in Iraq, told me he couldnt have a conversation with anyone about Iraq who hadnt been there. I told him I couldnt have a conversation with anyone who hadnt been there about anything at all. This too we share.
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Professor Bruce J. Katz Wednesday 15 December 2010 The Next Economy Part of the Edinburgh Lecture Series: Talking Cities
Bruce Katz loves cities and, in particular, loves their energy levels. Revealing that he last visited Edinburgh 30 years ago as a student, he said he was instantly taken by the vibrant buzz, likening it to the streets of Manhattan. It is that energy, he said, that will be the platform for the next economy as the worlds metropolitan areas grow in the short term and retread for the long haul. There can be no return to the previous world economic order. In the United States, 8.4 million jobs were lost during the recession, which began in December of 2007. Nearly one out of every ten Americans remains unemployed, and three out of four people in the United States have either lost their jobs or are close to someone who has. For the past several decades, America had an economy which elevated consumption over production and financial chicanery over real innovation. The result was the largest recession since the Great Depression. There will not, and should not, be a return to this type of economy. Therefore, the question arises:
what type of future economy should be built? First, the United States must shape a next economy that is driven by exports, powered by low carbon, fuelled by innovation, and rich with opportunity. This is a vision where America exports more and wastes less, innovates in what matters, produces and deploys more of what it invents, and ensures that the economy actually works for working families. Secondly, the next economy will largely be metropolitan. Americas economy is no longer driven by small towns but, rather, it is the large metropolitan areas (metros) that will deliver the next economy. The major US metros already generate more than threequarters of the countrys gross domestic product. Finally, the next economy will be built by unleashing the entrepreneurial energies of Americas metropolitan engines. This will require metros to exploit their unique advantages, and the state and federal governments to align their resources to metro priorities.
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In order to build the next economy, American exporters must better engage with the world. More firms in more sectors must increase trade with other nations, especially with those that are rapidly urbanising and industrialising. This is an economic imperative for the United States, given that Brazil, India and China were expected to account for about a fifth of global GDP in 2010, surpassing the US for the first time. The rise of the BICs (Brazil, India and China) reflects the rise of metros. For the first time in recorded history, more than half of the worlds population lives in cities and metropolitan areas. By 2030, the metro share will pass 60 per cent. However, the top 30 metropolitan performers today are almost exclusively located in Asia and Latin America, while the 30 worst performers are nearly all located in Europe and the US. It is these rising nations and their rapidly growing metros that will power the world economy in the twenty-first Century, and the US must take advantage of this increasing global demand. Despite an infrastructure that is third class which hampers US export potential the US maintains a trade surplus in services and still manufactures a range of advanced goods that are in high demand throughout the world. President Obamas challenge to
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double exports in the next five years is exactly the kind of ambitious, far-reaching goal America needs at this moment to help the United States remain competitive in the global economy. As with exports, low carbon is another feature of the next American economy. The US should be the vanguard of the clean, green revolution. This means the US must invest in smarter, faster and more technologicallyadvanced infrastructure systems, and design more sustainable and efficient homes and offices. Other nations, including China, Brazil and Germany, have embraced the green economy, and are creating markets, growing jobs and stimulating investment. China continues to outpace the US through significant investments in renewable energy, high speed rail, and a host of other sustainable products. The United States, however, is certainly capable of competing in the low carbon revolution. Brookings research has identified a strong base of more than two million green jobs, in sectors ranging from renewable energy to pollution reduction. America also has significant advantages in domestic demand, advanced research, venture capital and entrepreneurial dynamism. It is now time for the US fully to engage the shift to low carbon.
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Another crucial hallmark of the next economy is innovation. The US must strive to be the worlds Innovation Nation, a hothouse of invention and a platform for production. The next decade has the potential to produce new technologies that have the power to transform economies, create jobs and change the way we live our lives. In order to spur these types of innovations, the United States must focus on science and technology, through greater investments in education and research and development. Currently, the US ranks 45th out of 93 countries in the share of Bachelor degrees in science and engineering, and has gone from a trade surplus to a deficit in advances in technology products over the past decade. In the future, America will not sustainably grow if it does not innovate and produce more goods and services. Finally, the next economy must be rich with opportunity. The US needs to get smart fast. African Americans and Hispanics currently comprise about 25 percent of the population soon to rise to 40 per cent yet the educational attainment of these groups is significantly lower compared to that of whites and Asians. In the years ahead, upgrading the education and skills of Americas workforce is no longer just a
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matter of social equity. It is fundamentally an issue of national competitiveness and national security. This next economy will largely be led by Americas metropolitan areas. Even now, there is no single national economy in the US, but a network of powerful metropolitan economies. The top 100 metro areas dominate trade in goods and services, concentrate critical sectors of the low carbon economy, produce the bulk of our patents and research funding, and serve as our transportation and logistical hubs. Therefore, the next American economy will be built by unleashing the entrepreneurial energies of its metro engines. In an ideal world, the federal government would assist metros by embracing trade, pricing carbon, investing more in R&D and infrastructure, and overhauling immigration. Unfortunately, Washington is broken and the states are broke, so the next economy is going to have to be built the hard way, through a pragmatic caucus of public, business, and non-profit state and metropolitan leaders who spur economic recovery and renewal despite political odds and fiscal obstacles. Make no mistake, the stakes are high, because other nations are moving with deliberation and discipline to exploit the full potential of their metro engines.
The Brookings Institution has been working with metropolitan areas in the US to explore how to exploit their unique competitive advantages. There are various models of economic renewal around the world; for instance, Turin has transformed itself into a design hub and Barcelona has become an entrepreneurial hub. These are two European metros which have embraced intelligent economic design and purposeful action, playing on their special assets. Ultimately, metros will need greater engagement from the federal and state governments to retool the US economy. Brookings is now working with three US metros Minneapolis/St.Paul, Seattle and Northeast Ohio to produce metropolitan business plans aimed at aligning state and federal resources in the service of metropolitan growth. These business plans are designed to help the metro areas capitalise on their unique assets and establish a regional framework for growth. For instance, Minneapolis/St.Paul has the potential to become a hub of innovation and entrepreneurial activity, while Seattle might become a global leader in producing advanced green technology. States can also help their metros by offering voters the opportunity to support market shaping investments tailored to their metros assets. This is what the
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state of Ohio did in 2010, where voters approved a $700 million bond issue to extend the states Their Frontier Fund that invests in technology and energy start-up companies. The US government should also use its broad resources to assist metros, when possible, in their strategies for growth. Take the 30/ 10 initiative in Los Angeles, California, where voters approved a sales tax to build a state-of-theart metro transit system in 30 years. The mayor of Los Angeles suggested a plan to the federal government whereby it give the city a low- cost credit, backed by the sales tax revenues, to finish the job in just 10 years. This accelerated construction could create 160,000 jobs in a metro where 765,000 people are currently unemployed. The federal government should also invest in a National Infrastructure Bank to improve Americas outdated transportation networks, and a National Green Bank to accelerate the delivery of a low carbon economy in the US. The federal government must also end the incentives that prompt excess consumption. If the US government caps the mortgage interest tax relief, which has financed the property sector that contributed to the onset of the recession, then it will save $177 billion over five years to spend on infrastructure improvements.
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So from all of this, what are the implications for Scotland and the UK? The UK economy resembles the economy of the United States in many ways. It elevated consumption over production and helped the recession along. But in the next economy Scotland has certain advantages already, as it has enormous possibilities in the field of a low-carbon economy. Devolution is also working in Scotlands favour in that it has extended power down from central government to metropolitan areas. This is evident in the central belt. The waterfront areas
are being regenerated and there is collaboration between Glasgow and Edinburgh, which is very promising. However, all this needs to be explicit national policy. Otherwise, Scotland and the UK will not be able to compete fully. Directly electing mayors is also a policy that deserves more consideration. They are crucial to the next economy as they bring together producing sectors for the benefit of everyone. Cities should be brought together. Their distinctiveness should be embraced, but their unique assets should be used for the advantage of all.
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Bella Bathurst 1 February 2011 Why Do We Need a Lighthouse? The Bell Rock and the Stevensons Now. Joint Event with the Northern Lighthouse Board Setting the scene, Bella Bathurst took the audience back to the challenge Robert Stevenson and his men faced in building a light on the dreaded Inchcape Rock, graveyard of so many ships and seamen. She brought vividly to life Stevensons success in recruiting and motivating a skilled team, and in devising practical solutions to unprecedented problems. The completed light was manned for 175 years, with the keepers living in the most spartan of accommodation, as vividly recalled by the last Principal Keeper. Ms Bathurst then discussed the changes in shipping since the Bell was built, and went on to look at the prospect of large-scale offshore wind farms. She pointed out that their designers and builders face the same challenges as the Stevensons, highlighting the high level of risk involved in building and maintaining offshore engineering structures. The challenge faced by modern engineers is to achieve durability and dependability for offshore generators comparable with that achieved by the lighthouse engineers. She continued by looking at the impact of global positioning systems (GPS) on navigation, concluding that over-reliance on the accuracy of such systems (which are vulnerable to accidental or deliberate distortion) carries significant risk. Traditional navigational skills continue to be important in coastal waters. In this context, lighthouses as a system of dependable, identifiable fixed points highlighting risk, Ms Bathurst concluded, are as important as ever. The reason why we need them is simply, shiningly obvious because theyre a light in the dark. Event as part of a conference organised by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in partnership with the Northern Lighthouse Board and supported by Inchcape Shipping Services: The Bell Rock Lighthouse, the Stevensons and Emerging Issues in Aids to Navigation Conference Proceedings available ISBN: 978 0 902198 41 8
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Professor Tim Lang 14 February 2011 Food Security and Sustainability: One Cant Make an Omelette Without Cracking Some Eggs The Royal Society of Edinburgh ECRR Peter Wilson Lecture The way we think about food as individuals and nations must change if there is to be enough to go round, now and in the future. Giving the eighth Peter Wilson Lecture, Professor Tim Lang argued that radical action is needed to ensure food sustainability and that we have to rethink our ideas on consumption as well as production. Professor Tim Lang described the situation succinctly as were in a mess, thats it. The question is how will we get out of it? Food security is a real issue for today as well as tomorrow, and policy makers, where they are actually engaging at all, are too timid. Professor Lang described where we are, talked a little about how we got here and looked in particular at recent and current policy initiatives. In a talk which was at times alarming for example, he said that Britain was just three days away from running out of food during the 2000 blockades by lorry drivers over fuel prices he nevertheless suggested some ways forward. We might end up relying on events (such as war) to
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create change, but there are other ways. What is clear, however, is that the status quo is not sustainable. In recent years there has been, what Professor Lang called, a flurry of overview reports from different bodies worldwide, including the 2011 UK Foresight report and the Chatham House report of 2008. Although they have differing emphases, the reports note similar trends and pressures. He put these under four broad headings: Environmental including biodiversity, climate change and water; Economic including price volatility and energy reliance; Sociocultural including aspirations for more, inequalities and globalisation; and Health including over- and under-malnutrition and healthcare costs. The reports have, he said, a common sense of urgency, but have several weaknesses, notably around labour and the power vested in retailers and traders, which rule food systems. They
generally assume Western models of consumption i.e., always wanting more and do not consider how to reconcile the requirements of health and ecology in a coherent way. The issues are complex, which is contributing to a policy mismatch: politicians want simple messages, so concentrate on prices and availability, and focus on the short-term when its a long-term vision that is required. There are also questions about whose problem it is. Is food security merely an issue for overseas, for those who do not have enough food, or is it a problem for Western nations, which are over-consuming the worlds resources and where demand is increasing? Professor Lang thinks its everyones problem and that the affluent West should be addressing its own role in world food security, as well as in individual countries. Prices of food have been coming down for many years, but are now rising. The increased costs arent necessarily going to producers but, rather, the profits are creamed off by retailers and traders. The UKs own resilience has come into question for example, during the fuel blockades mentioned above. Meanwhile, we have a growing obesity crisis, which is adding to pressure on health services, and there are environmental concerns too.
If we look at history, the emphasis has been on production finding better and cheaper ways to satisfy growing demand for food. This continues to this day, with technologies such as genetic modification (GM) and nanotechnology seeking ways to intensify supply in a sustainable way. But other issues and potential solutions are all but ignored, said Professor Lang. For example, little, if anything, is done to challenge the aspirations of consumers to encourage a shift of thinking from what we want to eat, to what we need to eat to survive. Policy making is weak and governments are timid and there is no overarching analysis of the action needed. Across the world, less-developed nations are already feeling food insecurity at the sharp end, with 102 billion people hungry in 2009. Meanwhile, older models such as the productionism advocated by Sir John Boyd Orr in the mid-20th Century no longer serve us well today. There are a number of questions which must be addressed, including whether we want food security for all, or just for us, and whether we should focus on production or on the entire supply chain including consumer behaviour. And should health be built into production or is it an add-on? All these issues have yet to be addressed in a meaningful way but its not even
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decided who is responsible for doing so. Should it be governments, individuals, companies, or all of these? Policy makers are reluctant to engage for different reasons. For example, some dont think its a problem, while others think that the market will solve it. Professor Lang described the UKs current food situation. We provide around 50 per cent of our own food, buying in the rest from a wide variety of countries worldwide. We grow just half of the vegetables we consume and a mere ten per cent of the fruit we eat. The UK supply chain model means that our food supply is, in general, stored in the lorries which transport it to the shops. This means that the supply is not vulnerable to a one-off attack on a depot, but could falter with, for example, a fuel crisis, or an attack on the motorway network. So what is the UK doing to tackle all the issues around food, including obesity? Not enough, said Professor Lang. Although there have been a number of enquiries and reports, including a 2008 Cabinet Office overview (Food Matters), little action has followed in Europe, the UK, or in its devolved nations. Some companies are taking action for example, the Marks & Spencer Plan A, which promotes sustainability but this action by firms often takes a product-specific
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approach, rather than looking at overall diet or, indeed, at consumer behaviours. Civil society, including charities, NGOs and local groups, is becoming engaged, with one-off initiatives such as the Fife Diet, which encourages people to eat locally. The policy environment in the UK changed with the results of the 2010 election, and the coalition governments focus is on cuts rather than on a coherent food strategy. Indeed, some armslength bodies which have food as a focus such as the Food Standards Agency face the axe. There are also uncertainties ahead around research, skills and education. In health, said Professor Lang, the emphasis is on working with, rather than against, business. But none of the current policy positions from the ignore it and hope it goes away to notions of leaving it to consumers or to companies meets the current need. According to Professor Lang, the way to achieve food security is to ensure food sustainability, and this requires action on a number of fronts. Big change is needed and it will take three to four decades; a new framework and principles must be drawn up and must have local and national buyin; a shift in mindsets is required. We have to move from thinking, for example, how to increase
production to meet our current diets, to looking at what our bodies actually need and how farms can meet that need. Rather than looking at how to lower prices, we should be thinking about how to reflect costs. And we should be building production on ecological principles, and redefining what we mean by efficiency. We have to change what and how we eat, in response to health,
environmental and sustainability concerns for example, eating seasonably, eating less meat and eating more locally produced food. So yes, were in a mess and the issues are complex, but there is a way ahead, concluded Professor Lang. We can either take action now to bring about food sustainability or await events which bring matters to a head and force change.
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Professor Jan McDonald 18 February 2011 On Our Humble Dumfries Boards the Plays, the Performers and some of the Politics in the First Ten Years of the Dumfries Theatre Part of the RSE@ Dunfries and Galloway Programme At the dawn of the eighteenth Century there were no dedicated theatre buildings in Scotland; one hundred years later, there were two in Edinburgh, and no fewer than eight in towns throughout the country: Aberdeen, Arbroath, Ayr, Dundee, Glasgow, Greenock, Paisley and Dumfries. Built by public subscription, the New Theatre in Dumfries opened in 1792. Described as the handsomest provincial theatre in Scotland, it was frequented by the local gentry, even a few of the clergy, and a fair proportion of radicals. Its most famous patron was, of course, Robert Burns, who regularly wrote prologues for the performers to deliver on special occasions, and whipped up local support for the players. Against the turbulent background of religious and legal controversies that accompanied the rise of professional theatre in Scotland in the eighteenth Century, this talk explored the repertoire and the actors of the early years of the Dumfries Theatre, and addressed the vexed question that is still contentious today How Scottish was/is Scottish Theatre?
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Introduction The opening of the theatre in Dumfries in 1792 was preceded by an announcement in the Dumfries Weekly Journal: Mr Williamson, who has the honour of conducting the Theatrical Amusements of this city for the ensuing season, most respectfully begs leave to announce to the Public, that the extensive preparations for opening a new and elegant Theatre are nearly completed, and that the season will commence in the course of the present week. The theatre, described as the handsomest provincial theatre in Scotland was built on the model of the Theatre Royal Bristol and the Theatre Royal Edinburgh. The auditorium held 500600 in total, with seating distributed between the pit, the boxes and an upper gallery. The cost was around 800, mainly funded by a group of 30 subscribers, not necessarily motivated by the love of theatrical entertainment, but by an early recognition of the commercial benefit that high standard entertainment could bring by attracting lucrative and socially
prestigious events, such as the Caledonian Hunt, to the district. The new manager pledged to spare neither expence nor unremitting attention to invite merit of every description, and to procure the best performers, and performances, for the gratification [of the Dumfries patrons]. Theatrical Context The development of theatre in Dumfries must be considered in the context of the general expansion of the theatrical activity across Scotland in the mideighteenth Century. Owing to an enduring Calvinistic anti-theatrical prejudice among the influential clergy, together with the departure of the Scottish Court (and later the Legislature) to London, Scotland was largely denuded of that social class which had provided the principal patrons of theatre. In considering how the theatre came to Edinburgh and, therefore, to Scotland, Professor McDonald identified the contribution of the poet Allan Ramsay whose drama, The Gentle Shepherd (1731) was one of only two reputable dramas to be written in Scotland in the entire century. Ramsay went on to open the first dedicated theatre space in Scotland in Carrubers Close in the Canongate in Edinburgh in 1736, though the venture lasted only one year, as it was not granted a royal patent or
licence as required under new legislation from the London Parliament. The success of Douglas, written by John Home, a clergyman, presented as part of a musical entertainment at the Canongate Concert Hall, as it was now called, in 1737, (a production which elicited the celebrated comment, Whaurs yer Wullie Shakespeare noo?), was instrumental in establishing a licensed theatre in Edinburgh. The Canongate was licensed in 1746 and, in 1769, a new theatre was built, in keeping with the dignity of the New Town, opposite Register House. Once Edinburgh had an established theatre that could offer a base to actors from London, other towns in Scotland followed very rapidly, and by the end of the century there were two theatres in Edinburgh, and one in each of Aberdeen, Arbroath, Ayr, Dundee, Glasgow, Greenock, Paisley and Dumfries. Prior to the establishment of dedicated theatre buildings, these towns had all played host to actors from the Edinburgh companies who toured throughout Scotland in their closed season, performing on makeshift stages in a variety of public buildings. In Dumfries, the Old Assembly Rooms in the George Hotel hosted the company whose popularity with the gentry led to the building of the New Theatre in 1792, and whose members played
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a significant part in the early years of theatrical activity in the borough. This Old Assembly Rooms company, almost all of whom came from the Edinburgh Theatre Royal, was led by the highly regarded George Sutherland, who had played Norval opposite the great Mrs Siddons in Homes Douglas in Edinburgh in 1784. Robert Burns wrote of the actors, their merit and character are indeed very great, both on the stage and in private life; not a worthless creature among them, praising Sutherland in particular a worthier or cleverer fellow I have rarely met with. Burns went on to write a Prologue to be delivered by the actor on New Years Day, 1790, that acknowledged (and regretted) the Edinburgh influence on theatre in Dumfries. This influence was evident in both repertoire and casting, and since Edinburgh in turn was influenced by London, the early years of theatre in Dumfries and in other Scottish towns could hardly be called indigenous. Some contemporary commentators, such as J C Dibdin, believed that this metropolitan domination was dangerously stultifying: No theatre in the kingdom, except those in London, produce the smallest novelty. If therefore [poor] performances obtain at the two [London] theatres, they go through the whole nation, and
extend to Ireland, and Scotland, and therefore are sure, the source being contaminated, to poison the general taste. The New Theatre The Dumfries Theatre mounted plays for a limited season, typically from late September through to the early New Year, coinciding with the presence of the Caledonian and Dumfries and Galloway Hunts, the Assizes and the Rood Fair in the region. The Edinburgh Theatre Royals seasons ran between January and July, and therefore groups of actors were free to tour the provincial theatres in the Autumn. Playing days were typically Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with programmes beginning on Wednesdays and being changed weekly. The Theatre opened at 6pm, performances would start at 7pm and often last until after 11pm. Prices ranged between 3s for the boxes, 2s for the pit, and 1s for the gallery, with tickets purchased at the Office of the Theatre (box office), coffee shops, booksellers, pubs and certain retail outlets. There were several different types of performance in addition to the regular programme. First, in catering for those bringing commercial benefits to the area, there were request performances by particular sections of the community, such as plays presented by particular desire of the
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Gentlemen of the Caledonian and Dumfries and Galloway Hunt, or by particular desire of regiments quartered in Dumfries. Secondly, there were performances for charity, for example for the industrious poor, sponsored by the local magistrates and, thirdly, performances for the benefit of the actors. These benefits were contractual agreements between the actor and the manager on hiring, that the actors wages would be supplemented by one or more benefits in a season, whereby the actor received a proportion of the takings for a particular performance. Benefits at the Dumfries Theatre generally occurred quite late in the season, often in December. In 1793, the theatre was kept open into January to allow actors to complete the series of benefits. It was important to harness local support for such performances, and Robert Burns was active in soliciting the patronage of his friends, as well as writing occasional addresses for two of Miss Fontenelles benefits, notably the celebrated Rights of Women. The Actors and the Repertoire Most of the actors in the early days were English or occasionally Irish, and had appeared (and indeed continued to appear) at the Theatre Royal Edinburgh and the other newly-built theatres throughout Scotland, with some
enjoying the prestige of having played in London theatres such as Covent Garden, Drury Lane and the Haymarket. Scottish actors, such as Henry Erskine Johnstone, Harriet Murray Siddons and William Murray, were to emerge in the next generation. Actors often came as family groups, children joining with their parents at a very young age, for example, George Sutherland trod the Dumfries boards along with both Mrs and Miss Sutherland. These family packages left little scope for newcomers from outside the profession. To illustrate the features of a typical evenings entertainment, Professor McDonald made reference to a contemporary playbill for a Benefit for Mr Wilson on 12 December 1792. Wilson is recorded as being somewhat unreliable and frequently in debt, owing, as one chronicler put it, to too great an indulgence in the follies of the Town. Nevertheless he was a well-loved old actor, as demonstrated by the apparent willingness of other leading cast members and the theatre manager, Mr Williamson, to be involved. The programme comprised the main item, The Merry Wives of Windsor, in which Wilson played Falstaff; an epilogue to the play Riding on an Ass; a comic monologue recited by Wilson; Scots songs with Mrs Warrell; and then Wilson returned yet again as
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Bayes, the leading role in an adaptation of Buckinghams The Rehearsal, concluding with a spectacular battle scene. The variety could be likened more to an evening of television viewing today, rather than to an evening at the contemporary theatre. The playbill illustrated the typical format of an evenings entertainment, namely a main-piece, often a play by Shakespeare (Hamlet, Macbeth & Richard III were particularly popular), or eighteenth-Century successes, for example, Sheridans School for Scandal, The Duenna, and Pizarro, John Gays The Beggars Opera, Oliver Goldsmiths She Stoops to Conquer and Nicholas Rowes tragedy Jane Shore. There were also dramas made famous by Mrs Siddons, including domestic sentimental pieces such as The Gamester by Edward Moore and The Stranger by Kotzebue and, of course, Homes Douglas. Next would come an interlude, perhaps a short musical comic piece such as Hooly and Fairly with words by Burns then a song or songs, including Scottish songs, for example Burnss The Banks of the Nith, or sea songs and popular hits of the day, followed by a monologue (Burnss Rights of Women falls into this category, as does Mr Guions Lecture on the Stage, and then a dance, such as the dance of the witches in Macbeth, a high (ie high kicking)
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dance by Mrs Sutherland, or The Dwarf Dance: a transformation. There would follow a second play, perhaps a musical farce, a comic opera or an early melodrama. Next came a pantomime: Harlequins Flight to the Moon(1793), Medea And Jason(1794), Raymond and Agnes or The Bleeding Nun (1801). Spectacle in many guises was especially popular. Military spectacle, at the time when the Revolutionary Wars and later the Napoleon Wars with France were raging, attracted the crowds. The Siege of Valenciennes and a recreation of of Nelsons victory at Copenhagen stirred patriotic fervour. The short-lived peace in 1801 was celebrated with a fireworks display. Acrobatic feats proliferated in pantomime, with great leaps across the auditorium from the gallery to the back of the stage. There was rope dancing and trapeze work, and speciality acts such as imitations of birdsong, or Cartwrights Musical Glasses received with approbation in courts all over Europe. With such a quantity of material for each show, the actors were worked very hard. For example, in the 1792/93 season, in three and a half months (October to midJanuary), performances included 13 main plays, 16 farces/musicals/ comic operas, eight interludes,
innumerable songs, and speciality numbers. The same playbill also provided the opportunity to describe some of the leading performers who played at Dumfries. These included James Brown Williamson, who had moderate success in both London and Edinburgh, and became acting manager for the latter company. Another was Louisa Fontenelle, who began as a young actress at Covent Garden. Her sprightly air and mirthful glee were much praised as she went to complete summer seasons at the Haymarket whilst wintering in Edinburgh and Dumfries. In particular, she caught the eye of Burns, who wrote in December 1795: To you, Madam, on our humble Dumfries boards, I have been more indebted for entertainment than ever I was in prouder theatres. Your charms as a woman would insure applause to the most indifferent actress, and your theatrical talents would insure admiration to the plainest figure. Together with Williamson, now her husband, Fontenelle went to the United States, where she was a great favourite both in Boston and in Charleston before she died of yellow fever at the age of 29. The Kemble Management The early years of the New Theatre were dominated by managers, Sutherland and
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Williamson. Towards the end of the eighteenth Century and the start of the nineteenth, there were two other major players in the fortunes of Dumfries theatre to whom Professor McDonald paid tribute. They were Stephen Kemble and his wife Elizabeth Satchell. Kemble belonged to the leading theatrical family of the age, although as an actor he could in no way match up to his brilliant siblings, his sister, Sarah Siddons, regarded as one of the greatest actresses of all time, and his brother, John Philip Kemble. He did, however, became a pioneering theatre manager, and opened up the Provinces to touring. In this venture he had the advantage of being able to call on his brilliant family to appear in his theatres outwith London. Indeed, Sarah Siddons was the first London actor of repute to break through the prejudice which regarded summer strolling, or starring in the provincial theatres, as a degradation. Stephen Kemble began his management of the Theatre Royal Newcastle in 1791 and branched out from there to manage other theatres in the north of England and in Scotland, including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Dumfries. There was no significant change in the content of the playbills, but the programme was enhanced through the engagement of star performers, notably Elizabeth
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Satchell/Kemble, who had received favourable reviews for her portrayal of Yarico in the comic opera Inkle and Yarico, staged in major London venues, including the Haymarket. Similar critical acclaim was also recorded in the Dumfries Weekly Journal: Her excellent performance of that character has justly been the subject of high panegyric, We can only join our tribute to her established reputation by observing, that her delineations were striking, natural and affectingand commanded the attention of and applause of an elegant audience. Whilst Elizabeth Kemble was probably the most distinguished performer to appear on the Dumfries stage in the eighteenth Century, the pattern of engaging London stars was to continue in later years: Dumfries audiences saw the young Edmund Kean, William Charles Macready, Samuel Phelps, G V Brooke and others. At the same time, in his management role, Stephen Kemble was to promote more popular fare for a more popular audience. This often meant more melodrama, more spectacle, more music and more exotic animals; but few new plays of any literary merit. A Scottish Theatre? Like other Scottish theatres at this time, Dumfries was managed by Englishmen, the actors were in the main culled from the London
theatre, and the repertoire, apart from a few songs and monologues, was largely that of any English provincial company. Amongst the limited Scottish content were the dramas of Archibald MacLaren, a soldier, actor and dramatist. He wrote a large number of plays, often on Scottish or American or Irish subjects. The plays featured dialectical humour and Irish, American or Scottish settings, but his work largely followed English dramatic conventions. Many of his dramas were premiered in theatres in Scotland, and many of them were performed by the Edinburgh Theatre Royal company in their tours to Scottish towns; for example, The Highland Drover was played in Inverness, Aberdeen, Perth, Dundee and Greenock. Indeed, some were directly related to, or adapted for, the town in which they first appeared, such as The Humours of Greenock Fair and The Siege of Perth. The second playbill discussed by Professor McDonald was from 26 December 1792, when the New Theatre Dumfries mounted a Benefit for MacLaren, who had been a member of the company since its inception some three months before. Appropriately he chose two of his own works, The American Slaves or Love and Liberty: a Comic Opera and The
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Siege of Perth, or Sir William Wallace, the Scots Champion. Notwithstanding these examples, Burns for one lamented the fact that there were so few Scottish plays, which he expressed in a prologue written for Sutherland: What needs this din about the town o Lonon, How this new play an that new sang is comin? Why is outlandish stuff sae meikle courted? Does nonsense mend like whiskey, when imported? Is there nae poet, burning keen for fame, Will try to gie us songs and plays at hame? The poet who was in a sense to rise to this challenge was Sir Walter Scott, the plethora of stage
adaptations of his novels forming the basis of the so-called National Drama at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh in the nineteenth Century, but it was not until the early twentieth Century that a truly indigenous Scottish drama was born, and not until the second half of the twentieth Century that it grew to be accorded the international reputation that it now enjoys. The Next Phase The Theatre in Dumfries was granted a Royal Patent in 1810. In 1876 the auditorium was altered to accommodate 1000 spectators. It subsequently became a cinema, but in the mid twentieth Century was acquired by the Dumfries Guild of Players, which continues to mount productions in this historic venue.
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Professor Jos Torero-Cullen FREng, FRSE 14 March 2011 The Twin Towers: Ten years Ten Lessons on Sustainable Infrastructure Royal Academy of Engineering / Royal Society of Edinburgh Lecture The history of technological evolution is filled with failures and the lessons learnt from them. Many will even claim that design by disaster is one of the most effective methods for progress. The World Trade Center (WTC) is no exception. The collapse of the World Trade Center buildings had the potential to question the mere nature of tall buildings and mark tall building design in ways that we could have never anticipated. Nevertheless, tall building design in the last decade was not driven by September 11th 2001, but by a strong impetus towards sustainability and a thriving real estate market. The result has been an unprecedented growth in the number of tall buildings and unprecedented innovation driven by sustainability. The World Trade Center failures have not driven the evolution of tall buildings; nevertheless, a series of more subtle, but no less important lessons have emerged. Lesson 1: Sustainability is a managed life cycle where proactive decisions are made to reduce consumption and negative impact from the inception of a project to the disposal of the infrastructure. In those terms the World Trade Center collapses do not reflect the definition of sustainability. When addressing fire, the design of tall buildings needs to embrace these principles. Lesson 2: Fire safety is a social responsibility that guarantees the citizen a safe environment, thus it is an integral part of sustainable building design. This social responsibility has been historically translated into codes and standards that establish prescriptive requirements for buildings. These prescriptive requirements, if followed carefully, provide the minimum level of safety required by society. The nature of codes and standards is responsive, thus their development is not a driver for construction technology but a reaction to the introduction of novel ideas. Because of this, there have been periods in which codes and standards had enough embedded knowledge that they could respond to all variants of construction innovation. In these periods, infrastructure can be comprehensively classified into
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some group that is fully addressed by a specific set of rules. Few exceptions appear outside the codes and standards and require individualised solutions. In periods of great urban or technological development, codes and standards cannot cope with the evolution imposed by the drivers of the construction industry. In these periods, codes and standards fall behind, standard solutions only concern few buildings and, in most cases, individualised solutions are necessary. Explicit definitions of safety produced using engineering tools need to complement codes and standards to provide individualised solutions. The WTC epitomised innovation, and most technical solutions were evaluated using the most sophisticated engineering tools of the time. Fire safety was established in a purely prescriptive manner. The last decade has been a period of great innovation for tall buildings, thus fire safety cannot be based on a purely prescriptive analysis. Lesson 3: Sustainability requires building in the infrastructures life cycle through an optimised design process. The WTC did not optimise fire safety within the structural design process, thus it was not optimised correctly. The failure to understand the structural behaviour in fire resulted in disproportionate and unpredictable consequences. Tall buildings
are by nature optimised structures, thus their design needs to incorporate fire safety as an integral design component. Lesson 4: Sustainability requires optimised utilisation of tools and resources. Problems need to be understood and resolved by means of the most adequate methodologies. The WTC demonstrated that, for tall buildings, egress and structural performance are the pillars on which fire safety stands. But for tall buildings, egress is of a similar time scale to the deterioration of the structure by the fire. Thus, both components of the fire safety strategy are coupled. Egress times can be reduced but, for tall buildings, they can never be made much shorter than structural failure times. Thus improvements in egress can be legislated through code requirements. In contrast, innovative structures need a proper engineering analysis, because they do not conform to standard practices but mainly because their integrity is the guarantee for safe egress. In the absence of an adequate structural design, enhanced egress capabilities cannot be used as compensation. The safety of tall buildings requires an explicit structural analysis conducted using state-of-the-art engineering tools.
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Lesson 5: Sustainability is about shared responsibility. The WTC showed that the responsibility for integrating structural integrity to the fire safety strategy was undefined. While in a prescriptive environment the architect is responsible for the definition of thermal protection to the structure, nobody is responsible for the assurance that the structure will perform adequately. The implicit assumption that thermal protection is sufficient to guarantee safety was proven inadequate. For tall buildings, the structural engineer needs to assume responsibility for the adequate performance of the structure in a fire. Lesson 6: Innovation introduces complexity, thus the drive for sustainable tall buildings is introducing fundamental changes in structural design, material selection and potential fire conditions. The WTC demonstrated that to establish an adequate fire safety strategy, there was a need for professionals of great knowledge in all fields involved. Questions of competence emerged when the analysis of recognised professionals was put into question. What does a structural engineer need to know to be able to design a tall building that will be safe in a fire? What does a fire safety engineer need to know to be able to design a proper fire safety strategy for tall
buildings? Sustainable tall buildings require the involvement of professionals competent in the design of a comprehensive fire safety strategy. Lesson 7: Throughout the WTC investigation, it became very clear that the framework educating professionals involved in the design of innovative buildings leaves a gap of knowledge when it comes to the assessment of safety. It is designed to operate within a prescriptive environment and does not incorporate the knowledge base necessary for engineering-based safety. If we are to continue to strive for sustainable infrastructure and the associated innovation, then we need to support the development of an educational framework that will enable our professionals to deliver safe infrastructure. The current framework is not sustainable. Lesson 8: The WTC showed that we lack an adequate definition of competence. Our current definition of competence not only leaves enormous knowledge gaps, but also is structured around incorrect objectives. The development of sustainable tall buildings needs a definition of who is competent to deliver the engineered fire safety strategy.
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Lesson 9: Extracting from a failure all the knowledge that will enable professionals not to make the same mistakes requires a minimum level of prior understanding. The most successful investigations are those conducted in an atmosphere where all those involved have sufficient knowledge to make the most of the investigation and to transfer that new knowledge into the design process. In the past, fire investigations have been conducted in such an atmosphere. The unprecedented magnitude and novelty of the WTC failure caught the fire safety and structural communities unprepared for the investigation. Thus, over the last decade, these professional communities have produced the science to unveil many of the
phenomena, but not to transform that knowledge into design methodologies and tools. The gaps of knowledge are now evident; thus the future of tall building design depends on our capability to continue filling these knowledge gaps at a pace faster than our capability to innovate. Lesson 10: The WTC showed that if we want sustainable tall buildings, we need to develop the knowledge base and the technological tools that can adequately assess the performance of a fire safety strategy. We need to incorporate this knowledge, not by legislating new rules, but through adequate professionals structured within a relevant definition of competence. We need to legislate competence, not standardised solutions.
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Professor Ted Cowan 31 March 2011 Galloway Waterways Part of the RSE@ Dunfries and Galloway Programme
Professor Cowan discussed the role of water in the history of the southwest and the importance of the Solway in the history of Dumfries and Galloway from prehistory to the present as a link with the outer world and the means of emigration over the centuries. Waterways conferred identity on the inhabitants of the various dales and glens, paradoxically bringing people together but also serving as territorial boundaries; they served as communication routes as well as barriers to travel in a world without bridges. From the logboats of prehistory to modern Hydro schemes, water has shaped the lives of all who inhabited this ancient landscape. Professor Cowan set the scene for his talk by reciting two quotes relating to water, one universal in nature, composed by Francis Bacon, and the other, by an anonymous author, which focuses on the Galloway region. The knowledge of man is the waters, some descending from above, and some springing from beneath; the one informed by the
light of nature, the other inspired by divine revelation. Oh, tak ne back to Galloway, where the caller air like wine, Sweeps down frae bare Craignelder, or the steeps o dark Corserine, Where Deuch and Ken wi mony a turn, by hill, and bog, and scree, Come wimplin frae their mossy hames to join the silver Dee. The term waterways can refer to the physical presence of sea, rivers, lochs and canals and also the cultural ways of water, for example, how waterways impact upon the population which they support and how the folk respond to them. Water is the essential element in our existence. In Dumfries and Galloway water is a plentiful commodity, yet occasionally we are reminded of how dependent we are upon it when we experience drought or frozen pipes. Professor Cowan described the fragility of water, ascertaining that future wars will be fought over it. Range wars over access to water in western movies simply symbolise wars between Nature and Business that have gone on in places such as California for a
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century and a half. Canadians are paranoid that their neighbours will siphon off the Great Lakes if both countries do not destroy them with industrial effluent first. In Dubai a litre of petrol is cheaper than a litre of water, here the benchmark is a can of lager in Tesco. World waterways support vast life systems, some of them as yet barely known, yet humanity competes for these resources in supporting ecology, tourism, recreation, energy production, industry, irrigation and domestic water supply. What happens or has happened in south west Scotland is simply a microcosm of what goes on worldwide. Dumfries and Galloway has numerous physical waterways, the most evident of which is the Solway Firth. Professor Cowan described The Solway as a supreme waterway.quiet and peaceful but somehow menacing. Writing in The Gallovidian in 1938, E M Balfour-Browne describes the Solway bore, There was a murmuring sound in the air. It grew, it became a rushing noise, drawing nearer, swelling to a dull roar. Up the quiet river stormed another river- voiceful, clamorous, persistent, tossing, leaping, wave buffeting, wave-rolling over, swallowing up the first smooth stream. On dashed the tumbling swell, the channel behind brimming, heaving, slowly growing
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calmer. The roar grew fainter the wave had passed far along the river. The tide was up. The Solway has long been considered a crucial component of the frontier between Scotland and England. However, historically, Professor Cowan suggested, it is more appropriate to think of The Solway in terms of linking places together rather than separating them and, in reality, lessening Galloways isolation. He noted that Galloway seems to have become dazzled by such designations as a land apart, the forgotten province or the unknown region. But realistically, The Solway could be seen as the highway to the world, bringing the first of our ancestors to Scotland and other major lifechanging developments, including Christianity through St Ninians arrival in Whithorn. The Solway linked Galloway with neighbours in Ireland, the Isle of Man, Wales, the Hebrides and north-west England. In medieval times it also enabled voyages to France, the Low Countries, the Baltic and the Mediterranean. Many famous seamen were inspired by the Galloway waterways. These included Robert Gordon of Lochinvar, who in 1622 was the inspiration behind Scotlands first colonial expedition to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, renamed by him New Galloway. Professor Cowan described how
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boys, including the future founder of the American Navy, John Paul Jones, who hailed from Kirkbean in Galloway, would have spent their childhoods scanning the southern horizon of the Solway shore. For Jones and many others Whitehaven, across the Firth in Cumbria, was a kind of capital city of Galloway with its bustling port and lively maritime tradeLater the Solway carried off thousands of emigrants, like Jones, from these shores. Sometimes when lecturing in Washington or Georgetown I like to fancy that some of the water in the Potomac is the end of a current which extends across the Atlantic to curl round by Carsethorn into the Nith Estuary. However, not all commentators were impressed by the majestic Solway, Lord Cockburn writing in The Gallovidian in 1939 states [the Solway] is the stupidest of all our firths. Few rocks, no islands and especially no edging of picturesque mountains. He also complained quixotically that Southwick is too far from the sea, at least for a place so near it! There were three fords across the Solway and, because, of the treacherous tides, boats were always kept at these fords. According to the 16th Century English historian Camden, the Solway shore nurtured a warlike kind of men who were infamous for robberies and depredations.
His contemporary, John Leslie in his History of Scotland wrote that these brigands go forth in the night through desert byways and winding crankies, crooked turnings and steep downfalls in the thickest mists and deepest darkness. However, many were lost crossing the fords. Alexander II of Scotland reputedly lost over 1000 men while crossing in the 13th Century Professor Cowan described the Clochmabenstane, a massive granite boulder of about 10 feet high and 18 feet in girth, as the Solways greatest monument. Originally part of an ellipse including other smaller stones, it is situated near the confluence of the rivers Kirtle and Esk. Many such monuments are associated with water, particularly the meeting point of fresh water and salt water and the site must have been reached from the sea. It is tempting to think of the people round here when it was built as somewhat like Marsh Arabs, living off fish and birds. When the stone tumbled some years ago archaeologists were able to determine that carbon fragments in its socket were dated to 3,200 BC. It may be the Locus Maponi of the 7th Ccentury Ravenna Cosmography, a cultic centre devoted to the worship of Mapon or mabon, the Celtic god whom the Romans identified with Apollo. Mabon was the divine youth
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who is associated with music and poetry. He also has connections with Arthurian tales but sadly, little is actually known about his cult. The site of the Clochmabenstane remained of great importance throughout the medieval period. The Rivers of Dumfries and Galloway run like arteries and veins throughout the land. Professor Cowan showed the audience a map marked with the regions rivers which demonstrated their abundance and scope. With the exception of Pilanton Burn, all of these rivers are southrunning and thus symbolic of good luck and the triumph over evil in Scottish folklore. Many of the regions rivers have been celebrated in poetry, not all of it particularly good and much of it, as noted by Professor Cowan, written by old guys talking to rivers! Professor Cowan illustrated some of the facts about Galloways rivers using excerpts of appropriate poetry. Water of Fleet is one of the shortest Galloway rivers yet it enjoys the somewhat pretentious nomenclature of Big Water of Fleet; My native stream, my native vale, With reverence and with love I hail. Oer me have flown twice thirty years, Bedimmd with griefs and charged
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with tears, Since first I roved through Anwoth woods, Or steered my bark on Solways floods, Or wont my youthful limbs to lave In winding Fleets pellucid wave; From Cardoness tower the owlets screech Mixed with the sea-mews on the beachWild, shrill, and loud the gray curlew On sands of Fleet his whistle blew (Dugald Stewart Williamson from Rivers of Galloway, Bards of Galloway 62) The River Dee or The Black Dee as it was known flows 38 miles to the Solway. At one time it was navigable to Tongland. Lord Cockburn writing in the Gallovidian 1939 relates an encounter with a shepherd who was much offended at the slight put upon his river by my asking him if it was the Tarf. Tarf? Tarf! deil a drap o Tarf int. Thats the Black Water o Dee! The ancientest water in Scotland Dark rolling Dee, with they heath covered mountains, Thy wild rugged rocks by yon black birken glen, That claimst thy supplies from the cold mossy fountains, And minglest thy treasures with low-spreading Ken (Bards of Galloway 204)
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The River Nith, flowing for 71 miles to The Solway, is without doubt the major riverway in south-west Scotland. Professor Cowan quoted one commentator who displayed his anti-Ayrshire bias. Till it gets away from Ayrshire, the Nith is one of the most cheerless of streams, sluggish and shallow.deeply tinctured with moss, and rarely graced with plantation, greensward, or even a bold bank, to relieve the dreary monotony of its moorland landscape. Below Sanquhar, however, the river banks were exquisitely rich in many varieties of landscape, now exhibiting a narrow acclivitous pass, diversified with wood, escarpment, and rock, now bursting into an expanse of valley, blooming as a garden, and screened with warm-coloured and finely outlined mountain heights, and now presenting such rapid alterations of slope, undulation, haugh and hill, as charm and surprise the eye, by the mingled wealth and number of transitions. Before reciting the following poem celebrating the Nith, Professor Cowan remarked that it is quite difficult to think of rhymes for Nith but the poet, William Cleland, did not shirk the task, while incidentally demonstrating that not all Covenanters were kill-joys.
Theres as much virtue, sense and pith In Annan or the Water of Nith, That quietly slips by Dumfries, As any water in all Greece. For there and several other places, About mill-dams and green braefaces, Elrich elves and Brownies stayed, And green-gowned fairies danced and played, When old John Knox and other some Began to plot the Hags of Rome, They suddenly took to their heels, And did no more frequent these fields. Professor Cowan described the River Annan; A close rival of the Nith historically and scenically is the silver Annan, surely the most apostrophised of local rivers, which rises on the slopes of Hartfell to nurture Annandale on its way to Annan Waterfoot. As the old rhyme has it; Annan, Tweed and Clyde A ran oot o ae hillside, Though few are so familiar with the rest of it: Tweed ran but Annan wan Clyde burst his side ower Corra Linn Thus highlighting that, of the three, the Annan had the shortest drop to the sea. The furthest east of the Galloway rivers is the Esk, whose dale is rife with tales of reivers and thieves and whose debateable lands led
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to the persecution of its inhabitants. Within the Dumfries and Galloway region there is a distinct difference between the quantity of Lochs in the east and west of the region - being curiously scarce in Dumfriesshire with the exception of the seven around Lochmaben, and Loch Ettrick east of Thornhill, but fairly numerous in Galloway. Indeed, Professor Cowan states, there was an attempt in the nineteenth century to create a Scottish Lochs District to compete with Wordsworth country. Upon asking the audience, Of Galloway lochs how many of the better known could you place on a map?, it was apparent that this early attempt at tourism promotion was not successful. Carlingwark Loch at Castle Douglas is of great interest for its crannogs, artificial islands found on lochs over many parts of Scotland. There is some debate as to whether these were used for defence or agricultural purposes. Additionally, Carlingwark has yielded impressive examples of log boats. Galloway has only one sea loch in the entire region, Loch Ryan, near Stranraer is the largest, deepest safewater harbour on the approaches to the Clyde and over the centuries was often full of ships seeking refuge from storms. Professor Cowan noted that one sad poet from the Clayhole appears at first sight to be
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attempting to express his love for a particularly difficult and crabbit mistress On thy face, when the blustring tempest king In his wrath thy bosom scourges, I love to gaze, and to mark the race Of thy vexed and foaming surges; But it turns out his homily is to Loch Ryan. And fair art thou on summer days, With white sails thickly gleaming; But sweeter now, with thy sleeping brow, In the placid moonshine dreaming Other Galloway Waterways include many holy wells found throughout the region. Professor Cowan described how certain wells believed to have curative qualities have been visited since time immemorial, many Christianised by the medieval church. The Protestants attempted to outlaw such practices as pagan superstition to little avail. The rise of reason aided their campaign but then the world of science began to recognise the medical value of certain spas. A good example was the Dow or Black Loch at Penpont, condemned by the minister in 1695 but soon reinstated due to the discovery of iron-bearing qualities. Many charmers or folk healers incorporated water in their charms. Professor Cowan also discussed other aspects of water important
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to the Galloway region. These included flooding, which although a temporary concern, has a major impact on the fertility of the agricultural land; artificial waterways, including the first Galloway canal constructed in 1765 and used to ship natural fertiliser to communities on the Dee and the Ken; and salt making, the finest of which was produced on the salt marshes at Ruthwell. Fishing has always been a major cultural activity in regions with an abundance of water. However, Professor Cowan stated that several commentators deplored the lack of sea fishing in the Solway. William Cobbett became almost apoplectic when he encountered coastal dwellers in the region who were close to starvation yet who never attempted to harvest the sea. The apparent absence of skill may be down to the reliance upon salmon caught in stake nets in estuaries, or otherwise trapped in fresh water. Almost everyone who mentions rivers mentions salmon, for example, in 1884 salmon were said to be few and far between on the Fleet and the Luce boasted the best salmon and sea-trout in Wigtownshire but the fishing was reportedly not so grand as formerly. By the 1880s, rod fishing for salmon had become big business. Every landowner who had the option exploited the salmon resources on his river.
Local servants contracts specified that they were to be fed salmon no more than three times a week. Nobody is sure just how old the practice of haaf net fishing in the estuaries of the Solway is but the word haaf is Norse or Danish. This tradition is dying out in the region. The exploitation of water power has a very long history and as Professor Cowan explained, we have been living with a hydro economy for a very long time. The greatest water scheme to have an impact on Galloway was the Hydro-Electric Scheme built between 1931 and 1935 at a cost of 3 million. Whilst it was a wonder of its day, Professor Cowan deplored the lack of information about the social history of the project. In a time of serious unemployment, the development of the scheme brought about 2,000 men a year to the region for about five years. This scheme might have been built earlier had the promoters been able to find a market for the electricity, which was not possible until the creation of the National Grid. People at the time were said to be amazed by the engineers almost God-like control of the waters. However, as with the development of wind farms today, the hydro scheme and associated dams met with some opponents. They lamented the loss of beauty spots and historic places as well as
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the erection of pylons. A local opponent, Ms McBurnie, proclaimed let us pray for a miracleand in the meantime let us do all in our power to help those already working in the cause of beauty. Let us keep some ideals, at least, from the welter of modern materialism and ugliness that is making itself so evident in the literature, the cities, the general atmosphere of today. However, this was largely greeted by the wider community with apathy. Professor Cowan stated The Galloway Water Power Scheme had been conceived and launched and had gone through Parliament almost before the
greater proportion of the people of Galloway had heard about it. Professor Cowan concluded his talk stating, Rivers fascinate in part because they are metaphors for Life. All have humble beginnings up in the hills, some are short, some are long, some are turbulent, some calm, most a blend of both. As they flow irresistibly onwards they are joined by other burns and streams; they exceed themselves in floods and are reduced by drought. They are essentially symbolic, above all, of the life force.
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Early Watchers of the Skies Makdougall Brisbane and Other Great Scottish Astronomers Professor John Brown FRSE 11 April 2011 The Makdougall Brisbane Lecture Originally scheduled for December 2010, but postponed due to bad weather, this lecture was organised to mark the 150th anniversary of the death of Major General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane (17731860), a founding father of Scottish astronomy. Professor Brown discussed the achievements not only of Brisbane, but also of other key figures in Scottish astronomy, especially Glasgows Alexander Wilson. In addition he outlined how astronomy has emerged over the subsequent centuries to become a highly sophisticated area of science which tells us a great deal about the nature of the universe. The years 2010 and 2011 mark a number of other significant astronomical anniversaries, which were highlighted by Professor Brown. These include: 1610 the first telescopic observation of sunspots by Galileo; 1935 the foundation of the Mills Observatory in Dundee (Britains only full-time public observatory); 1811 the installation of the prototype mural circle at Largs, for accurately measuring the positions of celestial objects. Brisbane was a soldier, colonial governor and RSE President, and performed many humanitarian works. Following service in the Peninsular War under Wellington, he was appointed Governor of New South Wales. The city of Brisbane, in neighbouring Queensland, stands at the mouth of the river Brisbane discovered under Brisbanes auspices and named after him. Wilson was a Glasgow University Professor who, in 1760, was appointed to Scotlands first ever Chair of Astronomy. He was an instrument maker, type maker and meteorologist, and a Founding Fellow of the RSE. Professor Brown distinguished between astronomy, which mainly addresses the precise positions and distances of objects in space, and astrophysics, which seeks to understand their physical nature. Both face immense challenges as branches of science which have to be carried out by remote observation, as the objects they study are so far away. Brisbane, and Thomas Henderson, a lawyer, cartoonist,
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mathematician and the first Astronomer Royal for Scotland, made immense strides in the measurement of stellar positions, and hence distances by parallax. This was vital, according to Professor Brown, because the apparent brightness or size of celestial objects is only a guide to their true brightness and size if their distance is known in a darkened room, a car headlamp, the same distance away as a bike lamp, might be assumed to be closer because it looks brighter. Attempts have long been made to work out the distance between Earth and the stars, including our own Sun. Hipparchus, in the 2nd Century BC, calculated the Sun to be 430 times the radius of Earth away, while Ptolemy, in the 2nd Century AD, reckoned it to be 1,210 radii; Horrocks in 1639 said it was 14,000; and Huygens in 1659 thought it was 24,000 radii. Modern calculations place it at it 23,534 radii distant. Professor Brown said that some opposition to Copernican thought arose due to recognition that if similar techniques to measuring the distance to the Sun were applied to other stars, they would have to be implausibly enormous distances away, which in reality they are. He added that there are areas of life today where we reject ideas because they seem unreasonable. Henderson, encouraged in his research by Brisbane,
became the first person to measure (though not to publish) the distance to a star outside our Solar System, establishing that Alpha Centauri is over 200,000 times further from the Earth than the Sun. Brisbane also contributed greatly to the mapping and cataloguing of the stars fundamental to astronomy, which cannot function without an effective means of describing where objects can be found. Records of stellar positions have been made for thousands of years, for example Ptolemys Almagest mapped more than 1,000 stars. During his time in the southern hemisphere, Brisbane charted 7,385 stars. Modern technology, however, has transformed our knowledge, with the Hipparcos satellite having mapped 2,539,913 stars by the year 2000. Alexander Wilson was appointed first Regius Chair of Practical Astronomy in 1760. His early work included the making of type faces, specific gravity beads (for measuring strengths of spirits), telescopes and precision thermometers, which he used in balloon exploration of the atmosphere and Joseph Black used in his foundations of the theory of heat. However, Wilson is best remembered as the discoverer of the Wilson Effect in sunspots, namely that they are hollows in the stars surface. Some of the equipment Wilson
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used at Glasgow University Observatory (founded in 1757) was sent by the MacFarlane family in Jamaica. Repairs to damage suffered en route were carried out by James Watt, who invoiced the University of Glasgow for 4 15s, but was paid 5 for doing such a good job. Brisbane built an observatory at his home at Brisbane House in Noddsdale, near Largs. Parts of it survive today and efforts are underway, led by the recentlyestablished Brisbane Observatory Trust, to secure its preservation. Related survivals from the time are huge pillars called the Three Sisters, which once held lamps and acted as the fore sights for Brisbanes transit telescope to ensure that it was pointing in exactly the right direction to make accurate measurements. Brisbane also established two other observatories, including magnetometers, one at Makerstoun in the Borders, and the other at Parramatta in New South Wales. The Parramatta Observatory was successful in the observational recovery of Comet Encke. Other significant Scots in astronomy discussed by Professor Brown included James Gregory (1638 75), inventor of the Gregorian reflecting telescope, which preceded the Newtonian telescope. Reflecting telescopes are preferable to refractors as they image distant objects without the
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distortion arising from the chromatic distorting prismatic effect of lenses. Gregory was the first person to find a way round the problem that, with mirror telescopes, the observer tends to block the view of what they are trying to see. Professor Brown also looked at the contribution of David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan (17421829). Not a conventional astronomer, he nonetheless had a fascination with the subject and did much to encourage others. Erskine built a large model of our solar system and also created the Kirkhill Pillar, which is engraved with predictions of the positions of the planets, as seen from the Sun, in May 2255. No one is sure why he chose this date, though Professor Brown believes it is linked to the transit of Venus. Professor Brown then moved on to look at some of the knowledge that has been gained by modern astronomers, building on the foundations laid by the early Scottish star gazers and their peers around the world. He showed how advances in technology have transformed our ability to observe astronomical phenomena, from detailed pictures of the Suns surface through to images of distant galaxies. The professor showed the immense variety of sizes and types of objects which are now known to exist, from planets as small as Mercury to red
supergiant stars such as V Y Canis Majoris, which is 1.7 billion miles in diameter. Finally, Professor Brown underlined the immense variety of celestial objects, giving the example of a collapsed star called a neutron star, which spins 10,000 times per second, though only around the same size as Edinburgh or Glasgow. It is so dense that it is the equivalent of squashing the entire human race down to a single teaspoonful of matter. In terms of size, the universe is 14 billion light years across. The distances are so vast
that travel to the stars would take an enormous amount of time. He cited the speed at which a train from Edinburgh to London would have to travel to have the same journey time as a spaceship crossing the universe at 100,000km per second. To arrive at the same time, the train would have to cover one millimetre per century. In conclusion, he said the universe is not only vast but astonishingly empty. If all its matter were squashed down in one direction till it had the density of water, it would end up the thickness of a penny.
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Professor David Fowler Senior Scientist at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh 12 April 2011 The European Nitrogen Cycle in a Global Context
The lecture began with an outline of the global nitrogen cycle and the way human activities have increased the amounts of fixed nitrogen (i.e., compounds other than N2 which are reactive in the atmosphere, and abbreviated as Nr) cycling through ecosystems and the atmosphere. This brief analysis showed that approximately two thirds of the Nr emitted to the atmosphere annually, both in oxidised and reduced forms, results from human activities. The human influence on the global nitrogen cycle is substantially greater than our effects on the global carbon cycle, yet is not widely known; a point of some discussion following the lecture. The environmental concerns generated by human-induced changes in the nitrogen cycle are widespread, including: effects on human health through the presence of particulate matter in the atmosphere and tropospheric ozone; biodiversity changes resulting from nitrogen deposition; climate change through the emission of greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide; and the photochemical production of
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ozone in the troposphere. An analogy was drawn between the effect of nitrogen fertilising crops and the effect of nitrogen injected into the atmosphere, promoting a range of chemical processes and effectively fertilising the atmosphere. The global nitrogen cycle was then contrasted with the recent European Nitrogen Assessment, launched during the week of this lecture at an international nitrogen conference in Edinburgh. In Europe, the amounts of Nr emitted to the atmosphere and returned in rain and by dry deposition were a few kilos of N per hectare annually before the Industrial and Agricultural revolutions. The amounts deposited throughout Europe are now larger by an order of magnitude or more and range from 5 to 50 kg N per ha annually. We now have monitoring systems in place throughout Europe to quantify the concentrations and fluxes of nitrogen compounds. The data have been used within the European Nitrogen Assessment, to quantify the emission and deposition fluxes and provide
the basis for an assessment of the effects on human health, ecosystems, biodiversity and climate. In terms of oxidised nitrogen (NOx) emissions, Europe contributes 14% of the total global output. Globally, Europe, the US and Asia contribute two thirds of the total, with road transport a key contributor. Satellite remote sensing is able to detect many of the nitrogen compounds, including ammonia and these data reveal the patterns of nitrogen concentrations. The method also provides an important new way of validating emission inventories. The spatial distribution maps of nitrogen deposition reveal the huge differences between 1900 and 2000. Hotspots can clearly be seen across most of North America, Western Europe, India and China in the northern hemisphere and in Brazil in the south. The sources and fate of NOx emissions are clear in these maps. The sources of NOx emissions include road transport (30%), with industrial processes contributing the second-largest amounts (16.9%). Is Europe producing more nitrogen than its fair share? Although it has only one tenth of the global population, the continent is responsible for 20% of the global nitrogen budget. However, it is at least covered by a regulatory framework aimed at reducing nitrogen emissions. As
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emissions are much larger in other parts of the world, particularly Asia, which accounts for half of the nitrogen produced by man globally, there is a growing need for regulation to be applied at regional and global scales, to solve issues that have a clear global reach; taking remedial action in Europe represents only a partial solution. Ozone is a particular problem, with a hemispheric reach, due to the relatively long atmospheric lifetime of a few weeks, and allowing emissions from one continent to influence others. Ozone is a damaging pollutant and climate change gas. Although peak values have declined due to regulatory action, mean values have increased. At the beginning of the last century, surface ozone concentrations were at the 10 ppb level, but in many parts of the northern mid-latitudes the concentrations are now closer to 40ppb. The effects of ozone include premature deaths, an increase in hospital respiratory days, restricted activity in young adults with respiratory problems and billions of pounds worth of crop loss. The effects of climate change on ozone seem likely to make matters worse, with decreases in ozone values over oceans but increases over land, especially in the heavily-populated regions over the coming few decades. These climate change effects will erode benefits from any reduc-
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tions achieved so far. So efficient control will require regulations at a global scale, as control measures on European emissions will not strongly influence the ozone advected into Europe in westerly winds from the Atlantic Ocean. There are effects on biodiversity too. Half of the global population relies for its food on nitrogenenhanced agricultural systems. But this is bringing a corresponding reduction in semi-natural vegetation over large parts of Europe, through nitrogen deposition on semi-natural vegetation. Evidence from long-term experiments at Rothamsted, in England, dating from the 1850s, shows how the species composition of vegetation has responded to both experimental treatments and to the changing chemical climate of the UK over this long time scale. Long-term declines in plant species composition are observed in response to the increasing nitrogen deposition at Rothamsted. Measured deposition fields for Europe show that large areas are now exceeding critical loads of nutrient nitrogen and will continue to do so for many years into the future. Likewise, effects on human health are expected to continue. Human mortality increases with concentrations of particulate matter in the atmosphere. This is not new; thousands of people died in the London
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smogs of the 1950s. But although we have taken sulphur out of smogs, nitrogen compounds have increased. Ammonium nitrate has become a very important contributor to particulate matter in the European atmosphere. Nitrogen also has an important role in climate change, but the uncertainties are large and the number of mechanisms and the complexity are daunting. The nitrogen-containing particulate matter cools climate through direct effects on the Earths radiation balance and through its effect on cloud properties. Also, the deposited nitrogen enhances carbon sequestration through its fertilising effect on forest growth, which reduces the atmospheric burden of CO2. Another important nitrogen-driven effect on climate is the creation of tropospheric ozone through photochemical oxidation of volatile organic compounds in the presence of NO2. When it comes to nitrogenreduction policies, we know the effects on water quality, biodiversity, acid deposition, air pollution and climate change, and considerable efforts have been made to reduce the emissions of oxidised nitrogen to mitigate these effects. There is a long way to go, and there has been less effective action on the emissions of reduced nitrogen compounds, notably NH3 from agriculture.
Politically, it is has proved difficult to regulate emissions of ammonia, and there are societal problems across Europe and North America that hinder the process. Overuse of nitrogen in agriculture is one of the major problems that present political difficulties, because of nitrogens role in promoting crop growth. There are mitigation measures, ranging from improved efficiency of fertiliser use and better crop management to reducing waste from the livestock industry, but there is a substantial gap between current emissions and those required to substantially reduce environmental impacts. The conclusion we can draw is that human activity has largely taken control of the Earths nitrogen cycle. Although the benefits of nitrogen are substantial, with half the worlds population depending on
nitrogen-enhanced food production, the damage caused by excessive nitrogen use is extensive in terms of biodiversity loss, human health effects and crop loss from tropospheric ozone. The European Nitrogen Assessment provides a synthesis of the science and the policy landscape for Europe in a comprehensive, neutral and accessible form. This provides a model and a challenge for regional assessments elsewhere, especially in the regions with major emissions of fixed nitrogen, in North America and in Asia. Further, a Global Nitrogen Assessment should now be seen as a natural extension of this process. A global strategy for nitrogen use would enable an integrated approach to maximise the benefits of the investment in control measures that have been taken in some regions and would provide an equitable basis for nitrogen use.
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Dr Peter Millican 23 May 2011 The Significance of David Hume: Scepticism, Science and Superstition Joint Lecture with The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) and supported by the Journal of Scottish Philosophy David Humes notorious scepticism has seemed hard to reconcile with his enthusiastic advocacy of human science. But recent scholarship has revealed a strikingly modern and coherent thinker, increasingly honoured as arguably the most significant philosopher of all time. Peter Millican presented Hume in this light, as a scientific revolutionary and a crucial influence on Adam Smith, Darwin, Einstein and a host of recent philosophers. He also exhibited for the first time a new electronic edition of Humes posthumous masterpiece, the Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, whose handwritten pages cunningly encode his stilldisputed attitude to religion. (This can be found at www.davidhume.org). To set Humes revolutionary approach in context, Millican started from Aristotle, whose science was based on the idea that the world is intelligible in a particular way. Aristotle thought that the key to understanding how natural things behave rocks as well as animals was to see them striving to fulfil a particular purpose. Things made of earth fall
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vertically downwards because they are striving to reach their natural place in the centre of the universe. Above earth we find water, then air, then fire, all seeking their natural place; so air rises through water, and fire through air. Stars and planets, however, move in circles around the Earth, striving towards the eternal perfection of God; they thus show themselves to be made of a quite different, heavenly, element. Though rock, water, air, fire and stars are all inanimate, they all act with a purpose which makes how they behave intelligible. But in the early 17th Century, along came Galileo with his telescope, refuting Aristotles theory that the Earth is at the centre, and providing a quite different explanation of how things behave. One example is the flight of a cannonball. According to Aristotelian theory, the natural movement of the ball is downwards towards the centre of the Earth. So when a cannonball is fired from a gun it keeps going while the impetus is pushing it; when that impetus dies the ball should fall vertically. Galileo pointed out that this isnt so: the ball descends with a
parabolic curve, similar to when it ascended. Or take a sledge being pushed on flat ice. When the sledge stops being pushed it keeps going horizontally, even though its natural movement is supposedly downwards. Why? Aristotelians tried to invent explanations like vortices in the air, pushing it along, but Galileo replaced this with an account in terms of inertia. He said things just carry on in the same direction and speed unless they are acted upon by some force: so what needs explaining is why the sledge stops (due to friction) not why it keeps going. Whereas Aristotelian science tried to explain the behaviour of physical things in terms of their striving to reach an end point or to achieve some purpose, in the new science the outcome depends on where the causal sequence of inertial movement and forces happens to lead. Consider one billiard ball bashing into another: their movement is not to be explained as involving anything like a desire; instead, its explained in terms of inertia and forces acting. Inert matter is being pushed around rather than being driven internally by its own purposes. Galileos science still aspired to intelligibility, but in a different way from Aristotles. One object pushing into another and communicating its motion seems to make good sense to us; moreover
the calculation of impacts and forces (especially when later refined by Newton and others) provided predictability in a way that Aristotles theory never could. Intelligibility was very important for philosophers in both the ancient and early modern periods, confirming mans distinctive place in a rationally ordered universe. Unlike the rest of animal creation, man has the power of reason, a reflection of Gods own reason. Man can understand his universe and see the patterns in it, revealing Gods existence and divine ordering. For philosophers such as Descartes, Newton and Leibniz, the paradigm of human understanding the nearest we can get to Gods understanding comes through mathematics and its application to the physical world, which was proving increasingly fruitful in the 17th Century. Another important aspect of intelligibility was the defence it seemed to provide against materialism. Here the villain of the piece was Thomas Hobbes, known as the Monster of Malmesbury and bogey man of the period. He contended that the only things existing in the universe are material including man and (if such exists) God Himself. As Dr Millican explained, this was pretty unsettling. If man is merely material, but dead bodies rot, then the immortality of the soul looks very implausible, and
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so Hobbess theory robbed central religious doctrines of any plausible basis. It is perhaps no surprise that Hobbes was widely pilloried. In 1666, Parliament debated whether the great plague and fire of London might be Gods punishment for his public atheism. And in Oxford his own university his books were burnt in 1683 for advancing damnable doctrines, false, seditious and impious. The main argument used against Hobbes was precisely the intelligibility of matter. By understanding matter in the way that Galileo did, as something that is pushed around, that is inert and doesnt have active powers of its own, we can see clearly that materialism must be false. For we do have active powers: we are conscious and able to think. Mere matter, inactive and inert, obviously cannot think hence we cannot be mere matter, and immortality is defended. A host of philosophers used this sort of argument against Hobbes in the late 17th Century, leading up to John Locke and Samuel Clarke. Locke was a major influence on Hume, especially through his empiricism (the view that all of our ideas are ultimately copied from sensory experience). But Hume became branded as a notorious sceptic and was deprived of the chance of a Professorship at Edinburgh largely because of his opposition
to the basis of Lockes and Clarkes arguments for the existence of God and against Hobbes. One of Humes most central achievements was to show that the ideal of intelligibility as sought in their different ways by philosophers both ancient and modern was an unattainable illusion. His famous argument concerning induction (in Section 4 of his Enquiry of 1748) took the familiar example of two billiard balls colliding, and showed that even in a simple case like this, we dont really have any genuine understanding of why the objects behave as they do. We can observe their behaviour, and find mathematical patterns within it, codified as what we call laws of motion (such as those worked out by Newton). But we cannot aspire to understand why the ultimate laws that govern these things are as they are, and when we make scientific inferences about the future behaviour of objects, we just have to take for granted since we cannot prove the inductive assumption that they will indeed continue to act according to the same laws that we have observed in the past. Many philosophers since Hume have considered it a scandal of philosophy that we cannot apparently give any solid reason whatever to justify our belief in inductive uniformity, but this result is now widely accepted and
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provides the basis for much contemporary philosophy of science. Rather than appealing to any sort of ultimate intelligibility, Hume concludes that what makes us reason inductively in both science and everyday life is habit, or what he calls custom, meaning our natural tendency to assume that things will go on in the same way as in the past. Custom, he says, is the great guide of human life. It is that principle alone, which renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past. It follows that human reason is only different in degree from that of other animals, for they too learn from experience through custom. Neither they nor we have any ultimate insight into why things act according to the laws they do; but we are cleverer at identifying, codifying and working out the implications of the apparent laws that we observe operating. This view of humans as essentially clever animals (rather than imperfect angels or pure intellects) runs through much of Humes philosophy, including his moral theory which is built on natural human feeling rather than on rational insight. When we see someone suffer, we share their suffering; when they are happy, we are happy too. It is empathy
what Hume calls sympathy which he considers the basis of human morality. This view of mans place in the natural world had an influence on Charles Darwin, who read a lot of Humes books at exactly the time in the late 1830s when he was working on the theory of evolution. He later described that period as giving him at last a theory by which to work, and there is a note from 1839 in which he refers specifically to Humes discussion of the reason of animals. He also mentions Hume on scepticism and the origins of religion, and there are further signs of influence in The Origin of Species of 1859, in the form of passages that seem to echo ideas and phrases from Hume. Although Hume denies that we can achieve ultimate understanding of the world, and he sees our discovery of natural laws as based fundamentally on a brute assumption of uniformity, this does not mean that he is anti-scientific. On the contrary, he is a great advocate of inductive science and basing our predictions on experience. Indeed, since we cannot achieve insight into the world by pure reason, learning from experience has to be the touchstone of rational science. The force of his position is much easier for us to appreciate in the wake of Quantum Mechanics and Relativity
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Theory, than it was in the 18th Century, when philosophers (such as Immanuel Kant) imagined that Newtonian physics should be provable by metaphysical reasoning. Dr Millican gave a computer simulation of the famous Two-Slit Experiment to illustrate the weirdness of Quantum Mechanics. Nobody would be tempted to suppose that this theory could be arrived at by armchair metaphysics: physicists were forced towards it by experiment and observation, as Humes view of science would imply. Einstein himself praised Hume and said that his own study of the 1739 Treatise decisively furthered his development of the Theory of Relativity (apparently by encouraging him to reconsider the supposed absolute character of time, and how this is manifested in experience). This illustrates how Humes thought retains its power over the centuries, and still has a great deal to teach us. Dr Millican ended his lecture by unveiling the new website at www.davidhume.org which displays all of Humes great philosophical works, authoritatively edited and faithful to their original form (even using an 18thCentury-style font). Humes Dialogues concerning Natural
Religion (described by Millican as the funniest great work of philosophy ever written) is also presented in coordinated text and manuscript versions, thanks to the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland, who kindly provided high-quality images of Humes original handwritten sheets. The Dialogues was not published during Humes lifetime as he realised that it would be very controversial, so he left the manuscript to Adam Smith with the proviso that after two years, if not yet published, it should go to his nephew also named David Hume whose duty in publishing it as the last wish of his uncle would be entirely above reproach. David Hume the younger accordingly published the Dialogues in 1779, and it is this published version which is shown in the website alongside the manuscript images. Dr Millican gave examples to show how Humes handwritten insertions and crossings out including one made on his deathbed in 1776 can be of particular significance, holding clues to future readers on how to interpret Humes final thoughts on religion.
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Professor Tom Devine 26 May 2011 The Lowland Clearances and the Transformation of Southwest Scotland Part of the RSE@ Dunfries and Galloway Programme
The Clearances are always associated in Scottish traditional song and story with the Highlands. Modern research has challenged that assumption by demonstrating the extent of removals elsewhere in Scotland. This lecture demonstrated the scale of dispossession of people in one Lowland region, explained how it transformed the way of life in the southwest forever and suggested why the Highland Clearances are remembered yet the Lowland Clearances are forgotten. The Highland Clearances are an iconographic theme in the history of Scotland. This period of history generates a huge appeal and interest largely because it is a human story of remarkable tragic intensity that goes to the heart of human experience in terms of suffering, adventure and the loss of home. Professor Devine stated that American Scots overwhelmingly believe their ancestors left Scotland because of the Highland Clearances, even if these ancestors come from non-Highland areas. The extraordinary mythical appeal of the Highland Clearances has
been further embellished through the attention of literature, including works such as Iain Crichton Smiths Consider the Lilies and more recently Kathleen Fidlers influential work, The Desperate Journey which is often taught in primary schools. Professor Devine asserted that the person most responsible for driving home the Highland Clearances into the heart of the Scottish intellectual and cultural agenda was John Prebble. His books, Glencoe, Culloden and The Highland Clearances, forming the Fire and Sword Trilogy argued implicitly and explicitly that in addition to emptying the Scottish glens of people, the Highland Clearances also caused the destruction of a culture. It is only recently that Prebbles notion of Scotland in the 18th and 19th century as the history of victimhood and tragedy has been paralleled by an expansion of literature portraying the Scot as the imperial warrior and adventurer. Professor Devine read from two short texts describing the Clearances. On first hearing these excerpts they are reminiscent of
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many texts portraying these desperate times, however, these texts were not written about the Highland Clearances rather they reflect the Clearances sweeping through the Lowlands of Scotland two generations prior to the intensification of the Highland Clearances. Professor Devine considered these texts and others like them as metaphorical memorials to us that we can no longer talk about loss of land, we can no longer talk about depopulation by coercive means, we can no longer talk about the turbulence caused by agrarian change, as something uniquely Highland. Other records containing evidence that the Clearances were not solely constrained to the Highlands include land archives, parish records and maps from the time, in particular those created by William Roy and his fellow surveyors in the 1750s that depicted Scotland in a cartographic presentation of the population. Professor Devine noted that these sources of data show powerfully that the south west of Scotland was in the vanguard of rural changes occurring throughout the country. There is a great decisive break through most of the rural lowlands in the 1750s when the rural world we now know of trimmed fields, enclosure, freestanding and isolated farm steadings, hedgerows and dykes come about. There is, however,
also a human variable in this period of change which is sometimes overlooked by history in favour of concentrating on the technological advances of the time rather than the aspects of social change. Estate papers from the mid eighteenth Century show that agricultural tenants were in sharp decline at this time. Indeed the Buccleuch Archive in southwest Scotland shows a decline of 5070 % over a period of 40 years. Professor Devine stated that the substratum of people below those paying rent to the landowner are of utmost importance when discussing the Lowland Clearances. These are a phantom people who are notoriously difficult to trace in history. The prime sources of information about these people are the poll tax records of the 17th and 18th centuries. Poll tax at this time was based on the ability to pay and from these records historians can deduce an anatomy of the whole spectrum of rural life in the Old Scotland, from wealthy landowners, through tenants and servants to the day labourers and lowly cotters. In these times the two major demands for labour in the farming year were peat cutting in the spring / summer and harvesting in the autumn. Tenant farmers needed a reserve army of short term labour for this and this was provided in the form
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of the cotters. The cotters were not paid for their work; instead they received small patches of land in return for service at important times of year. Craftsmen, including blacksmiths and weavers, also belonged to the cotters class as they needed a form of social subsistence from the land to keep them going. Between one third and one fifth of the rural Scottish population prior to 1650 consisted of the cotter class and, as such, these are by and large our ancestors. However, by 1815 no lowland county of Scotland had anything but a tiny remnant of this social tier remaining. Professor Devine purported that there are two prime differences between the Highland and Lowland Clearances. Firstly, other than the Levellers Revolt in Galloway in 1723 and their attempt on a large scale to break down the developing enclosures of the great cattle parks, there are no other occasions of armed or mute revolt between the 1750s and 1830s in the Scottish lowlands. As such, the Clearances in the Lowlands were silent and this is perhaps one of the reasons why they are now not remembered. The phrase Highland Clearance evokes an automatic and emotive resonance; however, the phrase Lowland Clearances is a historians invention to describe a particular process, there is no
particular emotional resonance attached to it. Additionally, the Clearance of the Lowlands leaves no trace of a folk culture of dispossession or betrayal in subsequent generations. Professor Devine noted that even today the Highland Clearances in some parts of the Highlands still continue to affect politics and attitudes. The Lowland Clearances are silent and forgotten. Even at the time they attracted very little attention and there was very little protest. Subsequent generations cultural integrity has not been penetrated like in the Highlands. There is little evidence of oral tradition handing down a view of vehement and emotionalised betrayal. There are, however, similarities to the two Clearances. The loss of land is common to both and all accounts demonstrate that removal of people from land was part of the new system of agriculture. Scottish rural society experienced an extraordinary path to economic modernity between 1750 and 1850. Unlike England, the Scottish experience of industrial, agricultural and socioeconomic change was revolutionary rather than evolutionary; it was a decisive break with the past. Professor Devine commentec that there is We now know that the rate of urbanisation in Scotland in the late 18th century was the fastest in Europe.
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It was the most traumatic in Europe until forced soviet industrialisation in the 1920s and, therefore, there were massive pressures on food production due to the huge market demand from those living in towns and cities and involved in manufacturing and industry. The subsistence economies of Highland and Lowland Scotland were prized open by market demand. This was the same throughout the nation. The impact of ideology and the Scottish Enlightenment was also an experience shared throughout the nation. Ideas can be regarded as much more potent than economic forces. The way the mindset changes from one set of aspirations and perspectives to another is very important. By 1800 it was commonplace at landlord and factorial social levels to think change was good and nature was not pre-ordained but could be changed for the better through human intervention. Professor Devine, likening the field systems of southern Scotland to Edinburghs New Town suggested that this is evident in the symmetrical landscape of lowland Scotland. This enlightened ideology particularly practised individualism and the old community husbandry employed from medieval times to the early 18th century was regarded as positively harmful not only economically but also morally as it constrained the
ambition and competitive instincts of the individual. Also common to both regions is the impact of emigration. Wigtown Countys private census of the 1750s compared with national 1801 census shows that population fell at the same time as the national population of Scotland was growing. Professor Devine asserted that the only explanation for population stability or decline is migration or emigration as there is no evidence that the people did not want to produce offspring. There are also strong differences between the Clearances in the Highlands and the lowlands. By 1700 in Lowland Scotland there was a degree of social stability, the last fortified house in Lowland Scotland was built in 1660 and the Border Reivers were now a memory. Lowland estate leases of this time were exclusively economic in nature. These leases were usually valid for a period of 9 to 11 years and tenants were largely secure for the period of lease and had no military obligations attached to these. Loss of land tenancy became part of the normal leasing and releasing of farms. Additionally, not all leases came up for renewal at the same time and, therefore, when it became obvious leases would not be renewed this happened over time rather than en masse. Most lowland tenants, therefore,
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accepted this as the deal with the landowner. In the Highlands, however, there was still a military requirement attached to leases until the mid 18th century, meaning that in return for land and succour in hard times, the family will provide armed service when required. Professor Devine described a neo-clanship that was formed after 1760 whereby the landowners, acting as military entrepreneurs, provided young men from their estates for the Highland regiment in return for payment and patronage. Whole parishes were stripped of young men, many of whom never returned. There is a perception that when promises were broken in peace time a bond was broken between the landowners and the people and this caused an emotional reaction in the Highlands. In most parts of Scotland, mixed farming of grain and animal husbandry had developed by 1760. This was a labour intensive style of farming and to develop this commercially there was a need to invest in roads, steadings and enclosures. Contrary to this, the Western Highlands and Islands were a zone of pastoral farming, a system which is capital and land intensive with limited need for people. Professor Devine suggests that when you have a society where the elites in society are interested in profit rather than
benevolence and paternalism then Clearance is inevitable. What happened to cotters of the lowlands? There is a common belief that they moved to the expanding cities. Professor Devine believes that this is not the case. Alongside new structures of agriculture sprang up an extraordinary expansion of small scale urbanism in the form of hamlets and planned villages; by 1750 there were 91 such settlements in Dumfries and Galloway, many of which are still in existence today. Professor Devine purported that the cotters lived on under a different nomenclature and were retained, not on farms, but relocated to villages and employed in other rural crafts and used as labour for busy periods. This, therefore, was not expulsion of the Highland variety but relocation rather than Lowland Clearance. William Cobbett, writing in 1832, said of the Lothians region, everything here is abundant but people who have been studiously swept from the land. We are now beginning to realise where these people went. There are also dissimilarities in the history of the two regional economies. The process of modernity did create pain in lowlands but the lowlands did not experience the Highlands catastrophe. Before 1815 the first phase of Highland Clearances was the creation of the crofting
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system. Crofts, however, were so small that crofters had to find extra employment. John Sinclair in 1799 calculated exactly that crofts only gave subsistence to a certain degree, for the remaining 200 days people had to search for non-land employment. After 1815 non-land employment collapsed. At the same time there was a rising population. Subdivision of land through crofts anchored people to the land. Potato cultivation was the biggest single yielder of food on limited acreage. The first major harvest failure and the partial collapse of the potato crop in 1836 was followed by the Great Highland Famine of 1846 and during this time Clearance once again reared its head. Professor Devine states that no part of the rural lowlands experienced this, indeed for two years following the Famine, Lowland charities moved in effectively and kept the people alive. There was a huge increase in Summons of Removal by the early 1850s and this coincided with the commencement of compulsory emigration, whereby people were given the opportuni-
ty to move abroad supported by landlords funds. Consequentially between 1848 ad 1853 18,000 people from the Hebrides took up this offer and in the two decades prior to 1861 one third of the 1841 population had left Highland Scotland. Professor Devine concluded that although both clearances involved removal, the Highland experience was more draconian and lasted until the 1850s whereas in the Lowlands the process of Clearance had largely stopped by 1810. Highland society was also still far more deferential to their landlords. Society in the mid-nineteenth century, especially through the critique of the Liberal Party, was becoming much less deferential to the landed establishment and indeed was becoming very critical. The plight of Highland Scotland was used by the hegemonic Liberal Party to demonstrate that landlordism was a barbaric horror for the Scottish people. Immediately a connection was made between the Highland Clearances, politics and future resonance.
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Professor David Ingram 29 May 2011 Fantin-Latour Flower Painter Extraordinaire Part of the RSE@ Dunfries and Galloway Programme
Henri Fantin-Latour (18361904) painted the most stunning pictures of roses and other garden flowers. In this presentation, David Ingram took his audience on a virtual guided tour of FantinLatours works, interpreting the botany and horticulture of these remarkable creations. Professor Ingram introduced his talk by advising the audience that many of the paintings he would be discussing were currently on display in an exhibition at The Bowes Museum, County Durham. The Bowes Museum was the gift of John Bowes, the illegitimate son of the 10th Earl of Strathmore, and his wife Josephine, a Parisian showgirl, to the people of County Durham. Between them they gathered together an amazing collection of art and decorative objects. Henri Fantin-Latour was born in Grenoble, France, in 1836 and was to become one of the finest 19th-Century non-impressionistic painters of flowers. Originally, his paintings were not particularly revered or liked by French society and, like many an artist, he had difficult times where life was a
struggle to survive. FantinLatours big break came about thanks to the artist Whistler, who introduced Henri to Londons artistic and intellectual society, including the couple Mr & Mrs Edwards. The Edwards, in addition to purchasing many of Fantin-Latours paintings themselves, also praised his work amongst their society friends, helping him develop a base of patrons and eventually becoming his agents in England. This, obviously, was not without financial benefit to them. Henri Fantin-Latour met and married Victoria Dubourg, herself a talented artist. As part of her dowry, Victoria was given a family home in Bur, Normandy. The garden of this cottage was filled with an abundance of flowers, inspiring Fantin-Latour to create endless floral compositions. Professor Ingram presented and described images of a selection of Fantin-Latours paintings to the audience, identifying many of the plants therein and explaining their significance. Fruit & Flowers, 1866 Professor Ingram describes this as an
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impossible painting, referring to the paradox of the spring flower selection positioned next to autumn fruits which were, in fact, models. Fantin-Latour used the same model fruits in a variety of paintings next to flowers from differing seasons. The painting also includes depictions of Narcissus, an 18th-Century plant originating in the Mediterranean; Spanish bluebells and wallflowers from northern Europe. Still Life with Pansies & Daisies, 1880 these flowers were taken from the garden in Normandy. Professor Ingram explained how the word pansies originates from the French word pense, meaning thoughtful, reflecting the face of the flower. Pansies started life in early 19th-Century in England by crossing two common violets; Heartsease and a mid European violet. They were originally pure in colour. By 1838 there were over 400 different varieties of pure coloured pansies in existence. At the time Fantin-Latour created this painting pansies were still relatively new plants. Peonies 1877 Professor Ingram suggests that the flowers in this painting probably originated from a florist. The word Peony is named after the Greek god of medicine and healing, Paeon. It is appropriately named as for many years it has been used as a medicinal plant. The original Peony plants came from China in
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the late eighteenth century. Napoleons wife, Josephine Bonaparte, had a massive collection of Peonies at her Malmaison residence in France, resulting in a flurry of obsession amongst the people for the flowers. The Peony was at the height of fashion when Fantin-Latour painted this image. White Lilies, Branche de Lys, 1877 This painting particularly shows how good Fantin-Latour was at painting flowers. The six stamens and anthers are very defined and are painted so one can clearly see that the anthers articulate. The image also shows that yellow pollen has slipped down and stained the petals. The purple streaking on the depiction of the lily makes it seem even whiter. Larkspur, 1892 Professor Ingram describes this painting as having a sinister feel to it. The image depicts larkspur, one of the most poisonous plants. The painting uses lots of colour and clearly shows the double flowers on the plant. The use of the whites and blues mute out the softness of the pinks and give a cold, hard look to the painting. Nasturtiums, 1880 This painting depicts the nasturtium variety Tropaeolum majus rising up from the bottom of the page. Nasturtiums were originally imported from Peru and many early botanists named plants in accordance with similar scents from already
named species. The nasturtium, as such, meaning twisted nose was named after another plant in the cabbage family which had a similar peppery taste and smell. At a later date it was decided that this classification was incorrect and the name Tropaeolum meaning trophy or shield and helmet, was afforded to the plant. Professor Ingram pointed out that the plants in this painting are all clones with double heads and the only way to reproduce them is by taking cuttings. Capucines, 1887 These flowers were taken from the garden in Normandy and have a fresh look, like they dont want to be captured. These nasturtiums are reproduced by seed and show no uniformity or clones. Their colour is very bright and at dawn and dusk, like with many flowers, this is even more intensified. Professor Ingram describes the colour as baffling the eye. The glass vase in which they are depicted was a gift from Mrs Edwards and was designed by Gertrude Jekyll. Of all the botanical images Henri Fantin-Latour created, his most praised are those which depict roses. Indeed the Centiflora rose was produced in his honour in 1900. Many roses are very difficult to identify from paintings as often information such as their scent, leaf detail and extent of thorn detail is difficult to ascertain from a two-dimensional image.
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Professor Ingram described how, working with rose expert Peter Beale, he managed to identify many of the roses in FantinLatours paintings for the first time. These include the Maidens Blush rose in Pink Roses, 1875 and the Jacobite rose in White Roses, 1875. Both of these flowers are included in the Alba roses classification which all date back to before the 15th Century. Many of the roses depicted in Fantin-Latours paintings can still be purchased and grown today. Pink and Yellow Roses, 1875 The roses painted in this image are past their best and gently fading. The roses include Crepuscule, Gloire de Dijon and Hermosa. Crepuscule is a Noisette rose deriving from a chance cross in America which produced a new strain of good climbers with a heavy scent. Gloire de Dijon is a delicate tea rose from the late 18th Century often used in breeding as it has a pointed shape. Tea roses are so named as they smelt of tea from the tea clippers. The painting also shows Hermosa, a rose originating from china giving a good scent and an element of repeat flowering. Roses and Larkspur, 1885 Professor Ingram described how this painting was representative of many by Fantin-Latour as, due to their value, they were cut in half by unscrupulous dealers and sold for twice their price. Thankfully
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this image has been restored and the two halves reunited. Rosy Wealth of June, 1886 This painting seems to include the whole garden of Bur. The scent in the room at the time of painting must have been overwhelming. The delphinium was grown in France for many years and new varieties from Russia and North America strengthened the existing ones. The Amaryllis Belladonna, an old French garden plant, has a rich fruity smell. Dahlia hybrids were brought across from South America in the later 18th century and by the mid 19th century were very popular in France. Other flowers in the painting include, larkspur; begonia; six roses.
Including a Bourbon rose; and phlox, the flame flower with a snuffy pungent scent. Professor Ingram also included a painting of roses by Victoria Dubourg. Her paintings were not as monetarily valuable as those by her husband and, as such, dealers regularly erased her name from her paintings replacing it with that of Fantin-Latour. In later years Victoria Dubourg made catalogues of all the paintings she and Henri created so that future generations would know which belonged to each painter. Fantin-Latour died in Normandy in 1904 of Lyme Disease. He is buried in the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, France.
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Professor Tim Byers 6 June 2011 Preventing Cancers of the Breast and Colon by How We Choose to Live Every Day In association with the Scottish Cancer Foundation Supported by the Cruden Foundation Small changes made to our dayto-day lives can reduce our chances of getting cancers of the breast and colon, said epidemiologist Professor Tim Byers. The evidence is there to show that losing even a modest amount of weight, making better dietary choices and doing a little exercise helps. There is no one cause of cancer, said Professor Byers. Much like a car accident, various factors such as the state of the car, road (environment), the driver or individual, or even bad luck can contribute. Our genes those that we are born with and mutations throughout life are implicated, but so are other things, including the choices we make about diet and behaviours. Professor Byers looked in detail at two cancers that are common in Scotland: colorectal cancer and cancer of the breast. In particular, he discussed risk factors and prevention strategies. Breast cancer accounts for 28 per cent of cancers in women. Survival rates have improved greatly over the last 20 years, due to better treatments and earlier diagnosis, rather than to lower incidence. There are a number of risk factors, including age, menstrual history (the earlier you start and later you stop menstruating, the greater the risk); pregnancy history, including number of children and age at first pregnancy; an inherited genotype and exogenous hormones such as those in HRT (hormone replacement therapy). Nutrition is also an important factor, however, accounting for some 40 per cent of risk. Obesity and alcohol are both associated with higher risk of breast cancer, while physical activity is associated with lower risk. Height is also a risk factor (with taller women more at risk) which suggests that early nutritional behaviour might be implicated. The probable reasons or mechanisms for these associations are oestrogens (hormones), inflammation and early life growth factors. The overall message, however, is that the fatter you are, the more likely you are to get breast cancer and although the UK isnt yet quite as fat as the US, if we try hard we could catch up, said Professor Byers.
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The World Health Organisation estimates that 1520 per cent of cancers are caused by obesity and lack of physical activity. Obesity may, he said, be the most important of all the nutritional factors for cancer, affecting many sites and hitting both men and women. It is, however, preventable if we modify our behaviours. A number of players are likely to be implicated in the relationship between obesity and breast cancer certainly oestrogens and probably factors related to inflammation such as cytokines and insulin. Obesity in itself may, as Professor Byers put it, be an innocent bystander in all this, but he doesnt think so. Hormones are probably implicated in more way than one with both exogenous oestrogen (from HRT) and endogenous oestrogen (from being obese) being associated with oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancers. Oestrogen circulating in the body, regardless of the source, increases the risk of breast cancer. A number of studies have shown us that weight loss reduces cancer risk. Importantly, this doesnt need to be a huge amount of weight. Professor Byers said that people could be discouraged at the thought of losing 80 kilos, and therefore give up, but that even modest weight loss had an impact. There is, he said, plenty of evidence that nutritional factors
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can prevent breast cancer in the first place, but this has little impact on peoples behaviour. This contrasts with the situation after someone has been diagnosed with cancer, where there have been few studies suggesting that good nutrition prevents recurrence, but there is great motivation and much commercial interest for behaviour change. Recurrence risk for breast cancer is, however, affected by obesity, even when survivors are taking Tamoxifen. The risk of cancer coming back is a third higher in those who are obese than in those of normal weight, in all ages and in all tumour types. Even a seven per cent weight loss is enough to lower that risk modest levels of weight loss can make a difference, he said. Professor Byers described a number of trials where different interventions were used in breast cancer survivors and the most striking was where weight loss was greatest. Other factors such as a high fruit and veg diet which did not result in weight loss did not reduce (or raise) the risk of the cancer coming back. Other studies also suggest that weight loss can reduce the level of inflammatory factors in the body, which may also help prevent recurrence. Alcohol is a tricky one, he said. The evidence is that drinking even moderate amounts increases the risk of developing breast cancer
but, equally, drinking one or two drinks per day can protect against cardiovascular disease. There is no evidence, however, that alcohol can reduce the risk of cancer of any site, although it does increase the risks of several, including cancer of the oral cavity, oesophagus, liver and pancreas and, of course, breast. People have to weigh up their own individual risks and make their choice accordingly, he said. Mammography leading to early detection has also led to a reduction in mortality of 2030 per cent, which shows the value of screening. Turning to colorectal cancer, again he showed that mortality was dropping in Scotland, as with the rest of the developed world. Colorectal cancer accounts for 12 per cent of all cancers in women and 15 per cent in men. There are known risk factors for colorectal cancer: obesity, physical inactivity, a diet low in fruit and vegetables and cereals, and high in red meats. Taken together, these factors account for 40 per cent of risk. People who eat more fruit and vegetables have less cancer, he said, with risks reduced in cancers of the lung, bladder, ovary and others, including colorectal cancers. Red meats and processed meats, however, are associated with higher risks of colon cancer, possibly because of the way they are cooked, the iron content or, in
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the case of processed meats, chemicals from the processing itself. Like breast cancer, inflammation (eg cytokines, insulin) could well be a mechanism linking obesity in colorectal cancer. Professor Byers discussed in some detail the impact of physical activity on cancer risk. It can be hard to disentangle the role of exercise as, of course, it can help reduce weight in itself. But it also appears to have independent benefits. In other words, even people who are overweight or obese can cut their risk of cancer if they take exercise. Importantly this doesnt have to involve running marathons; even getting off the couch can help, he said. The ways to reduce colorectal cancer, then, include exercise, weight control, reducing red meat and increasing fruit and vegetable intake, and using preventative drugs such as calcium or aspirin. Removing adenomas (the polyps which could grow into cancer), is also an important preventative measure and reduces mortality. Indeed, screening can reduce mortality by 2060 per cent. Professor Byers concluded by summing up the main changes which; if made to day-to-day living, lower the risk of getting cancer. These are: maintaining a healthy weight throughout life; balancing what you eat with exercise; avoiding excessive weight
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gain; and achieving and maintaining a healthy weight if you are currently overweight or obese. Physical activity is important adults should engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity on at least five days a week, and 4560 minutes is preferable.
On diet, people should watch their portion size, eat a variety of fruit and vegetables, choose whole grains, limit consumption of processed and red meats and, if drinking alcohol, do so in moderation.
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Sir John Elvidge KCB, FRSE 16 June 2011 Seeing Scotland Afresh How We Look to a Changing World Michael Shea Memorial Lecture Joint event with International Futures Forum The former Permanent Secretary of the Scottish Government, Sir John Elvidge, reflected on international perceptions of Scotland and suggests that we should be more outward looking and take advantage of our improved image in many countries since devolution... Sir John established right from the start of his lecture that Scotlands handling of recent constitutional changes is regarded as a great strength and is also something that should never be taken for granted. While many other countries struggle to cope with constitutional change, Scotland has made the transition to devolution without any violence or social unrest. Our politicians have also managed to govern effectively in coalition and as a minority government an outcome deemed unlikely before devolution. Many countries follow very closely what is happening in Scotland and Sir John believes that we should take a much greater interest in the countries which take the most interest in us, and exploit the opportunities this offers to our businesses and universities. Perceptions matter, said Sir John, and it is natural we care about what others think of us, as a people and as a country. If people want to visit, live and learn here, do business or invest here, it has a major impact on the national economy and on the national psyche. And the good news is that Scotland is performing very well in international league tables, including the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index, where Scotland was number 14 in the world in 2010, with an aggregate score of 59.67, based on the views of 1,000 people in each of 20 countries, assessing factors such as governance, exports and culture. Reducing our performance to a single number like that may seem absurd (like The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, where the number 42 is the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything) but it means that Scotland is regarded very highly abroad. Sir John then added: The ebb and flow of day-to-day events has no demonstrable effect on perceptions. While people in
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Scotland may be more concerned with day-to-day events, other countries are more interested in government stability and peaceful constitutional transition, in contrast to the difficult experience of regions such as the Balkans, for example. There is no automatic immunity within the UK to the difficulties of constitutional change, and Northern Ireland serves as an example much closer to home of the turbulence this often causes. Violence and social unrest are not just peripheral issues, Sir John said. Even Spain and Belgium have their problems when it comes to cultural and linguistic identities, while China and India also have to deal with problems caused by ethnic, social and religious diversity. When other countries look at the UK, they are more interested in how were redefining the Union, while we often seem more concerned with issues such as fine-tuning macro-economic policy. And Scotland is an interesting example of stable constitutional transition because the changes have been greater and sometimes even surprising the settlement was supposed to be an insurmountable obstacle to one-party rule, but the recent election defied this, and we have had an orderly infancy since devolution. Our experience in adapting to coalition was an achievement in
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itself, said Sir John, creating the stability needed to deliver the programme. And the most remarkable achievement was that we also adapted to minority government. It would be hard to find a precedent or parallel to this, Sir John continued. Other countries dont necessarily want to emulate Scotland, but they are interested in the process of change, and how we have avoided unrest and adapted to the unexplored territory of unexpected outcomes. We have used a complex political system with considerable skill, said Sir John, who then compared our recent constitutional experience to entering the pole vault when the bar is raised to world-record level. In view of the considerable interest shown in Scotland by countries all over the world, Sir John suggested we should use it in a number of ways: 1. Understanding how other countries perceive us would help us understand ourselves much better. 2. We should take more interest in countries which are interested in us and build on these positive perceptions by forming stronger partnerships with them. 3. Our businesses and universities should also be more outward-looking.
4. We should show that this interest in Scotland is to everyones mutual advantage throughout the UK. Sir John also emphasised how important it was to be perceived as stable, since this has a major effect on potential investors. According to Sir John, we should also look eastwards and shift attention more towards our growing relationships in Asia rather than the traditional diaspora in North America, in particular to China, whose leaders take such a strong interest in Scotland. The close links being formed at senior government level also open doors for others e.g. agriculture, academia and business. The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has also formed
close links with China, making it more receptive to relationships with Scottish universities. The Union also benefits from improved perceptions of Scotland, Sir John said. By embedding an official Scottish presence in our embassies in Washington, Beijing and Brussels, we create new opportunities for everyone and demonstrate how we can work with the Uk Government to our mutual advantage. Finally, Sir John said that in order to see ourselves as others see us, we should not underestimate how much our stock has risen round the world, since devolution and how important it is to seize the opportunities created by this improved perception.
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Professor James Murray 27 June 2011 Mathematics in the Real World: From Brain Tumours to Saving Marriages Part of the RSE@ Dunfries and Galloway Programme Practical mathematical models are becoming an accepted part of most medical and scientific disciplines. A few of the more unlikely applications are justifying intertribal warfare, the benefits of cannibalism, how the leopard gets its spots, estimating life expectancy and accurately predicting which couples will divorce. This lecture by Professor Murray, a former pupil of Dumfries Academy, discussed some of the real world applications of mathematics! Applied mathematics has a fundamental importance in biological, medical and social sciences and, indeed, is one of the fastest growing disciplines, with the applications increasing in their diversity. There have, however, been mathematicians in society for centuries, albeit that throughout history, there has been some scepticism about their role and conclusions. Professor Murray identified a few leading biomedical scientists from history, such as Henri de Mondeville (c12601320), Benjamin Rush (17451813) and Henri Poincar (18541912). Glioblastomas (Gliomas) are the most serious form of brain tumour and is one area where mathematical modelling has been used in conjunction with clinical research, through the enhancement of imaging techniques and highlighting the inadequacies of current therapies. The particular practical outcomes are the estimation of life expectancy for individual patients and quantifying life extension with different possible treatments. Gliomas, Professor Murray noted, are diffuse and invasive and make up around half all primary brain tumours. The cancer cells migrate more rapidly in white matter compared with grey matter. Detected by brain scans, overall, such tumours are considered unpredictable and all end up being fatal. There are several treatment options, including surgical removal (resection), chemotherapy and radiation. The mathematical interest is in characterising the dynamics of tumour growth and invasion, with the purpose of predicting the likely outcome of treatment options prior to them being applied. In addition to forward life expectancy, a reverse
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estimation can indicate when the tumour started and may help identify the possible causes. One future use is likely to be in clinical studies associated with cell phone use and increasing tumour incidence. The basic mathematical model to describe tumour growth and invasion is: Rate of change of tumour cell density = Diffusion (motility) of tumour cells + Net proliferation of tumour cells Although tumours appear irregular, information gleaned from brain scans can be used to estimate their volume. The model shows that the linear diameter of an equivalent sphere of the tumour is proportional to the time from detection multiplied by the square root of the diffusion coefficient (D) multiplied by the cancer cell duplication rate (r). Establishing models for this purpose have been made more difficult with the shortage of data on the development of high grade tumours, particularly where there has been no treatment administered. Professor Murray illustrated how the model fits some real-case examples, with actual pictures of tumour development from detection through to postmortem, alongside how the model predicted development. Despite the major advances in
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technology, scans only detect tumours at around 40,000 cells / cm3. The significance of this is that tumours are well developed before they are even detected, and treatments such as surgery (resectioning) certainly cannot remove all cells, thus making a recurrence inevitable. This fact was reinforced by some early data that showed the average lifespan of 58 patients without resectioning was 32 weeks from detection, whilst 57 patients who had the treatment had a slightly longer period of 39 weeks. In another example, mapping the progression of a tumour, a sub-total resection followed by chemotherapy and radiation extended the patients life by 112 days. Thus, concluded Professor Murray, mathematics has shown that such tumours are not unpredictable. In addition to identifying the appropriate timing for serial imaging follow-up, the effects and efficacy of treatments can now be better quantified, and more informed decisions taken. Changing topic, Professor Murray considered The Marriage Equation, described as a practical theory for predicting divorce and guiding a scientifically-based marital therapy. With approximately one third of marriages ending in divorce within five years and two thirds overall, there are over a million divorces in the western world each year. However,
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many do not believe that emotional issues related to this can be quantified mathematically, or in any other way. To consider this, a study was set up involving the observation of couples discussing a topic of contention such as money, sex, housing, in-laws, etc. The sessions were recorded on video and then analysed and scored positive or negative on the basis of statements made and visual expressions. Positive scoring attributes include affection, humour, joy, validation and interest, whilst the negative ones are contempt, disgust, belligerence, defensiveness, anger, stonewalling, domineering, sadness and whining. The scores are independently recorded by a number of observers with a high degree of consistency. The scores for both the husband and wife are then plotted against time to illustrate their discussion graphically. The resultant graph resembles a Dow Jones chart. Stable marriages are illustrated by roughly a 5 to 1 positive to negative ratio, whilst for a highrisk couple with an unstable marriage, the positive to negative ration will be lower at 0.8 to 1. Reporting a long-term longitudinal study, 700 couples were interviewed for 15 minutes in 1992 and classified as likely to divorce or stay married either unhappily or happily. This was
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followed up each year or two by inviting study participants to complete a questionnaire to assess their marriage and compare it with the original prediction. The forecast of those that would divorce was completely accurate, though some that were forecast to remain unhappily married did actually divorce, which reduced the divorce predictions to 94% accuracy. Further studies went on to look at the interaction and influence of one partner over the other. This identified equations and chart types relating to five marriage types, three of which were deemed stable volatile, validators and avoiders whilst the more unstable ones were hostiles or hostile-detached. More practically, the slightly expanded descriptions of these are: Volatile romantic, passionate, have heated arguments with cycles of fights and sex Validating calmer, intimate, value companionate marriage, shared experience rather than individuality Avoiders avoid confrontation and conflict, interact only in positive range of their emotions Hostile (mixed) conflictavoiding wife, validating husband Hostile-Detached (mixed) volatile husband, validating wife In addition to how the partners interact, important constants within the equations are the
uninfluenced starting states, i.e., whether the husband and/or wife are initially generally positive or negative. At least one uninfluenced state needs to be positive for a marriage to survive. Another important factor is described as the inertia parameter, which reflects how readily each is influenced by the other. Over the course of a discussion, a stable couple will move together to a positive steady state, whereas a couple heading for divorce will end up in the negative quadrant. Where one of the couple is in the positive state and the other negative, there is a possibility that therapy could yield a beneficial outcome. In one such case, following it through, post-therapy showed both partners being more
positive as a result. In summing up what mathematics has brought to the understanding of relationships. Professor Murray noted that it has given us a new means and language to characterise marital interaction and social influence. When quantifying the subjective, the size and sign of the parameters within the equation derived from the discussion and the calculated steady states will suggest stability, divorce or specific clinical repair scenarios. This latter is brought about from discussing the results and predicted outcome with the couple and then offering counselling therapies to address the anticipated issues. This approach was introduced in 1998, with the results proving very encouraging.
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Professor Wade Allison 05 September 2011 Radiation and Reason: Straight and Open Thinking about Choosing Nuclear: Nuclear Enlightenment?
Although radiation in a massive dose may kill us, its use in medicine shows that humans can tolerate much higher levels than official safety regulations suggest. Professor Wade Allison explained how we have exaggerated the dangers of radiation and suggested that the challenge today is to educate, invest and legislate for a new prosperity that includes nuclear technology. Professor Allison began by quoting Adam Smith, who said that science was the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition, and suggested that popular attitudes to nuclear energy and radiation also need such treatment. Rising CO2 levels suggest that fossil fuels are a dangerous energy source, he said, but nuclear power is arguably the best option available, along with contributions from renewables. Nuclear produces a million times more energy and less waste than fossil fuels. The fuel required for nuclear is plentiful in many different regions of the world and its use has no effect on the climate. Generation does not
depend on the weather and is possible 24/7. The technology is safe (only 50 deaths in 50 years, following the Chernobyl accident), is available and known (unlike carbon capture and storage), and has little impact in terms of its footprint (unlike wind farms). The only downside seems to be peoples fear about its impact on health. This fear of radiation has arisen from: 1. perceptions of a nuclear holocaust, a concern emphasised in the Cold War; 2. the fact that radiation is invisible; 3. safety regulations which warn of dangers; 4. the idea that only boffins can understand it. Professor Allison explained that, although we are not aware of it, the cells in our body can sense radiation and take evasive action to repair the damage. Fear of radiation is tied up with our modern obsession with safety and risk. The only certainty in life is that we will all die. Putting different risks in perspective, one in three people die of heart
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disease, one in seven die of cancer, one in 67 will commit suicide. Taking this further, lightning (1:30,000) is more likely to kill you than the chances of dying when the bombs hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1:40,000) or death caused by radiation at Chernobyl (1:150 million). What is the effect of radiation on life? he then asked. In fact how dangerous is it? This is the only important question and the answer should determine, at a national level, all considerations of safety, risk assessment, waste disposal and therefore public acceptance. Internationally, it should determine reactions to nuclear terrorism, rogue states, dirty bombs and nuclear blackmail. To understand the dangers posed to health, we need data that we trust and one area where many of us have experience of radiation is in clinical medicine for example PET and CT scans. To make sense of such data we need to understand how radiation exposure is measured as a single dose or as a dose rate (exposure per day). Risks are not always in proportion, Allison explained 100 paracetamol tablets can be fatal if taken all at once, but our bodies can easily cope with two tablets every eight hours for a month. And its the same with radiation our bodies can cope to
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a certain extent, especially when we are younger and our immune systems stronger. A PET scan exposes us to a single dose of about 10 millisieverts (mSv) and the radiation is gone from our bodies in approximately two hours, due to decay and excretion. Allison even showed a Japanese advertisement for PET/CT screening, which would expose you to a dose of 15mSv. After the recent accident at Fukushima, the authorities banned meat giving a dose of 0.008mSv per kilogram eaten, but Allison pointed out that you would have to eat two tonnes of dangerous meat over four months to incur the same dose as the advertised screening scan. After Chernobyl, he said, health authorities admitted that the widespread destruction of meat was unnecessary, expensive, and caused great hardship an over-reaction now repeated in Japan. Radiation can be fatal in doses so large that the cells in the body stop reproducing (Acute Radiation Syndrome). Most of those workers at Chernobyl who were exposed to doses above 4,000mSv died (27 out of 42), but no-one died due to exposure of less than 2,000mSv (out of 140). But many people in this room have had much higher doses than that if they have had a course of radiotherapy, Allison added. To destroy a tumour, we receive a
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dose of about 2,000mSv, every day for 56 weeks, with surrounding organs receiving a reduced exposure of about 1,000mSv. This adds up to more than 20,000mSv per month five times the fatal level at Chernobyl but it is relatively safe because our bodies can repair almost all of the daily damage within a few hours. But no repairs are perfect and in later years, as the immune system becomes less effective, cancers may appear. Their rate is low and radiation-induced cancer is not distinguishable from other cancers, except statistically. So to learn about them we need lifetime studies of large populations subjected to quite high doses. Thanks to the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we have such data carefully monitored over 50 years. In 1945, the population of Hiroshima was 429,000, of whom about 30 per cent died soon after the bombs exploded, with 66 per cent surviving until 1950. Around 32,000 survivors (7.5 per cent) died of cancer over the next 50 years. Comparing these figures with those for other comparable Japanese populations, the extra cancer deaths caused by radiation amounted to 1,865 (0.5 per cent). The individual doses have been measured for a third of the survivors and the data show that a single dose of 2,000mSv doubles the normal cancer rate, while 100mSv carries no measurable
extra risk. As Allison concluded, if the risk is not measurable, even in such an awful, large-scale, lifelong experiment, it should be seen as too small to worry about. In the area surrounding Fukushima, the authorities defined evacuation zones on the basis of a maximum dose rate of 20mSv per year a thousand times lower than the dose to healthy tissue accepted in one month during a course of radiotherapy. Doctors in Japan have confirmed the increased suicide rate and other symptoms of extreme stress caused by the evacuation. This socio-economic surgery, with its psychological and economic consequences, has a more serious effect than any side effect of radiotherapy. And a UN report on Chernobyl, published early this year, confirms that evacuation and fear caused more damage than radiation there, too. (In 1986, medical records confirm that there were nearly 2,000 induced abortions in Greece alone, based on fears of radiation from Chernobyl.) The lessons were not learned, said Allison. The errors were repeated. Spreading fear about radiation acts like a medieval curse in having a nocebo effect (the opposite of the placebo effect) if you tell people theyve been exposed to a health threat, theres a good chance theyll become ill
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because of the psychological damage this causes. Allison then questioned the safety regulations currently set for radiation, suggesting that the level of any actual danger is higher by about 1,000 times. To reassure a public worried about radiation, the levels have been set as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA). He suggested that safety levels should, rather, be set as high as relatively safe (AHARS). Using the data from radiotherapy (with a conservative factor of 200)
and the Hiroshima data too, Allison recommends setting the level at 100mSv per month or 5,000mSv over a lifetime. At Fukushima, he added, no-one has died as a result of radiation and no-one will. In the 20th Century, Allison concluded, we were wrong to think of radiation as very dangerous. We should now take up the challenge to educate, invest and legislate for a new prosperity that includes nuclear technology.
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Professor Dr Jacek Purchla 29 September 2011 Nation, Town, Memory the Krakw Experience: Krakw in the European Core
To mark the Polish Presidency of the EU, the RSE was treated to a lecture on the extraordinary rollercoaster history of Krakw once the spiritual capital of a country that did not exist and now a cosmopolitan city at the centre of a united Europe. Professor Purchla began by saying how much he felt at home in Edinburgh and how an understanding of the past is essential to understand the present and future of both these great cities. Krakw is right in the centre of the land mass of Europe and has no political function at the moment, unlike Warsaw, but in the past the city was the gateway for Christian civilisation, the seat of dukes and kings as well as bishops with a cathedral where state funerals and coronations were held. Krakw has a special place in Polish mythology, said Purchla. In the 13th Century, its regular layout was the model of a medieval city, and its golden age came at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, when it was one of the most dynamic economic centres in Europe, a member of the Hanseatic League and a cosmopolitan city with one of the
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oldest universities in Europe the alma mater of Copernicus. At the time of the Jagellonian dynasty (14th16th centuries), Krakw acted as a bridge between the Roman and Byzantine worlds, as well as between the Black Sea and the Baltic, and during the Renaissance, it attracted leading architects and artists. It was a crucible of political and cultural influence, competing with Prague and Vienna, and also home to many Scottish merchants the second biggest group of foreigners in Krakw. Political borders change more quickly than cultural borders, said Purchla, as he described how economic and political power gradually shifted to Warsaw in the 17th Century, along with the kings (who still returned, however, to be buried). Purchla also joked that this decline (over the next 200 years) was a good thing in some ways: The best conservator is often loss of power. At this time, Krakw held on to its cultural status, attracting intellectuals from all over Europe, including Goethe and Balzac. The 18th19th Centuries were turbulent times for the city, which
became an object of desire for Russia, Prussia and the Hapsburgs, and was made part of the Duchy of Warsaw by Napoleon in 1809. The freedom fighter Tadeusz Kociuszko led an unsuccessful insurrection in the towns main square in 1794, but at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Krakw was declared a free city (state!), despite being bankrupt, and became the Mecca of Poland or the spiritual capital of a country that did not exist. According to Purchla, the city also emerged as the smuggling centre of Europe, lying in the vacuum between the three dominant powers during an era of protectionism, and this led to a new age of prosperity. In the 1840s, it was annexed by Austria and became a military fortress, as part of a deal between the Hapsburgs and the Polish aristocracy. After the end of the Austro-Prussian war in 1866, Krakw blossomed as a multiethnic, multi-cultural and academic centre, building the first national museum and a new theatre. The city was still relatively small in terms of population, but it still had great spiritual and cultural significance for Polish people. In August 1914, the first Polish army since the mid-19th Century gathered in Krakws Meadow of Freedom, led by Jzef Pilsudski, the future Chief of State and father of independence.
Purchla also joked that to be successful in Polish politics, you must be a martyr, and confirmed this by describing how Pilsudski had been exiled to Siberia by the Russians in his early career. In the years leading up to the Second World War, Warsaw was established as the modern capital of an independent Poland, while the ancient capital of Krakw developed as an academic, cultural and spiritual centre and also the city where Pisudski was buried as a national hero. In 1939, a different chapter began, as the city of 250,000 people was captured by the Wehrmacht a few days after the start of the war. Hitler decided to make Krakw the regional capital (a bombastic huge centre like Nuremberg) and drew up plans to redesign the city, complete with new statues. After 150 years as the spiritual capital of Poland, said Purchla, the Nazis decided to change reality and history, and the Jewish population was removed to a ghetto, before being sent to the death camps, including nearby Auschwitz. This was the period depicted in the film Schindlers List, and one of the few survivors was the film director Roman Polanski. Despite the human losses and the plundering, said Purchla, Krakw was the only major Polish city to survive relatively intact from the
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War, symbolising continuity for Polish people. As the Stalinist era began, Krakw was perceived by the Soviets as a reactionary centre which they quickly set about changing by creating an entirely new Utopian city for 100,000 workers, complete with huge steelworks a symbol of Sovietisation. Purchla said this was the cause of the citys biggest disaster, with acid rain eroding the stonework and destroying the heritage so much that UNESCO described the city in 1978 as neglected and polluted and in urgent need of protection. Not all was bad, however. During this period, Krakw was also a centre of creativity, where intellectuals and artists would gather, including Edinburghs Richard Demarco. The next phase in the citys history revolved around Karol Wojtyla, who later became Pope John Paul II. Krakw became a battlefield between the church and the Soviet Union, said Purchla, and the Archbishop of Krakw led a campaign to build a new church in the city not just a symbol of religion but also of national identity. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Roman Catholic Church became stronger and an umbrella for all sorts of people. The new church of Nowa Huta, Bieczyce Basilica, was opened in 1977, and two years later John Paul II returned as Pope and held
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a mass on the Meadow of Freedom attended by 1.5 million people. In the early 1980s, Solidarity, led by Lech Walesa, also had a huge impact on Poland, and after the Pope was attacked in 1981, the human potential was awakened in Krakw as large crowds of people displayed their support and expressed their opposition to Soviet rule followed by a crackdown by the Polish leader General Jaruzelski, who declared war on his own people. The paradox, according to Purchla, was that it was the workers who led the opposition, not students or academics. And ironically, the statue of Lenin in Krakw had to be guarded by soldiers. In 1989, the bloodless revolution propelled Krakw into the modern age and, once again, Krakw was recognised as the spiritual capital of Poland, open to the world and cosmopolitan in attitude. Tourism surged, attracting up to seven million visitors a year, but the downside, said Purchla, was the coca-colaisation of Krakw and also corruption. Purchla also illustrated the internationalisation of Krakw by describing how a taxi driver, taking him to the airport in Dublin, revealed that he had bought an apartment in Krakw surely a sign of the times. Purchla concluded by describing the legacy of John Paul II the
father of independence in the modern age. When the dying Pope visited Krakw again in 2002, a crowd of 2.5 million people gathered in the Meadow of Freedom reflecting the strength of feeling among Polish people. It is impossible to understand modern Polish history, said Purchla, without
understanding the Popes contribution. And when he died soon afterwards, Krakw was crying. Finally, Purchla returned to the map of Europe, showing Krakw at the centre of a now united Europe, more connected than ever to Edinburgh and other cities.
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CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, SYMPOSIA AND DISCUSSION FORUMS

Franco-scottish Science Seminar Series: Seven Keys To The Digital Future ......................................................... 144 2nd Norway - Scotland Internal Waves Symposium ............................. 150 Conference: The Bell Rock Lighthouse, The Stevensons And Emerging Issues In Aids To Navigation ........................................ 153 What are Universities For? ................................................................... 158 Assisted Dying: The Debate. A Mock Trial ............................................ 162 Land Use: How Do We Resolve The Never Ending Conflicts? ............... 178 A Healthy Message? Understanding The History And Exploring The Future Of Public Health Campaigns In Scotland ......................................................................................... 183 Your Genes And Clinical Research: Being More Than A Guinea Pig .... 191 Trident: Should We Keep It? ................................................................ 197 Gardens In Art And Science ................................................................ 205 Whose Heritage, Whose Society? ........................................................ 219 Facing Up To Climate Change ............................................................. 224
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Franco-Scottish Science Seminar Series: Seven Keys to the Digital Future 7 October 2010
Professor Grard Berry Getting rid of bugs? Professor Grard Berry is determined to exterminate bugs and in his quest for error-free software, he is interested in many very different applications, from flightcontrol systems for airplanes and space probes to programs to cheat at Sudoku... The problem with computers, said Berry right at the start of his talk, is the gulf between computers and the people who use them. While people are clever, rigorous and slow at solving problems, computers are superfast, superexact and superstupid and this leads to a titanic fight between machines and humans. Computer science, he explained, was all about developing models and theorems to bridge the gap, but in the process there are bound to be bugs, and this is the problem that dominates computing. Bugs are only found in computing, he added, not in other disciplines such as physics, and computers are the best error amplifier ever invented sometimes leading to human as well as financial disasters.
Later, one of the audience questioned the value of testing software to the limit when the vast majority of software bugs were not mission-critical or even expensive, but Berry responded by saying that certification pays off in the long term, so it is always economical to work in better ways. Bugs are not just numerous but very expensive to fix and customers are less tolerant than they used to be when they experience failures even when it comes to basic applications such as word processing. To describe the history of bugs and the scale of the problem, Berry then quoted computing scientist pioneer Maurice Wilkes, who said in 1949 that writing a program was not quite as easy as people had thought, in terms of potential for error. In fact, the history of computing is infested with errors, and Berry gave several examples: The Zune MP3 bug (2008), caused by a problem with leap years. The Sony fat PS3 bug (March 2010), caused by a problem with the clock.
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums A Patriot missile failure (Dharan, 1991) during the Gulf War which enabled an Iraqi Scud missile to penetrate allied defences, leading to 28 deaths. A buffer overflow problem (1993) which could be a killer for peripheral drivers and was also a major headache for Microsoft, providing an entry point for malicious programs (i.e. worms) and providing a major incentive for verification of programs. The Pentium Floating Point division bug (1993) which cost Intel $475 million. A bug which caused AT&Ts telephone network to crash for ten hours in 1990. An outage at Facebook (September 2010), which caused self-denial of service. The explosion of the Ariane 5 rocket in 1996 when code originally written for the Ariane 4 led to failure. The code was useless, said Berry. The Pathfinder Mars probe (1997) which failed because of task priority inversion a solution for which had already been published but was ignored. The failure of the Spirit Mars rover (2004) due to a flash memory shortage. The Mars Orbiter crashed on the surface due to a confusion in
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the software between metric and imperial measurements (1999). The Therac-25 bug (1985 - 87) led to cancer patients being given fatal radiation overdoses, attributed to poor error management and a bad fix. A wireless security flaw which enabled hackers to access personal data on a Pacemaker (2008) After this impressive list of failures, Berry moved on to identify the major causes of bugs for example, not viewing software engineering as a central activity, using reasoning valid in one sphere which may not be valid in software, performing tests to verify what should work instead of finding what will not work, and forgetting to verify verification. The solutions, said Berry, include the use of the appropriate design tools, making everything visible (you can see a hole in the wing of a plane but you cant see a hole in software), independent reviews, systematic testing, certification, open-source communities and simulation using real targets. Full verification is very ambitious, he added, because it means complete understanding. Partial verification, or focusing on the most important properties of a system, can be very helpful when it comes to issues
like safety, he said, but compositional verification (deconstructing and reconstructing a system) is hard to achieve. One of Berrys specialist areas is avionics and his work at French company Esterel Technologies, developing SCADE, a family of products which helps with the design and development of mission- and safety-critical embedded software applications for example, aerospace and nuclear energy. Berry also claimed that SCADE can speed up verification from three weeks to only one day the kind of results he would like to transfer to the medical field. In avionics, he continued, the software should be certified as part of the plane, and the compiler at the same level as the plane. Traceability is vital, Berry added, from mapping of requirements through design and coding to integration. Berry then discussed the problems of verification, including sorting and factorial functions, induction and proving termination, and described the formal tools required to identify and eradicate errors including languages, static analysis, model checking, backward and forward analysis and theorem proving. Proofs in maths should be stupid, he said, and computers are good at that. With model checking, explicit
engines are good at checking applications like communications protocols, while implicit engines are good with applications such as circuit synthesis. Proving logic ought to be impossible, he added, and computer scientists sometimes use alchemistry rather than maths. To illustrate some of his points, Berry talked about verification of programs written to solve Sudoku problems taking one second to prove its not magic but real and quoted the famous CurryHead principle which states that computing is the same thing as proving. To summarise, Berry shared his shopping list of bug food not paying enough attention to software engineering, loose or ever-changing specifications, poor documentation, programming and verification, and poor code maintenance. His solution was simply to starve the bugs, using the appropriate design processes and tools, but even though the ultimate target is no more errors, he also hoped programmers would continue entertaining us with the bugs that we love. The lecture was entitled Getting rid of bugs? and Berry was careful to point out the importance of the question mark, because it suggested the quest to exterminate bugs was a process that would probably go on forever...
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Professor Chris Bishop FRSE Embracing uncertainty Professor Chris Bishop promised to make his talk maths-free and largely succeeded (smuggling in only a couple of formulas) in the process managing to illuminate several key mathematical and computational problems, including probability, loopy belief and how to make search engines make lots of money... If Professor Berry dealt with certainty, Bishop began, then his task was to talk about the opposite. Computers carry out their tasks in what can be decsribed as certain ways, but everyday information is all about uncertainty. To illustrate this central point, Bishop used four very different examples: how graphics software learns how to recognise different elements of photos, how to rank the members of a chess club, which ad on a web page a browser will click on and how to understand the complex causes of childhood asthma, including genetic and environmental factors. Many processes may appear random, said Bishop, but it is also possible to predict what may seem unpredictable by using clever mathematical tools. Bishops party trick to prove this is the Galton Machine a kind of mathematical Pachinko, using tiny glass beads and a series of
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pinball-like buffers which steer the beads into a row of glass tubes at the bottom. It is almost impossible to predict where any one bead will go, but if you pour thousands of beads in, they follow a very clear pattern conforming to the laws of probability according to what is called a binomial distribution curve. To gauge the probability of repeatable events, there are basically two schools of thought, said Bishop: frequentist and Bayesian logic. Frequentism is good for a problem such as predicting the flip of a coin, because it deals with the limit of an infinite number of trials, so that after a few million flips, you are likely to see heads and tails 50:50. But if you introduce a complicating factor, such as distorting the shape of the coin so heads are slightly more likely than tails and therefore harder to predict with any certainty, the problem gets harder. This is where Bayesian logic comes to the rescue, because it takes account of prior probability then updates the hypothesis in the light of new relevant data in other words, to quantify uncertainty, it learns from experience. There has been a religious war in statistics, said Bishop, but he is very much in the Bayesian camp, using Bayesian methods to develop new commercial applications.
For example, companies try to learn what people like and dislike, using a matrix of products e.g. movies to anticipate what they are likely to buy. If you like one product, you are likely to dislike a very different one, and the more data gathered, the more accurate the predictions become, despite the surprises that sometimes emerge. Bishop explained that the system used to measure likes and dislikes does not need to understand the products involved. It simply bases its analysis on data from millions of other consumers to recognise patterns. Photographs may not seem good examples of uncertainty but Bishop proved otherwise by showing how a graphics program uses Bayesian logic to cut and paste a human figure from one landscape to another by analysing probability using colour and prior knowledge to rub out the background and highlight the person. There is more to the world than just data, he said. Colour information would not be enough on its own to recognise and isolate the figure, he explained, but the system can make a refined guess to understand the different elements, using a smart probabilistic algorithm to see what is what. The data revolution, he continued, is gaining momentum. In 2007, the worlds computers stored an estimated 280 exabytes of data
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(280 billion gigabytes), and this amount is doubling every 18 months. From 2007 to 2012, we will have created more information than all the information ever created before. This means a transition in various fields from the desktop to cloud computing, applications to services, isolated data to fusion of diverse sources and from hand-crafted solutions to solutions that are learned (by machines). This pressure requires the invention of new tools to process and store all the data, including new machine intelligence based on Bayesian learning. This means combining prior knowledge and reducing the uncertainty in stages by learning and revising the analysis, then integrating predictions to get the whole picture. The other key solutions will include probabilistic graphical models, which factorise probabilities into simpler sub-sets, efficient inference, which revises predictions based on prior knowledge/ observations, using factorisation to reduce the number of steps required for computation, and other techniques such as local message passing. Bishop was driving at one of the critical problems faced by computing today the fact that if you throw a lot of problems at computers, theyll eventually come up with answers, but we dont have enough computers to solve
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums all the problems we have. In other words, theres too much data and too many tasks to perform, and current methods and systems dont scale, despite the use of clever methods such as Monte Carlo distribution. We need to get smarter and this means using strange-sounding methods like loopy belief propagation. Bishop then focused on practical problems to illustrate some of the methods required. First, he discussed the problem of ranking members of a chess club a noisy problem because the best players dont always win. To measure the probability of one player beating another, various factors have to be taken into account, assigning different strengths to different players then adjusting the rankings based on results, using Bayesian logic and intelligent methods such as expectation and deterministic propagation. Microsoft has used very similar methods to rank and matchmake 24 million users of the Xbox gaming machine, achieving what Bishop described as the worlds first planet-scale application of Bayesian methods, with Bayesian inference running in real time. Turning to search engines, Bishop explained adPredictor a system used to predict where someone visiting a web site will click on the page. This is important because although search engines may seem to be free to the user, advertisers pay for every click on their ads by entering auctions. The key problem, said Bishop, is how to measure the potential value of an ad (or probability of success) by weighing all the relevant factors involved, collecting billions of pieces of data by counting clicks and non-clicks on specific locations, then quantifying the uncertainty by using Bayesian logic to compare probability versus predicted probability, eliminating some of the uncertainties through methods like exploration trade-off. Finally, Bishop briefly touched upon his work in a study of childhood asthma, gathering the multiple factors involved, including prior knowledge, to extract rules and build up a graphical model, like the expert systems fashionable a few years ago in computing except that the title of Bishops talk seemed to suggest that the project would embrace uncertainty rather than rely on certain-sounding language such as expert to describe its approach to a complex and accelerating problem such as asthma.
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2nd Norway - Scotland Internal Waves Symposium 1-2 November 2010
The Society hosted the 2nd Norway - Scotland Internal Waves Symposium on 1-2 November 2010, under the auspices of the bilateral agreement signed in 2005 between the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (DNVA) to promote increased collaboration between the two national academies and the research communities in their respective countries. The primary focus was on the internal waves that travel on density interfaces in the ocean, where the waves present significant threats to offshore exploration and production installations and also constitute an effective agency for vertical mixing of sediment and nutrients in the water column. As the title of the symposium suggests, the event was a followup to the 1st Norway - Scotland Internal Waves Symposium, held in the DNVA premises in Oslo in October 2008 and hosted under the same agreement. Both events were directed jointly by Professors Peter Davies FRSE (University of Dundee) and John Grue DNVA (University of Oslo). The symposium received generous core support from the RSE and DNVA,
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with additional funds being supplied by The National Telford Institute, The Marine Alliance for Science & Technology for Scotland (MASTS), the Research Council of Norway and the Universities of Dundee (UK) and Oslo (Norway). Participation was by invitationonly, with the primary objective of bringing together research groups in Scotland and Norway (i) to consider the present scope of internal waves research activity in the individual countries, (ii) to explore new bi- or multi-lateral collaborative research projects involving Norwegian and Scottish scientists and (iii) to extend and strengthen existing cross-national collaborations. An important consideration was the need to attract to the symposium the leading international figures in internal wave research, to ensure the highest quality level for the event and to promote informed discussions of future directions in the subject. In total, 50 scientists contributed to the symposium, with 15 Scottish participants (from the universities of Dundee, St Andrews, Edinburgh, Strathclyde and Aberdeen and the Scottish Association for Marine Science
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums (SAMS)) and 12 Norwegian participants (from the universities of Oslo and Bergen and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute), as well as leading scientists from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Iceland, the Netherlands, Germany, Chile and China. Programme Monday 1 November 2010 Generation of the internal tide on the Australian North West Shelf. G N Ivey, N L Jones, M D Rayson & C E Bluteau Global modelling of internal tides. S D Griffiths Internal run-up. J Grue The run-up of interfacial waves on a plane beach: A Lagrangian approach. P L-F Liu & I-C Chan Oblique solitary waves, stationary patterns and run-up. G K Pedersen Mass transport in the Stokes interfacial edge wave. J E H Weber & E Stylen Initial boundary value problems for the Korteweg-de Vries equation. T R Marchant & N F Smythe On determining profiles of the buoyancy frequency. N. T Gerkema Internal hydraulic jumps over coral reefs in the Sea of Hebrides. M E Inall & D L Aleynik Modelling the influence of smallscale topography upon internal wave generation. A M Davies & J Xing Internal waves in weakly-stratified, sub-arctic Lake Lagarfljt. H Andradttir Seasonal variation of internal solitary waves in a large lake. M B Preusse, F Peeters & H Freisthler Evolution and degeneration of nonlinear internal waves in long narrow basins. L Boegman Tuesday 2 November 2010 The generation of internal waves in Luzon Strait and their nonlinear transformation. L Qiang & D M Farmer Multimodal structure of baroclinic tides in the South China Sea. N M Stashchuk & V I Vlasenko AUV observations of mixing in the tidal outflow from a Scottish sea loch. T Boyd, M E Inall, E Dumont & C Griffiths Lee waves and bores: the complex tidal phenomena of the MidAtlantic Ridge. A C Dale & M E Inall Atmospheric lee-wave patterns in the wakes of islands and capes revealed by modulations of sea surface roughness. B N Gjevik, K-F Dagestad & J A Johannessen Lee waves: new understanding of a classical problem. S B Dalziel, M D Patterson, C P Caulfield & S Le Brun
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Gravity currents in a stratified ambient fluid. P F Linden Numerical studies of small scale eddies in tidal inlets. J Berntsen & H Avlesen Near-bottom instabilities under nonlinear internal waves of depression. P J Diamessis Pseudo-spectral simulations of internal wave-bottom boundary layer interaction. M M Stastna & C Subich A numerical study of shearinduced instabilities in internal solitary waves. M Carr, S E King & D G Dritschel
Numerical simulations of internal solitary wave-induced flow in the benthic boundary layer. Thiem, M Carr, J Berntsen & P A Davies The effect of rotation on internal solitary waves. R H J Grimshaw, K R Helfrich & E R Johnson 3D shoaling of large-amplitude internal solitary waves. V I Vlasenko & N M Stashchuk Dynamic response of floating structures in incident internal waves. H Q Zhang & J Li
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Conference The Bell Rock Lighthouse, the Stevensons and Emerging Issues in Aids to Navigation Friday 4 February 2011 In partnership with the Northern Lighthouse Board Supported by Inchcape Shipping Services A full report (ISBN: 978 0 902198 41 8) is available on the RSE website The Past: Bell Rock and the Stevensons Lighthouses Before the Bell Rock. Dr Alison Morrison-Low, Principal Curator, History of Scientific Instruments and Photography, National Museums Scotland. From antiquity there were lighthouses to be found around the European coastline, the most famous being one of the Seven Wonders, the Pharos of Alexandria, known from Plinys description and probably dating from the third century BC. There is an argument that the tower was never lit, being merely a daymarker of stupendous size to guide ships crossing the Mediterranean into the safety of the harbour; that the tower existed is certain, as bits of masonry are regularly recovered. in Scotland, where the coastline is longer and much more hazardous, harbour beacons are known to have been established at Leith (1553) and Aberdeen (1566). Most trade was carried out from the east coast royal burghs, and although comparatively safe for mariners, seaborne traffic had to negotiate the hazards of the notorious Inchcape Reef, the rocks and islands of the river Forth, and the shifting sandbanks of the Tay estuary. The first lighthouse was established in the Forth on the summit of the Isle of May in 1636, using a coal-burning beacon set on a two-storey tower. At the mouth of the Tay, a pair of leading lights were set up on the north shore in 1687, which, when lined up by an approaching ships pilot, would guide the vessel safely past the sandbanks there. The Bell Rock from Ralph the Rover to the 1st Earl of Inchcape. Peter Mackay CB, Former Commissioner, Northern Lighthouse Board. This conference is benefiting from generous sponsorship from Inchcape Shipping Services, in recognition of their debt to James Lyle Mackay, the first Lord Inchcape. He took his title in 1911 from the Inchcape Rock, as the Bell Rock used to be known. So what prompted a man who scaled the highest eminences of public
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life, had been offered the Viceroyship of India, refused the throne of Albania, and dominated world shipping for more than 20 years, to take his first title from an obscure offshore rock not even in British territorial waters some 12 miles from his birthplace? As a boy in Arbroath, where he was born in 1852, he had been exposed to the legends and history surrounding the Rock, and to the constant wonder in his home town of the Lights flashing presence on the horizon. First: The Legend. Ralph the Rover, the eponymous (pirate) hero of Robert Southeys poem, first appears on the scene in a 16th-Century account, although if he lived at all it must have been much earlier, in pre-Reformation times. A Grand Design Creation of the Bell Rock Lighthouse 1807 1811. Professor Roland Paxton MBE FRSE, School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University, Institution of Civil Engineers Panel for Historical Engineering Works. The Bell Rock Lighthouse, Scotland, off Arbroath, ranks as one of the seven wonders of the industrial world and is the worlds oldest sea-washed rock lighthouse in continuous service. It was built in stone between 1807 and 1811, is 36 m (118 ft) high, sits 11 miles out to sea on a rock surface up to 5 m (16 ft) below high water and cost 61,331. The lighthouses
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height and extraordinary exposure called for a grand design which was achieved by the eminent civil engineers John Rennie and Robert Stevenson under their respective Northern Lighthouse Board appointments of December 1806 as Chief Engineer and assistant or resident engineer (for executing the work under his superintendence). The Stevensons in New Zealand. Helen Beaglehole, Author of Lighting the Coast: A History of New Zealands Coastal Lighthouse System Shipping has always underpinned New Zealands development. Yet even today the countrys isolation, its inhospitable coastline, treacherous barred harbours and unseasonal gales can mean making landfall or traversing the coast a precarious enterprise. Todays mariners have an array of navigational aids. In the early days of the colony, what navigational aids there were, were rudimentary and unreliable; constitutional issues and lack of finance bedevilled proposals for lighthouse construction. However, by the early 1860s, two of the provincial governments had each built a lighthouse and two others had their own installations underway. Central government, clawing back control, established a Marine Board. This, responsible for coastal lighthouse construc-
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums tion and maintenance, took over the provincial initiatives. In 1863 the Otago Provincial Council appointed James Balfour as its marine engineer. He was a member of the Stevenson family, trained, in part, in the family business. He rapidly began to make his mark. In 1866 he was appointed the countrys colonial marine engineer and superintendent of lighthouses. The History of Lighthouse Optics. Julia Elton, Past-President, Newcomen Society. Augustin Fresnel is rightly celebrated as the inventor of the stepped refracting glass lens, which revolutionised lighthouse optics. He built up his lens in separate pieces, achieving the effect of a solid lens without any problems of thickness, weight or size limit. Furthermore, he was able to calculate the form of each refracting ring to ensure that the maximum amount of light was sent out in the desired direction. Previously, light was parallelised into a beam via a metallic parabolic reflector and a number of these, each with its own lamp, would be placed on a framework. Fresnel placed a single lamp within a cage of glass lenses and prisms, either of octagonal form with panels of lenses and refracting rings set vertically (revolving light), or in a refractor like a jam jar, with a distinctive deep central belt and refracting rings lying horizontally (fixed light). Remembering Lighthouses. Virginia Mayes-Wright, Director, Museum of Scottish Lighthouses, Fraserburgh. Who we are, our identity, is shaped by our history. As a population we have become more mobile, families travel and connections are severed. But this does not mean that we are uninterested in our past. It makes that past more relevant, giving us a narrative to our lives. This narrative might involve a place to be from, an industry to have been part of, or a tradition to retell. For those of us who do not live around older generations of our families, who do not hear the stories of our past, our desire is to hunt for and reclaim that past as our own. But why is it important to remember lighthouses? Lighthouses are part of public imagination, used for marketing as symbols of the sea side, a lonely life and a romantic idyll. Visitors to The Museum of Scottish Lighthouses in Fraserburgh often ask whether lighthouses are still operating. With these concepts in the general population, and the increase in interest in family history, not just tracing ancestors but finding out how they lived, the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses has never had a more important job.
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The Present and the Future: Modern Aids to Navigation. The Northern Lighthouse Board Today. Roger Lockwood CB, Chief Executive, Northern Lighthouse Board. 234 years after its foundation, the Northern Lighthouse Board continues to deliver a reliable, efficient and cost-effective network of aids to navigation for the benefit and safety of all Mariners in the waters off Scotland and the Isle of Man. Although Robert Stevenson, the creator of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, and his descendants would recognise many of the lighthouses still in use today, they would not recognise the light sources and equipment within them, ranging from light emitting diodes (LEDs) to the automatic Identification system. The provision of marine Aids to navigation has moved on, and continues to do so.The Northern Lighthouse Board today operates over 200 lighthouses. They are all automated and monitored from a single monitor centre in the Boards Headquarters in Edinburgh and many of them are solarised. Modern light sources, still coupled in some cases with the original Fresnel lenses, ensure that accurate navigational support is given to the mariner, and solarisation, in addition to being a very efficient source of renewable energy, has allowed the removal
of maintenance heavy generator equipment. The Board also manages over 150 buoys which are all solarised. Training the Modern Submariner. Commander Andrew Bower, Royal Navy, Commanding Officer UK Submarine Command Course. The lighthouse may seem an irrelevance to the modern submariner. Operating a unit equipped with modern navigation systems, supported by a high level of system redundancy, it would appear that a lighthouse would provide little extra utility. Yet submarine navigators are extremely familiar with lighthouses and other navigation marks on the west coast of Scotland. The aim of this talk was simply to explain why this is the case. The Science of Lighthouse Optics. Professor Andrew C Walker FRSE, Deputy Principal and Professor of Modern Optics, Heriot-Watt University. The ultimate aim in lighthouse optics is, quite simply, to create as bright as possible an image of the light source on the horizon. To achieve this, two requirements have to be satisfied: (i) the image needs to be of the correct size, so as to concentrate the light into a designated area, and (ii) as much as possible of the light leaving the source (i.e. from the lamp) needs to be captured so as to efficiently contribute to this image. Because
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums the light sources (oil lamps) used by the 19th-Century lighthouse pioneers were relatively large, the first requirement translated into the need to make the image on the horizon as small as they could manage. Basic optics tells us that, when a lens (or curved mirror) is used to create an image of a light source, the size of that image is simply proportional to the lens-toimage distance divided by the lens-to-source distance. With a 20-mile range, a 10-cm lamp can easily be wasting most of its light by illuminating the sky above the horizon as far as 3 km in height. The fraction entering the mariners pupil would then be miniscule. New Stars to Sail By. Professor David Last, Immediate PastPresident, Royal Institute of Navigation. The stars have been guides for generations of seafarers as they explored new worlds. Once sailors began to understand the movements of the stars, they learned how to set their courses by them. When chronometers brought accurate time to mariners worldwide, skilled navigators could estimate their latitudes and longitudes, fixing their positions by clock, sextant and star sight. Now we have new stars: the manmade earth satellites of the global positioning system (GPS) move slowly across the heavens, twinkling with a precision unimaginable to earlier navigators. They tell us our location on Earth with an accuracy of metres and the time to within a millionth of a second. These navigation satellites transmit radio signals marked at precisely-known instants. By picking up the transmissions and measuring the times of arrival of these markers, a GPS receiver determines how long the signals have taken to reach it, travelling at the speed of light. That way, it calculates its distance from each satellite and so its own location on earth.
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RSE Discussion Supper What are universities for? 28 March 2011
To set the context for this Discussion Supper, Lord Sutherland of Houndwood KT FBA FRSE spoke about Higher Education in Britain over the last 60 years, and Sir Colin Lucas spoke about universities current role and how could it evolve. To encourage frank discussion thereafter amongst the 48 invited participants, the meeting took place under Chatham House rules. Hence, the comments noted below are not attributed to specific individuals; nor do they necessarily reflect the views of all present, or those of the RSE. It was noted that over the last 50 years the UK system has: - significantly expanded twice and, in so doing, has greatly increased diversity in the sector - moved to formulaic funding - shifted from a pure public benefit to charging significant fees for at least some students - moved from catering for a very modest proportion of the population to almost half which has implications for meeting the costs of the system
- introduced major differences in the principles of funding for students resident in the different UK nations - modified, largely through the RAE and its associated funding, the balance of emphasis on research (more) and on teaching (less) - sustained the dual support system of funding councils and research councils - placed heavy emphasis on the public funding of big science and engineering, but posed recent and substantial questions over the humanities and social science - been used by the government as a means of repelling the threat of displacement from globalisation and the knowledge economy. The question What are universities for?, raised a number of other questions, including: - What are universities? - What should the taxpayer expect from universities? - What kind of university system do we want?
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums - What is the current role of universities and how do we think this should evolve? - Who is the we whose wishes should prevail? Core functions of universities include the creation and transmission of knowledge together with its integration into society. The aim is for individuals to acquire the understanding of the natural and social world, and of ourselves and the differences among us. This is necessary for globalisation and the knowledge economy, but at the individual human level it enables citizens to engage in rational argument, seek meaning and be sceptical, reflective and capable of operating in our interconnected world. Furthermore, we require some breadth in the education we provide such as ensuring that future scientists have a grounding in economics. Although relatively flexible (to the envy of some other countries), UK universities are not good at defining what they do and, despite retention of their autonomy being very important, society needs a return on its investment. The assumption that the role of the universities is to boost the economy was questioned. It was suggested that the system, as part of the service sector with relevance to big business, can contribute to such an aim, but cannot be the sole driver for sustained change in national prosperity. The associated priorities for business schools, links with industry, vocational training, spin-off companies and patents carries the risk of distorting the breadth of knowledge and basic education for which the universities are responsible. However, universities also have a responsibility to be flexible and adaptable in ways that ensure they continue to be responsive to societys needs. The diverse nature of institutions suggests it would be dangerous to overgeneralise how this would be done. Nonetheless, although they do not form a unified system, there is a need to agree what they have in common and speak as a sector. There are dangers in reducing everything to very local specifics. Despite making clear that this was not an occasion to focus on funding, there was significant reference to, and discussion of, the financial circumstances currently faced. Funding related comments included: - Governments have traditionally had concern for science research, but how will the arts and humanities be funded? - Is it appropriate for governments to make decisions to fund specific things e.g. Alzheimers?
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- Where is the funding for big research (e.g. on energy) in the long term? - In a diverse system of universities, what are the implications for the concentration of funding? - Higher education in Scotland appears to have a social contract a free right - A year has been lost in the debate on funding in Scotland and three of the four main political parties have taken decisions that rule out student contributions to the cost of their higher education. - Whilst there are important issues to be determined in relation to the long term vitality of universities in Scotland there are short-term funding imperatives that must be addressed now. Universities are essentially working with a 9-month budget to plan 4 years of undergraduate education. - The University Principals have made little contribution to the debate, largely because they are not in agreement with each other. The issues that would have to be faced by universities included: - How can the global, national and local needs of society be served, possibly in combination, by the system?
- Will global needs be the responsibility of a small number of large research intensive universities/institutions, while others serve more local needs? - How should Scotlands universities fit into the global system? Indeed, what should be the relationship between Scotlands universities and the UK system? - It seems clear that universities need direction but where should that direction come from? - Given that universities will be diverse, who makes the decisions about how they should be differentiated? - What are the implications for the increasing concentration of funding? Research is increasingly being determined by those who fund it. - While collaboration among institutions is generally greeted with approval, how will this be achieved in practice and how can it be balanced with flexibility? - How can more emphasis in the discourse about universities be shifted back on to teaching (which is what the taxpayers believe they are paying for)? - How do we construe the skills that are appropriate for individuals to acquire for operating in our modern world (these are not crude employment skills)?
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums - In educating 50% of the people are we over-educating some, are too many school pupils wanting to go to university and are we clear about what people need? - Should we reconsider the future of the 4 year degree and look at more flexible delivery mechanisms for different students or professional requirements? - Should we go back to polytechnics or introduce specialist institutes and networks which might not be contained within universities? - Does this discourse take proper account of issues of social justice and access? - How does the future of universities sit in relation to the school and college sectors? Does there need to be a consideration of the entire education continuum when thinking about the future of universities? - Is cross-border education likely to continue into the future or will people across the world attend universities in their own countries? In relation to the we involved in decision making, the RSE was encouraged to take an initiative to sustain its involvement, offer a protected locus for academics to say what they think and involve more women currently women are poorly represented in the senior positions that characterise participants at this seminar. There is also a need to reach out to a much wider audience to ensure that people understand what Higher Education is and what it means to Scotland. In conclusion There seemed to be agreement that Scottish universities are at a critical point in their development, but the nature and depth of any change has yet to be determined. We need to advance where we can. We cant solve all the problems that face us.
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Assisted Dying: The Debate. A Mock Trial 30 March 2011
What are the fundamental underlying core (neither medical nor legal) arguments for and against assisted dying/suicide? The perfect philosophical position supposes a situation where there is a guarantee that the law will never be abused and that the means of suicide will implicate no one other than the person who desires to end her/his life. Can viewing the subject from a philosophical perspective help clinicians, lawyers and policy makers make better-informed decisions? Dr Richard Holloway introduced the days proceedings by referring to John Rawls famous philosophical text A Theory of Justice which described a concept known as the Veil of Ignorance, whereby Rawls supposed that if a person were to develop a new society from a blank slate, unaware of what his position in that society would be, then the results would be a more humane and equitable type of society. Dr Holloway stated in wanting to debate the subject of assisted dying, realising just how difficult and how emotional subject it is, we wondered if there was a way to focus the debate on
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the pure philosophical issue. If you could develop a way of enabling assisted dying that was beyond abuse, beyond implicating others, what are the arguments for and against doing it? The following conference report is split into sections relating to each presenter, followed immediately by a summary of the associated discussion and question and answer session. Baroness Mary Warnock Philosopher. Is it ever justifiable to help someone to die, who wants to die and who is dying? Those most opposed to assisted dying, on the whole, speak from the point of view of Christian, Muslim or Jewish faiths and rely on the argument that human life is sacred. They believe that life is a gift from God and, as such, only God has the right to take it away. However, Baroness Warnock ascertains that those who rely on the sanctity of life argument to oppose assisted dying, very quickly move on to other arguments to support their beliefs, namely that assisted dying is open to abuse and that drafting a law to enable this would have negative affects on society.
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Baroness Warnock believes that a change in the law is necessary if we are to move to a position where someone who helps someone to die is not prosecuted. Therefore the question of how to draft the law immediately becomes extremely important. The question of whether the law should be changed is itself a philosophical question of seminal importance, namely a question of how to balance what may be the interest of an individual person against the common good. Baroness Warnock continued by concentrating of the question of whether it is ever right to concede to somebodys express wishes, and often those of their family, when they are dying and make their deaths both sooner, shorter and more tolerable than if we didnt intervene. In discussing this issue, Baroness Warnock drew our attention to the word dying and the fact that many people, particularly those in the medical professions, find it difficult to use the term and indeed, to discuss death at all. If you are in this position you know, and doctors and nurses must also know, that there comes a moment when someone is dying, they are not dead, but they are dying. It seems that there is a moment when whether the person who is dying recognises it themselves and asks to be helped or whether they are so miserable and so barely aware that they cant articulate this but have previously articulated their wish to never to get into this condition, in either of those situations it seems to me that compassion demands that we do not continue to keep them alive. Alternative methods to assisted suicide can be used to bring about eventual death, including withdrawing food, hydration and nutrition. However, such methods may result in a slow lingering death that can take weeks and be particularly painful for the individuals family and friends. Baroness Warnock does not believe allowing someone to die in this way to be a particularly morally admirable attitudesomeone who is dying in hospital may be subjected to the kind of suffering that we would never allow to occur in a civilised country, with all the ways of administering medicine that we have, all the amazing things we can now do, I think that we would never, if we thought about it properly, think of letting someone suffer as much as some of these dying people in hospital do suffer. As such, compassion rather than law or religion should govern how we treat people who are dying. At the point where a person no longer values his own life, is this not the moment when we can raise the question of whether they
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should be helped to die? I dont think it helps us philosophically or practically to think that life itself is what we value, what we value is a human being who is enjoying using and rejoicing in his life. Baroness Warnock considers that in certain circumstances suicide or assisted dying is rational and for some, is the only hope. We must not think that assisting someone to die means we do not value human life as a whole, of course we value the human beings who are alive, but humans who hate their lives or who are conscious of the fact that it is a very short life and absolutely horrible with nothing to be said for it, undignified, then I see no moral reason why we ought not to help them attain that which they wish. I am not saying that I think it is alright, I am saying that it is right and I think that is a philosophical question that we have to debate today. Professor Sir Graeme Catto, Professor in Medicine and Former President of the GMC Professor Catto alerted the audience to the fact that the medical profession is not as knowledgeable about assisted dying as it perhaps ought to be, stating that many doctors do not actually care for terminally-ill patients and, therefore, do not speak from personal experience. He continued by defining the range of patients considered
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within this presentation, I am talking about patients who have about six months to a year or less, who are adults and mentally competent at a time when they are going to make a decision about assisted suicide. Legislation has been in place in a number of European countries for a number of years and therefore there is a lot of data relating to the classification of patients who seek information on assisted suicide. In the United Kingdom this is about 1000 per year. Larger numbers express an initial interest, but very few actually take advantage of it. The reassurance that many people seek is that were the situation to become intolerable then they would have a way out. Many people who do have a fatal illness dont wish to lose what enjoyment they have, but would like to know that if life did become intolerable, we have a way out when we are frail and unable to take advantage of the arrangements that able-bodied people can. Professor Catto explained that there is a huge paradox in that suicide in itself is not illegal but assisting suicide is illegal, in Scotland and England. In contrast, murder and robbery are also both illegal however, if you assist someone in this you too are guilty. Public opinion is overwhelmingly in favour of assisted dying.
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Opinion polls collated over the last 20 years show somewhere between 75% and 80% of the UK population is in favour of assisted dying. That is to say, they are in favour in terms of mentally competent adults, who have a limited life expectancy and have a fatal illness, making this decision. However, when other groups of patients are brought in to consideration, for example those with considerable disability but perhaps not an immediately lifethreatening illness, then public opinion begins to dissipate. Professor Catto also noted that doctors and other health care professionals are also less likely to be supportive. One reason for this is the change in the role of the General Practitioner, whereby the tradition of looking after a patient through all stages of life has moved to being a more distant relationship and towards issues of life expectancy rather than quality of life. Additionally, one reason why many doctors do not discuss dying in the depth patients might wish is that the conversation might lead directly into a cul-desac, the doctor can do absolutely nothing if the patient says actually I would like my life to be shortened. Voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal under the Suicide Act of 1961. The Director of Public Prosecutions in England subsequently clarified the rules on what would make prosecution in England more likely or less likely and the medical defence organisations interpreted these findings to mean that any healthcare professionals discussion with a patient about shortening their life might lead to prosecution and therefore this discussion should not be entered in to. The lack of General Medical Council (GMC) guidance on the issue of assisted suicide is hugely important to doctors. The GMC has a broad remit to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public by ensuring proper standards in the practice of medicine. Professor Catto explains why the GMC has no position on assisted suicide. The GMC has a statutory duty to give ethical guidance to doctors and it is the kind of ethical guidance that they cant easily refuse to obey if they ignore it or disobey there may be sanctions on their licence. The GMC has no authority to determine public policy on these issues this is a matter which will have to be debated by Parliament and any attempt by a Council to give that kind of guidance goes way beyond its current remit. Regulators are absolutely not representative bodies and certainly do not represent the views of the doctors and dont represent the views of the patient or public either. The GMC, though, expects
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doctors to adhere to the law and the law is explicitly clear that you cannot be involved in assisting suicide in this country at the present time. Professor Catto noted that the GMCs guidance has become increasingly liberal over the years; recent guidance indicates increasing patient choice, but not up to the point where assisted dying is yet possible. I also think the debate has been complicated by a whole series of cases in the press, so instead of looking and focusing on a small number of readily defined cases, we get problems with young people who are paraplegic after rugby injuries are they eligible for assisted suicide or not? Not in any sense terminally ill, but they are distressed by their illness. Some of these people have gone to Switzerland within a year of receiving that injury. It is not clear to me if that is an appropriate use of assisted suicide, I also think that those people who are tired of life, I am unsure if that is what I would want the law to be changed for. The question Professor Catto raised is whether it is any surprise that doctors dont take the risk Why should they put their heads above the parapet and be pilloried by a large number of the population who dont agree, when the
law is against them and the GMC is against them and the Medical Defence organisations are positively advising them not to? I think if you are at the end of the syringe then there is a horrible reality about the finality of death many of us as completely ignorant as to what would be best practice. It may be that suicide is relatively easy; actually, as a physician, I can tell you that I have seen lots of people that have attempted suicide and it didnt seem that easy to them. Professor Catto ended by stating that he believes that one day Parliament will allow some form of assisted suicide. Arguments against assisted suicide are usually the slippery slope, purporting that they start off with a small clearly defined group of patients and if it is good for them then its good for others who dont quite fit in to that definition. There is absolutely no evidence from other countries that this actually happens. Another issue is that it will be the people who cant actually express their own views that will be cajoled into this end of life arrangement; again, countries involved in this show the opposite. Finally, I genuinely believe if the law were to be changed it would not cause insurmountable problems for the medical profession any more than in other countries.
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Professor Kenneth Boyd Medical Ethicist and Theologian Professor Boyd reflected that not so long ago people got sick and died within a matter of days or weeks. Today, the great success of modern medicine means that acute causes of death are transformed into chronic illnesses and now people grow old and accumulate diseases for a long time before they die. He describes this situation as elderly people inching towards oblivion with small losses every few weeks or months. This is the demographic and epidemiological context that theological perspectives on assisted dying now need to address but, as Professor Boyd ascertains, this isnt easy. It is not just that the Bible has little to say about the modern medical progress, it is also that the Bible, in common with other religious texts, offers little or no unambiguous guidance on the ethics of suicide. It is only later in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions that theological perspectives on the question developed. These perspectives needed to be developed to distinguish suicide from martyrdom and were arrived at by interpreting a limited number of references to suicide in sacred texts. These were interpreted not only according to theological views, but also with regard to social and culture assumptions of the time. In this presentation, Professor Boyd sought to concentrate on how Christian theological perspectives on suicide developed, how they were challenged and how they might address the contemporary context. It is generally agreed that Christian objections to suicide were consolidated in the early 5th Century by St Augustine. He argued that suicide went against the Commandment not to kill, that it was cowardly and that it deprived the sinner of a chance to repent. His theological perspective of suicide was generally accepted in the Christian church for the rest of the first millennium. Eight centuries after St Augustine, Thomas Aquinas refined the churchs position. Aquinas taught that it was unlawful to kill oneself for three reasons: these being that suicide was contrary to natural law; that it injured the community to which the suicide belonged; and because life was a gift from God it deprived God of his property and power to decide about life and death Aquinas views were challenged by John Donnes Biathanotus in the 17th Century. He looked back beyond St Augustine to the other Fathers of the church, and particularly to the scriptures. Donne discovered far more equivocal views on the subject
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and, moreover, he found Aquinas stance lacking. Donne believed Aquinas first argument relating to natural law to be too sweeping. He considered that in so much as there is a natural desire to keep ourselves alive, there is also a natural desire of dying, often expressed in scripture and by saints and martyrs. Aquinas second and third arguments, Donne again thought too sweeping. He did not deny that some suicides harmed their community and that Gods gifts could be misused, but whether or not there was harm or misuse in a particular case, Donne said, was a matter for conscience to determine in light of the intentions, motives and circumstances of the case. It was for conscience to decide whether suicide was committed for selfinterested motives or, a rather daring point, as in Christs own case, as an act of self-sacrifice. Professor Boyd explained that a challenge to the idea that suicide was morally impermissible came a century later in David Humes essay on the subject. He argued in a Utilitarian vein that whether the persons suicide harmed the community somewhat depended upon what he still had to offer the community. Hume suggested this may be very little and may eventually be outweighed by his continuing life becoming a burden not only to the community but also to himself. Regarding Aquinas arguments based on
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natural law, Hume interprets these as if they referred to causal laws of nature which humans break all the time by preventing themselves from harmful natural events. Hume also argued that if Providence really is sovereign nothing can happen without Providences consent and so neither does a persons death, however voluntary, happen without its consent. Hume even goes so far as to claim that if a man takes his own life because of his misery but at the same time sincerely thanks God both for the good which I have enjoyed and for the power which I am endowed of escaping the ills that threaten me how can that be evil. While the arguments of Hume and Donne were challenged on various grounds by subsequent theologians and philosophers, they eventually helped to make the unequivocal Augustinian condemnation of suicide seem increasingly untenable. This in time contributed to the decriminalisation of suicide. Professor Boyd notes that today even the Catholic Church, while it condemns the act of euthanasia as a violation of the divine law and an offence against the dignity of the human person, a crime against life and an attack on humanity, nevertheless speaks of the agent in a vein reminiscent of medicalisation when it states that in cases of prolonged or barely tolerable pain, the guilt of the suffering
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums individual may be reduced or be made completely absent. Not even Hume, however, went so far as to say that every suicide could be morally justified. Professor Boyd stated that the view that anyone has the moral right to end their own life at any time and for whatever reason is difficult to defend. The moral community needs at the very least to be satisfied that the agent is autonomous in the principal Kantian sense of acting only after having duly considered the reasonableness of his intentions and in the light of the circumstances and the likely consequences. The moral community clearly cannot always prevent the virtuous of this world or those overcome by social shame that others consider trivial from ending their own lives prematurely, but it normally feels entitled to withhold moral approval if only to discourage imitation by others. What of the circumstances such as those envisaged by Hume where of an autonomous individual has duly considered the reasonableness of his intentions and motives in the light of the circumstances..? That perhaps is how some of those I mentioned at the outset, inching towards oblivion with small losses every few weeks or months, may see themselves and decide autonomously in their case that suicide or euthanasia is morally justified. Would seeing
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their situation in a theological perspective make any difference to this decision? In trying to answer this question, Professor Boyd quoted a doctor: our current conceptual apparatus for thinking about the ethics of the end of life care betrays a lack of social understanding that is illustrated by our use in the language of decision making and law more often than that of spiritual journey and psychological meaning. Professor Boyd believes that a theological perspective probably makes little difference when, in a pluralistic society, a person decides that in their case suicide or euthanasia is morally justified. We do not live in a theocracy but in an elective democracy, where the views which persuade the largest public prevail and that public may well be duly persuaded that the potential risks of legalising euthanasia, as previously of decriminalising suicide, are outweighed by the justice of respecting individual autonomy. It is rather in what happens next, whether or not society decides to legalise euthanasia, that a theological perspective may make a difference and do so in terms of what the doctor calls the language of spiritual journey and psychological meaning. The difference that a theological perspective may make is not so much in how the autonomous
individual sees their decision, as in how they see the world and themselves. Professor Boyd quoted Iris Murdoch, who once observed that how we see, how we attend to reality and ourselves in between explicit moral choices is crucial. If we consider what the work of attention is like, how continuously it goes on and how imperceptibly it builds up structures of value around us, we shall not be surprised that at crucial moments of choice, most of the business of choosing is already over. Attention to reality and to ourselves Murdoch argues is necessary especially to liberate us from fantasy. She suggests the religious believer, especially if his God is conceived of as a person, is in the fortunate position of being able to focus his thought upon something which is a source of good energy. Professor Boyd states that with if attending on God enables one to avoid fantasies about God as well as about oneself, a theological perspective on suicide, and importantly on what leads up to considering suicide, may help individuals make decisions that are more and not less autonomous Not all theological perspectives, however, are benign, telling others that suffering can be good for them betrays the truth of what it argues and while religion can be life enhancing it can also be the
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opposite. Having a Theological Perspective on life and death moreover does not mean that at the end of a long life it is wrong to decide that one has had enough. It would be wrong of me to omit that just because it is culturally unfashionable, that a theological perspective also speaks of the incalculable dimension of eternity. Todays perfect philosophical situation where the means to commit suicide will implicate no other person seems to be not just practically but logically impossible. Lord Sutherland FRSE Philosopher of Religion Lord Sutherland opened discussions by stating that, rather than discussing autonomy, freedom, rights and justice, he would be exploring two concepts, those of body and death and the connection between these. He purports that, in western society, we do not talk enough about death and often use humour to deal with a subject we find difficult to handle. Lord Sutherland also drew attention to the distinction between the very strict social rules and laws about what you can do to other peoples bodies and the lack of these relating to what we can do to our own bodies. Ludwig Wittgenstein stated Death is not an event in life. Its
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums not part of your history, it is part of the chronicle of the matter out of which you are made but its not an event in your life. Lord Sutherland took this statement to mean that there is an ultimate nature about death that raises questions about appropriate behaviour towards the body. Whereas it is ok to cut the fingernails off, it is appalling to pull them off. These are events in life but if in fact it is assisting with the cessation of life, then that is a different order of things. Lord Sutherland explained that the concepts of body and death in assisted dying belong to a much wider complex of concepts, practices and behaviours and even of words. What is the context in which these words are used? They belong to the context of relationships between people; assisted dying is a relationship between individual persons. To assist in dying is to enter into a very particular relationship, it is more than being an instrument, it involves having a relationship with the individual. To assist in dying is not like assisting in other ways, it is assisting in the end game by providing the ultimate service and in this way is not like any other relationship between persons. Lord Sutherland suggested that whilst depression and illness are all states of the body, so is death, but it has an ultimacy about it that none of the other words have. To
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assist in dying is a very complex, subtle, difficult notion where clarification, much as we would like it, is not easy and straightforward. Indeed, possibly being overly clear about it is not appropriate. Lord Sutherland considered philosopher Peter Strawsons Freedom and Resentment lecture for clarification on the issue of assisted dying. Strawsons lecture contrasts the range of attitudes of involvement or participation in the human relationship, some that we would characterise as objective, whereby you stand back and take account of the situation and conversely those attitudes that are purely reactive. He states that, A sustained objectivity of interpersonal attitude and of the human isolation which that would entail does not seem to be something of which human beings would be capable even if theoretically you could prove it to be appropriate. Trying to be wholly objective about human beings, consistently, universally and without exception, is probably impossible. People will still get angry, they will still be given pleasure by seeing what friends and relatives achieve and that is being reactive not objective. Examples of the failure of the wholly objective attitude can be seen in literature including Albert Camus LEtranger, the main character in which has no discern-
able reactive attitudes, producing a degree of human isolation. Lord Sutherland considered that being involved in the death of another person in a non-passive way, wholly objectively, is at the far extreme of interpersonal relationships. In Strawsons terms, to be an assistant to dying involves at least to some extent replacing normal reactive human relationships with an objective attitude to the human being. You have to change the relationship otherwise I dont think you could do it. I agree it is more complex than this but to be involved in the death of another does bring about and require changes. So what is an objective attitude in this context? Clearly, some people have to be wholly objective about death and being involved in the death of others, for example, in times of war, and this suggests a degree of capacity to step back from the normal reactive human relationships. This is even more the case for those involved in calculated murder, torture and even in surgery, where your emotions cannot get involved. Lord Sutherland suggests that there are cases where the objective and reactive attitudes come in to conflict, for example, Tolstoys War and Peace describes a young soldier in the midst of war who sees his enemy as a human being.
Additionally, Styrons novel Sophies Choice tells of a tragic choice between two unbearable options. These are all extreme cases and examples, the stuff of tragedy, but Lord Sutherland ascertains that this concept of tragedy needs to be brought in to the discussion to be able to appreciate what it does to personal relationships. People driven to despair often get involved in assisted suicide. This is often how it is for the mother or the carer, driven to despair by the circumstances. Lord Sutherland notes pity, tragedy and sainthood are often not words used in the discussion of assisted dying which is considered to be a clinical, social or legal matter. But this is the stuff of tragedy, there is a collision of emotions and reactions; guilt, shame, horror at what is being done or what one is involved in. Assisted dying requires the fracturing of the normality of human personal relationships. As shown by Strawson we cannot see this event as if it were an objective activity. Assisted dying can be the ultimate expression of compassion but we should not underestimate what it does to the individual involved. It will doubtless in most circumstances cause pain and possibly damage to the person who assists. It can require or elicit a kind of objectification which
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums could, if it became a tendency in an individual, become dangerous. Lord Sutherland finished by posing the questions, Can we have a law governing this which is universal in its permissions and compassionate? Or can we have a just law which gives ultimate discretion to the prosecutor and which refuses to attempt to define all possible cases?, indicating he would be inclined to support the latter. Professor Sheila McLean. Institute of Law in Ethics & Medicine, University of Glasgow Referring to voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide, Professor McLean stated that both cases amount to murder under current Scots law. The voluntary actions of the deceased who takes the prescription is not enough to break the chain of causation between the original action and the subsequent death. She purported, however, that the law in Scotland is not entirely clear. The only reported legal case of assisted dying in Scotland is that of HM Advocate versus Brady, whereby Brady administered tranquilisers and alcohol directly to his brother who was in the advance stages of Huntingtons disease and had asked his brother to assist him. Brady was initially charged with murder and admitted that he deliberately ended his
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brothers life. The Crown accepted his offer to plead guilty to culpable homicide. In sentencing, Lord Macfadyen admonished him in light of the mitigating circumstances and the fact that his motive was compassionate rather than malicious or self-serving. Professor McLean suggested this case is problematic as reducing crime to culpable homicide from murder requires evidence of diminished responsibility in the form of either psychiatric evidence of abnormality of mind or an inability to control ones actions. The necessity to present what was a compassionate act as one based on mental abnormality appeared to stretch legal principle beyond the limits of logic. In addition, it should be noted that the plea of diminished responsibility is unlikely to be available to everyone who might assist in intentionally ending another persons life. It is difficult to envisage how diminished responsibility could come to the aid of a physician. In England voluntary euthanasia is classed as murder, however, assisted suicide in England is a specific offence which was inserted into English law at the same time as the decriminalisation of suicide in 1961. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) recently issued guidelines designed to provide some kind of clarity as to the circumstances in which people
would or would not be prosecuted for assisting in suicide. This was provoked by the case of Debbie Purdie who asked for clarification as to whether her husband would be prosecuted if he travelled to Switzerland with her. This case was reported in some press as a victory for prochoice campaigners. However, Professor McLean stated that in real terms it was not a victory. There are important aspects about this case which show that it is not an endorsement of a right to assisted suicide. The House of Lords decided that, unlike in an earlier case involving Diane Pretty, that Article 8 on the Convention of Human Rights, that is the right to private and family life, was implicated in Ms Purdies case. The Convention requires the courts and the prosecution services to address themselves to the principle of legality. This includes that the law in question has to be sufficiently accessible to the individual who is affected by the restriction contained in that and sufficiently precise to enable them to understand its scope and foresee the consequences of his actions, so that he can regulate his conduct without breaking the law. Despite the fact that there was a code of conduct for crown prosecutors in England and Wales and an equivalent code in Scotland, the House of Lords concluded that the rules about
assisted suicide in respect of travel overseas were not sufficiently clear and could not be sufficiently guessed at by an individual. It was on that basis that the DPP was required to issue additional guidelines to clarify this situation. Professor McLean ascertains that the same challenges to Scottish prosecution policy could be raised and that Scotland, therefore, also needs to clarify its prosecution policy. A further difference between the Scottish and English jurisdictions is that the House of Lords made it clear in Miss Purdies case that it is possible that an individual who travels overseas with someone and plays no other active role other than facilitating the trip and being with the person when they die, technically can be charged with assisting a suicide when they return to England. This would not be a competent charge in Scotland. Professor McLean proposed that just as there are potential inconsistencies in the legal position, so there are inconsistencies in the overall picture of assisting a death. Are there any situations in which people can assist a person to die and escape the rigours of criminal law? Ms B, a ventilator dependent, quadriplegic who clearly stated that she had no intention and no desire to live in her
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums circumstances, even if weaning off the ventilator could be successful, and requested that the doctors removed her ventilation and allow her to die. The doctors refused this request and the court judges attended the hospital to speak to Ms B. They held that the patient had an absolute right to refuse life sustaining medical treatment even if the reasoning behind the doctors refusal was that they felt as if they were killing her by removing the ventilation. The principle of autonomy was held to supersede the concerns of the doctors and to an extent this addresses the question about whether or not there is ever an obligation to assist in a death. The doctors cannot breach the patients right of autonomy to make healthcare decisions for themselves, even if those decisions result foreseeably and knowingly in death. It could be argued that the doctors did not actively kill the patient, rather they omitted to continue to save her life. In Professor McLeans opinion the acts and omissions distinction is one that lawyers resort to with somewhat facetious and disingenuous regularity. There are in many cases very clear distinctions between omissions and acts, however, whether or not we can make the same distinction in the duty of care relationship that exists between doctors and patients is more dubious. It is generally held to be the case that the doctors duty of care is not to harm the patient. The doctors duty is not, however, to save life at all cost. This already does not happen, for example in cases of people in a Persistent Vegetative States (PVS) who will never recover consciousness, thought process and interaction with the world but can be kept alive or in existence for many years. A classic case of the assisted death of someone in PVS is that of Tony Bland who was injured in the Hillsborough disaster. Supported by his parents, the doctors petitioned the courts to allow them to withdraw assisted nutrition and hydration in the knowledge that this would bring about his death. Professor Murray considers that The House of Lords reached their conclusions on the lawfulness of this by devious routes. They didnt all necessarily agree with each other, some had rather spurious arguments and some, including Lord Mustill, more thoughtful judgements. Lord Mustill stated that he was deeply uncomfortable about trying to make the distinction between acts and omissions as a way of justifying what he clearly said was the intention to kill Tony Bland. He also said that he was not going to fall for the acts and omissions distinction, describing the law as intellectually misshapen. The case was ap-
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proached from many different angles concluding in the decision that it was lawful to remove the assisted nutrition and hydration. Such cases suggest that if the duty of care issue is what is central to acts and omissions then the doctors duty of care in a number of circumstances has already been held to be not to keep the patient alive in circumstances which are intolerable. Whereas we can help people to die who are in a PVS and have expressed no opinion or like Miss B, people who are receiving life sustaining treatment that they can refuse, the only group of people we cannot assist to die legally are those who make a competent request based on their own judgements on their quality of life. Professor McLean would readily concede that drafting legislation that decriminalises assisted dying would not be unproblematic, however, at a pragmatic as well as a theoretical level it is necessary to make the point that no law is perfect. Evidence from jurisdictions that have decriminalised assisted dying does not suggest that the failure to draft a perfect law has led to the breakdown of civilisation nor has it opened the floodgates to a huge number of people being either killed by their doctors or carers or not asked for their opinion. Professor McLean
cited evidence from the US state of Oregon where a small number of people have asked for and received a prescription that would allow them to kill themselves when the time is right for them. Interestingly, a large proportion of those people do not take the medication immediately but wait until things become really impossible. Those objecting to law reform have traditionally come largely from faith groups and the medical profession. Professor McLean purported that assisted dying is not solely or largely a medical matter, it is about human rights, faith and ideology. She suggested that whether or not doctors actively have to be involved is a moot point. The laws approach to respecting autonomy, which in the long run is what many of these cases is about, should if nothing else be consistent. One logical option is to outlaw all these things, voluntary euthanasia, assisted suicide and also refusing treatment. The other logical option is to look at the similarities in the cases and allow for the same decisions to be taken with the same outcome by people who are competent and asking for it, irrespective of the mechanism which has to be used. That would be consistent and it is not unreasonable to expect consistency from our law.
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Professor McLean concluded by stating that presently the law is not consistent and this is a failure which is more than simply of academic interest as it condemns a number of individuals to suffering which they would wish competently to avoid. It places family, clinicians and other healthcare professionals in extraordinarily difficult positions. Whatever the moral opinions of faith groups or some doctors and nurses we must ask ourselves in the ultimate what right we have to inflict those views on those who do not share them.
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Professor Roger Crofts 10 May 2011 Land Use: How do we Resolve the Never Ending Conflicts? Part of the RSE @ Dumfries and Galloway Programme
In March 2011, following consultation the previous year, the Scottish Government published and submitted to Parliament its land use strategy to provide a strategic framework that brought together proposals for getting the best from Scotlands land resources. With land being a finite resource, often conflicts arise, raising the fundamental question of how we resolve the issue of conflict. Under the chairmanship of Professor Roger Crofts, FRSE, this debate brought together a number of high-profile people representing the main land users in Dumfries & Galloway. In introducing themselves, each provided a very brief view on the topic from their perspective. John Thomson (Director, Scottish Natural Heritage) Reconciling differences will require trade-offs. However, with many interests there needs to be a mutual trust and understanding of each others objectives, principles and strengths. One important requirement currently lacking is a planning process covering both town and country with a focus on
the built environment; though identifying a natural leader for this will be difficult. Jeremy Sainsbury (Natural Power and Chairman of Scottish Renewables Forum) highlighted the importance of renewable technologies, including bio-fuels, hydro and wind, both offshore and onshore, though recognised the competition this creates for land and sea and the influence on biodiversity. The targets set by the new SNP Government will be big drivers, with the aim to have 100% of electricity consumed in Scotland produced from renewable sources whilst also achieving an 80% reduction in CO2 levels from 1990 levels. Mike Bonaventura (Crichton Carbon Centre) Whilst understanding the issues surrounding strategic planning, the Carbon Centres interest lies more in the practical aspects required for delivery from the bottom up. The climate change targets are particularly challenging, as there is danger of missing the 2020 target by 5% (equivalent to 8 mega tonnes of CO2). As such, there is a
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums need to bring focus to bear on actions in the non-traded sector, for example, residential / SMEs / transport / forestry / agriculture which identifies two particular issues to address. These are the action of ownership versus stewardship and valuation; how is land valued with all of the competing issues within their ecosystems frameworks. Alan Crichton (Farmer and Chair of NFUS Environment & Land Use Committee) The current climate change issues have been brought about by the industrial revolution rather than by farmers, though farmers too have embraced technology and enjoyed the benefits. As such, they are aware of their responsibilities to look after soil structure and water and not make climate change any worse. Land users are able to adapt quickly to changes which are often driven by the needs of the urban population and, whilst food production may be the primary function, farming is often good for maintaining biodiversity, though some aspects of current policy such as gorse clearing are at risk of 30 years of good environmental work. Rob Soutar (Forestry Commission Scotland, Galloway District Manager) Although the primary function of forestry is timber production, areas such as Galloway Forest Park are also important for tourism and conservation.
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With 12% of land scheduled and managed for nature conservation, this creates a polarised conflict with timber production. Many forestry strategies have been pioneered in Dumfries and Galloway, an important element of which is consultation and planning which reduces conflict in the countryside. With Scottish government having targets to extend forestry to 25% of the countrys land area, there is a need to tailor incentives to farmers to plant trees on their land and for councils to bring people together. Donald Biggar (Farmer, Vice Chairman SAC and former Chairman of QMS) Access to land has been a contentious and emotive issue throughout history. There is now a need to prioritise based on optimising productivity according to societys need and desires, whilst taking account of climate change. An ever-increasing population requires more food, and more affluent societies demand more protein, which does raise some questions about the government strategy to put 25% of Scotland to trees. The aim should be to optimise sustainable productivity whilst integrating recreation. Chris Rollie (RSPB) The need is for integrated land use planning involving all stakeholders. The environment of Dumfries and Galloway is fundamental to our wellbeing and quality of life, with
few places in UK having such a resource and fabulous biodiversity, particularly the variety of wildlife. There have been huge changes to land use in the region and in Scotland in the last 50 years, with increases in forestation and renewable energy. The loss of birds is enormous and there are continued threats going forward. The issue is not whether we have certain land uses, but where they are located which needs to be reflected in strategies. In opening up the debate to the floor for questions, a theme of C words emerged. Whilst there were many conflicts and challenges, there were also others such as consulting with the community which were more positive about finding solutions. The fact is that everyone is a steward of the land, and therefore the objectives sought will be multiple and require an integrated plural approach. One audience member reflected on his journey through the region to the event, having seen livestock and arable farming, forestry and hydro all co-existing without apparent conflict, believing issues arise when land uses change. Another cited tourism as a further land use which has a huge underestimated potential for the region as compared with north of the central belt.
There was general support for the fact that communication between sectors would create a better understanding of each others issues. However, the means to achieve this is open to question, and certainly it will entail compromise. Consultation is fundamental to engage with the local communities; however, there is no single means of best achieving this, and there is a need to extend the channels through which the debate is conducted and to ensure there is both urban and rural involvement. A few reservations were expressed about the function of local consultation when decisions appear to have already been made nationally; for example in relation some windfarm developments. However, the bigger concerns are probably complacency and consultation fatigue. Complacency is multi-dimensional, stemming from the scale and complexity of the issues such as climate change, whilst others assume that business as usual is ok, will continue and, should an issue arise, a technological solution may be found. In fact, a degree of conflict could actually be considered beneficial in creating the motivation for responses. The fatigue comes from the number of consultations, often the complexity of the issues and indeed the general degree of apathy that
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums exists within sections of the population. In reference to policy and support mechanisms, the changes in emphasis from productivity to conservation and biodiversity to maintain land in good environmental and agricultural condition, and their impacts were quoted. Examples include reduced stocking rates by switching away from headage payments, introduction of cross-compliance, and not subsidising the drainage of sensitive wetlands. The primary importance of food production should not be lost nor technologies such as GM ignored. However, the multiple benefits that society seeks must also be delivered. Certainly in southwest Scotland, where much of the land appears managed for food production, there may have to be a change to this, but without losing the character of the region, such as retaining local breeds and production systems and the associated food tourism that this attracts. Other land uses such as coniferous forest and windfarms are considered by some to already be at capacity. It is also important to recognise that some uses offer benefits of integration; for example, windfarm developments provide better access to hill land for the farmer or deciduous forest attracting tourists. Plans require prioritisation, which in turn requires having some
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means of putting a relative value on the various land use options. However, it is unclear how best this should be done and by whom, since non-economic elements of wellbeing and the ecosystem do need also to be incorporated in the assessment. There is an important balance to be achieved between national plans and how they are delivered locally. Such plans should also go beyond just the natural environment and include the built environment and infrastructure, given its importance to industry and commerce. Given the need for plans to be longer term, it was questioned whether politicians were the most appropriate people to be involved in them. In summing up, the Chairman and Speakers offered their take-home messages from the debate With only a fraction of the population managing the land mass, there is a lack of understanding between urban and rural inhabitants, leaving a need to educate each other. There is a need for a long term plan based on public consultation. The environment and wildlife are an important part of our wellbeing, and need to be central to what we do through continued integration and stakeholder involvement.
Education and skills are essential for growth of industries, with a need to start with young people where complexity is not so difficult to grasp. There needs to be democratic leadership. Future shortages are likely to shake us out of complacency. This will need long term thinking and a national plan with appropriate activity planned for areas of the land where they are most appropriate.
We shouldnt be frightened of technology though there is a need change peoples behaviour to avoid excess consumption. Thus the challenges seem to be: how do we fight complacency; simplify complexity; create integrated approaches with appropriate support; consult meaningfully; co-ordinate activity; and communicate decisions effectively?
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums A Healthy Message? Understanding the History and Exploring the Future of Public Health Campaigns in Scotland 25 May 2011 Joint event with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) Despite improvements in life expectancy, Scotland retains an unenviable health record. Although progress has been made on smoking, alcohol and obesity remain among the main public health challenges. So what can be done about it? Experts in public health, social marketing, health history and public relations gathered to discuss the issues and trade a few blows at this RSE discussion, which was supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and Scottish Funding Council. Introduction Scots still drink more, smoke more and have poorer diets than much of the rest of Western Europe, said Dr Magnus Linklater, who chaired the event. There has been much done to try to decipher the reasons for this and to find the solutions, but the problems have still to be dismantled. There are two approaches top down (ie legislation) or bottom up, which aims to effect a change in culture. So what can the arts and humanities do? Dr Linklater recalled watching a documentary which compared the lung of a smoker with that of a non-smoker; he
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gave up smoking virtually overnight as a result. So what would it take, he said, to get health messages into the bloodstream of the nation? Dr Jim Mills, University of Strathclyde. Director of the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare (CSHHH) ,Glasgow. Historians have an important contribution to make to public health, said Dr Mills, because they are equipped to explore and analyse the circumstances and events which have led to todays assumptions. Dr Mills began, however, by describing the great success of the 1957 public health campaign to tackle tuberculosis in Glasgow. The city wanted people to attend mobile radiography units for an X-ray and those who were found to be carriers of the disease were treated. A sophisticated marketing campaign, including advertising in newspapers and at the cinema and even a prize draw (to win a car) were deployed with the aim of attracting 250,000 people; in the event, 715,000 came forward.
Dr Mills said, however, that lessons from this landmark public campaign could not really be applied to the situation today because there was no basis for comparison. The TB campaign involved one infectious disease, which no-one wanted and for which there was a quick technical fix. Todays public health concerns focus on more complex problems and behaviours including consumption of alcohol, tobacco and drugs, poor diets and approaches to mental health. There is no quick or technical fix and successive reports have found that any solutions would have to be holistic and that an honest debate is needed. Dr Mills believes that shifting the terms of the discussion and not relying on old assumptions is essential when trying to achieve the culture change which is generally accepted to be needed if our public health is to improve. He drew on his own work on cannabis control in Britain in the 20th Century, saying it was clear that the assumption and laws which make it a police problem date back to the 1920s and to the imperial politics of the League of Nations, rather than a rational or scientific debate about the substance itself. Understanding why we have the laws and approaches we have, is fundamental to testing how satisfactory is the status quo. In the case of
cannabis, Dr Mills work has shown that the status quo is not satisfactory. Dr Mills expressed some doubts about the use of social marketing that is, the use of commercial marketing techniques to influence behavioural change for a social good saying it was a bit like calling in the baker when the car had to be fixed. Instead, he believes that cultural technicians ie people from the arts and humanities should be employed when trying to change cultures. Imagination, creativity and understanding the dynamics of creative processes are qualities which could be used to help Scots think about their behaviours in new ways. Those best placed to help us understand how we find ourselves facing current challenges are historians; those bestplaced to help us think in new ways about changing health cultures may well include artists, writers and performers the technicians of cultural change. By changing our terminology, can we get closer to the people we want to engage with if binge drinking becomes chasing oblivion, for example, or can we come up with new strategies by reframing our objectives as providing calm and comfort?
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Would this be a new way to pursue cultural change? Professor Gerard Hastings, Director, Institute for Social Marketing, Stirling and the Open University Professor Hastings agreed that it is important to learn from history, but said that we dont have to pick one discipline or one toolbox, because changing cultures is about people. He described the history of public health campaigns including early scaremongering adverts in which we were warned that a host of things - from smoking to sex - could kill us. The message was, he said, that the best thing to do is to hide under the bed clearly not helpful. Extensive research has shown that this approach does not work. People do not want to be lectured, they want to be helped; they want positive, not negative messages; they want empathy, not authoritarian approaches and they want to be seen as people, not as a set of behaviours. The human race has never come closer to finding the elixir of life, said Professor Hastings; the question is giving people access to it. This means finding positive ways to encourage people to want to eliminate the behaviours which will shorten their lives. Professor Hastings mentioned public health campaigns which promote the positive the be all you can be approach and which emphasise optimism and achievable goals. He also called on the audience to think of innovative ways to improve public health, specifically around high levels of smoking in prison. Former South African president (and famous prisoner) Nelson Mandela had his own method of persuading new fellow inmates not to smoke. He warned them that while the guards would help them get access to cigarettes, they would want something in return. It might start with a small need and a small favour, but could escalate to a great need and a big favour. Professor Hastings had told the same story in Palestine recently, he said, and had been approached by someone who said he, himself had stopped smoking when, as a prisoner, a guard had given him four cigarettes but no light. People need encouragement to be all they can be. If public health has taught us anything in the last 100 years, he said, its that it has to enable people to be heroes in their own stories. Professor Phil Hanlon, Professor of Public Health, University of Glasgow Professor Hanlon said he was an advocate of public health (as youd expect) but warned: Were stuffed. The beginning of wisdom is, however, realising that we are in this position, and
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recognising that we have to address our failures to deal with Scotlands very real set of public health problems, such as obesity, depression, loss of wellbeing, addictive behaviours and inequalities. This is all the more difficult because the situation has emerged from the very nature of modern society, so cannot be solved by the tools including marketing which caused the problems in the first place. Professor Hanlon summarised some of the events and processes which led to todays position. These included industrialisation in 1830 Glasgow life expectancy was 34, as people suffered the ill effects of a culture change which drew them off the land into overcrowded cities. Then, with the public health movement, life changed for the better. Fresh water and sewers improved health and life expectancy dramatically, as did civil order and scientific discovery. There was enormous social, cultural and scientific change for example, the introduction of the welfare state and cures and inoculations for disease including smallpox. But although modernisation brought many advantages, it also brought problems. For example, marketing was brought to play in persuading people to smoke. Freuds nephew, Edward Bernays, developed a hugely successful campaign targeting women: beautiful debutantes, all smoking cigarettes
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which were called torches of freedom. This linked female emancipation and glamour with cigarettes and was followed by a dramatic surge in numbers of women smoking. Society has become consumerist, individualistic and atomised, said Professor Hanlon, and although the welfare state made a difference, we now have a different set of problems. He called these diseases, and included in that obesity, addictive behaviours and depression symptoms, he said, of late modernity. More information is available here: www.afternow.co.uk/ Positive public health campaigns like Be all you can be were pissing in the wind he said, although they were better than the dont do it or youll die model. What is actually needed is another major cultural shift. Capitalism, individualism and consumerism have brought us to where we are; we need change as profound again. The price of oil might be the catalyst, as it could be the economic driver to make us change our lives. We need a new culture, a new inner world and a new biology. Imagining Utopia might not seem practical, but history shows us that it is possible to bring about change. We should be bold in our imaginings and look for transformation to bring about the next wave of public health improvement.
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Martin Raymond, Cloudline PR Mr Raymond began by quoting from the poem Scotland by Alastair Reid, where the writer is brought up short when his rhapsodies about a beautiful day are given the response: Well pay for it. Reid recently burned the poem, saying Scotland no longer had need of it. Mr Raymond, however, believes we need it more than ever. He accepted that public health initiatives could be top down or bottom up, but said that the arts and humanities could provide some lubrication in between. He cited the hugely successful stinx advertising campaign, run by HEBS (the former Health Education Board for Scotland) when he headed its public affairs team. This advert showed a girl band of attractive teenage girls whose attempts to attract boyfriends were hampered by their smoking. The song reached number eight in the Scottish charts, received extensive radio play and is now enjoying a renaissance on YouTube, garnering well over 100,000 views and some very positive comments. As well as the coverage and awareness-raising at the time, stinx has entered the culture. Mr Raymond did not claim any causal link, but pointed out that after the smoking ban, 84 per cent of young people were proud that Scotlands public places were smoke-free, compared to 79 per cent of adults. Although the press is often seen as part of the problem, Mr Raymond said that The Suns backing for smoke-free legislation had been an important part of the mix. Sun readers tend to be young working-class men and thats a demographic which traditional public health initiatives struggle to reach. Its taken years of public relations activity around public health when proponents were often portrayed as the health police and similar, so getting tabloids on-side was a huge achievement. Lessons have been learned from the years of public health campaigning. These include recognising the importance of dialogue, of listening, of having respect for those you are trying to reach and trying to gain a real understanding of their lives and motivations. Is it a rational process? Perhaps not. As David Hume said, Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions. Its all about people and their passions, said Mr Raymond. The non-rational is important, and that includes things such as peer pressure, wanting to be part of a community, being attracted by perceived glamour and aspiration.
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Panel Discussion In a short question and answer session, the panel was confronted by a member of the audience who said he was a capitalist who smoked and drank alcohol and that he loved life but didnt want it to last forever. Professor Hastings responded that he was going the right way about achieving that aim. Another member of the audience, a cancer surgeon, suggested that hedonists were being selfish by not considering the healthcare resources which would be required to treat them due to the consequences of such behaviours. Professor Hanlon pointed out that although life expectancy was around 80, healthy life expectancy ended some 24 years before that perhaps hedonists might want to think about these last unhealthy years. Dr Linklater had kicked off the discussion by asking whether reaching parts of Scotland which reject public health messages was an immediate task, or whether we should wait for cultural change. Professor Hanlon said that while it was fine to use the tools of the devil (ie marketing) to get messages across, this without much money was only useful on the margins. The real thing is to tackle health inequalities, he said. Professor Hastings warned against setting up false dichotomies: while you dont want to wait or to
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force people, theres a lot that can be done; small budgets can have a big impact, he said. Asked if it had been the ban on smoking in public places which made the difference to smoking rates, Dr Mills reminded us that the reasons for peoples behaviours are complex and that we have to look at the larger picture. While smoking rates are indeed, declining, cannabis use is growing, he said. Mr Raymond said that while the smoking legislation had been successful, that was probably because the argument had already been won so people didnt flout the ban. Discussion sessions The speakers each led a discussion with smaller groups of members of the audience to explore further the themes of the evening, in particular the role actual and potential played by the arts and humanities in public health and, indeed, the health sector. A representative of each group fed back a short summary of points discussed. Group 1 (hosted by Dr Mills) This group considered how the arts and humanities could work with the health sector to produce more effective communication with Scottish communities, as well as looking at what the arts and humanities could reveal about the experience of being healthy and being ill, and how this could
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums contribute to effective public health campaigns. The group concluded that a linear approach to public health campaigning doesnt work and that the imagination and creativity of artists could help lead to cultural change. If artists were encouraged, for example, to represent good or poor health it could be a useful tool, but this should not be propaganda or in any way forced, or it would shut down the artists creativity. Its really about encouraging dialogue between artists and the health sector building a bridge to enable this and seeing what grows as a result. Group 2 (hosted by Professor Hastings) This group considered health behaviours that they would like to change and discussed why they hadnt yet been changed. They also looked at what behaviour change messages they had found appealing. They concluded that there were obstacles to changing unhealthy behaviours even when people wanted to. For example, while smoking is increasingly stigmatised, alcohol is seen as acceptable particularly in certain age groups. So perception is important. Economic issues can also be a barrier eg being able to find fresh, healthy, affordable food locally. They believe that the solution involves finding positive, easy and cost-effective ways to encourage change. That might be
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technological eg promoting electric cigarettes to help people quit tobacco or it could involve persuading large grocery stores to set up small branches in small localities. Group 3 (hosted by Professor Hanlon) No one strategy will achieve the public health change that is wanted and needed in Scotland, this group concluded; a crossdisciplinary approach is required. There needs to be communication between the arts and humanities and health services, but this should be two-way. The arts already work in health very effectively and could have more of a role in helping to frame public health messages, but telling people in the arts and humanities what to say wont work. Climate change is an important issue, but we need to look at the short as well as the long term and use the tools that are available. We also need responsible journalism so that we can have a basic trust in messages reported in the media. Group 4 (hosted by Mr Raymond) This group discussed individualism and family culture and their impact on health. Hedonism might be a more individualist philosophy, while family and other community structures can have a modifying and positive effect on behaviours. For example, in
southern European countries, children learn to enjoy a glass of wine with food rather than seeing alcohol as something to binge drink at weekends although some universities in these countries are concerned about students starting to binge drink. Families can have great influence in other ways too for example, a child persuading a father to give up smoking by asking if he is going to die of lung cancer like the man in an advert. The media does have a role to play and it can be a positive force for public health in Scotland. Concluding remarks Dr Linklater asked each of the speakers to sum up his main message from the evening. Dr Mills said that the arts and humanities were well-equipped to contribute to the public health effort. Professor Hastings said that yes, there is lots of complexity, but that there is a lot we can do about it, as the example of smoking showed. He said that Scotlands former First Minister, Jack McConnell, had been against the smoke-free legislation until he spent a weekend in Dublin (which had already implemented a ban on smoking in public places) and was told by the Health Minister that he wished he had done more, sooner. Mr Raymond said that we
have to keep our eye on long-term goals while recognising achievements (such as decline in smoking rates). The media does have an influence, he said and the arts and humanities can help foster an understanding of health issues. Its also about humanity and being human and putting respect at the heart of public health. Professor Hanlon said he believes that we need a major shift which could be brought about by climate change. If we used less stuff, were less materialistic and learned to grow more food locally then we might find we had healthier lives. He accepted, however, that we ought to use all tools at our disposal (including social marketing) to tackle the urgent problems of Scotlands public health. Dr Linklater said the smoking ban had been important, not just because of what the legislation did, but that it signalled an important cultural message about the unacceptability of smoking. He is hopeful that the Scottish Governments proposal to introduce a minimum price per unit of alcohol might also send out important messages and help promote constructive change in Scotlands culture.
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Conference Your Genes and Clinical Research: Being More than a Guinea Pig 22 June 2011 In association with Gengage: The Scottish Healthcare Genetics Public Engagement Network This years Gengage Annual Conference, held at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on the 22nd June 2011, focused on the opportunities and challenges that genomic medicine poses for clinical research in Scotland and explored social and other issues around public and patient involvement in clinical research. The timeliness of this topic was demonstrated by the fact that the conference attracted coverage on BBC radio, TV and online news media. The conference attracted participants from all walks of life, ranging from those who work in healthcare, science and public engagement and had knowledge to share, to members of the general public, both retired and working in a variety of occupations, and students who had little prior knowledge of the subject. In keeping with Gengages remit, the conference both informed the delegates about the nature of clinical research and the role of public and patient involvement, and included a significant deliberative element, enabling participants to form an informed opinion about the ethical, legal and social issues around clinical
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research in genomic medicine in Scotland today. The keynote speaker, Professor Anne Glover, Scottish Government Chief Scientific Advisor, opened the conference by highlighting the potential benefits of clinical research to both the Scottish Government and the people of Scotland. Subsequent plenary sessions used a variety of formats to keep participants on their toes, starting with an overview of what clinical research encompasses, followed by a discussion of the ethical, legal and social dimensions from two different viewpoints, and concluding with an enactment of a patient/ nurse interview to highlight some of the patient experiences and dilemmas involved in participating in clinical research. Feedback on the plenary sessions was very enthusiastic, one of participants identifying it as One of the best conference/ seminars Ive attended. Excellent speakers. Very well organised. The afternoon workshops looked at the benefits and costs of clinical research, as well as the governance of clinical research. Both workshops generated lively
debate and positive feedback such as: The facilitators were very good and the round table discussions were well organised. Several respondents made constructive comments to improve next years conference, but overall feedback indicated a gratifying level of engagement. As one participant put it: I am interested in hearing yet more about the subject. I feel that the general public are not sufficiently informed and would encourage more people to take part Dr Steve Sturdy, the Gengage grant holder, said that this years conference, demonstrated that there is an ongoing interest in public engagement with genomic healthcare in Scotland. Gengage is delighted to be able to foster such engagement, and to help provide opportunities for public views to be heard by policy makers and service providers. Facilitated small-group discussions addressed a number of questions regarding the conduct of clinical research in Scotland. In the course of these discussions, the following views were expressed: Q: Should commercial companies have a role in funding and the conduct of clinical research? Generally speaking, the participants agreed that commercial involvement was essential in the funding and conduct of clinical research.
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Reasons for commercial involvement included It provides essential capital, particularly for expensive phase 2/3 trials. It generates research jobs, provides employment for the best scientists and research nurses, provides excellent research facilities, and feeds into further university research. It may be less bureaucratic and more responsive than publicly funded research. Commercial research commands less trust from the public than publicly funded research. The pursuit of profit may not always be compatible with altruistic research Concerns about disproportionate profit and the inhibiting effects of patents. Need transparency regarding commercial involvement, including in consent procedures.
Caveats included
Generally, it was felt that the question was not whether there should be a role for commercial involvement in clinical research, but rather how best to ensure an appropriate balance between commercial and public benefits. Appropriate regulation, and a
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums high degree of transparency, were considered paramount. Q: Should steps be taken to redistribute any benefits or profits from commercial research and, if so, in what form? There was general agreement that research participants should benefit in some way from the results of clinical research. Equally, the contribution of publiclyfunded research to the development of commercial products needs to recognised and rewarded. How to achieve this was seen to be a very complex issue, however. Issues that were identified included: Difficulties in determining the value of a participants input into clinical research, and working out who deserves what proportion of benefits such as financial awards, shares in patents etc. Financial compensation for research participation might skew the sample of participants taking part, and give rise to a population of professional participants motivated by financial gain. The possibility of contributing to research with long term benefits for society is itself a motivation for participation, which should not be undermined. Mechanisms to compensate research participants may undermine confidentiality and anonymity. One effective means of passing on benefits might be to continue to provide participants with new or successful treatments once the research comes to an end. Commercial companies giving back by building new facilities or donating to charity may lead to an uneven distribution of benefits throughout Scotland. Heavy taxes may drive away companies from Scotland. If profits are to be divided among participants, perhaps costs should also be divided among them.
Q: Are current legal and governance arrangements on personal data adequate? There was agreement that current regulation of personal data was, on the whole, satisfactory. However the following issues were raised: Despite regulation, data handling is still largely based on trust and good faith. No personal data can be considered entirely secure, and the rapid pace of technological innovations was seen to pose a continuing threat to
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confidentiality of personal data. Individuals rarely know what personal information is held about them or what measures are in place to protect it, and there is a need for greater transparency in this area. Care is needed in drawing the terms of consent: not so narrow as to rule out possible future uses of data, but not so broad as to make consent meaningless. Participants need to be properly informed about the range of possible uses. While the CHI number is a useful tool, it is not adequately protected. More needs to be known about the relative value of anonymisation versus confidentiality, and about their relative acceptability to the public.
only if adequate support is also provided. Some participants may not want to know such information, and this needs to be recognised and honoured. There are particular difficulties with family studies, where informing one participant of their risk/carrier status may also inform relatives who prefer not to know. It is more difficult to feed back personal information from large-scale, general studies such as Generation Scotland than from smaller, more targeted investigations. In general, incidental findings should not be fed back if not clinically relevant or useful.
Q: Should more be done to feed back research findings to participants? It was agreed that it is important to feed back the results of research to participants. The following points were raised: Feeding back results encourages people to get involved. People are curious about how their information is used. Electronic media make it easy and cheap to feed back information. Other mechanisms might include newsletters, TV, news bulletins, website and journals.
Q: Should personal genomic information, including incidental findings be fed back to individual participants? In general, it was felt that personal genomic information ought in most cases be fed back to participants. The following points were raised: Researchers have a duty of care and hence a responsibility to feed back information about any treatable conditions that might be detected, but
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Resources permitting, focus groups and public engagement events like today provide effective means to feed back findings. Feedback should be appropriate to the size of the study. It is important to publicise negative as well as positive results of research. Research participants should be involved in the governance of genetic data. Involving the public in research governance requires appropriate training. Ethics committees, with their lay representatives and patient organisations, are good examples of how to involve the public. There is a need for more training and education in general, as well as transparency about clinical research, in order to raise public awareness and to involve people in healthcare governance. It is important to listen to critics as well as proponents of clinical research. Designers of clinical trials are often not good at reaching or involving patients or the public. Citizens juries and other methods of participatory policy making might provide useful models of involvement. It would be useful to involve children of school age, both for their insights and to inform them about clinical research. Lack of resources was seen as a block to full and genuine engagement.
Q: Should patients and/or the public be directly involved with the design, monitoring and governance of clinical research and if so how? Most participants thought that ideally, patients should be involved in the design, monitoring and governance of clinical research. The following issues were raised in discussion: Patients have personal knowledge and experience that can help to inform research. Participants experiences of taking part in research can help to inform evaluations of that research, and hence shape future research. Input should also be solicited from people directly involved with patients, e.g. family members and carers, particularly where they can speak for patients too young or incapacitated to represent themselves
Q: Should more clinical research be undertaken in Scotland? (as compared to other places)
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Most of the participants thought that more clinical research should be undertaken in Scotland. The following points were raised: Scotlands scientific reputation, excellent infrastructure and demography may compensate for the high cost of conducting research here. Factors such as the difficulty of recruiting from different NHS boards and high regulatory hurdles make it a less attractive and more difficult for researchers to do clinical research in Scotland. Scottish universities should not rest on reputations gained in the past, as these may be superseded by international competition.
Scotland might pay more attention to Cinderella diseases that are currently low on the international research agenda. Concern was expressed that two independent phase one clinics in Scotland had closed within the last six months, thus significantly reducing the capacity for phase 1 research in Scotland. While the financial crisis is leading to a reduction in commercial research in Scotland, universities are doing what they can to maintain a high level of activity.
Further information s available on the gengage website: http:// www.gengage.org.uk/publications-events.php?id=12
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Trident: The Debate. A Mock Trial Trident: Should we keep it? 23 June 2011 Yes: The Rt Hon Lord Robertson of Port Ellen KT GCMG HonFRSE PC, Former Secretary General, NATO No: Professor Michael Clarke, Director, The Royal United Services Institute Judge: Lord Cullen of Whitekirk KT PC HonFREng FRSE Facts: Trident is the UKs sea-based nuclear deterrent, a ballistic missile with a range of 7,500 km which can be launched from four Vanguard submarines, one of which is always on patrol, with 16 missiles aboard. It was introduced in 1994 to replace Polaris and is due for replacement in 2024. The decision on its future will be made in 2016. Vote: Before the debate began, the audience voted on the question Trident: Should we keep it? as follows: Yes: 14. Not sure/abstain: 6. No: 31 Team A: Yes. Lord Robertson began by revealing that in 1961 he demonstrated against Polaris, proudly carrying a banner which said Ban the Bomb. This had not only embarrassed his father, a policeman, but later shocked US President George W Bush when Robertson became the Secretary General of NATO. Supporters of unilateral nuclear disarmament believe that it will lead to a benign chain reaction of disarmament, but the reality is that a gradual reduction in recent years did nothing to stop other countries getting nuclear weapons or planning to get them e.g., North Korea, Iran, Iraq and Libya. Meanwhile, China has increased its stockpile and Russia
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has upgraded its nuclear arsenal. There are also local factors affecting the nuclear arms race e.g. India vs Pakistan and Israel vs Iran & Iraq. Whatever we do, therefore, Robertson said, the rationalisation for maintaining an independent nuclear deterrent still remains, and to believe otherwise would be a mistake. Proliferation is worrying, but it is unrelated to deterrence. There is no cheap, safe and effective alternative to Trident, he continued, because it is invulnerable and undetectable. If we cancel Trident, we will be out of the business altogether and it would take 20 years to re-arm. We must keep Trident or give up forever our independent deterrent.
Nuclear deterrence has succeeded for 65 years in preventing the wars that disfigured the world in the first half of the 20th Century, and who would dare predict what will happen over the next 30 years? Who predicted the Arab Spring or the fall of the Berlin Wall? Who can predict our future enemies or threats to our security? Would it be right to abandon our own independent deterrent and leave it to the US and France? If we gave up and others copied us, and if there was inspection and enforcement, what would happen then in view of the fact that you cant disinvent nuclear weapons? Would the world be more stable? Was the world more peaceful before nuclear deterrence? Hardly, Robertson said, suggesting that even if the UK did act alone, other countries would not believe us, anyway, and this would not generate trust but more tension and suspicion. Trident is a political statement, he concluded, designed to stop aggressors from even thinking they could win a conventional war. It simply would not be worth taking the risk. We live in an unpredictable and complex world and the balance of power is shifting to the emerging economies, as well as to increasingly fragile and failed states. So now is not the right time to give up deterrence.
First witness: Lord Moonie, former UK Defence Minister. What are the alternatives to Trident? Is there a cheap and cheerful option? Can we afford it at a time of economic hardship? What about training? There are six choices, based on air, land and sea systems. Both airand land-based missiles are potentially vulnerable and are therefore not strategic. Fixed landbased systems may provoke a first strike, to avoid being destroyed before defending themselves, and mobile systems in the UK are impractical. Sea-based systems based on Astute Class subs provide a continuous threat and are invulnerable, but despite their attractions, Cruise missiles have limitations in terms of range (only 1,000 miles), payload, speed (subsonic) and cost they would require a redesign to deliver a nuclear warhead. They would also require a redesigned warhead, which could have a small enough yield to constitute a tactical weapon. The UK has already rejected the use of tactical nuclear weapons and it would be irresponsible to reintroduce them because they would not be deterrent enough. Reducing our Vanguards to three submarines is also an inferior option because we would lose our continuous threat. All public spending is about making choices, but Trident is affordable in terms of platform,
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums infrastructure, missiles and submarines and meets our needs. Recent estimates suggest that the submarines will cost 11 14 billion spread over several years, or about five per cent of the total defence budget over the next 40 years. Re-training for alternative systems would also be costly because we have considerable expertise in the current single-use platform. The world is a dangerous and uncertain place and getting more so. Second witness: Dr Paul Cornish, Head of the International Security Programme and Carrington Professor of International Security at Chatham House. How have nuclear arsenals changed through the years? What are your views on the Global Zero campaign (supported by George Schultz and Henry Kissinger)? The only rational choice is to maintain a continuous sea-based deterrent. At the height of the Cold War there were about 65,000 warheads, including 300 in the UK. Today, the figure is about 20,000 warheads, with the UK total down to 225. Despite overall reduction, several countries have entered the nuclear arms race since the original five, and several terrorist organisations have also expressed interest in acquisition. There is no simple causal relationship between
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reduction and deterrence or between reduction and proliferation. It is a conceit that we can turn the nuclear arms race on and off like a tap, through unilateral disarmament. The evidence is that other countries decide what to do for their own reasons. Global Zero (which seeks to eliminate all nuclear weapons) is the Holy Grail we all seek but it is not feasible or safe, said Cornish, and not merely irrelevant but possibly tragic, particularly in view of threats from international terrorists creating more danger, not less. Cornish also discussed the moral issues raised by deterrence, the need to set an example and the question of proportionality, saying that the issues are not monochrome but highly complex e.g. when you threaten to use nuclear weapons, you must be willing to use them, yet that is the last thing you want. Given the availability of nuclear materials and technology, and the regional issues involved, people should support disarmament if they think that would reverse the trend, but if they want to deal with the world as it is, vote to keep Trident. The proof must be high before we can afford to do away with it in such an unpredictable world, so we must maintain deterrence, Cornish concluded, to prevent ourselves being surprised.
Cross-examination: Michael Clarke then asked about deterrence. What makes it successful? Cornish replied that it is uncertainty as to the outcome, and the broadly shared view in the Soviet Union that it would suffer unacceptable damage in the event of an all-out exchange. They understand nuclear deterrence and the penalty. What about the risk of accidents? Yes, there have been incidents, but fewer of them as time has gone by, and both sides handle nuclear weapons with considerable care because they know the risks involved. What about the numbers how do you define them as high or low, in view of the fact that so many tactical weapons have gone? Everyone wants to see a reduction, Cornish replied, but proliferation is a bigger threat. What difference would it make if we gave up our independent deterrent for 1020 years? We need a continuous deterrent because that means there is no question of being attacked. If we separate the threat of using weapons from the act, why should someone believe us? It is a paradox that in the process of making the threat, you must be willing to act. Lord Robertson then added that a nuclear response does not need to lead to Armageddon, but would mean a threat of huge damage.
Team B: No. Michael Clarke began by saying that the abolitionists used to be described as the sentimentalists versus the realists, but perhaps this should now be reversed, in view of recent geopolitical changes. The fundamentals are that some people believe that deterrence is what kept the peace in the Cold War and will continue to do so in future. But the Cold War was not as safe as we thought it was there were numerous scares. And the concept of deterrence is based on unique historical circumstances, with the US and the Soviet Union in control of their allies, with a common morality and attitude towards proportionality. Clarke conceded that deterrence may have worked in the past but then said it could not be justified now. There are nine recognised nuclear powers, plus Iran, and many do not share the same beliefs e.g., Chinas view is based on certainty and the belief that deterrence must be backed up by action. Deterrence is whatever you say it is, Clarke said. Instinct plays a big role in our attitude to nuclear weapons, Clarke continued including the instinct that it is good for prestige, good for jobs and technology. All these arguments are partly true, he said, but they are not strategic. Is it worth having nuclear weapons so they
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums can be used by politicians when they make mistakes? The concept of stable deterrence is astrology a chimera. The genie is out of the bottle, he added. Soon, there may be up to 40 governments with nuclear weapons. But we have the opportunity to do something now. In 2015, there will be a new president in Russia and Barack Obama will be thinking of his presidential legacy. Iran will be at a threshold. And in 2016, the UK has the chance to act. We have no palpable enemies now, and if we disarm, then others may also disarm. If it is a question of uncertainty, look no further than the environment surely that is where we should be investing our money. If the UK scrapped Trident, that would send out a message and be the most significant move to date in the nuclear age. Would we be safer as one out of 40 nuclear powers or as part of the non-nuclear world? We should get out of this fraudulent deterrence game. First witness: Nick Ritchie, Research Fellow at the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford . What use has Trident been to the UK over the last 2030 years? If Trident is the answer, Ritchie replied, then what is the question? The mantra is national security, but we have clearly stated that we would only ever consider
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using nuclear weapons in an extremely remote set of circumstances. We would not use them against non-nuclear powers and we are bound by international humanitarian law applicable in armed conflict, including the Geneva Conventions. Using or threatening to use nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to international humanitarian law, except possibly in extreme circumstance of selfdefence when our national survival is at stake. Given this very narrow set of remote possibilities for nuclear use, Ritchie asked whether it is truly essential for our national security that we retain them. We must also accept that there is no such thing as a riskfree nuclear future. Some people say we must retain our nuclear weapons just in case, as an insurance against future uncertainty, but Trident does not provide us any guarantee of protection. Nuclear deterrence provides no certainties, but a potential ability to counter an attack in highly improbable circumstances. It is no insurance against broader threats e.g., it was irrelevant in the Falklands War. As regards costs, the Ministry of Defence cant afford it now that it is clear the costs will come out of the Defence Budget, inevitably at the expense of other conventional capabilities. Therefore, the circumstances in which we may
need Trident are now so remote and the opportunity costs are so great, that just because we can imagine the scenarios in which it may be useful, this should not drive our policy. Is it absolutely necessary to maintain Trident at the cost envisaged for limited potential security benefits or for vague notions of international prestige? No, answered Ritchie. Trident is an optional extra which comes at a significant moral, financial and political cost. It is a security blanket we cant afford. Second witness: Rt Rev Richard Holloway FRSE, former Bishop of Edinburgh. How do you see Trident in relation to morality? The ethics of deterrence are based on so-called just war theory war should be a last resort, the reasons for war must be just and the war must be justly waged. War has a demonic energy all of its own, said Holloway. This is not a reason not to enter war, but if the war is legal and we have a chance of success, then it may be justifiable. So how do we apply this to nuclear weapons? The theory is altered at once because there is maximum damage at the start of the conflict. This is why MAD (mutually assured destruction) lies at the heart of the doctrine of deterrence. Holloways intestinal reaction, however, is to question if the ethics of just war theory can
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apply to nuclear weapons and, in the context of the current debate, to Trident and the UK in particular. Using nuclear weapons could never meet the criteria of just war theory, and MAD means there would only be losers, no winners, so therefore no chance of success. There are lots of arguments about deterrence and how this may reduce the risk of proliferation, but the more we believe in deterrence, the more likely this will break down. The monstrous threat to use nuclear weapons is itself immoral, Holloway continued. I dont want to be part of a nation that threatens destruction as part of a metaphysical doctrine of deterrence, he said. Holloway then pointed out that there were profound non-military reasons for the UKs adoption of nuclear weapons in 1946, primarily our national prestige, despite the economic hardships of the time. This desire to play a leading part in the world is described as the great power impulse, and Holloway quoted Churchill saying that the UKs investment in nuclear weapons was the price we pay to sit at the top table. In recent times, Tony Blair also acknowledged that despite all the arguments against Trident, to cancel it would downgrade our status. With some politicians, said Holloway, prestige often overrides reason. Would it make the UK more like Belgium if
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums we said no to Trident? Not a fate worse than death, Holloway answered. Whether or not Trident is immoral, he concluded, there is still a special case for the UK to get rid of it. Frankly, I am glad the days are over when we need this prestige, he said. We would be better off financially and morally without it. Cross-examination: Lord Robertson then asked if it would be wise to disarm even if no-one else followed our example. Holloway replied that we should do it because it is right it is so monstrous that there is no valid utilitarian argument for it, while even the threat of using nuclear weapons is immoral. Nuclear deterrence is inherently immoral, he added. It is wrong and it doesnt work. Getting rid of Trident would be doing good, not sacrificing prudence. When Lord Robertson asked Michael Clarke if he is in favour of the US or Russia disarming, Clarke replied that he supports the idea of a superpower right to hold onto some nuclear weapons, adding that he also thinks the US would be no more vulnerable without them. Deterrence does not dictate policy, he added. Without nuclear arms, there are many other ways of resolving disputes. Nuclear weapons would not stop China acting against India, for example. Asked where he would draw the line, Holloway
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said that he isnt a pacifist, but noted that weve had non-stop wars since deterrence began. A conventional war may make things slightly better, but not a nuclear war. I dont believe in the logic of deterrence, said Holloway. If deterrence is such a good idea, every country in the world would want to have nuclear weapons including Iran. Cornish pointed out that Iran is not motivated by self-defence but by its desire for the annihilation of Israel. Holloway countered that it is hard to unpick the mosaic of complex international relations, and Clarke said that multiple deterrence in the Middle East does not make the region safer. Are threat and act the same? Is a threat so unbearably evil? Deterrence doesnt work, said Holloway, adding: There is something immoral about monstrous intentions, even if you dont mean to carry them out. Lord Robertson: Closing Remarks. We face many, various threats. In the last century, 160 million people died in war around the world and this is starting to reduce now, thanks to deterrence. The economist J K Galbraith talked about the difference between those who know they dont know and those who dont know they dont know, and this also applies to deterrence. Russia wont give up its nuclear weap-
ons. A nuclear-free world wont happen overnight. But because we cant forecast the future, we must plan ahead. There is no alternative to Trident. MAD is no longer a threat because were capable of flexible response, and modern weapons are more accurate. They can still cause huge damage, however, and having a continuous sea-based deterrence works. Unilateral disarmament would not work because we would not be believed. War between the great powers is no longer the norm, because of deterrence, including Trident in the UK, and this is especially true in a changing, unpredictable world. Deterrence is not a chimera or psychological and if we disarmed, it would be hard to reverse the decision. Michael Clarke: Closing Remarks. Trident is efficient, but the argument goes much deeper. We have a misplaced faith in nuclear deterrence, based on historical circumstances that no longer apply. In the past, we had a metaphysical deterrence, but this wont help us in the future. Why should the UK need nuclear weapons and not other countries? A continuation of the present is
not risk-free. If the UK were not already a nuclear power, we would not become one. And the timing is good to scrap Trident. The UK has never been as safe as it is now. We have a window of opportunity. We do have an alternative. Say no to Trident. Lord Cullen: Summing Up. Team A (Yes) said that Trident is a political statement, threatening unacceptable damage. Nuclear stockpiles are increasing. The future is uncertain. Reduction has not discouraged proliferation. Global Zero is a dangerous approach. The threat to use nuclear weapons prevents war. Team B (No) said that history has moved on from the Cold War. Deterrence is a slippery term. We should take the moral lead. Threat and use of force are equally immoral. There is a very narrow frame of reference for using nuclear weapons. There is no guarantee they would protect or deter. Their use can not be justified by just war theory and to threaten to use them is just as monstrous and immoral as any threat against us. What is so special about the UK? Trident would also compromise the MoD budget.
Vote: After the debate, the audience voted again on the question: Trident: Should we keep it? as follows: Yes: 23. Not sure/abstain: 2. No: 33
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Workshop Gardens in Art and Science Part of the RSE@Dumfries and Galloway Programme Led by Professor David Ingram OBE VMH FRSE 25 July 2011 From the early medicinal gardens of the Italian Renaissance to the role of botanical gardens in addressing concerns such as climate change today, gardens and plants have helped to shape scientific understanding for centuries. At the same time, gardens and plants have inspired countless generations of artists and served as the subject of some of the worlds best loved paintings and decorative arts. Experts from the worlds of art history, botany and horticulture gathered at Drumlanrig Castle for a one-day workshop looking at the contribution of gardens and plants to science and art. Topics discussed included the gardens of Dumfries and Galloway, botanic gardens and their collections, the renowned painter of flowers, Henri Fantin-Latour, and Impressionist gardens. The programme was devised and chaired by Professor David Ingram OBE VMH FRSE, of the Universities of Edinburgh and Lancaster and formerly Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Gardens of Dumfries & Galloway: Art or Science? Allen Paterson Former Director of Royal Botanical Gardens, Ontario. Mr Patersons opening talk was illustrated with images of gardens in southwest Scotland, several of which are internationally renowned. He took the ideal role of botanic gardens since early times to respond to the question in the title of his talk, defining botanic gardens as places where science, education and public amenity are based upon the world of plants. Indeed the strap-line (so common in modern businesses and public institutions today) of Ontarios Royal Botanical Gardens uses the phrase affirmatively: Where the arts and sciences meet. It describes the situation perfectly. In addition to the traditional labelled, documented plant collections, herbarium laboratories and themed gardens, a visitor centre holds a 500-seat auditorium, a publically-available library, demonstration workrooms, a shop and a restaurant. This pattern is typical across North America; with little State funding, the cultivation of friends of all
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categories is as essential as the cultivation of the plants themselves. Concerts, lecture series and art and flower shows encourage public participation throughout the year. Such egalitarianism was uncommon and certainly less extensive, in Britain until the reforms of Thatcherite government insisted that cultural institutions, including botanic gardens, had to find more of their own funding. Charitable Foundations, Friends and Alumni Associations followed and new Visitor Centres began to offer public programmes inconceivable in earlier times and inevitable today. There, the arts and sciences meet and are seen to be mutually supportive. The fine new John Hope Gateway at Edinburgh demonstrates this splendidly; the Botanics have always been available to the public, but their extended role and unlimited potential are now more manifest, to the benefit of all. Mr Paterson emphasised that such developments have not detracted from the traditions of botanical research and display of documented plant collections. Indeed, they have often been enhanced by the new necessity of effective interpretation at several levels. While the perceived dichotomy between art and science can easily be dispersed in a modern botanic garden, it can be seen equally as
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erroneous in any garden of note. Cultivation of plants cannot fail to be based upon scientific principles and facts soil types, weather and local microclimates, manipulation of genetic potential in the production of cultivars, choice of species from across the world and so on but the arrangement, juxtaposition and training of the seasonal palette depends upon art. And gardens are frequently embellished by the traditional artforms of sculpture and ornamental buildings. Great Renaissance sites were often programmatic gardens with classical themes taken from Virgil and Ovid. Many 18th-Century landscape gardens in Britain followed this pattern, while at Stowe (in Buckinghamshire) the programme included philosophical and political allusions understood by the cognoscenti. Modern gardens seldom stray beyond the science within horticulture and the art of design, but in Dumfriesshire is a unique essay linking the Two Cultures. Charles Jenckss Garden of Cosmic Speculation at Portrack illustrates the physics underlying our universe. On a smaller, though no less intense, scale, Ian Hamilton Finlays Little Spartacus uses classical and literary allusions to build an inclusive artwork up in the Pentland Hills.
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Mr Paterson posed a further query: What are gardens for? And using the 17th-Century John Parkinsons phrase For use and for Delight, he showed images of local gardens that respond to both questions. The list included plantsmens gardens at Corsock House, Steadstone House, Biggar Park and his own garden nearby at Grovehill House. The grounds of The Crichton Royal, now a University Campus, in Dumfries are essentially a therapeutic garden while the gardens and policies of Drumlanrig Castle (where the study day was held) have been laid out, adapted and embellished over four centuries as a finely-wrought setting for the central gem, the great house itself. Each is an individual essay in creativity, where art and science, use and delight combine to make what Francis Bacon famously described as The Purest of Human Pleasures. Question: Could the science be brought out more into the public arena so people have more appreciation for the plants? Mr Paterson suggested that there is a danger of being too didactic. People are often unnecessarily put off by botanical nomenclature and in what they are apt to see as pretentious Latin. He believes that if a visitor spends time in a botanic garden and goes away even slightly better informed then that is sufficient, but there is also a need to have effective interpretation there for those who want it. Botanic Gardens - Gardens for Science. Emeritus Professor John Parker Former Director, University of Cambridge Botanic Garden. Professor Parker proposed that botanic gardens are not the same as other gardens; they are different as they are focused on the plants themselves rather than on human perceptions of plants. What are gardens? An image of a painting of the Virgin Mary surrounded by a walled garden depicts it as a misplaced section of heaven. This painting, in the Persian tradition, clearly portrays plants that have distinct significance and religious overtones, giving a sense of the spiritual as well as the aesthetic importance of gardens. Rubens Garden of Eden is an example of a painting depicting the world of plants within gardens as existing for humans to use and exploit. Professor Parker described an early medieval plan of the Benedictine Monastery garden at St Gall, which shows a garden of simples, or herbs for medicinal use. Professor Parker described plants as the worlds great chemists, and explained that there has been a long tradition of using plants in a medical way throughout history.
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During the Renaissance, the study of medicine at the universities, including investigative dissection of the human body, was installed as an exact science. The scientific advances were accompanied by a need to systematise plants from a medical perspective. So plant collections, to aid this systematic study, became part of the science of medicine, and the places where they were held were often referred to as physic gardens. Thus botanic gardens had their origins in this era of scientific revolution. The Botanic Garden of the University at Padua, established in 1545, is usually considered to be the earliest foundation. It is classical in style, incorporating statuary and water, with beds of rectangular shape arranged in concentric circles. These beds were planted with species linked by their medicinal uses plants for treating heart complaints, liver diseases and so on. Professor Parker characterised botanical gardens as having collections, like living museums of such things as aromatic plants but having no necessity for an aesthetic sense in their design. They were, and are, primarily research collections, and, as a corollary, teaching collections too. The establishment of botanic gardens quickly spread from the Renaissance Italy of the early 16th Century to other European countries. Thus the 1587 Botanic
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Garden at Leiden in the Low Countries was similar to that at Padua, having quadrants of rectangular beds holding collections. However, the science had moved away from the concept of grouping plants together for their medicinal uses towards different relationships and categorisations of the plant world. The Dutch were amongst the first European colonial powers to routinely collect plants throughout their spheres of interest; thus Protea species from the Cape of South Africa were soon displayed at Leiden. Botanists quickly realised that other parts of the world had differences in their floras from that of Europe. This diversity needed to be understood and this knowledge incorporated into the classification and systemisation of plants. The first botanic garden in England was opened at Oxford in 1621, after a visit to Leiden by the Earl of Danby. The design of the Oxford Botanic Garden still resembles an Italian physic garden of its era. The establishment of these gardens spread rapidly throughout Europe in the late 16th and 17th Centuries. Carl von Linne, botanist and zoologist, also known as Linnaeus (17071778), moved to Uppsala Botanic Garden, Sweden, in 1728. This Botanic Garden had been established in 1655 and, when Linnaeus arrived, he found it in a
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums very tired and rundown state. He set about correcting this as he developed his life of classification. Linnaeus can be considered as the father of modern taxonomy; he believed his role in life was to give names to everything on earth, Gods systematist! His classifications were not uniquely biological he referred to both animate and inanimate objects, such as rock, as species. In the 18th Century the world was opening up to European colonialism and new plant species were flooding into Europe. Linnaeus was very pragmatic about the classification of these new species and, rather than try to fit them in to the system of existing knowledge, he devised a sexual system of classification to cope with the explosion of new plants. He simply grouped them according to how many stamens and pistils the flower possessed. In this way, Linnaeus was able to create a catalogue of the diversity of the world using a practical rather than a biologically meaningful system. Botanic gardens spread worldwide to South America, Asia and Africa under the guidance of the great European trading institutions such as the East India Company. By the 18th Century, botanic gardens in the home countries were incorporating glasshouses, so providing artificial environments where exotic specimens could be grown and
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enabling wondrous worlds to be recreated in a European environment. Underlying all these botanic gardens was the principle of plants for use. John Henslow (17961861), Professor of Mineralogy and Botany at Cambridge University, changed the botanic garden landscape of the 19th Century. He considered the Garden at Cambridge unsuitable for the needs of modern botany. During his era science became truly modern, and could no longer be satisfactorily considered as natural philosophy. Thus the new study of botany became focused on the science of plants themselves, not simply concentrating on their medicinal or other economic benefits. Professor Parker stated that plants themselves were interesting as the major component of the biological world, not just because of their use to people. But these plant collections for the study of scientists could also be arranged with due regard to aesthetics. At Cambridge, under Henslow, this gave rise to the first major example of the British style of gardening, referred to as Gardenesque, in which the design of the landscape gives an opportunity to appreciate the individuality of the plants themselves. This style is evident in Henslows new Botanic Garden, and is clear in the design of the
Systematic Beds. No longer were these beds the simple rectangles of the classical tradition, but were instead curving and irregular in size and shape, themselves formed into curving patterns without any straight lines. The new knowledge was presented in a series of 150 beds containing different families of plants, now classified after the natural system of the Swiss botanist de Candolle. Henslow also laid out the specimens within the Botanic Garden at Cambridge to exemplify his own research programme on the nature of species, which he based on studies of patterns of variation in nature. Thus he proposed that the units detected in nature through studies of variation corresponded to species, and the reality of these species could be established by tests of hybridisation. Charles Darwin was one of Henslows students and he left Cambridge with a sound knowledge of Henslows research on species. The concepts of variation and hybridisation emerged later as the foundations of his own understanding of the nature of species as expressed in On the Origin of Species in 1859. Botanic gardens in the later 19th Century became the foci for experimental botany, for example for studies of pollination behaviour. Thus, at Cambridge, William Bateson in 1895 pioneered a new science which he later christened
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genetics. His chosen experimental system was the sweet pea, Lathyrus odoratus. In one startling experiment, he crossed a white sweet pea with a flat standard petal with a white sweet pea with a hooded petal; the next generation was fully coloured. Bateson deduced that two distinct genes were involved in the specification of flower colour, and that genes and the characters they determined could be teased apart. The number of botanic gardens across the world has increased enormously in the 20th Century, particularly recently with our growing appreciation of the significance of biodiversity to the planet. Sadly, this is not true of the United Kingdom, where few botanic gardens are still associated with teaching and research and most University support for them has been withdrawn. It has been a sad tale of closure. The botanic gardens of the developing world, however, combine science and horticulture in a thriving way. Thus the new Istanbul Botanic Garden is a site dedicated to conservation, not aesthetics; its focus is to help conserve the fast-eroding flora of Turkey, not to provide a beautiful environment for the public to enjoy. Similarly, Mexico City Botanic Garden specialises in propagating rare native species of cacti which have been destroyed in the wild in Mexico due to demand from collectors in
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Western Europe. In addition, some plant species extinguished in nature by human actions have been restored using specimens contained in botanic garden collections. Professor Parker concluded by reiterating that botanic gardens are not like other gardens. They are designed for the glorification of plants themselves, not for the glorification of humans. Focus on Logan Botanic Garden Richard Baines - Curator, Logan Botanic Garden. Mr Baines gave a short overview of the Logan Botanic Garden. Logan Botanic Garden is located to the south of Stranraer in Dumfries and Galloway and is Scotlands most exotic garden. The garden plays host to a bizarre and beautiful plant collection from across the globe, including a magnolia over 100 years old. The garden setting benefits from the north Atlantic drift/Gulf Stream, providing a temperate climate ideal for nurturing plants. The normal winter minimum temperature is -3C and the highest temperature recorded to date is 28C. The lowest ever temperature recorded at the gardens was -8.1C in 2011 however, this was very different to the temperature recorded in Dumfries at the same time, which plummeted to -16C. Since 1969, Logan Botanic Garden has been managed by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Vital research and conservation is carried out at Logan and the gardens continue to source material from far and wide. The plant collection has been dramatically enhanced in recent years and unusually, due to the climate, many of the specimens grow outdoors. There are over 3000 species contained in the gardens and of these over 200 are endangered. Logan Botanic Garden is home to ten champion trees, the largest living specimens in the country, and has 3.5 acres of walled garden and a woodland garden containing examples of trees from South American and Australasia. The gardens are also the keepers of three national plant collections, including Leptospermum, and Logan Botanic Garden has exciting plans to develop better visitor services and other displays, including a South African collection. The gardens also host a large number of international students undertaking practical training and taking part in cultural events. Garden staff also work with local school children, offering education in a practical setting. Mr Baines concluded by saying that gardens should be for all and should offer a positive experience.
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Focus on Fantin-Latour: Painter of Garden Flowers. Ms Emma House Keeper of Fine Art, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle. Ms House introduced her talk by advising the audience that many of the paintings she would be discussing were currently on display in an exhibition at The Bowes Museum, County Durham. The Bowes Museum was the gift of John Bowes, the illegitimate son of the 10th Earl of Strathmore, and his wife Josphine, a Parisian actress, to the people of County Durham. Between them they gathered together an amazing collection of art and decorative objects. Henri Fantin-Latour was born in Grenoble, France in 1836 and was to become one of the finest 19thCentury painters of flowers. Originally, his paintings were not particularly revered or liked by French society and, like many an artist, he had difficult times when life was a struggle to survive. Fantin-Latours big break came about thanks to the artist Whistler, who introduced Henri to Londons artistic and intellectual society and to members of the Greek community in London, many of whom also became his patrons. Fantin-Latour met Edwin Edwards in Paris in 1860, and visited Edwards and his wife Ruth in England the following year. The Edwards, in addition to purchasing many of Fantin-Latours
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paintings themselves, also praised his work amongst their society friends, helping him develop a base of patrons and eventually becoming his agents in England. This, obviously, was not without financial benefit to themselves. Henri Fantin-Latour met and married Victoria Dubourg, herself an aspiring artist. She inherited her uncles home in Bur, Normandy in 1880. The garden of this cottage was filled with an abundance of flowers, inspiring Fantin-Latour to create endless floral compositions. Ms House presented and described images of a selection of Fantin-Latours paintings to the audience, describing how Professor Ingrams assistance in identifying many of the plants therein and explaining their significance was invaluable and added a new dimension to the current exhibition. Again exemplifying how, in the world of botany and gardens, art and science are compatible and mutually beneficial. Fruit & Flowers, 1866 Ms House described how Professor Ingram identified this as an impossible painting, referring to the paradox of the spring flower selection positioned next to autumn fruits. Fantin-Latour used the same model fruits in a variety of paintings next to flowers from differing seasons. The painting also includes depictions of Narcissus, an 18th-Century
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums plant originating in the Mediterranean, Spanish bluebells and wallflowers from northern Europe. Nasturtiums, 1880 This painting depicts the Nasturtium variety Tropaeolum majus rising up from the bottom of the page. Nasturtiums were originally imported from Peru and many early botanists named plants in accordance with similar scents from already named species. The Nasturtium, as such, meaning twisted nose, was named after another plant in the cabbage family which had a similar peppery taste and smell. At a later date it was decided that this classification was incorrect and the name Tropaeolum meaning trophy of shield and helmet, was afforded to the plant. Ms House explained how Professor Ingram pointed out that the plants in this painting are all clones with double heads and the only way to reproduce them is by taking cuttings. Capucines, 1887 These flowers were taken from the garden in Normandy and have a fresh look. These Nasturtiums are reproduced by seed and show no uniformity or clones. Their colour is very bright and at dawn and dusk, as with many flowers, this is even more intensified. The glass vase in which they are depicted was a gift from Mrs Edwards and was designed by Gertrude Jekyll. Rosy Wealth of June, 1886 This painting seems to include the
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whole garden of Bur. The scent in the room at the time of painting must have been overwhelming. The Delphinium was grown in France for many years and new varieties from Russia and North America strengthened the existing ones. The Amaryllis belladonna, an old French garden plant, has a rich fruity smell. Dahlia hybrids were brought across from South America in the later 18th Century and by the mid 19th Century were very popular in France. Other flowers in the painting include larkspur; begonia; six roses. Including a Bourbon rose; and phlox, the flame flower with a snuffy pungent scent. Of all the botanical images Henri Fantin-Latour created, his most praised are those which depict roses. Many roses are very difficult to identify from paintings, as often information such as their scent, leaf detail and extent of thorn detail is difficult to ascertain from a two-dimensional image. Working with rose expert Peter Beale, Professor Ingram managed to identify many of the roses in Fantin-Latours paintings for the first time. Many of the roses depicted in Fantin-Latours paintings can still be purchased and grown today. Fantin-Latour died in Normandy in 1904. He is buried in the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, France.
Impressionist Gardens. Dr Clare Willsdon - Reader in History of Art, University of Glasgow. Dr Willsdon took the audience on a journey through Impressionist images, explaining the painters thinking on gardens and horticulture and the political undertones involved in the Impressionist movement. Specific works were also analysed and discussed, in some cases from the Impressionist Gardens exhibitions at the National Gallery of Scotland and Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, for which Dr Willsdon had been Academic Adviser and co-curator (201011). Dr Willsdon stated that Impressionist gardens reveal an intriguing and close relationship between science and art. Many Impressionist artists had a keen interest in horticulture and tended their own gardens. Claude Monet was particularly interested in botany, subscribed to the proceedings of botanical congresses, and owned many specialist volumes on botany and horticulture. He stated that If I have become a painter, I owe it to flowers and that gardening was a metier I learnt in my youth, when I was sad, implying that horticulture is quintessentially cathartic; a means of renewal. Gustave Caillebotte was another keen Impressionist-gardener. Monet and other Impressionist painters treated the garden as, in
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effect, an artistic laboratory for the study of nature, as shown in Pierre-Auguste Renoirs painting of Monet painting in his Garden at Argenteuil (1873). Indeed Monet, Renoir and Edouard Manet all used Monets garden at Argenteuil as inspiration for paintings. Monet went on to develop a serial approach to painting which involved using a succession of canvases throughout the day to capture the same scene in changing light. He perfected this technique in his Water Lily paintings during the early 20th Century, and considered his garden at Giverny, whose pond they portray, to be his most beautiful work of art. The flowers in Monets paintings are frequently quite clearly identifiable. He also often used new varieties of flowers in his paintings, as shown by his depiction of Dahlia hybrids in his 1873 painting The Artists Garden at Argenteuil (A Corner of the Garden with Dahlias). Dr Willsdon discussed some of the works which led to Impressionist garden painting, including still lifes by Eugne Delacroix, who regarded science and art as interchangeable, and the painting African Woman with Peonies, created by Frdric Bazille in 1870. The flowers depicted in this image have botanical precision. Bazille painted it as a gift for his sister-inlaw who had just given birth, and the flowers and plants appear to
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums allude to this, as several had symbolic or medical connotations. The iris was known as the flower that announces events clearly relevant to the birth of the child whilst peonies were believed to annul spells, and they therefore safeguard the child since they clearly outnumber the sprig of laburnum, a traditional symbol for a spell, in the models left hand. Viburnum (guelder rose) was used to treat spasms resulting from childbirth. Not only does this painting signify the coming together of art and science, but also the union of folklore, science and art; at the same time, its effect of natural lighting predicts that of Impressionism. lmpressionist painters also used flowers and gardens to experiment with colour. Renoir exploited the colours of dahlias in his painting Garden in the Rue Cortot (1876) and Caillebottes Garden at Petit Gennevilliers (1893) depicts the brilliance of the dahlias primary colours. The public gardens of big cities, including those such as the Parc Monceau in Paris, provided green lungs for the people and amongst the original reasons for their establishment was their ability to help destroy toxic emanations. Gardens were integral to Baron Haussmanns reconstruction of Paris for Napoleon III in the 1850s and 60s, creating a symbiotic relation215
ship of sewers below ground and trees above in the fight against cholera. These gardens, with their new plantations of trees, and decorative plants from overseas, such as banana trees, were in fact as much about Napoleons power his regularisation of Paris as about art and science. However, the Impressionist painters, hating Napoleon IIIs autocratic regime, hardly ever painted his flower beds. The paintings that do depict these public areas often give glimpses into the painters political allegiances. Manets Music in the Tuileries (1862) shows the historic Tuileries gardens almost as an untamed forest, and includes images of Republican friends; Renoirs Champs Elyses during the Paris Fair of 1867 (1867) shows the flower beds not in bloom. These details can be seen as deliberate snubs to Napoleon. Impressionist painters liked to paint their own gardens, as they could directly shape how their subject looked. In the 1870s and 80s, after the trauma of the Franco-Prussian War and Paris Commune, the new art-science of the Impressionist garden was implicitly associated with hopes for a brighter future, and ideals of patriotism and republicanism. In Manets Laundress (1876), for example, with its imagery of cleansing, growth, childhood and light refraction, the sunflower is particularly suggestive, as it was
the emblem of the new Republican Republic. The use of the exotic red-flowered Epiphyllum plant in the foreground of Monets Artists House at Argenteuil (1873) adds a vital splash of colour; the red vibrates against the blue of the pots and the shadow is infused with violet reflections. Such effects, consistent with scientific colour theory, led critics to complain of the Impressionists Violettomania. Berthe Morisots imagery of her young daughter in her holiday garden asks us to look at nature with the childs unprejudiced eye, just as the scientist Claude Bernard sought to replace preconceptions with empirical evidence. At the same time, her delicate brushwork suggests the vulnerability of child and flowers so that emotion is allied with science. Dr Willsdon concluded by showing how, from the late 19th Century, the Impressionist garden was associated with the new science of psychology in Albert Besnards murals for the Ecole de Pharmacie in Paris, and developed in new decorative directions in works by Gustav Klimt, whilst Monets Water Lily murals for the Orangerie in Paris were created as images of regeneration after the First World War, with the support of the former doctor and French premier Georges Clemenceau. She stated that the art of the Impressionist
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garden brings many elements of science into play and that there is little evidence of a schism between artist and scientist. Art Nouveau - the Garden Invades the Art. Howard Coutts Keeper of Ceramics, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle and Professor David Ingram OBE VMH FRSE Universities of Edinburgh and Lancaster and Former Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The Bowes Museum was the gift of John Bowes, the illegitimate son of the 10th Earl of Strathmore, and his wife Josephine, a Parisian actress, to the people of County Durham. Between them they gathered together an amazing collection of art and decorative objects. Josephine Bowes was one of glass designer Emile Galls earliest patrons. During the mid 19th Century, whilst the British were developing mass production, the French continued to manufacture handmade quality objects. The French government funded the arts and sent pieces chosen to show their expertise to the public exhibitions. The major state-funded porcelain factory was that at Svres, whose pieces were always well researched. The mid 19th Century also saw the rise of the Art Nouveau movement, an augmented taste for Japanese art, and the emergence of Impression-
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums ist art. These new tastes began to be reflected in the styles of manufactured objects, with pottery overtaking porcelain in popularity and the development of cramique impressionniste; a style of pottery incorporating Impressionist art and using decorative glazes. State factories, such as Svres, came under threat from these rivals and they were criticised for an obsession with the Greek taste and the poverty of the forms, the bad taste shown in the choice of designs and ugliness of its colours. The Svres factory was sensitive to this criticism and made changes; including recruiting new designers, such as Rodin, and trying to keep up with advanced French taste. A key figure of the Art Nouveau era is Emile Gall (18461904), botanist and glass designer. Gall saw flowers as having personalities. He produced vases that are flowers in their own right using a technique that has a carved effect similar to Chinese work. He also managed to achieve pastel colours in glass, something never previously achieved in the man-made world. Galle also designed furniture. This was not structurally solid, rather elegant but not practical. The furniture design was elaborate, incorporating botanical elements, aiming to bring plants in to the drawing room. This was French design to be seen rather than used. One example of his work is a fire screen with a
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Clematis design incorporating an elongated botanical design in the Art Nouveau style. The Svres factory in the 1890s used semi-freelance artists. The Vase de Blois, signed by Gbleux is a typical Art-Nouveau vase measuring over five feet tall. On first appraisal, the design would appear to show elements of a tropical rainforest put together in a random manner. Professor Ingram analysed the Vase de Blois, describing the plants and flowers depicted: Ondontoglossum (Wallichianum or Albertianum) These hybrid orchids originate from South America, possibly the cultivar, and were very popular in 19th-Century glasshouses. The images of the plants are painted in great detail and include artistic representations of aerial roots. Paphiopedilum, cultivar Leoniae This is a solid looking, ground dwelling hybrid ladys slipper orchid originating in the Himalayas. Cattleya gaskelliana Var. Alba A tree-dwelling orchid with aerial roots from South America. Nepenthes This carnivorous pitcher plant grows high in the canopy of South East Asia. It was widely grown in glasshouses in Victorian times. Palmae These plants are sketched into the background, holding the composition together.
Two types of palm are depicted, the first a palm with fan-shaped leaves, very like the hardy palm Trachycarpus fortunei, originating from China or Burma and grown widely in Europe. The second is a pinnate palm, the leaves resembling a feather. It is similar to the date palm Phoenix cactylifera, again widely grown in Southern Europe for many centuries. Melopsittacus undulates These are budgerigars which are found in large flocks in Australia. They were imported into Europe in the 19th Century. France was a great centre for breeding budgerigars in the 19th Century, where they were kept in aviaries.
Professor Ingram concluded that, rather than being randomly put together, it is likely that the painter of this vase created the composition following a visit to a botanic garden, probably the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, where all these plants would have been on display. The Vase de Blois is another example of art and science working together. The Vase is not only aesthetically pleasing but also firmly grounded in both the science and the artistic style of the day.
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Panel Discussion Whose Heritage, Whose Society? 25 August 2011 A Panel Discussion organised as part of the Festival of Politics with British Council Scotland, The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (University of Edinburgh), RSA UK, Museums Galleries Scotland, UNESCO and UKNC Scotland Committee Can culture, in all its forms, help us to understand better Scotlands place in the world, as well as address the issues that face Scottish and global society? Participants: Professor Jan McDonald FRSE (Chair): Professor Emerita and Honorary Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow Mark ONeill: Director of Policy, Research and Development at Glasgow Life Matthew Taylor: Chief Executive, Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce Professor Neil Blain: Head of Film, Media & Journalism Department, Stirling University David Greig: Playwright Introducing the discussion, Professor McDonald said that the question involved complex and
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often apparently incompatible issues. Matthew Taylor kicked off by saying that we should not be afraid to have a conversation about the arts, culture and heritage. He then proceeded to compare two very different attitudes to art. First, he cited Abraham Lincolns three Republican rivals in the contest for the US Presidential nomination in 1860, who all declared that reading the novels of Walter Scott improved ones character and encouraged a sense of adventure. Then, he described how the Turner Prizewinning artist Jeremy Deller declared that there was no social purpose to his work, which he simply produced for its own sake. In Taylors view, Dellers attitude is typical of many artists reaction to totalitarianism, rejecting the idea of giving any account of their work. Turning his attention to Scotland, he described the national cultural
strategy report as anaemic as if it had been downloaded from government-policies-are-us.com. In his opinion, three spurious and unhelpful concepts tend to dominate discussions on national cultural strategy: 1. excellence (art for arts sake) 2. more bums on seats 3. the contribution to the creative economy (including everything from high art to video games) Taylor believes we should focus on who we are, what we say to the world and what we can contribute, and said there was a very important word missing in Scotlands strategy document: Enlightenment. Despite the fact that Scotland was the cradle of the modern world, in terms of economics, science and philosophy, we dont export enlightenment but kilts. The aspiration gap was Taylors next concern, saying that we cant create the future we aspire to by thinking the same. Debt is our failure to face difficult decisions, but even though the Prime Minister is right to talk about the Big Society, and even though his diagnosis is correct, his Implementation is all over the place. We have to renew our thinking about human nature, said Taylor. We need people to change and understand human nature. David Hume was right to say that reason
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is the slave of our emotions, and the core ideas of the Enlightenment autonomy, universalism and humanism are still important now. Taylor then stressed the importance of empathy and how we can create a better future by ceasing to be passengers on the train pulled along by science, markets and bureaucracy and paying more attention to the legacy of the Scottish Enlightenment. Professor Blain then drew on the example of Ireland, describing how he talked with nationalist political representatives in the north 20 years ago (the heyday of post-modernism theory) about their aspiration to promote Irish culture, and their response to the problem of living in a globalised world where hybridisation is the norm. Nineteenth century Irish nationalism had been led by cultural concerns focusing variously on intellectual, artistic, and sporting domains, and a process of de-anglicisation. But in a world where identities were ever more complex, the question was now more of how to live our national lives in a global context. All over Europe, localities continued to reassert themselves and these local identities were every bit as substantial as the facts of globaliszation yet always contested in very dynamic circumstances. Our cultural identity is a process,
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums said Blain, adding: History goes forward and heritage goes back and tidies it up a bit. Blain then discussed the idea of imagined communities, as described by the writer Benedict Anderson, and how since the 1980s we have often ceased to imagine community. Now it is as easy to imagine disunity, fracture, atomisation and even hatred. We need to work at reimagining communities, while critically assessing the claims of community presently associated with social media. Even if people still tend naturally to define themselves to an important degree as local, we also need to protect some aspects of local cultures from global pressures, he continued. From a Scottish perspective, the UK media continue to be London-centric and our cinemas are, as always, full of US movies, but perhaps the important questions are now about the challenges of the digital world. To be recognisable is a decent and sensible thing for a small nation to aspire to, but even though it is easy to participate in the digital world, it is hard to get noticed for the strengths of our culture rather than the awfulness of social indicators which Scotland is so often known for. We need to grow our culture more equally across the whole nation, Blain concluded. Mark ONeill started by reminding the audience that Walter Scott had been blamed by Mark Twain for the US Civil War because he encouraged a notion of chivalry which became popular in the South. According to ONeill, the three main challenges are to: 1. explain more clearly what publicly-funded culture is for (making sure we relate it to economic, health and educational policy) 2. revisit the intrinsic and instrumental values of culture to understand how they are linked 3. focus on Scottish values such as quality and justice Glasgow is the cuckoo in the national nest, due to its scale and problems. The city spends more on culture than any other city in the rest of the country and its museums and galleries attract more visits than any outside London. But Glasgow has also been described as the City of the damned because of its deep social problems. Public funding and cultural policies exist to address public issues and hence need to engage with these inequalities. In the Victorian era, Sir Robert Peel described the arts as softening the problems of society and strengthening the bonds between rich and poor. Our cultural
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institutions were designed to compensate for the worst consequences of the anarchic creative destruction caused by industrialisation. And the survival of the market society would be ensured by the humanisation provide by the arts. Some people believe in art for arts sake and also that art has nothing to do with politics, but ONeill believes the arts are instrumental in improving life even helping us live longer lives by having an emotional impact. There is extensive epidemiological evidence that Art is good for you, and the social and cultural benefits are closely interlinked. One study shows that people who read more live longer and concludes that it may be something to do with meaning rather than the simple pleasure of reading. The Victorians were right, said ONeill, but it is not so much to do with moral benefit as the difference made by being stimulated by the arts. Social renewal is possible via the impact of art. And cultural events dont have an impact without engaging the audience. Culture is usually used as a positive word, but it also has its dark side, he continued it can be used to exclude, stereotype and humiliate people. Racism and sectarianism are cultural phenomena. The biggest challenge of the arts is to adapt to change and
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continue to enrich human life. And in Scotlands case, that means a culture embedded with our national values of quality and social justice. David Greig then shared his more jumbled and personal thoughts about Scotland and culture. As a young boy, having just arrived in Scotland from Nigeria, where he was born, Greig sometimes felt he didnt even belong in his own family. Sitting on the sofa in the living room at Hogmanay, surrounded by his family, he was amazed by the strange-sounding accents and the songs that his relatives sang, as his uncle leaned over to tell him, Remember this, son this is your heritage! Later, said Greig, he became fascinated with Scottishness and became a Scottish culture nerd, exploring the archives of the Scottish Poetry Library. Can I be me and be Scottish? he wondered, as he read the Lallans verse of Hugh MacDiarmid. As he grew older, however, he grew more interested in theatre, thinking actors were more fun than poems. At first, he wrote plays set in Europe, so the characters would speak more like himself, but as his work developed, and the idea of Scottish theatre evolved from the traditional approach of the 1950s to the more radical ideas of the 1980s, followed by a period when writers fused the two philosophies and found their own
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums voice, he realised he could write Scottish plays without writing in Scots. As well as refusing to be obsessed with Scottishness, Greig said every sentence we write about culture that we begin with we is probably a lie. In the theatre, bad plays use we when they focus on generalisation, rather than expressing their ideas via individual stories which put the audience in other peoples shoes what the playwright Jo Clifford describes as the empathy gym. Quoting Bertold Brechts maxim that theatre can be a transformative art, especially for everyone who makes it, Greig then referred to the example of the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra, which not only makes great music but also transforms peoples lives an idea which Richard Holloway (Chair of the Scottish Arts Council) once suggested could form the foundation of arts policy in Scotland. One of Greigs ambitions is to bring people into contact with the making of theatre and engage not as a passive audience but as collaborators. That is why the National Theatre a theatre without walls seeks to engage with every student in Scotland. As Brecht said, If you make theatre, you force empathy. This is not just a nice thing to do but how to put in place a whole new way of thinking, added Greig. The boy on the sofa was given a very sound lesson, said Greig. His uncle was right we make our own culture. And in a world of budget cuts, the do-it-yourself approach may grow in importance.
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Discussion Forum Facing Up to Climate Change 26 September 2011 Chair: Lord Wilson of Tillyorn KT GCMG PPRSE Speakers: The Rt Hon Lord Adair Turner HonFRSE, Chairman of the UK Committee for Climate Change Professor David Sugden FRSE, Professor of Geography, University of Edinburgh and Chair, RSE Climate Change Inquiry It is fitting, Lord Turner opened, to be discussing climate change in a multidisciplinary institution such as The Royal Society of Edinburgh, when the most appropriate way forward for climate change involves wide-ranging disciplines including science, technology, economics and ethics. The Chair of the Climate Change Committee making recommendations to the UK Government on targets for reducing CO2 emissions by 2050 began by discussing the science of climate change. There is a communications challenge, Lord Turner asserted, in putting across the high degree of certainty that science provides about the direction of climate change, whilst at the same time stating the uncertainty that exists (and the implications of that uncertainty) around the specific extent of climate change and its regional impact. This is important, because some sceptics use this uncertainty to undermine the credibility of what we know with a
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high degree of certainty. Lord Turner proceeded to set out what we do and do not know. Science and empirical data tell us within a range of high degree of certainty that: Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere warm the world, and without a reasonable concentration of them in the atmosphere, the Earth would be about thirty degrees colder and devoid of human life. Over the last million years, there has been a very significant correlation between concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and average temperatures. This historical occurrence has nothing to do with man-made emissions of carbon, but is a natural cycle. Feedback loops occur where the increased level of CO2 then feeds back to create a major increase in temperature and in this complex system feedback loops amplify and dampen.
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums However, for long periods of time, potentially very significant amplifying has occurred. This warns us against significantly changing quantities in this system. We have changed CO2 emissions in the atmosphere and the increase is driven by the burning of fossil fuels. We are set to double the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which we know have major impact on the complex feedback loop system. We almost fully understand the relationship between greenhouse gases and concentrations in the atmosphere, and can measure emissions and climate change and create models to estimate the potential impact on human welfare. Lack of certainty is not a reason for doing nothing, but rather an argument for extreme caution, Lord Turner argued. We cannot say what climate change for a specific geographical region would be and could not predict temperature or rainfall there. Intelligent policy must therefore rely, not on certainties, but on probabilistic estimates. There is further uncertainty in translating the impact as positive or negative for human welfare, but there are many reasons for believing that the effects are broadly negative. The Climate Change Committee believes that the effects are nonlinear; i.e., that if there are adverse effects caused by global temperature going up by 2C, the impact of going up by 4C is not twice as bad, it is much worse. There is a point beyond which we begin to have potentially catastrophic effects. Lord Turner then turned to the way in which his Committee approached the challenge. They looked, he said, at estimates that the scientists have produced of the probabilities of going above certain increases of global temperature over the next hundred years. Most scenarios give a very significant probability of exceeding a rise of 2C, and although many people demand a target to ensure it is not more than 2C, that is undeliverable, in Lord Turners view. They looked at best estimates of the possible impact scenarios, such as European heat waves or glaciers melting, and the potential impact of rainfall in Africa and the movements of people that drought might produce. Some potential impacts can be expressed in the language of economics, e.g., impact on agricultural productivity or on GDP, and we can attempt to put an economic value on them. Others, whilst important to human wellbeing, are difficult to put a value on, such as deaths
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from a heat wave or fewer deaths from less extreme cold. The Committees conclusion, said its Chairman, was that a sensible aim for the world is to set on a path of global emissions which would keep the increase in temperature as little above two degrees as possible, and the chance of going above two degrees at no more than approximately 50%. The most crucial maxim they proposed is that we have to keep the probability of really catastrophic change very low, (defining very low as below 1% and catastrophic as four degrees change). The world is putting out about 48 gig tonnes, (billion tonnes) of CO2, but has to get that down by roughly 50% by 2050, or down to 810 gig tonnes by the end of the century. Ethics come into play when you think how much each country should reduce its emissions by and whether there should be equal sharing. China is now the biggest emitter of CO2 in the world at 24%; USA 18 %; UK is about 1.5% of global emissions. CO2 per person levels also matter. They have reduced in the UK and remain low in India and Africa, but are rising worryingly in China and by 2015 China will probably overtake us. Lord Turner asserted that we must begin by persuading China not to go to the national emission levels that America has reached. Some might question
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whether Britain should cut its comparatively low emissions, he said, whilst there have been calls from some Developing World countries for Britain and America to shoulder more of the burden. The lead has to be given by countries with high levels of emissions, he asserted, because they have many economic opportunities to do so and because of the ethics of shared responsibility. Lord Turner framed the potential impacts for Europe as not catastrophic, but if, in Africa, climate change causes projected 50% reductions in crop yields and if crop revenues were to fall by 90% by 2100, these would be very significant adverse effects indeed. In order to achieve the reductions targeted, roughly equal per capita emission cuts across the world are the most sensible option. In this scenario, the UK by 2050 has to aim for approximately 2.12.6 CO2 tonnes per capita an 80% reduction, or 160 Mt (million tonnes) a year. The target for 2050 is to have gone from 670 Mt down to 160 Mt of CO2 emissions. That is what they recommended and what Parliament enacted. To achieve this, Lord Turner said, we must turn to technology and economics rather than to science and ethics, and the Climate Change Committee had to work out by what mix of technologies this is achievable. They have to
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums recommend what are called Budgets the maximum number of tonnes that the UK will emit in a series of five-year time periods. In the fourth Budget, they have just recommended to Parliament, and Parliament has accepted, a target of 1,950 Mt which is 390 Mt per annum. Lord Turners Committee believes it possible to achieve these targets, and at reasonably low economic cost (and very little human welfare cost), through a combination of three ways to reduce emissions: 1. Keep the same lifestyle and use the same amount of energy, but produce it from renewable sources or low carbon sources; 2. We dont change our lifestyle but we use energy more efficiently; 3. We change our lifestyle. The solution will be led by electricity decarbonisation. Today in the UK, when using electricity, we emit about 500g of carbon per kilowatt of electricity produced. It will be possible to reduce this to 50g per kilowatt hour by 2030 and to a much lower level, close to zero, by 2050. That would be achieved through a mix of technologies, including nuclear (which Lord Turner recognises is controversial to some, including the Scottish Government) and renewables and carbon capture and storage. Each technology has
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a role to play and the combination provides the lowest cost solution. If one is removed, the challenge is heightened. We can achieve very significant reductions from the emissions in cars, which could be reduced from 145 g per kilometre travelled to 95g per kilometre by 2020 with the existing internal combustion engine. It will be hard to get it down below 70g with the internal combustion engine. Aviation remains a big challenge and it will be difficult to more than cap aviation emissions, but as long as weve reduced emissions in other areas of the economy by 90% in 2050, thats adequate. Nobody has worked out how to get a plane off the ground except with liquid hydrocarbons. We have to concentrate on using liquid biofuels for aviation and biomass for heating, i.e., where they can each be most efficiently used, depending on how much biofuel the world can produce in a sustainable fashion. Electrification will be the route to decarbonise cars. Electric cars are very significantly more efficient that internal combustion engines, where around 70% of the energy is lost in heat rather than conversion into kinetic energy. In an electric car, the conversion from power to kinetic energy is about 90%. Once we get our electricity from wind or nuclear or other low
carbon source, rather than from fossil fuel power stations that work at only 50% efficiency, then the grammes per kilometre emissions of the electric car become dramatically lower than those of a fossil fuel car. The one big problem is how to store electricity. An innovation which will be a breakthrough that will make someone rich beyond their dreams is the creation of light high energy density batteries. They are progressing fast enough and will be an increasingly workable technology over the next twenty years. In 2030, 4060%, or worst-case 10%, of new cars could be electric. We are on the verge of a new electrical industrial revolution, Lord Turner stated, and we are going to produce electricity far more efficiently but also much more of it, because we are going to start using it for surface transport and it in domestic heating. In the next 20 years we are likely to replace our gas central heating with fuel-efficient heat pumps that will give us approximately three kilowatt hours of heat coming out for one kilowatt hour of electricity going in. Household insulation is a very important area. The Climate Change Committee posed itself the question, Where should we be in 2030? It is possible to get emissions down to something like 360
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million tonnes through a very dramatic reduction in emissions from power, transport and buildings, in particular residential buildings, through a combination of better insulation, better appliances and the electrification of heating. Some segments dont decrease; for example, agriculture. Agriculture is an area in which it is incredibly difficult to reduce emissions, but more must be done. International aviation and shipping also remain a challenge. Lord Stern estimated that meeting climate change targets will cost around 1% of GDP, and that this should be compared to damage costs potentially as high as 20% of GDP. The Committees estimates suggest that for the UK to reach our 80% target, maybe the costs will be 1.1%, maybe 2%, they cannot be precise, but feel sure it will not be in the order of 20%. If 2%, that means the GDP in 2050 will be 2% below what it would otherwise be, and given that the economy grows at 12% per annum, we would reach in February 2051, the standard of living we would otherwise have reached in January 2050. Lord Turner stated that he believed the welfare impact of such a cost for a country like the UK is very limited. Therefore, Lord Turner concluded, from the perspective of science, technology, ethics and economics, the case for robust action on climate change is very strong indeed.
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Professor David Sugden: Facing up to climate change: breaking the barriers to a low-carbon Scotland Professor Sugden set out his intention to discuss the background to the RSEs independent Inquiry into climate change and to explore why it is apparently so difficult for Society in the UK to make the changes that climate change necessitates and to create a blueprint for this. At the outset of the Inquiry in 2009, The RSEs Climate Change Committee took two key decisions. The first was that science showed there was an enormous risk for society in the form of temperature fluctuations correlating with CO2, and that the levels of CO2 were well outside the natural range because of our use of fossil fuels. David Sugden stated that if one is modifying greenhouse gas levels, this is likely to be having an amplifying effect and that the greater the uncertainty of what is caused, the greater the risk. The second assertion was that climate change is not solely an environmental problem, but that the gravity of it poses a challenge to the way the world organises society and uses resources. He cited Lord Stern, suggesting that there is a solution to this and referred to Archbishop Desmond Tutu in a speech to the UN highlighting how climate change is a global challenge and
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that theres a responsibility for the richer world to help the poorer world. The Inquiry set out to bridge the gap between the policies needed and what people will currently accept, and looked in particular at the opportunities for and barriers to change. It was an interdisciplinary Committee of eight people, including natural, economic and social scientists, and people from business, education and policy. The Committee determined to engage with policy makers and with schools, on the premise that this is the generation that will have to deal with the problems. The wide range of organisations who contributed to the funding of the Inquiry gave it the magic ingredient of independence. The Committee took evidence from 110 organisations, held public meetings, visited exemplar case studies, participated in and organised their own seminars, ran a schools competition and produced a film. The results of these are all on The RSEs website. Professor Sugden then highlighted the barriers that are making it difficult for the country to actually make the change and also made recommendations for further changes. The first thing that struck them was the optimism and vision they encountered from all walks of life around Scotland as to how well positioned Scotland is to partici-
pate in a Renewables Industrial Revolution, on account of Scotland having: the landscape; compact cities which are easier to deal with; universities; offshore and renewables skills; and proximity to demand in Europe. Unlike the last industrial revolution which took people away from rural areas, the Renewables Revolution, said Professor Sugden, could also bring prosperity to rural areas, with local communities participating and benefiting socially and economically. The Committees first recommendation centred on the apparent lack of coherence about strategy for the Grid and how we are going to develop renewables in Scotland, because they encountered widely diverging views from key institutions. The National Grid envisaged that renewables are a temporary fix on the nuclear road, their vision for 2050 being a centralised grid based on nuclear. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), however, saw renewables, along with nuclear and carbon capture and storgae (CCS), as one of the three technologies that will be essential to the UK in the long term. The EU Environmental Agency expressed the view that there would be no full exploitation of renewables in Scotland unless there is an Interconnector a link to the Continent. This is so that pump storage can be
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called upon to generate electricity when the wind isnt blowing in one country and then export it back to another when the situation is reversed. The Interconnector would also be needed to exploit the major resource of tidal energy from the north of Britain to Europe. The nature and management of the Grid also caused concerns for the Committee, and the lack of co-ordination amongst the Scottish Government, UK Government and the EU they saw as representing a fundamental threat to the exploitation of renewables. Another of the main findings is the importance of city regions in making carbon savings. Despite having the best potential to make savings, due to concentrations of population and investment, local authorities face many barriers in doing so. Many of these centre around the conflict between national and regional goals, as exemplified by the failure of one authority to create additional commuter stations serving local people because additional stops would increase journey times for national rail networks. Investment in trunk roads was also at odds with local plans. Reducing commuting by car with muchneeded public transport at a regional scale could make major savings and, particularly in urban areas, would provide a big reward
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums for investment, said Professor Sugden. The second major issue was the lack of appropriate powers for local authorities, which is leading to new houses being built that are below optimum standards for energy efficiency and carbon saving. The Committee heard of developers threatening to move projects to areas with lower requirements and instances of additional facilities being built in exchange for less exacting building standards for carbon saving. The Committee learned that there can also be a lack of coordination between planners, building surveyors and architects; for example, as to what type of heating should be put into a new development. There was also a lack of integration amongst the various divisions within local authorities which, if better joined up, would have much more potential for carbon savings. As an example, Professor Sugden pointed to two buildings which have excellent environmental credentials and have won awards, but are located out of town, both with large car parks, calling into question their long-term carbon efficiency. There are fringe effects observed around the cities, with councils outside allowing lower heating and insulation standards in order to encourage more houses and outof-town shopping centres, all of which increase car use.
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Overridingly, it was clear to the Committee that a lack of strategic planning is impacting upon potential carbon savings in transport and energy efficiency. The sort of district heating for large buildings and combined heat and power schemes that are commonplace in Scandinavia are rare in Scotland. Also, municipalities in Sweden have the ability to build their own power stations burning local waste, something that is apparently difficult for the UK because of lack of local powers. The Committee were surprised and frustrated by the amount of activity at local community level opposing wind farms. When they asked one developer about attitudes of NIMBYsm (not in my back yard), they were told the situation is not NIMBY but BANANA build absolutely nothing anywhere near anybody! The RSEs Committee visited two impressive examples of wind farm successes which they felt could be replicated across Scotland. One is on Westray in Orkney, which came together as a community after the decline of the fishing industry, secured a loan from overseas green bank Triodos and, with support from the Lottery Fund, built a turbine. This is generating the islands own electricity and income, which is being used to improve facilities and is helping to reverse population decline. It took 800 legal documents to get that
wind turbine erected, Professor Sugden related. Mackies of Aberdeenshire, who make ice cream, turned their electricity costs into income by building three wind turbines which paid for themselves in four years. Both of these projects present a model to follow which offers tremendous opportunities for rural and urban areas, the Committee felt. Civil society has an important role to play in addressing climate change issues. There is friction within civil society groups in the UK on issues such as wind farms, and civil society groups do not, on the whole, work harmoniously, as is the case in Sweden, with the Market and the State. We need, David Sugden said, to bring together environmental, faith and social groups to unite in tackling a low-carbon future, because their working together would make it easier for the politicians to take the sort of decisions that are needed. We need more education and to appreciate that beyond recycling, every activity in our life impacts on our carbon footprint. Britain should have discussion about its import of carbon, because this is increasing our carbon footprint and we ought to appeal to the media to contribute to an informed debate on climate change rather than focusing on controversies. We need bold political leadership and to invest in
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infrastructure rather than behavioural change, Professor Sugden said. In order to achieve the step change that is needed, we must engage Society more thoroughly than through nudge economics, since more of a paradigm shift is required. Community partnerships are important, where access to predictable local finance, rather than a plethora of different schemes, is the key. Professor Sugden concluded by saying that if we accept that we have underplayed the opportunity that the Renewables Revolution presents, we could have a more balanced discussion about climate, costs and BANANA attitudes. A huge impact can be made by city regions focusing on a low carbon infrastructure, and the roles of civil society and local communities are key. He emphasised that the overwhelming conclusion that they reached was that a lack of coherence between key institutions and diverging policies were impeding progress and, worse than that, were breeding cynicism amongst the public. The Committee wrote a 186-page report. Since they feared it would not be read, particularly by those not engaged, they also produced a two-minute film which was played and is available on the RSEs website. www.royalsoced.org.uk or at www.achanging climate.ac.uk.
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums Questions & Answers: Q. Given that there is no model anywhere in the world for predicting regional climate change, arent your predictions on impacts a work of fiction, Lord Turner? A. (Lord Turner) You are quite right to say its very difficult to predict regional variations, and models do contradict each other on rainfall, for example. We choose the most likely illustrations of what might happen, but the crucial point is exactly that we dont know! There will be very big changes which we cannot predict. We do know that a warming world will very significantly change the hydrological cycle overall, meaning more rain and warmer seas. It is a dangerous thing to throw massive changes into the ecosystem and this is an argument for action, as we do know there will be adverse effects to human welfare. A. (Professor Sugden) Its a complex, uncertain situation. Our report suggests that one way forward is to look at the variability and trends in a region over the past 100 years and assume, as the models suggest, that the extremes will be greater than in the past. Q. I challenge your assertion as to there being no question about research showing that after a certain point, money does not make one more happy, because Layards study has been repeated
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using a larger sample size and came up with a different answer. A. (Lord Turner) I agree there is much debate, but Im well aware of the different arguments, which I laid out in the Lionel Robbins lectures last year at the LSE and which are coming out shortly in a book. I believe that arguments come out on the side that I stated and its certainly the case that beyond a certain point, the relationship between GDP and measures of wellbeing is highly uncertain. Q. I can easily believe that the UK can achieve the numbers you present. But how can we convince the USA, who have so much larger a problem, to go down the same route? A. (Lord Turner) The US actually worries me more than China, because I find more engagement in China. They are talking about capping per capita tonnes of emissions (at a higher level than Id like), but are engaged. However, some of the sceptics points in the US are criminally wrong. Responsible criticism is different from misusing data often driven by industrial lobby groups, and much of the scepticism in the US comes from that direction. America is an extraordinary place for creating new technologies and great things are going on in that sphere, in spite of the dreadful political situation with an inability to get commitment there.
Q. Much has been said today about the role of CO2, but nothing or very little about methane... A. (Lord Turner) Methanes incredibly important and a much more powerful greenhouse gas per tonne of emissions than CO2, but exists in much smaller quantities, fortunately. Its very important in the models of potential nonlinear feedbacks within models. If we warm the earth to the point that we melt the Arctic tundra, we may release methane to the point that the situation really runs away from us. Its also important to UK climate change targets, principally in the form of landfill sites (but methane emissions have already come down a great deal) and cows and sheep which produce methane. Leaky pipes in gas distribution system are also non trivial. Agriculture is the main challenge, as we have no technological solutions to that so far. Q. Quite a few American cities, in spite of their national position, signed up to the Kyoto Protocol and have been investing in sustainable transport systems. Do you agree that compact cities have many assets, enabling them to prosper whilst responding to climate change? A. (Lord Turner) Id agree compact cities can be environmentally sustainable and economically and socially vibrant. I dont think it
matters whether the rate of GDP growth per capita is 1.95% or 2%. In order to deal with climate change we do not need to sacrifice growth, but believe that growth should not be objective but the result of other desirable outcomes such as a liberal economy and freedom of people to innovate. Q. Why did you not mention creation of a UK green investment bank and would Scotland be the appropriate home for this bank? A. (Lord Turner) Because theres only so much time in a lecture. But the Climate Change Committee is very much in support of the green investment bank, but have no point of view as to location. A. (Professor Sugden) Predictability on gaining access to local finance at a regional and local scale and tailored to renewables is important. Renewables take longer to give full return on high up-front cost. We were impressed by the Co-operative Bank in Sweden and the UK. Q. Im Maitland Mackie, the maker of the only carbon-positive ice cream in the world! Agriculture: why not lead us farmers towards minimum tillage? Weve been trying it for ten years but bureaucrats in Brussels have stopped the production of the only weedkillers that can keep the grass weeds out.
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Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums A. (Lord Turner) Im not fully familiar with details of minimum tillage, but we are looking at all the technologies with the help of the Scottish Agricultural College. A. (Professor Sugden) Our report has a large section on land use management and how carbon can be retained in the soils and vegetation and we were very struck about the potential both to sequester carbon and to save farmers money. We discuss low tillage as a method of storing carbon in the soil, and there are different views about its efficacy. Q Isnt the feed-in tariff a scheme that is causing people to invest large sums on tiny outputs instead of focusing that money on bigger and better systems of energy reduction? A. (Lord Turner) The residential feed-in tariff is a fairly expensive way of getting carbon reductions, particularly if putting solar photovoltaic (PV) cells on roofs. But solar PV will probably be the greatest technology, because most of our energy comes from the sun and there are signs that it may be costeffective eventually, even in cloudy Britain. Today, however, the UK is not the place to drive solar PV, but sunny parts of the world such as the US and Australia are, and its not for UK to invest in it yet. Q. Weve an energy crisis, a food crisis and an environmental crisis. Do you agree that if we concen235
trate on the energy crisis, we will make much faster progress in dealing with the others? A. (Lord Turner) If you mean by that the peak oil and we are running out in any case...my main worry about fossil fuels in relation to climate change is not how few they are but how many they are. If I could arrange for aliens to invade earth and steal three quarters of our coal, Im very sure that we would come up with climate change solutions at very low cost because we didnt have the fossil fuels to burn, but theres so much coal, gas and shale gas out there (the accessing of which could do great environmental damage). Q. This Inquiry has not been independent, but biased why were there no scientists with opposing views on it? Theres been no mention of anthropogenic CO2, nor solar winds, and why did you not mention the UN report that says we need to subjugate the individual to world government? A. (Professor Sugden) Why not have someone opposing on the Committee? We accepted that climate change posed a risk to Society and that this justified our focus on the barriers to cutting carbon. A. (Lord Turner) Why did I not mention that UN report? Because I havent read it. The anthropogenic
CO2 as opposed to natural CO2 is a very poor argument. If we are creating a smaller proportion of CO2 than is naturally occurring, that doesnt alter the fact that we are changing the system dynamics. Q. Would you comment on hydrogen as a future fuel source? A. (Lord Turner) We see hydrogen as an important energy storage device rather than as a source, and we are open minded as to its role in comparison with different kinds of batteries. Although we think it feasible to run cars off electricity from batteries, we think it unlikely that well run HGVs on that, given the distances they have to go and size of the battery needed, so hydrogen-based engines may be the future for HGVs and maybe for bus fleets. Q. Could you expand on standby generation how its achieved and what proportion of wind farms are capable of generating electricity for more than half the time? A. (Lord Turner) Standby generation and intermittency sometime the wind is blowing and sometimes not. The logical standby now is gas CCGT. The more that you connect the grid, the more youll get a balance of technologies used. If we have an electrified surface transport system, people will charge batteries when the wind is blowing. This requires a
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grid that gives precise signals to tell people when to charge. Q. Have we got things right by handing over power and energy generation to private companies which derive profits and have caused confusion by creating thousands of different tariffs? A. (Lord Turner) Yes, we can do it with private electricity companies. Theres nothing incompatible so long as we have the right regulation, and the government is putting in a more coherent system. Im confident we can achieve what we need with a privatised electricity system. A. (Professor Sugden) We found the private commercial companies have really taken the lead and are investing on a huge scale in electricity generation. The lack of integration of the grid we did see as a problem. The lack of strategic planning is an issue for us. Q. Can we be mindful when excited about new emerging technologies that there are older ones that work? Biomass has many applications, but when we cut down forest in Canada to ship it to Dundee to put in a biomass plant, it is lunacy. A. (Lord Turner) On the need to look at old technologies. Tidal range is proven technology. The issue is how much potential is there. The Severn River has huge scope. We could get about 4% of our electricity from a Severn
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion Forums barrage. The cost and environmental impact are big questions and it divides environmental groups. I think its a possibility and an acceptable way forward. On biomass, I totally agree with you. We are doing a report on which forms of biomass are sustainable and which are not. Q. Many of the problems of coherence have been known for a long time. Has there been a slowdown in recent years in addressing these problems in order to make progress in other areas? A. (Lord Turner) Broadly speaking, we are concentrating on making more specific technological advances rather than on trying to address complex social challenges. A. (Professor Sugden) The words Climate Change may have slipped out of the headlines but perhaps this allows good work to go on behind the scenes.
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PUBLICATIONS
Proceedings A: Mathematics Six issues were published: Parts 140.5 & 140.6 (2010) and 141.1, 141.2, 141.3, 141.4 (2011) Earth and Environmental Science Transactions Seven issues were published: Parts 100.3, 100.4, 101.1, 101.2, 101.3, 101.4, 102.1 including a special Issue entitled 101.3/4 Late Triassic Terrestrial Biotas and the Rise of Dinosaurs ReSourcE the RSEs Newsletter: Issues 29, 30, 31 and 32 RSE Directory 2011 RSE Annual Review 2011 (April 2010-March 2011) Science Scotland Three issue were published: No. 9 Towards a Greener Future, No. 10 Informatics, No.11 The Search for New Drugs Policy Advice Digital Scotland - RSE Committee of Inquiry Report (Oct 2010). ISBN: 9780902198364 Facing up to climate change: breaking the barriers to a lowcarbon Scotland - RSE Committee of Inquiry Summary Report (March 2011). ISBN: 9780902198517 Facing up to climate change: breaking the barriers to a lowcarbon Scotland - RSE Committee of Inquiry Report (March 2011). ISBN: 9780902198463 Conference Proceedings Royal Society of Edinburgh in partnership with the Northern Lighthouse Board Royal Society of Edinburgh (2011). The Bell Rock Lighthouse, the Stevensons and Emerging Issues in Aids to Navigation. Edinburgh: Royal Society of Edinburgh ISBN: 9780902198418
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POLICY ADVICE
INQUIRIES Facing up to Climate Change: Breaking the Barriers to a Low Carbon Scotland During the 2010/11 Session the Society published the Report of its Inquiry into Facing up to Climate Change. The Inquiry examined the obstacles that are stopping us from taking steps towards a low-carbon society. It recognised that there is a wealth of activity at EU, UK and Scottish level, including in local authorities, communities, and households and civil society, but that there is an acute need for coherence and integration between these levels. The Inquiry Report set out 10 Primary Recommendations aimed at helping policy makers to design policy in such a way that it overcomes the barriers. It called for government and organisations to embed low-carbon policies across all functions and for closer engagement between people, civil society, market and state. The Report considered the issue of climate change, sustainability and opportunities for creating a more sustainable, fairer world. It looked at the science of climate change and its implications at both a global and Scottish scale and outlines the economic, social and environmental contexts that shape Scotlands move to a lowcarbon future. The Report then
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focused on the findings of the Inquiry and the implications for Scotland, looking first to public bodies (local authorities, education, water), then to key economic sectors (finance, energy, other industry, heating, transport and land use). Finally the Report looked at the pervasive challenges arising from multi-level governance and how they may be addressed. It is this analysis that formed the basis of ten Primary Recommendations, and sets out also 30 Supplementary Recommendations aimed at policy makers in the specific sectors outlined above. Primary Recommendations: - The UK Government should urgently improve the infrastructure and management of the electricity grid in Scotland to optimise the development of renewable energy and to permit the export of surplus renewable energy. - The Scottish and UK Governments need to retrofit existing regulation to achieve a balance with the need to reduce carbon emissions. - The Scottish Government should work with local authorities and businesses to align and sharpen regulation in order to achieve a step change in energy efficiency in buildings and transport.
- The Scottish Government and local authorities should jointly introduce truly integrated polices in order to achieve effective reductions in emissions at a regional level. - The Scottish Government should develop a spatiallyreferenced national land use plan integrated with regional strategic plans in order to optimise carbon sequestration. - The finance industry should take a lead and work with government to create the business environment that will mobilise private finance in support of a low-carbon society. - All organisations should appraise their goals and practices in the light of the urgency to achieve a low-carbon society. - Local authorities should integrate and embed their low-carbon policies across all their various functions. - The Scottish Government and local authorities should actively assist local communities to introduce low-carbon initiatives. - Closer engagement is needed between people, civil society, market and state in the pursuit of Scotlands low-carbon vision.
SUBMISSIONS During the session, the Society submitted comments on the following reports: November 2010 AP 10-13 An Agenda for Research at a time of Educational Reform in Scotland AP 10-14 The Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Bill BP 10-01 Scottish Government Parliamentary Debate: Curriculum for Excellence December 2010 AP 10-15 Innovation-Friendly Scotland: Priorities for Innovation & Business Development AP 10-16 A Land Use Strategy for Scotland January 2011 AP 11-01 Teaching of History in Scottish Schools February 2011 AP 11-02 Scotland's Next Energy Revolution AP 11-03 Future of Higher Education in Scotland BP 11-01 Future of Agricultural Support in Scotland March 2011 AP 11-04 Management of Flood Risks AP 11-05 SQA History Course Rationale
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Policy Advice
May 2011 AP 11-06 Towards a Common Strategic Framework for EU Research and Innovation Funding: a response to the European Commission June 2011 AP 11-07 Carloway Review of the Law and Practice Relating to the Detention and Questioning of Suspects AP11-08 The National Marine Plan: a response to the Scottish Governments pre-consultation AP 11-09 Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy: a response to the UK Government and Devolved Administrations BP 11-02 Scottish School Education Issues: a briefing for the Scottish Parliaments Education Committee
August 2011 AP 11-10 Science as a Public Enterprise: a response to the Royal Society of London. AP 11-11 Re-shaping the medical workforce: a response to the Scottish Government AP 11-14 The role of Chief Scientific Advisers: a response to the House of Lord's Select Committee BP 11-03 Briefing for the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee September 2011 AP 11-12 Preventative Spending in the 2012-13 Draft Budget and Spending Review AP 11-13 Governance of Higher Education in Scotland BP 11-04 The Low-Carbon Economy: a briefing for Members of the Scottish Parliament AP 11-14 Role and function of departmental Chief Scientific Advisers
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SCOTTISH BIOINFORMATICS FORUM

Set up in 2001 under the stewardship of Scottish Enterprise to establish Scotland as a globally recognised and leading location for conducting cutting edge bioinformatics research and sustainable commercial activity, the SBF operated and was nurtured under the auspices of The RSE Scotland Foundation between 2008 and 2011. Having matured as an initiative, gained acceptance and had significant interactions and impact across Scotland and further afield, the SBF's activities were transferred in 2011 to Nexxus.
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EVENTS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Christmas Lecture 2010 In 2010 the RSE teamed up with BBC Scotland to webcast its prestigious Annual Christmas Lecture live across the UK. Speaker Allan Little, the distinguished BBC World Affairs Correspondent, delivered his lecture, Reporting the World in an Age of Conflict, live from Stranraer Academy on 10 December. Masterclasses October 2010 and May 2011 In October and November 2010 the RSE ran 16 masterclasses across 4 universities (Dundee, Herriot-Watt, Glasgow and St Andrews) In May/June 2011 the RSE ran another 19 masterclasses over 5 universities (same universities as before with the addition of Aberdeen). Discussion Forum March 2011 On 15 March 2011, the Royal Society of Edinburgh played host to the Avatar Debate LIVE. Two expert speakers were on hand to introduce the pupils from Douglas Academy and Braes High School to the issues at hand. The pupils were then divided into four groups with each group set a for or against stance on one of the two questions. Discussion and research time was given to each group to allow the consolidation of ideas and formation of cogent arguments. The resulting presentations from each group formed the basis of a fascinating debate.
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RSE @ School Talks RSE@School talks are available for P6-S6 pupils. These talks aim to enthuse and excite students on a wide range of topics such as astronomy, maths, biology and the arts. A wide variety of speakers contribute to the programme and they are keen to show their enthusiasm for their subject. Horned Helmets & Holy Folk: Language and Landscape of South West Scotland. Professor Jeremy Smith. Sanquhar Academy. Wind, Water & Waves. Professor Geoffrey Boulton. Lockerbie Academy. Renewable Energy. Ms Karen Ritchie, The Hydroge Office. Hottsbridge, Hightae and Hutton Primaries, Lockerbie. My Great Adventure Wildfowl & Wetland Trust. Brian Morrell Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust Lochside Primary School, Dumfries. Identity: Facial Reconstruction Caroline Erolin, University of Dundee. Kirkcudbright Academy. Bonnie Dunbar. Schools Talk Glasgow Science Centre. Selkies, Kelpies and Watery Tales Family Storytelling Activity (Various Schools from the Dumfries and Galloway Region). A Guided Tour of the Universe Grangemouth High School. The Business Experience, Stranraer Academy.
Senior Master ClassArt. Various Dumfries and Galloway Schools. Senior Master Class Creative Writing. Various Dumfries and Galloway Schools. Senior Master ClassFilm and Television. Various Dumfries and Galloway Schools.
Senior Master ClassDrama. Various Dumfries and Galloway Schools. Mathematics in the real world. Dumfries Academy.
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RESEARCH AND ENTERPRISE AWARDS

The following awards were made in Session 2010/2011 RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS CRF European Visits from Scotland to Europe Dr Jonathan Gibson Blackwood. Visual Culture Before, During and After Yugoslavia. University of Dundee, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design. Dr Olivier Salazar-Ferrer. Rachel Bespaloffs manuscript LInstant et la libert. University of Glasgow, School of Modern Languages and Cultures - French Section. Dr Rebecca Sweetman. Late Antique churches as evidence for the diachronic complexities of the Christianization of the Peloponnese. University of St Andrews, School of Classics. CRF European Visits from Europe to Scotland Dr Maksymilian Thomas Del Mar. An Introduction to the Scholarship and Public Life of the late Sir Neil MacCormick. University of Lausanne, Laboratory of Sociology Dr Jonathan Delafield-Butt. Advancing a solution to the composituin problem in the philosophy of mind. Kbenhavns Universitet, Institut for Psykologi . Dr Ema Jelinkova. The Twin Compasses and the Idea of Scottish Diasporic Writing. Palacky University, Department of English and American Studies. Professor Igor Maver. Fanny Susan Copeland - Between Scotland and Central Europe. University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts. CRF Personal Dr Megan MacLeod. Protective functional responses of CD4 memory T cells. University of Glasgow, Institute of Infection, Immunology and Inflammation .
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ENTERPRISE FELLOWSHIPS BBSRC Dr Margaret Anne Craig. Clyde Bioscience - improving the probability of success in early stage drug discovery. University of Glasgow, Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences. Professor Ian Robert Henderson. Improved delivery of recombinant proteins to the extracellular milieu. University of Birmingham, School of Immunity and Infection. Dr Ekaterina Olegovna McKenna. Low-volume reactor chip for biological micro- and nano-array probing. Institute of Molecular, Cell and Systems Biology, School of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow. Scottish Enterprise Dr Farid Amalou. Microfluidic based solutions for biochemical and biomedical applications. Heriot-Watt University, School of Engineering & Physical Sciences. Mr Matthew Bett. Commercial development of the Motus virtual camera system for use in creative industries. University of Abertay Dundee, Institute of Art, Media and Games. Dr Christopher Glyn Capus. Hydrason Solutions. School of Engineering & Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University. Mr Alexander Cole. Project Galatea A 3D Gesture based Interface. University of Edinburgh, School of Informatics. Mr Jason Kenneth Cook. Farm Scale Gasification of Agricultural Residues to Produce Heat, Power and Biochar. University of Edinburgh, Department of Geosciences. Dr Nart Daghestani. THz systems based on ultrafast semiconductor lasers. University of Dundee, Department of Electronic Engineering & Physics. Dr Soumya Soman Palliyil. Anti-infective biologics for controlling infectious diseases. University of Aberdeen, School of Medical Sciences. Mr Spyridon Edouard Tsakas. Double Vial Reactor/Medical Device. University of Edinburgh Business School. Dr Iain Hector Woodhouse. cArbomap: Airborne imaging multi spectral canopy lidar for the determination of canopy structure, physiology and forest carbon. School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh. Dr Ammar Zaher. Vehicle Data Logger (DLog). University of Strathclyde, Electronic & Electrical Engineering.
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Research and Enterprise Awards
ARTS AND HUMANITIES AWARDS Arts & Humanities Small Grants Dr David Archibald, University of Glasgow, School of Culture and Creative Arts. Tracking Loach in Scotland: The Angels Share from Inception to Reception. Professor Robert Crawford, University of St Andrews, School of English. Body Bags / Simonides. Dr Jonathan Hope, University of Strathclyde, School of Humanities. The Digital Renaissance: mapping the language of drama 15501700. Dr Ben Marsh, University of Stirling, School of History & Politics. The History of Attempts to Cultivate Silk in the Atlantic World, c.1500-1840: French connections. Dr Andrew Perchard, University of Strathclyde, Scottish Oral History Centre, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences. Community, Legacy and Memory in the Scottish Coalfields. Dr James Smyth, University of Stirling, School of History and Politics. Lest Scotland Forgets: recording the nations Great War Memorials. Professor John Stewart, Glasgow Caledonian University, School of Law and Social Sciences. The Dangerous Age of Childhood: Child Guidance in Britain, 19201955. Dr Annie Tindley, Glasgow Caledonian University, Department of Social Sciences, School of Law and Social Sciences. The aristocratic sinews of Empire: Imperial land reform 1840 - 1895. Dr Frances Wilkins, University of Aberdeen, Department of Music. Scots in the Sub-Arctic: Musical Fingerprints among the Cree Fiddlers of James Bay. Arts & Humanities Research Workshops Mr David Forsyth, National Museums Scotland. Dr Wendy Ugolini, Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies, University of Edinburgh. Wha bears a blade for Scotland?: the construction of Scottish diasporic military identities, c 1880-present day. Dr Mark Freeman, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow. Historians of Education in Scotland (HEdScot): A Research Workshop. Dr Kay Goodall , University of Stirling, School of Law. Conceptualising the racial in Scots criminal law.
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Dr Bernadette ORourke, HeriotWatt University, School of Management and Languages. Dr Wilson McLeod, Celtic & Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh. New speakers of minority languages: A dialogue. Dr Rachel Smith, Dr Tamara Rathcke, University of Glasgow, Department of English Language. Rhythms in Scotland Workshop Programme. Professor Claire Squires, University of Stirling, Department of English Studies. Professor David Finkelstein, School ofArts & Social Sciences, Queen Margaret University. Edinburgh Book Events: The Transnational Culture, Commerce and Social Impact Literary Festivals. Arts & Humanities Research Networks Dr Murray Frame, University of Dundee, School of Humanities . Professor Nick Fyfe, Director of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research, University of Dundee. Crime and Policing in Scotland: Past and Present. Professor Dina Iordanova, Dr Alex Marlow-Mann, University of St Andrews, Centre for Film Studies Scottish Film Festival Studies. Network (SFFS).
Dr Andrew Jennings, UHI Millenium Institute, Centre for Nordic Studies. Dr Arne Kruse, Senior Lecturer, Division of European Languages and Cultures, University of Edinburgh. The Hjaltland Research Network: Mapping Viking Age. Shetland Dr David Shuttleton,University of Glasgow, School of Critical Studies (English Literature). Dr Gavin Miller, School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh, Medical Humanities Research Network Scotland (MHRNS). Theory into Practice: Critical Approaches and Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue. Arts & Humanities Major Research Grants 2011 Dr Penny Fielding, University of Edinburgh English Literature. The New Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Works of Robert Louis Stevenson Dr Stana Nenadic, University of Edinburgh School of History, Classics and Archaeology. Turkey Red and Other Decorative Textiles in Scotlands Culture and Global Impact, 1800 to Present
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Research and Enterprise Awards
SCOTTISH CRUCIBLE Dr Julia Allan Dr Thomas Aspray Dr Leif Azzopardi Dr Catherine Berry Dr Henry Bookey Dr Qin Chen Dr Emilie Combet Dr Paul Crook Dr Sarah Dillon Dr Mary Doherty Dr Jennifer Gregory Dr Heather Haynes Dr Stefan Hild Dr Euan Kay Dr Lorraine Kerr Dr Christine Knight Dr Per Ola Kristensson Dr Richard Kyle Dr Sarah Martin Dr David McGuire Dr Abel Polese Dr Stella Pytharouli Dr Stuart Reid Dr Kenneth Scott-Brown Dr Jane Stanley Dr Manlio Tassieri Dr Annie Tindley Dr Catherine Tsang Dr Maria Valdes-Hernandez Dr Marjon Van der Pol Dr Andrew Wodehouse
RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIPS AND PRIZES Piazzi Smyth Bequest Mr Koki Kakiichi. Diffuse infra-red haloes around the first galaxies during the Epoch of Reionization. Cormack Vacation Scholarships Mr Oliver Allanson. The Distribution of Magnetix Flux Features as observed by SDO. Mr David Barr. The importance of Jupiter in Earth-like systems. Mr Colin Clark. X-ray Imaging Spectroscopy Diagnostics of Solar Flare Accelerated Electrons.
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Ms Hannah Jones. MHD Mode Conversion in a Stratified Isothermal Atmosphere in Two Dimensions. Mr James McLeman. Star Formation From Dark Filamentary Clouds. Ms Semeli Papadogiannakis. A Minimum Energy Approach to Galactic Exploration Using Von Neumann Probes.
Lessells Travel Scholarships Mr Douglas Aitken. Novel Approaches of using algae to reduce the carbon foot-print of wastewater treatment plants. Mr Giuliano Punzo. Swarm Manoeuvring using Emergent Behaviour and Communication Network Influence. Ms Holly Smith. Digital Image Analysis for Deflection Measurements during Structures and Fire Experiments. Ms Abeer Syed. Low Cost Microfluidic Diagnostics for Sleeping Sickness. Carnegie Caledonian Scholarships Mr Michael Ferguson. An examination of the issues of active participation and quality in Roman Catholic liturgical music in Scotland, post-Vatican II: a critical re-evaluation through the composition of new sacred music. Miss Nicola Ann McCallum. Evaluation of post-mortem mRNA stability.
Auber Bequest Award Professor James Leland Cox. The Invention of God in Indigenous Societies. MacLagan Travel Grant Professor Xavier Lambin Cascading impacts of Europe-wide changes in herbivorous small mammal abundance: changing cyclic dynamics and impact on predators Lloyds TSB Foundation Studentship Mr Mark Horne. The effect of Visual and Verbal Tasks on Secondary Task Performance in Older Adults.
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MEDALS, PRIZES AND PRIZE LECTURESHIPS

BP Hutton Prize 2011 Dr David Wright Beltane Public Engagement Innovators Prize Ms Joanna Brooks Beltane Public Engagement Senior Prize Professor Aubrey Manning, FRSE Gannochy Trust Innovation Award Mr M J R McGrath IEEE/RSE/Wolfson/James Clerk Maxwell Award Professor M E Hoff Royal Medals Baroness Helena Kennedy Professor Noreen Murray, FRSE Professor Stanley Desmond Smith, FRSE
255
GRANTS COMMITTEE
The Grants Committee considered 20 applications and a sum of 12,600 was awarded. Approximately 70% of this sum was awarded as travel assistance.
Travel Assistance Professor D Blackwood. For travel to Pakistan. 950 Professor D Sleeman. For travel to Canada. 950 Professor B Straughan. For travel to the USA. 950 Professor J C Brown. For travel to the USA. 700 Professor K Brown. For travel to China. 800 Professor D Hewitt. For travel to the USA. 800 Professor D Law. For travel to Puerto Rico. 800 Professor B Crawford. For travel to the Ukraine. 500 Professor J Wright. For travel to Mexico. 900 Maclagan Travel Grant Professor X Lambin. For travel to the USA and Canada. 1,500
Support for Meetings Professor P Beaumont. International Surrogacy Arrangements. 500 Professor G Caie. Keeping in Touch: Accessing and Understanding Medieval Manuscripts. 750 Professor D McCrone. The Crisis of SocialDemocracy? 500 Professor I Ralston. Scotland and Beyond: Early Medieval Carved Stones. 750 Professor N Rapport. The Imagination: A universal process of knowledge. 500 Professor P Brophy. Neurodevelopmental Disorders Across the Lifespan. 750
257
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME
7 October 2010 The General Secretary of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Professor ivind Andersen, with which the RSE has a Memorandum of Understanding, visited the RSE. 7 October 2010 The RSE and the French Embassy in London are collaborating in a three-year programme of science events designed to explore and publicly present areas of science where both Scotland and France have a powerful presence. The keynote lecture in this first year was given by Professor Chris Bishop FRSE, Microsoft Research LTD and Professor Grard Berry, Collge de France. October 2010 The RSE President, Lord Wilson of Tilyorn, visited China in October 2010. During his time he met with counterparts at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, both of which the RSE has Memoranda of Understanding with. November 2010 The Society hosted the 2nd Norway-Scotland Internal Waves Symposium on 1-2 November 2010, under the auspices of the bilateral agreement signed in 2005 between the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
259
The event was a follow-up to the 1st Norway-Scotland Internal Waves Symposium, held in Norway in October 2008. Both events were directed jointly by Professors Peter Davies FRSE (University of Dundee) and John Grue DNVA (University of Oslo). 10 November 2010 The Second MacCormick European Lecture, named in recognition of the contribution made by the late Professor Sir Neil MacCormick to Scottish and European politics and the international work of the RSE, took place at the RSE in November 2010. The lecture, entitled European Foreign Policy is it Desirable and Possible? was given by The Rt Hon Lord (Chris) Patten of Barnes CH to a capacity audience. 16 June 2011 The RSE International Committee invited members of the Consular Corps to the RSE to meet with the RSE President and International Convener. The purpose of the meeting was to raise awareness of the RSEs activities, specifically the International Programme, and to consider how the RSE and members of the Consular Corps can work together more. 17 June 2011 The RSE hosted a delegation of 20 representing a range of branches of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The delegation was
particularly interested in the RSEs International Programme and our policy and advice work. 25 August 2011 The RSE arranged, in association with British Council Scotland, the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, RSA UK and UNESCO UKNC Scotland Committee, a discussion forum as part of the Festival of Politics. The forum, entitled Whose heritage, whose society? looked at how culture, in all its forms, can help us to understand better Scotland's place in the world, as well as addressing the issues that face Scottish and global society.
29 September 2011 Following the Consular Corps visit to the RSE in June, the RSE and the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland organised a joint lecture entitled Nation, Town, Memory Krakow Experience. The lecture was given by Professor Dr Jacek Purchla, Professor of Humanities, Jagiellonian University.
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International
Exchanges Awarded during the Session Czech Republic - Outgoing Dr A Bryzgel, University of Aberdeen. Tomas Winter, Institute of Art History, the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Czech Republic - Incoming Dr D Wann, University of Edinburgh. Dr Drahomir Hnyk, Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Hungary - Incoming Dr D E L Cooke, James Hutton Institute. Dr Zoltan Nagy, Plant Protection Unit, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Professor C W J Withers FBA FRSE, University of Edinburgh. Dr Robert Gyori, Eotvos Lorand University, Hungary. Dr J Henry , University of Edinburgh. Dr Tamas Demeter, Institute for Philosophical Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary. Professor D M F Van Aalten FRSE, University of Dundee. Dr Tamas Nagy, University of Pecs, Hungary. India - Incoming Professor J R Seckl FRSE, Queens Medical Research Institute. Dr Rakesh Shukla, Central Drug Research Institute. Dr D Greenhalgh, University of Strathclyde. Dr Priti Kumar Roy, Jadavpur University. Professor P Smith FRSE, University of Aberdeen. Dr Nandita Ghoshal, Banaras Hindu University. Professor X W Ni, Heriot-Watt University. Dr Parag Ratnakar Gogate, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. Dr G Cowie, University of Edinburgh. Dr Pratima Kessarkar, National Institute of Oceanography. Dr G Dobson, Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI). Associate Professor Sharangi Amit Baran, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (Agricultural University). Professor MNVR Kumar, University of Strathclyde. Dr Gupta Kailash Chand, Indian Institute of Toxicology Research.
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India - Outgoing Dr A Adya , University of Abertay Dundee. Professor Ajit Varma, Amity University Uttar Pradesh. Professor R Ocone FRSE, HeriotWatt University. Professor Raj Chhabra, Indian Institute of Technology. Italy - Incoming Professor E Trucco, University of Dundee. Dr Carmen Lupascu, Universita degli Studi di Palermo; Associate Professor Domenico Tegolo, University of Palermo. Malaysia - Outgoing Dr R Dekkers, University of the West of Scotland. Dr Kanagi Kanapathy, University of Malaya. Pakistan - Incoming Professor J P Attfield FRSE, University of Edinburgh. Assistant Professor Falak Sher, Lahore University of Management Sciences. Professor L Lawton, Robert Gordon University. Assistant Professor Muhammad Khurram, Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology. Dr C French, University of Edinburgh. Dr Toqeer Ahmed, Preston University, Pakistan.
Poland - Incoming Professor D Cairns, University of Edinburgh. Assistant Professor Robert Zaborowski, Institute for History of Science, The Polish Academy of Sciences. Professor D I Perrett FBA FRSE, University of St Andrews. Dr Dariusz Danel, Institute of Anthropology, The Polish Academy of Sciences. Poland - Outgoing Dr D C Worthington, University of the Highlands and Islands. Professor Waldemar Kowalski, Jan Kochanowski University. Slovenia - Outgoing Dr V Blok, University of Dundee. Dr Sasa Sirca, Agricultural Institute of Slovenia. Taiwan - Incoming Dr A Jump, University of Stirling. Professor Chaur-Tzuhn Chen, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology. Professor Kenneth Gibb, University of Glasgow. Assistant Professor Oliver Shyr, National Cheng Kung University.
262
International
Taiwan - Outgoing Professor S Gibb, University of the Highlands and Islands. Professor Chon-Lin Lee, National Sun Yat-Sen University. Dr K Boyd, University of the Highlands and Islands. Professor Chon-Lin Lee, National Sun Yat-Sen University. Dr A Jump, University of Stirling. Professor Chaur-Tzuhn Chen, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology. Dr M Hughes, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Dr Ching-I Peng, Academia Sinica. OPEN PROGRAMME Incoming Bangladesh - Dr R Raeside, Edinburgh Napier University. Associate Professor Kaberi Gayen, University of Dhaka. Canada - Professor D McCulloch, Glasgow Caledonian University. Professor Margot Taylor, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. Cuba - Dr MJ Bain, University of Aberdeen. Liliana Fernandez Mollinedo, Universidad de La Habana (University of Havana). Italy - Dr F Stuart, Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre. Dr Matteo Maino, University of Pavia.
Nepal - Dr M Watson, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Dr Mohan Prasad Devkota, Tribhuvan University. Ukraine - Professor C Wallace, University of Aberdeen. Dr Svitlana Babenko, University of Kiev. Outgoing Australia - Dr T George, Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI). Dr Alan Richardson, CSIRO Plant Industry. Canada - Dr G Morozov, University of the West of Scotland. Professor Donald Sprung, McMaster University. Canada - Dr R Cooper, Edinburgh Napier University. Professor Alan Kingstone, The University of British Columbia. China - Dr Y Guo, University of Aberdeen. Professor Danxun Li, Tsinghua University. China - Professor N Zhelev, University of Abertay Dundee. Professor Qingge Li, Xiamen University. Mexico - Dr K Mackenzie, University of Aberdeen. Dr Sergio Guillen Hernandez, Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan. Nepal - Dr A Nightingale, University of Edinburgh Dr Naya Sharma Paudel, Forest Action Nepal.
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Netherlands - Dr R Fu, University of the West of Scotland (with Professor F Placido). Professor De Hosson and Dr Pei, University of Groningen. South Africa - Dr F Moore, University of Abertay Dundee. Dr Vinet Coetzee, University of Pretoria. South Africa and Botswana Professor R Lloyd, University of Abertay Dundee. Professor Simeon Davies, Cape Peninsula University of Technology / Dr Jimoh Shehu, University of Botswana. South Korea - Dr M ValdesHernandez, University of Edinburgh. Dr Jinah Park, Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
Ukraine - Dr R Stephenson, University of Aberdeen. Professor V. I. Starostenko, Institute of Geophysics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. USA - Dr M Chrisman, University of Edinburgh. Professor Mark Schroeder, University of South California. USA - Dr M Singer, University of St Andrews. Dr Mark Marvin-DiPasquale, US Geological Survey.
264
FELLOWS SOCIAL EVENTS

New Fellows Induction Day The New Fellows Induction and Admission Ceremony was held in the RSEs Rooms in May and was attended by 43 new Fellows. They were given an introduction to the Society by the President and met Council members and staff, before being formally admitted into the Fellowship. The addition of new Fellows brought the number in the Fellowship up to 1546 - 66 Honorary Fellows; 61 Corresponding Fellows and 1419 Ordinary Fellows. Summer Reception - 23 September 2011. This highlight of the RSE's social calendar was held at the National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh. We are grateful to the Trustees and Director of the NMS for allowing us to hold this event at the newly refurbished Museum. This was Lord Wilson's final event before the ASM (Monday 3 October 2011) when he handed over to Sir John Arbuthnott. Fellows Coffee Meetings Weekly Coffee Meetings were held through the Winter and Spring months, as follows: 12 October 2010. Innovative computer-based personal support for older people with dementia and their carers. Dr Norman Alm 2 November 2010. The earliest farmers in Britain. Roger James Mercer 7 December 2010. Aspects of Medical Education, a personal view. Professor J F Lamb 11 January 2011. The purpose of Heraldry in the 21st Century. Elizabeth A Roads 1 February 2011. Building the Bell Rock Lighthouse. Professor Roland A Paxton 1 March 2011. Law and Ethics. Dr Murdo Macdonald The Royal Society Dining Club The Club was established on 3 January 1820, with the view of promoting the objectives of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In Session 2010/2011, meetings were held as follows: 854th Dinner - 11 October 2010 Praeses: Dr Magnus linklater Croupier: Sir Muir Russell December 2010 dinner - 6 December 2010 - Cancelled due to bad weather. 855th Dinner - 4 April 2011 Praeses: Professor Susan Manning Croupier: Professor Andrew Miller 856th Dinner - 27 June 2011 Praese: Professor Malcolm McLeod Croupier: Professor Elizabeth Moignard
265
Fellows Golf 2011 - The Golf House Club, Elie. 26 May 2011 The overall team winner was Sector A - the individual winner was Ron Morrison.
The Stewart Cup match was held on August 26th 2011 at the Carrick on Loch Lomond. Winner: Prof. Wilson Sibbett
266
GRANTS, SPONSORSHIP AND DONATIONS

The Society is grateful to the following organisations for their continuing support during the Session: BBSRC BP Research Fellowship Trust Caledonian Research Foundation Lessells Trust Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland Scottish Enterprise Scottish Government
and also to the following for their support for specific events and activities during the financial years 2010-11 and 2011-12 Buccleuch Charitable Foundation Anonymous Arts & Humananities Research Council Brightsolid Online Innovation Ltd Chartered Institute for IT (CAS) City of Edinburgh Council Darwin Trust Edinburgh Beltane Edinburgh Consortium for Rural Research Edinburgh Napier University Education Scotland Forestry Commission Scotland French Embassy Heriot-Watt University Inchcape Shipping Services James Weir Foundation Lloyds Banking Group Scotland Microsoft Research National Telford Institute Ove Arup & Partners Scotland Ltd Royal Academy of Engineering Society of Biology Scotland IS Ltd Scottish Cancer Foundation Scottish Funding Council Scottish Information & Computer Science Alliance Scottish Natural Heritage Scottish Water The Holywood Trust University of Edinburgh University of Glasgow University of the West of Scotland WMD Awareness Group Wolfson Microelectronics plc
267
FRIENDS OF THE SOCIETY

In 2009 the RSE launched Friends of the Society, a corporate engagement scheme established with the purpose of developing the RSEs relationship with Scotlands business sector. The initiative provides an opportunity for the Friends to find out more about the RSE and the important work it carries out. It also presents the RSE and its corporate partners with a platform to explore areas of mutual interest and develop joint projects. Members of the scheme also receive a number of tangible benefits in return for a modest annual fee. During the financial year 2010-11 the members were .
Aegon BP Lloyds Banking Group Arup
RBS Scottish Enterprise Shell Wood Group
269
Royal Society of Edinburgh Schedule of Investments- movements at valuation. Year Ended 31 March 2011 Opening Market Value Purchase Cost Sales Proceeds Gain/(Loss) on Sale Revaluation for Year Closing Market Value
Investment Current Holdings
Closing No.
Gilts
83,900 83,300 285,687 257,337 255,728 46,526 9,928 3,494 8,313 16,209 (295,615) (47,193) 268,478 271,937
Treasury 4.75% 2015 Treasury 2.5% Index-Linked 2016 Treasury 2.5% Index-Linked 2020
Other Fixed Interest R B of Scotland 7.387% 2010/49 European Inv't Bank 4.75% 2018 European Investment Bank 4.125% 17 Provident Financial 7.5% 30/09/16 Scottish & Southern 5.875% 22/9/22 Tesco 5.5% Nts 13/12/19 Vodafone Group 5.625% 4/12/25 70,000 321,000 330,000 80,000 93,000 100,000 95,000 69,221 347,926 344,020 99,942 108,277 80,290 109,631 779 1,798 2,065 470 2,403 (560) (9,517)
70,000 349,724 346,085 80,760 102,345 107,717 100,114
SCHEDULE OF INVESTMENTS
271
184,000 45,000 53,000 12,500 37,000 47,000 94,300 13,000 5,500 110,000 291,500 49,950 67,563 91,415 271,035 56,100 146,160 30,028 53,399 59,816 30,115 60,756 119,701 (53,824) (150,533)
Investment & Unit Trusts Aberdeen Asian Income Fund Aberforth Geared Cap & Inc Trust Aberforth Geared Inc Trust Aberforth Smaller Co Trust Blackrock Com inc Trust Dunedin Income Growth Inv Trust Henderson Far East Income Trust Herald Investment Trust Ord 0.25 Keystone Investment Trust Sarasin Investment Funds Int Equity Inc Scottish Mortgage & Trust
4,269 4,373
26,567 (1,350) 1,590 15,125 (1,263) 14,218 (3,162) 6,714 7,425 2,949 -
298,540 48,600 54,988 82,688 58,553 105,633 297,988 67,470 63,525 122,650 -
Royal Society of Edinburgh Schedule of Investments- movements at valuation. Year Ended 31 March 2011 Closing No. Opening Market Value Purchase Cost Sales Proceeds Gain/(Loss) on Sale Revaluation for Year Closing Market Value
Financials Barclays HSBC Holdings Ord US$ 0.50 Land Securities Group Legal & General Group Ord 2.5p Provident Financial Ord Prudential Standard Life 21,000 21,279 9,400 5,500 11,200 45,000 94,000 48,219 142,144 40,002 47,713 27,287 127,520 21,377 24,245 32,963 97,956 20,072 (11,310) (5,746) 4,702 5,087 18,878 (4,896) 18,882
58,286 136,398 68,949 52,800 79,128 93,060 166,474
Consumer Diageo Unilever Ord 1.4p 11,250 8,513 124,425 164,727 -
8,888 (2,980)
133,313 161,747
272
3,300 16,365 73,064 171,665 24,292 35,028 12,900 7,225 10,000 25,000 47,900 78,381 47,088 123,584 46,311 70,299 52,550 49,957 (46,081) (35,048) (2,053) (102) 91,000 138,320 -
Pharmaceuticals Astrazeneca Glaxo Smith Kline Ord 25p
(2,877) (12,031)
94,479 194,662
Services Firstgroup Ord 0.50 Greggs Ord 0.20 Reed Elsevier
(6,041) 1,662 1,450 6,762 (19,466)
42,093 36,811 54,000 53,850 182,499
Stagecoach Group Tesco Ord 5p
Teleommunications Vodafone Group Ord $
22,295
160,615
Royal Society of Edinburgh Schedule of Investments- movements at valuation. Year Ended 31 March 2011 Closing No. Opening Market Value Purchase Cost Sales Proceeds Gain/(Loss) on Sale Revaluation for Year Closing Market Value
Utilities Centrica National Grid Ord 11p Scottish & Southern Energy 0.5 27,800 30,344 14,000 81,704 107,426 71,565 62,481 84,555 8,729 10,336 20,421
90,433 180,243 176,540
Industrials G4S Ord 25p Rotork Ord 0.05 Smiths Group plc 19,000 3,300 8,600 49,685 92,598 56,800 39,788 (56,670) 10,371 (1,159) 11,319 14,954
48,526 57,618 111,542
Resources BP Ord US$0.25 BHP Billiton PLC USD .50 Hunting Ord 0.25 Johnson Matthey Ord 1 Royal Dutch Shell Ord 25p Total SA 25,900 3,300 2,900 12,400 5,000 37,671 2,450,876 5,242,639 562,498 (913,412) 885,912 44,046 230,035 66,348 206,967 147,349 60,213 60,618 63,233 38,200 (45,172) (93,085) (15,680) (47,010) (23,402) 32,467 (34) 4,734 -
(43,875) 20,967 0 3,306 52,316 4,265 215,610
117,586 81,180 53,940 280,240 189,814 10,171 6,064,793
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Cash
TOTALS
Schedule of Investments
CHANGES IN FELLOWSHIP DURING THE SESSION

DEATHS REPORTED TO THE SOCIETY
Fellows Frank Featherstone Bonsall Elizabeth Graham Cutter Michael Richmond Droop David Patrick Frisby James Grigor Alan Vernon Holden William Fleming Hoggan Jarrett Andrew Watt Kay Gordon William Kirby Archibald McDiarmid John Murdoch Mitchison Corresponding Fellows Gavin Brown Honorary Fellows A Cemal Eringen Jack K Hale Brenda Elizabeth Moon Noreen Elizabeth Murray John Arthur Joseph Pateman Russell Paterson Alan Ferguson Rodger (Lord Rodger of Earlsferry) Michael Louis Samuels Robert Firth Sellers Harry Callender Sutton John Arthur Swaffield
275
ELECTIONS
Fellows John Rex Beddington Jill Janette Freda Belch Nigel Leslie Brown Ian Gordon Bryden Neil John Bulleid Javier Fernando Caceres Peter Eric Linstead Clarke Margaret Cusack Wenfei Fan Mark Andrew Girolami Seth Garran Niels Grant Iain Gilmour Gray Francis Stephen Halliwell Martin Anthony Hendry James Wilson Ironside William Alexander Campbell McKelvey Kenneth George McKendrick Allan Johnstone Massie James Mitchell Vladimir Ivanovich Nikora Corresponding Fellows Alastair Vincent Campbell Jose Alberto Cuminato Christopher Arthur Hunter Norman George Lewis Honorary Fellows Duncan Dowson Hugh Gordon Nimmo Nigel Osborne Douglas John Paul Duncan Henry Pritchard Barbara Davis Rae Stephen Robert Reid Randolph Harvey Richards Frank Sargent Alexandra Martha Zoya Slawin Julia Mary Howard Smith Jonathan Robert Spencer Francis Michael Sullivan Andrew Neil Taylor Paul Michael Thompson Arthur Stewart Trew Brian Robert Walker Neil Craig Walker Joanna Marguerite Wardlaw James Robert Wright Klaus Zuberbuhler
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STAFF CHANGES DURING THE SESSION

Arrivals Dr Avril Davidson, Young Academy Manager Ms Oonagh Carroll, Events Officer Mr Jeremy Scott, Computing Project Officer Ms Maggie Twomey, Events Officer Dr Caroline Wallace, Policy Officer Departures Ms Sandra Borthwick, Administrator, Scottish Bioinformatics Forum Mr Conor Hull, Education Officer Dr Chris Janssen, Director, Scottish Bioinformatics Forum Ms Kate Kennedy, Dumfries and Galloway Project Officer Dr Marc Rands, Evidence and Advice Manager Mrs Sue Walker, Events Officer Other Staff in post throughout the Session Mr Gordon Adam, Director of Business Development Ms Christel Baudre, HR Officer Mrs Risn Calvert-Elliott, Events Manager Mrs Catriona Blair, Events/ Education Assistant Ms Sandra Borthwick, Administrator, Scottish Bioinformatics Forum Ms Jennifer Cameron, Office Services and IT Support Manager Dr Lesley Campbell, Fellowship, Policy, and Journals Manager Ms Morven Chisholm, International Relations Officer Mr Andy Curran, Property Services Officer Dr William Duncan, Chief Executive Miss Kate Ellis, Director of Finance Mrs Anne Fraser, Research Awards and International Manager Mrs Jean Geoghegan, Accounts Officer
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Mrs Vicki Hammond, Journals and Archive Officer Mr William Hardie, Consultations Officer Mrs Isabel Hastie, Admin/Receptionist Ms Martina Hlinkova, Front of House Manager Mr Graeme Herbert, Director of Corporate Services and Deputy Chief Executive Mr Robert Hunter, Evening Caretaker Mr Robert Lachlan, Accounts Officer Mrs Susan Lennox, Policy Officer (formerly Susan Bishop) Mrs Jenny Liddell, Communications Officer Ms Rebecca Mann, Admin/ Receptionist Mr Bristow Muldoon, Parliamentary Liaison Officer
Miss Angela Nicholson, Records Management Officer Mrs Karen ONeill, Admin/ Receptionist Mr George Pendleton, Conference Centre Assistant Ms Tracy Rickard, Research Awards Co-ordinator
Mr Brian Scott, Technical Support Assistant Mrs Sheryl Vickery, Finance Officer (formerly Sheryl Anderson) Mrs Doreen Waterland, PA to Chief Executive and Officers
278
OBITUARY NOTICES
The Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair ............................................ 280 George Warburton Ashcroft ................................................................. 283 Sir James Baddiley ................................................................................. 288 Margaret Barnes ................................................................................... 291 Sir Ivor Batchelor ................................................................................... 294 Antony John Clark ................................................................................ 296 Alan Hugh Cook ................................................................................... 299 Philip Steven Corbet ............................................................................. 302 William Murray Cormie ......................................................................... 308 William Alexander Cramond ................................................................. 311 Jack Dainty ............................................................................................ 314 Douglas Scott Falconer ......................................................................... 317 Peter Berners Fellgett ............................................................................ 321 Norman Gash ....................................................................................... 325 Ronald Haxton Girdwood ..................................................................... 329 Alexander Reid Hill ............................................................................... 332 Thomas Lothian Johnston ..................................................................... 337 Walter Ledermann ................................................................................ 340 Edward McCombie McGirr ................................................................... 345 Donald Bertram McIntyre ...................................................................... 347 Robert William Milne ............................................................................ 353 Karl Howard Overton ............................................................................ 355 Sir Rutherford Ness Robertson .............................................................. 359 David John Tedford ............................................................................... 362 Ewart Kendall Walton ........................................................................... 365 Hamish Christopher Swan Wood .......................................................... 369 Edward Maitland Wright ...................................................................... 373
279
The Royal Society of Edinburgh
Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair: Inspirational musical director and teacher 29 December 1913 22 June 2009. This obituary was first published in The Independent on 24 June 2009. Reproduced with permission from The Independent Throughout her long life, June Boissier, the Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, remained quintessentially the effective and hugely enthusiastic music teacher which she had once been, at the Bromley High School for Girls in the three years before the Second World War. As Marchioness, she became chatelaine of the beautiful house of Haddo, near Ellon in Aberdeenshire, which since 1974 has been in the care of the National Trust for Scotland. She was musical director of the Haddo House Choral Society, now the Choral and Operatic Society, for 60 years. What she is like as a Marchioness, I do not know, the late violinist Yfrah Neaman told me on a Parliamentary visit to the Guildhall School of Music. What I do know is that at Bromley and subsequently she has been an inspirational leader and teacher of music. In the north east of Scotland, June Aberdeen was much loved across the social and political spectrum. She was born the daughter of Arthur Paul Boissier, then an assistant master and teacher of mathematics at the Royal Naval College at Osborne. In infancy she hardly saw her father, who was in naval service throughout the First World War. He became a Master at Harrow in 1919 and subsequently served as headmaster from January 1940 until late 1942, when he became head of public relations at the Ministry of Fuel and Power. He was upset that his daughter did not take up the place she had won at Oxford University. Instead, she took the advice of Sir Percy Buck King Edward Professor of Music at the University of London from 1925 to 1938 to go to the Royal College of Music. In 1939 she married David Gordon, later the fourth Marquess of Aberdeen. The third Marquis of Aberdeen had been a distinguished engineer who succeeded to the title at the age of 81. He was president of the Federation of British Industries from 1940 to 1943, and, blessed with a natural tenor voice, sang with the London Bach Choir, later becoming its chairman and eventually president. He died in 1972 aged 88. So Junes husband, David, was Marquis of Aberdeen for only two years before he died in 1974.
280
Obituary Notices
June was Dowager for nearly a third of a century, during that time nurturing the Choral Society which she and her husband founded after the war. The citation she was given on her election to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1981 encapsulated her: Distinguished for her unique contribution to music in Scotland, she has been musical director and conductor of the Haddo House Choral and Operatic Society since founding it jointly with her husband in 1945. The special qualities of music-making at Haddo, increasingly widely recognised by the arts critics, stem from her achievement in fostering the involvement of a local audience and amateur chorus with professional instrumentalists and singers some highly illustrious, some young but always percipiently chosen. About 30 operas and 30 oratorios have been performed by the society, representing the period extending from Purcell to Britten and Richard Rodney Bennett. There have been several first performances, including works by Parry, Rodney Bennett and a newly-commissioned composition by William Mathias. British composers, especially Elgar, are her special interest and in their works she excels: the first musician of her generation to grasp the importance of performing The
Apostles and The Kingdom together. The third Marquis was very happy that David Gordon, Junes husband, should live at Haddo and run the estate. Educated at Harrow and Balliol like his fatherin-law, David served in France and Egypt in the Second World War and was mentioned in dispatches. He trained as a land agent and worked on the Fawley Court and Knowsley Hall estates before going to Haddo. The Haddo House Choral Society was their joint brainchild; from small beginnings it became one of Scotlands major cultural ventures. The Gordons loved children and, dismayed that they were unable to have their own, adopted two boys and two girls. A close friend wrote: The great house was wide open, like their hearts, to every sort and kind of friend. And their friends became friends of each other in that special warmth. David combined huge strength with huge gentleness, great possessions with great generosity. These gifts, in partnership with his wifes creative talent, made Haddo not so much a place as an experience. Knowing that he was dying he opened negotiations to transfer Haddo into the care of the National Trust for Scotland and the 180 acres of the park to Grampian Regional Council as a Country Park.
281
Being taken round Haddo by June Aberdeen was an experience. I remember a group of us being entranced by the drawing room in particular. Above the fireplace is a wonderful picture of David and Goliath by Domenichino (15811641). Other paintings are landscapes by James Giles, Sir Walter Scott and his daughter by Sir William Allen, a couple of Van Dycks and the head of St Peter, as well as a large, full-length portrait of Archie Gordon in the costume of a page to his father, the Governor General of Canada. June would shake her head sadly and say that Archie died in 1909 at the age of 25 as a result of one of the earliest motor accidents.
June Aberdeen was a governor of Gordonstoun School, of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and of the Royal College of Music. She was made an MBE in 1971 and a CBE in 1989. The latter honour was partly on account of another interest, the chairmanship of the Scottish Childrens League. When I last visited her, in October 2007 in her apartment at Haddo part of the reconstructed former servants quarters at the age of 95 she was as clear as a bell about events seven decades earlier. Tam Dalyell
Beatrice Mary June Boissier, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair. Born 29 December 1913. Elected FRSE 1983. Died 22 June 2009.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/marchioness-of-aberdeenand-temair-inspirational-musical-director-and-teacher-1715940.html
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Obituary Notices
George Warburton Ashcroft 16 January 1930 18 November 2009 Appreciation by Professor Emeritus John Mallard, OBE, FRSE, FREng, DSc Professor George Ashcroft was deeply interested in the brain, and how and where it performs its multitude of functions. He was amongst the first to realise the potential of acquiring information which could lead to a greater understanding of brain malfunctions to help his patients. When I was struggling in the 1970s and onwards to set up in Scotland the first outside London a facility to image radioactive isotopes from a cyclotron, now known as PET (positron emission tomography), which is now widely used, George became a real ally, and when this was finally achieved, he was the first to start using it. Unfortunately, the resolution which could be achieved at that time did not give sufficiently clear images to give meaningful results from his many attempts, which was a sore disappointment to us both. However, improvements in the imaging technology since then, and also the advent of functional MRIU (magetic resonance imaging) has led to many of the problems which were his goals, now being gainfully attacked. He was a real leader in his field, well ahead of his time.
Obituary by Professor John S Kelly, FRSE Division of Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh The Department of Pharmacology (Materia Medica) in the University of Edinburgh dates from 1768 and during the first 200 years the holders of the chair did much to shape the subject - Christison, Fraser, Cushny, Clark and Gaddum have all become, in essence, household names. George Ashcroft did much to uphold this tradition but somehow escaped joining their ranks as a household name, except amongst a chosen
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few who had the good fortune to work with him or simply the privilege of occupying an office in the same building. He was undoubtedly amongst the first to pursue with vigour and skill the idea that the basis of mental illness, was just like any other illness with a definable organic cause that could be characterised and quantified using physical methods; a pioneer of biological psychiatry.
In Edinburgh, as a young clinician with almost no laboratory training, he built on the earlier work of Gaddum on brain amines, in particular 5-hydroxytryptamine (5HT), and with others developed new methods which allowed him to argue that the mood of patients was correlated with the levels of 5-HT in the brain. He confirmed this concept by showing that a number of drugs that influenced mood in man altered the turnover of 5-HT in man and the levels of 5-HT in the brains of animals. As we will see later this was no flash in the pan; George, like his predecessors, not only retained this innovative streak throughout his career but motivated his colleagues to do the same. Professor George Warburton Ashcroft, who has died aged 79 was born in Bolton, Lancashire, left school at 17 and went straight to university in 1947. His parents ran a greengrocery and it was during his fourth year at university studying civil engineering that a conversation with one of their customers led to his interest in psychiatry. She was secretary to the local consultant psychiatrist and arranged for him to attend the consultants clinic. In order to enter medicine he had to take biology at night school. He graduated in Medicine from Manchester University in 1953, registering as a doctor with the
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General Medical Council the following year, the same year that he married his wife Pat. National Service followed, for which he served in Egypt, refusing to carry a weapon and being escorted on his rounds by an armed soldier. After military service, Georges career in psychiatry began in 1957 at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. In 1958 he obtained the Membership of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. In 1959 he was awarded an MRC Fellowship for Training in Clinical Research. This included five months in Edinburgh Universitys Department of Pharmacology, nine months in the Pharmacology Laboratory at the ARC Institute of Animal Physiology in Babraham and one year in the MRC Clinical Endocrinology Research Laboratory, Edinburgh. During this period, his work on cerebral amine metabolism was supervised by Dr Martha Vogt and Dr Tom Crawford. He was able to continue his research in the Pharmacology Department with the award of a Mental Health Research Fund Senior Fellowship (1962-1965). After this he was appointed Clinical Scientist in what became the MRC Brain Metabolism Unit, within the Pharmacology Department of Edinburgh University, becoming Assistant Director in 1967 and Director in 1970. In 1976 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
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The work on 5-HT was conducted with painstaking methodology and great insight. In the first paper in Nature in 1960; we read in one of the samples [we were able ] to identify 5-hydroxyindolyl3-acetic acid by paper chromatography, colour reactions and fluorescence and in the 1966 Lancet paper; The work was complete in 1960 and at the time posed considerable problems in the interpretation of the results, since we were unable to explain the gradient between ventricular and lumbar c.s.F. levels of 5H.I.A.A., or the results after air-encephalography. Since this time, we have paid considerable attention to the mechanisms of addition and removal of 5-H.I.A.A. to c.s.F. in animals. One advantage of carrying out this work in 1959 was that it preceded widespread use of antidepressant drugs in general practice, hence there was a large number of depressed patients available for study who were not taking specific antidepressant drugs. Ashcroft was clearly determined to steer clear of the bitter controversies surrounding the contemporary findings from other laboratories that claimed that in the brain of schizophrenics there was an abnormal accumulation of methylated amines identifiable by the occurrence of urinary constituents yielding pink spots on chromatograms. Finally, his
demonstration that the turnover of 5HT was greatly increased by the administration of the amino acid l-tryptophan led to the introduction of a new therapy using l-tryptophan either alone or combined with other drugs, such as clomipramine and lithium, in severe depressive disorder. These treatments frequently produced dramatic improvement in chronically treatment-resistant depressive patients. In spite of tryptophan being, in general, regarded as a safe medicine, the persistent appearance of reports of adverse side effects from the ingestion of the amino acid led in the early nineties to warnings from the regulators and no new controlled studies of its use in depression have been published for about 40 years. However, current research has consistently shown that many people experience a temporary worsening of mood following the reverse, acute tryptophan depletion, and that concurrent use of antidepressant medication may exaggerate such mood responses. This is particularly true of women with anorexia or bulimia, where acute tryptophan depletion which may occur on proprietary lowcalorie diets, intensifies the level of depression and the subjective urge to binge. In parallel with his basic research, George ran a small research ward at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital,
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where he participated in the everyday assessment and treatment of patients. As a psychiatrist, he represented a brand of therapeutic optimism, which insisted that no patient was untreatable. In the presence of personality disorder, some of which would have been classed as borderline, he continued with his own pragmatic brand of psychotherapy. He made himself available as a lifeline to many disturbed patients, who could phone him from any part of the country, often at inconvenient hours. In 1978, he and his family moved to Aberdeen, when he was appointed Professor of Mental Health at Aberdeen University and Cornhill Hospital, a post he held until 1991. In spite of the savage cuts to Aberdeens budget during the late seventies and eighties, at least equal to those in most UK universities, George managed to recruit a number of key scientists. John Besson initiated a pioneering imaging programme in collaboration with John Mallards internationally-leading Department of Medical Physics and Frank Smiths Department of Nuclear Medicine. Roger Makanjuola and Toms Palomo joined the team to continue the pharmacological research initiated in Edinburgh. The imaging studies allowed Ashcroft to successfully join the debate about the use of morphological changes in the brain to
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diagnose and manage senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT) and to distinguish patients with multi-infarct dementia (MID) from normal controls. The pharmacology expanded to encompass measures of other neurotransmitters, including dopamine and vasopressin. This mix encouraged a number of junior psychiatrists-in-training to acquire scientific knowledge and skills and to become the obvious candidates for the next generation of Chairs of Psychiatry in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Oxford. Equally importantly, he trained a cohort of clinicians, psychiatrists and GPs, who now populate and energise many clinical centres in the country. While the MRC Brain Metabolism Unit had included clinical beds and a large outpatient load, there was no tradition in Aberdeen for members of the Department of Mental Health to take general psychiatric responsibility for patients. However, within two years of his appointment, the Department was entrusted with the responsibility for Gordon District, which he transformed into an exemplary service. Decades before community psychiatry became fashionable, it was flourishing with GP outpatient clinics in Inverurie and Ellon, joint ward rounds in Inverurie Community Hospital and close liaison
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with the local authority social work departments. Finally, he established a GP-run multidisciplinary dementia assessment unit in Inverurie. In the absence of community psychiatric nurses, he educated general nurses, health visitors and GPs to take over the care of psychiatric patients, and to be good at it. In the academic department, undergraduate teaching and examination were rejuvenated, with an emphasis on clinical bedside experience forcing students to engage with patients by making a one-hour clinical examination the centrepiece of the psychiatry degree-examination. Students had to examine the (real) patient for 40 minutes in front of the two examiners, and then proceeded to take a 20minute viva both on the clinical examination and issues, such as further assessment, differential diagnosis and management. He retired, aged 65, but took up psycho-geriatrics, working in Inverurie where he set up a model for psycho-geriatric treatment to be rolled out elsewhere. Inverurie Hospital named the Ashcroft
Ward after him. Retiring for the second time aged 67, he continued to make active contributions to self-help groups: young people with diabetes, older patients and their relatives and to enjoy a lifelong love of cricket as well as gardening, fishing and music, particularly jazz. During his long and distinguished career, Professor Ashcroft created a cadre of dedicated young psychiatrists who went on to work around the world. He was a loyal, incredibly kind and loving family man, a father of four, daughter Suzy and sons Paddy, Blair and Michael, grandfather of eight and great-grandfather of two. He is survived by his wife Pat, 80, whom he met at a tennis tournament in Farnworth, Bolton: He was absolutely wonderful. He loved his work, he really enjoyed it and was excellent at it. He would have kept on and on forever I am grateful to Donald Eccleston and Klaus Ebmeier for access to their rather more extensive account of Georges clinical work submitted to The Psychiatrist. John S Kelly
George Warburton Ashcroft, MB ChB, DRCOG, MRCPEdin, DPM, FRCPEdin, DSc, MRCPsych, FRSE. Born 16 January 1930. Elected FRSE 1975. Died 18 November 2009
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Sir James Baddiley 15 May 1918 17 November 2008
Jim Baddiley was born in Manchester, descended on his fathers side from a farming family, and was one of four children. His father, also James, had broken with family tradition and become a scientist, an industrial organic chemist, who for many years was director of research of ICI Dyestuffs in Blackley, Manchester. Jim attended Manchester Grammar School, with no specialisation until the sixth form, and he has said that his family life was very happy with no academic pressures on him. He spent his pocket money carrying out chemical experiments at home with the encouragement of his father, and he realised that chemistry and biology were the subjects which most interested him. He entered Manchester University to read chemistry in 1937 and in 1938 a young Alexander Todd succeeded Ian Heilbron as Professor of Organic Chemistry. Alex proved to be an important influence on Jims future career. After graduation, Jim became one of the first research students to work with Alex Todd and Basil Lythgoe on the synthesis of nucleosides. The long term objective of this programme was the synthesis of nucleotide coenzymes and components of
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nucleic acids, and led eventually in Cambridge to Todds Nobel Prize in 1957. After gaining his PhD, Jim moved to Cambridge with Todd in 1944 and embarked, as an ICI Fellow, on the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP); a very ambitious undertaking. Writing in Pembroke College magazine in 2008, he recalled the thrill of walking down Pembroke Street shortly after the completion of the synthesis. While in Cambridge, unlike his chemical colleagues, he established contacts in the Department of Biochemistry, particularly with Kenneth Bailey and Ernest Gale, and attended colloquia and seminars in the Department. After further postdoctoral work in Sweden, Jim returned to Cambridge in 1949 and was offered a staff appointment at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in London, giving him his first research independence. In August 1949 the first International Congress of Biochemistry was held in Cambridge, bringing together the worlds biochemists for the first time since the war. One of the main lectures was by the German American biochemist Fritz Lipmann announcing the discovery of a new coenzyme, coenzyme A, which he showed
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was a derivative of pantothenic acid, one of the B vitamins. Jim met Lipmann, who asked him for his help in determining the full chemical structure of coenzyme A. This was an ideal collaboration and, in London, Jim soon built a small research group to study this and other problems related to coenzyme structure. Within three years, he and Malcolm Thain, together with Lipmann, had solved the problem. By this time the Lister group had expanded and achieved syntheses of the coenzymes codecarboxylase and active methionine. As an extension of the coenzyme A work, Jim explored, with Tony Mathias, the way in which coenzyme A was formed in bacteria and found that nucleotides were also present in the bacterial extracts which interfered with their experiments. Further exploration of this chance observation led to the isolation of two new nucleotides with unusual properties. In due course this led him into a field of biology which occupied him for the rest of his life. At this stage, Jim was appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry at Kings College Newcastle, then one of three components of Durham University. The determination of the structure of the unknown nucleotides became the major research interest, and by 1956, Arnold Sanderson and
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Beverley Carss showed them to be cytidine derivatives of glycerol phosphate and ribitol phosphate. The question now arose as to the biochemical role of these nucleotides it had been shown that similar nucleotides were involved in the formation of polymers of high molecular weight. A senior American biochemist Bob Greenberg, was a visitor in the Department. With some scepticism he undertook to prove the existence of polymers of glycerol and ribitol phosphate in bacteria and within a few days, to his surprise and delight, had produced positive results. These polymers were later shown to be associated with bacterial cell walls and membranes of Gram-positive bacteria. With his usual thoroughness, Jim consulted the Professor of Greek, Professor HudsonWilliams, to find a suitable name. Teichos is the Greek word for a fortified wall and the polymers were named teichoic acids. Jim then began an extensive investigation of the teichoic acids, showing that they contained sugar components and the amino acid D-alanine. He studied their structures, their biosynthesis, which involved the cytidine nucleotides, their immunology and, most importantly, the part they played in the functioning of the bacterial cell. Many people contributed to this programme over a period of years Ron
Archibald and Ian Hancock deserve special mention. Jim realised that his researches were taking him out of the mainstream of organic chemistry and he became Professor of Chemical Microbiology, eventually in a separate building. Since 2004, the Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology has been established in Newcastle under the direction of Jeff Errington and the work on teichoic acids continues. A Baddiley Lecture has been established and Jim himself was able to be present at the inaugural lecture by Sir John Walker in 2008. Jim was elected to the Royal Society in 1961 and to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1963: he was knighted in 1977. He has been awarded many prizes and lectureships and received honorary degrees from Heriot-Watt and Bath Universities. Although Alex Todd was a major influence in his life, Jim was much more interested in biological aspects of chemistry and felt at home in the company of biochemists and biologists. He used his chemical skills to unravel major problems in biology and believed that it was easier for a chemist to acquire the necessary knowledge of biology than the other way round. He was determined and single-minded, as befits a rock climber, one of his activities as a young man.
Jim Baddileys marriage in 1944 to Hazel Townsend was a mainstay in his life. He was interested in the arts and in music. Hazel had been a textile designer, they had much in common and she gave him great support. Shortly after moving to Newcastle, Jim and Hazel built a new house which gave them both great pleasure in the planning and furnishing. Their son Christopher, born in 1947 in Cambridge, has distinguished himself as a physicist and astronomer. Christopher is well known as a lecturer and has won the Galileo Medal for his work on urban light pollution in astronomy. When Jim and Hazel retired, they moved to Cambridge and Jim reestablished his friendship with Sir Hans Kornberg. He became a Fellow of Pembroke College and carried out research in the Department of Biochemistry. He helped to found the Institute of Biotechnology in Cambridge and served on a number of University and national committees. Even after retiring for the second time, his interest in teichoic acids continued, especially the part played by the alanine groups in relation to the metals magnesium and calcium. He published a paper on his own in 2000, and an extensive review with Frank Neuhaus in 2003. J Grant Buchanan
Sir James Baddiley Kt, BSc, MSc, PhD, DSc (Manchester), ScD (Cantab), HonDSc (Heriot-Watt, Bath), FRS. Born 15 May 1918; Elected FRSE 1963; Died 17 November 2008.
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Margaret Barnes 26 August 1919 31 October 2009
Margaret Barnes was originally trained as a chemist (as was her husband Harold Barnes, FRSE, who died in 1978), yet they became two of the most prominent marine biologists of the post-war years. Not only were they leading authorities on the biology of barnacles, they were also the founding editors of two marine science journals of high international repute. Harold was publishing before the war, but after marrying in 1945, their collaboration, both scientific and editorial, became so close it is difficult to separate the relative contributions that they made to marine science. Margaret was born in England, received her early education in Wales, and then attended Plympton Grammar School near Plymouth as a teenager. She obtained her BSc from London University in 1939 and spent the war years investigating colloidal graphite lubricants. During this time she met Harold in Plymouth. In 1943 he was seconded to the laboratory of the Scottish Marine Biological Association (SMBA) at Millport on the Firth of Clyde. He was working on anti-fouling paints and Margaret joined him at Millport after their marriage. With her characteristic strong work
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ethic, she had been doing research in her spare time and was awarded the MSc degree, again from London, in 1945. Finding themselves at a marine biology station, it seemed a natural extension from working on anti-fouling paints to commence work on the biology of barnacles, one of the main fouling organisms on ships and coastal installations. They made extensive field trips around the coasts of Europe and North America. These trips led to a steady stream of jointly-authored papers, mainly on the genera Balanus, Chthamalus and Elminius. Almost every aspect of their biology was covered: distribution, morphology, reproduction and development, biochemistry, physiology and metabolism. The output can only be described as prodigious. Margarets position at the SMBA was anomalous as an unpaid permanent visiting worker. How lucky the SMBA was to have such an active, productive and competent scientist working for nothing! The Barnes team became something of a legend in the marine stations around the world. Margarets success was marked by the award of the DSc degree from London in 1972, election to a
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1976 and Fellowship of the Institute of Biology in 1980. Not content with the output of their scientific papers, the Barnes identified a need for new journals in marine science. In 1963 they started a review series Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review, and in 1967 the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. These publications flourished from the start, Margaret playing an essential editorial role. She was a meticulous editor, requiring a very high standard of English, both in style and grammar. She also applied these standards to aspiring authors whose English was not their first language, taking enormous trouble to make their papers acceptable for publication. Many such authors look back with gratitude at the way in which their papers had been improved. In 1968 the SMBA relocated from Millport to Oban in Argyll where it became the Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, eventually adopting the title Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) to reflect the wider scope of its research. Margaret and Harold moved across at this time, making an apparently effortless change from one environment to another, with all the implications of transferring both laboratory and home.
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Harolds death in 1978 must have been a heavy personal blow to Margaret, as well as causing a severe hiatus in the flow of their research papers and those of other authors being edited for the Review and the Journal. Nevertheless, the flow continued unabated, a true measure of Margarets dedication and singlemindedness. Despite many vicissitudes, such as takeovers within the publishing houses, and ever-increasing interference in the day-to-day processes of editing, the two publications continue to flourish to this day, the Review reaching volume 48 and the Journal volume 400. Over the years, this involved the appointment of new and additional editors, but Margaret retained an editorial role well into her 80s. She and Harold deserve great credit for overcoming the difficult task of steering not only one, but two publications through those early stages of infancy and building up their existing high reputations. A further interest of the Barnes lay in the European Marine Biology Symposia (EMBS). These annual and very popular events rotated around the various European marine stations. Margaret and Harold played a major role in setting up these symposia and were inveterate attendees. They organised the Symposium when it came to Oban in 1974, and
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Margaret was the convenor, and edited the Proceedings of the Symposium when it returned to Oban in 1989. At this time Margaret was President of the EMBS. Margarets role in marine science over the last 60 years as a research worker, editor, and as a cohesive force amongst European marine scientists needs no further emphasis. The Barnes were renowned for their hospitality, and entertained their colleagues and visiting scientists unstintingly. I remember, as a new and very junior marine biologist, visiting Millport in a research vessel from the Aberdeen Marine Laboratory. Not only was I asked to supper at their house, but stayed the night as the weather was unpropitious for rowing back to the vessel anchored offshore. They contin-
ued with their hospitality after the move to Oban, and Margaret maintained it after Harolds death. Margaret was a truly likeable person, friendly and kind and with an excellent sense of humour. She had other interests and talents that those who came to know her in her later years did not realise. She had been a proficient crosscountry skier and mountaineer, and a member of the Austrian Alpine Club. She was an expert gardener, maintaining a stunning garden overlooking the sea just north of Oban. She was one of the old school, and it seems unlikely that her way of life and special commitment to science and her fellow scientists, inside and outside the laboratory, will find many parallels in the present day. John Blaxter
Margaret Barnes BSc, MSc, DSc (London), FIBiol. Born 26 August 1919. Elected FRSE 1976. Died 31 October 2009.
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Sir Ivor Batchelor 29 November 1916 24 April 2005 Professor Emeritus Sir Ivor Batchelor the son of an Edinburgh physician, was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Edinburgh University and gradua-ted MB ChB in 1940. During the war, he served as a neuro-psychiatrist in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and on that experience was based his co-authorship of Aviation Neuropsychiatry in 1945. From 1947 to 1956 he was assistant physician and then deputy physician superintendent at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital under Professor Sir David Henderson. The two men became firm friends and Sir Davids example and broad approach to psychiatry were a major influence in Sir Ivors early career. During this period, he and a psychiatric social worker published a series of papers on attempted suicide, leading to his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1960. In 1956, Sir Ivor moved to Dundee as Physician Superintendent of the Dundee Royal Mental Hospital. The following years, until his retirement in 1982, were years of outstanding achievement as a hospital administrator, in the academic sphere, and as a nationally recognised contributor to numerous aspects of health service policy. In the1950s, the psychiatric services in Dundee were fragment294
ed and underdeveloped. The two principal hospitals were amalgamated under one administration in 1959 and in masterminding the ensuing upgrading and reorganisation, Sir Ivor displayed the leadership qualities that became his hallmark decisive, farsighted, innovative and forceful. When Sir Ivor was appointed to the new Chair of Psychiatry in Dundee University in 1962 he relinquished his National Health Service (NHS) administrative role but by then he had laid the foundations of a truly comprehensive psychiatric service. In 1962, the University Department of Psychiatry consisted of two rooms on the second floor of an old building. Twenty years later, in 1982 when he retired, Sir Ivor handed on a flourishing, wellfunded and well-staffed department, securely accommodated in the new Ninewells Teaching Hospital and Medical School campus. He was himself a lucid and persuasive lecturer and he promoted a high standard of teaching by his department. He campaigned effectively for the development of teaching and research facilities in the Dundee psychiatric hospital, did much to foster the research interests and potential of both university and NHS staff and he enlisted contributions from clinical psychology,
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sociology, and biochemistry; he also inspired a survey of mental illness in a prison population. Sir Ivors reputation for analytical flair and critical judgment led to his serving on numerous committees with a wide range of remits beyond the boundaries of psychiatry. These included broad scrutiny of NHS organisation (especially the Royal Commission on the NHS), medical research, postgraduate medical education, the nursing profession and the law relating to abortion. Under his chairmanship, the Committee on the Staffing of Mental Deficiency Hospitals in Scotland produced recommendations which aroused some controversy at the time but had lasting impact. He found time to revise three editions of Henderson and Gillespies Textbook of Psychiatry, and in his retirement he published Policies for a Crisis, a critical review of NHS policies for care of the elderly. The outstanding range and quality of Sir Ivors contributions were recognised by his election to Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, to Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the award of CBE in 1976 and a knighthood in 1981. His attitude
to the Royal College of Psychiatrists has been misunderstood by some as one of antipathy. It is true he initially argued that the interests of psychiatry would be best served by a faculty within the College of Physicians, but his scepticism was not sustained. He saw the Colleges achievements, and his election as Honorary Fellow meant a lot to him. In his professional relationships, Ivor Batchelor was a reserved man. Meticulously accurate and hardworking he expected no less of his staff. As a friend he was warmly empathic and supportive, and had a lively sense of humour. He was a keen naturalist and walker until he became physically disabled by illness in his later years. Disability, however, did not prevent him continuing to visit art galleries and museums, an ongoing source of pleasure to him and on which he was a considerable expert. He wore his erudition lightly and loved to open new horizons for his friends who seldom left his company without feeling stimulated and uplifted. Sir Ivor Batchelor married Honor Wallace Williamson in 1941 and he is survived by her, their son and their three daughters. Peter Aungle
Sir Ivor Batchelor, CBE, MB, ChB(Edin), DPM(Lond, FRCPE, FRCPsych. Born 29 November 1916. Elected FRSE 1960. Died 24 April 2005 Reproduced with permision of the Royal College of Psychiatrists - Published in The Psychiatrist (2005) 29: 439 doi: 10.1192/pb.29.11.439
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Antony John Clark September 18 1951 August 12 2004
The sudden death of Professor John Clark, at the age of 52, has robbed Britain of a world leader in animal science and biotechnology, and an individual whose commitment to science was based on a genuine concern for others. A visionary, energetic and resolute leader, he made outstanding contributions not only in research, but also in translating it to the commercial environment. Clark was director of the Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh, one of the worlds leading centres for research on farm and other animals, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Science Council. He pioneered the development of techniques for the genetic modification of livestock that led to the cloning techniques and the birth, in 1996, of Dolly the sheep, the first animal to be cloned from an adult cell. This event created entirely new opportunities in research and regenerative medicine. Appointed to the then Animal Breeding Research Organisation in 1985, Clark soon assumed leadership of a project to produce human proteins in the milk of sheep. Its success required an understanding of the mechanisms that regulate the functioning of
genes, the technical ability to manipulate DNA sequences and methods for the introduction of gene sequences into sheep embryos. While these are now commonplace, this was not the case at the time, and the project was technically challenging. The birth, in 1990, of Tracy, the first sheep to produce very large quantities of human protein in her milk - alpha-1-antitrypsin for the treatment of cystic fibrosis was a milestone in the field, and a success that laid the foundation for the continuing reputation of the Roslin Institute (as it became in 1993) as pioneers in transgenic technology. The development of cloning techniques at Roslin in the mid1990s provided the first opportunity to introduce precise genetic changes in animals other than mice, and Clark and his colleagues were the first to produce a large animal from which a specific gene had been removed (a prion protein gene from a sheep). Characteristically quick to recognise scientific opportunities, Clark responded to the news, in 1997, of the isolation of the first human embryonic stem cells by rapidly establishing his own projects
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building on that research. Currently, the laboratory he managed is working on the derivation of liver cells and neurones from human embryonic stem cells for potential use in the testing of new drugs and the treatment of Parkinsons disease, stroke and spinal cord injury. Scientists in the UK are often criticised for failing to convert scientific advances into practical benefit. Clark was an exception in that he had a clear commitment to commercialising research and the entrepreneurial flair to achieve this. The successful project to produce human proteins in sheep milk was carried out at Roslin, but provided the intellectual basis for the establishment of PPL Therapeutics in 1987. Clarks experience with the creation of that company was invaluable when Dolly followed. The establishment of another company, Roslin BioMed, and its subsequent acquisition by the US Geron Corporation in 1999, delivered a six-year commitment to fund human stem cell research at the Institute, and has underpinned its status as a leader in this exciting new field. Most of Clarks career was driven by setting a strategy in which possible applications provided the rationale and justification for research. Thus, he was ideally suited to provide the scientific leadership and direction when he
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became director of Roslin on August 1 2003. Irrespective of the level at which he was operating, from team leader to director, he always ensured he had time for his staff, especially for the many students he personally supervised. Clark was born in Blackpool, but the family moved to Lincolnshire, where he was educated at Barton grammar school. After he graduated in natural sciences at Christs College, Cambridge, in 1973, he and his wife Helen began what they later called their world tour. First, they went to the University of Western Ontario, Canada, where Clark obtained an MSc for studies on the regulation of development in a mudsnail. They then travelled for a year through the US and South America. This experience had a lasting impact on Clark, and he could always amaze with anecdotes of their many adventures, such as horseback journeys to visit remote archaeological sites in the Colombian rainforest. Back in Britain, Clark began research in what were still the very early days of molecular biology. Working in Edinburgh, he completed a pioneering study on human satellite DNA, for which he was awarded a PhD in 1982, before working, with John Bishop, of the Institute of Genetics at Edinburgh University, on genes that function in the liver of mice
Clark was awarded the OBE in 1997, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1999, and was a valued contributor to numerous scientific committees and working groups. A widely read man, he enjoyed music, dancing and a broad circle of friends.
Though he, Helen and his two sons, Charlie and Laurie, travelled widely together, they returned repeatedly to the tranquillity of Colonsay, in the Inner Hebrides. Ian Wilmut
Anthony John Clark, MA, MSc, PhD, scientist and entrepreneur. Born September 18 1951. Elected FRSE 1999. Died August 12 2004
This obituary first appeared in The Guardian on 25 August 2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2004/aug/25/obituaries.health Reproduced by permission of The Guardian
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Alan Hugh Cook 2 December 1922 23 July 2004
Alan Cook was a physicist with an unusually wide range of interests, centred on the structure of the Earth and other planets, as well as phenomena arising from the vast clouds of attenuated gas that abound in more distant regions of our galaxy. In pursuit of these interests he became involved in exact measurement and the establishment of standards in metrology. Alan Hugh Cook, physicist: born Selstead, Kent 2 December 1922; Superintendent, Standards (later Quantum Metrology) Division, National Physical Laboratory 196669; FRS 1969; Professor of Geophysics, Edinburgh University 196972; FRSE 1970; Jacksonian Professor of Natuural Philosophy, Cambridge University 197290, Head of Department of Physics 197984; Fellow, Kings College, Cambridge 197283; President, Royal Astronomical Society 1977 79; Master, Selwyn College, Cambridge 198393; Kt 1988; Chairman, Press Syndicate, Cambridge University Press 1988 93; married 1948 Isabell Adamson (one son, one daughter); died Cambridge 23 July 2004. From Westcliff High School he went to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1940 and on
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graduating in 1943 joined the Admiralty Signals Establishment. He returned to Cambridge at the end of the Second World War to begin research for his PhD in the Department of Geodesy and Geophysics. It was here that he became interested in the precise determination of the gravitational acceleration (g) of a falling body. Small variations in g over the Earths surface give valuable hints on the density and depth of deeplying rocks; at the time he went to the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Teddington he was there from 1952 to 1969 expeditions were setting out with very precise pendulums to map them. The results played a major role in overthrowing apparently secure views on the Earths crust and initiating the concept of slowly wandering plates; their collisions and separations generate mountain ranges and the deep-sea trenches from which spring the most powerful earthquakes and devastating volcanoes. It may seem tame in this context to devote time and technical skill to throwing up perfect spheres of glass in a vacuum and timing their passage up and down past two pairs of slits. This is what Cook worked on to the point of
determining g with a reliable standard against which all the pendulums could be checked, so that as they roamed around the globe any tiny differences in g that were noted could be seen as real and requiring explanation. Good though Cooks device was, it was soon improved on by others; but he was the pioneer. He soon rose to be superintendent of the division at the NPL that covered metrology in general. It developed into quantum metrology using atomic vibrations and lasers to achieve ever higher degress of exactness in measurement of length and time that are essential in advanced technology and in such academic pursuits as radio astronomy. His personal input and the organisation of the enterprise are not the stuff of heroic legend, but without such things there would be no heroes. His success was signalled by election to the Royal Society in 1969. In the same year, he left NPL on appointment to the Chair of Geophysics at Edinburgh. The department apparently needed enlivening, and he spent three years getting it into shape before he was called back to Cambridge as Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Cavendish Laboratory. He was now 50 and perhaps a little weary of experiment, even perhaps discouraged at the prospect of building a new
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research effort in a department where competition to attract the brightest graduates was so fierce. At all events he did not manage to put together a team of his own, though he gave encouragement to a small new enterprise devoted to laser physics which has continued to thrive. For his own part he was drawn more into administration. Among other tasks were two years as President of the Royal Astronomical Society, five years as Head of the Cavendish and five years as Chairman of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press. On arrival as Jacksonian Professor, he was elected a Fellow of Kings College and only left in 1988 to become Master of Selwyn College, a position he held until he reached the retiring age of 70 in 1993. It was an uneventful time for the college, which had recently added to the buildings and was not quite ready for the next phase of expansion. He is remembered for his courteous hospitality and kindly management at a time when what had been an exclusively Anglican male foundation was successfully coming to terms with a broader outlook. Tidy in dress, seriously learned, to outsiders he must have seemed the epitome of a don. In his latter days he was a rare visitor to the Cavendish, being fully occupied, when not at meetings, with theoretical
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investigations and the books that resulted. He had been among the first to appreciate, in 1965, that intense (astronomically speaking) microwave radiation was the outcome of maser action in interstellar gas, particularly the hydroxyl radicals it harboured. This was covered in his Celestial Masers of 1977, and he had already published a rather severe treatment of microwaves and their interference in 1971 (Interference of Electromagnetic Waves). Several technical books followed, but his last, in 1997, was a biography of Edmund Halley (Edmund Halley: charting the heavens and the seas) whose comet is but one episode
in a brilliant life of discovery. The book was very well received. It reveals another side of Alan Cook, his devotion to the history of science. For some years he edited Notes and Records of the Royal Society, which helps keep alive the memory of otherwise forgotten scientists and the research that later work has overshadowed. It was appropriate work for a somewhat reclusive but quietly humorous man whose own achievements will remain valuable as they are absorbed, and because they are absorbed, into the fabric of science. Brian Pippard
Alan Hugh Cook, FRS, FInstP, Foreign Fellow Academia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome. Born 2 December 1922. Elected FRSE 1970. Died 23 July 2004
This obituary first appeared in The Independent on 31 July 2004 reproduced with permission from The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sir-alan-cook-6164500.html
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Philip Steven Corbet 21 May 1929 13 February 2008
Philip Steven Corbet, who died on 13 February, 2008 aged 78, at his home in West Cornwall, was a zoologist by inclination, training, experience and achievement. In particular, he was a specialist on the ecology of dragonflies and mosquitoes, and an earnest advocate of a human population policy. His father, Alexander Steven Corbet, at one time Deputy Keeper of Entomology at The Natural History Museum, was the recognised authority on Malaysian butterflies. The atmosphere in the Corbet family home was pervaded by his fathers love of natural history. Philips sister, Sarah A. Corbet, is an authority on British bumble bees and the pollination of plants by insects. Philip Corbet was born on 21 May 1929 in Kuala Lumpur, West Malaysia, where his father was a microbiologist at the Rubber Research Institute. His schooling for five years was at Nelson Boys College, New Zealand (where his mother took him during the Second World War) and then, for one year only, at Dauntseys School, Wiltshire. Only at Dauntseys did he receive any instruction in biology. After graduating BSc with First Class Honours in Zoology at the University of Reading, where he was awarded
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the Colin Morley Prize for Zoology, Corbet undertook research for the PhD Degree at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge under the supervision of Professor V.B. (later Sir Vincent) Wigglesworth FRS, the distinguished insect physiologist. Corbet remained grateful to Sir Vincent for allowing him to conduct his PhD research on a topic that Corbet himself had chosen seasonal regulation in dragonflies rather than on a subject suggested by his supervisor. The resulting research confirmed Corbets deep affection for dragonflies. It also provided the foundation for his life-long interest in the group, and for an ecological classification that has formed an informative template for interpreting life histories of dragonflies and other aquatic insects. Corbets PhD research led to his suggesting to James Fisher, then on the Editorial Board of the popular New Naturalist books, that a volume devoted to dragonflies would be an appropriate addition to the series. The outcome was the widely used Dragonflies by Corbet, Longfield and Moore, first published in 1960. Corbets professional career reflected the diversity of his zoological, and especially entomo-
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logical, interests, being pursued in four continents and embracing research, administration and resource management. From 1954 to 1962, Corbet was employed as a zoologist and entomologist by the East African High Commission in Uganda; first, from 1954 to 1957, at the East African Freshwater Fisheries Research Organization at Jinja, where he produced the definitive account of the food of non-cichlid fishes in the Lake Victoria basin, leavening this work with detailed investigations of the insect food of the Nile Crocodile and the behaviour of several groups of aquatic insects. Latterly, from 1957 to 1962, he specialised in the behaviour and ecology of mosquitoes at the East African Virus Research Institute, Entebbe, a prestigious laboratory which, as the Rockefeller Yellow Fever Institute, had been the place where, some years earlier, the jungle cycle of yellow fever had been elucidated by A.J. Haddow FRSE and others. At the EAVRI, under the inspiring leadership of Haddow, Corbets research output was exceptionally high and, on the strength of this, he was invited by the Canada Department of Agriculture Research Branch to join the Entomology Research Institute (later the Biosystematics Research Institute), Ottawa. He readily accepted this offer in 1962, a time when career pros-
pects for expatriate staff in Uganda were being diminished by the imminence of self government. While at the EAVRI Corbet led the field team that discovered the mosquito vector of Onyongnyong Fever, a hitherto unknown arborvirus, with Dengue-like symptoms, that was causing a fulminating epidemic among humans in Uganda and Kenya in 1959. However his principal assignment at Entebbe was to collect large samples of mosquitoes from different heights above the ground in rain forest and then to discover and validate the external characters of females that enabled their physiological age to be estimated without having to resort to the laborious and timeconsuming process of dissecting the ovaries. Corbet became adept at this arcane skill, to such an extent that, towards the end of his employment in Uganda, he had an opportunity to demonstrate his aptitude in a memorable way. While relaxing on an open verandah at sundown, Corbet and an entomological colleague (the late A.W.R. McCrae) noticed a mosquito flying slowly between them, whereupon Corbet was able to state with confidence the mosquitos species and to add that it was a young female who had not yet laid eggs. Such proficiency served Corbet well in his next assignment the study of mosquito biology in the
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Canadian High Arctic. There he discovered, and described, the phenomenon of facultative autogeny a hitherto unknown reproductive strategy of mosquitoes. The strategy entails the ability by individuals of bloodsucking species to retain two options for oogenesis. If, after a period of trying to obtain vertebrate blood (normally a prerequisite for egg development of mosquitoes) a female fails to do so, she can safeguard her reproductive options by abandoning further attempts at host-seeking and dedicating her scant remaining energy reserves to developing at least a few eggs. This strategy, well suited to the High Arctic where sources of vertebrate blood are sparse and unpredictable, was later detected by other workers among mosquitoes in harsh and variable environments elsewhere. Corbets other principal achievement while a research entomologist in Canada was to lead the investigative team that diagnosed, and subsequently suppressed, the insect nuisance in the St Lawrence River that threatened the viability of the 1967 World Exhibition (Expo 67) in Montreal. His teams diagnosis and recommendations proved to be correct and practicable so that the threat was averted. Corbets career as a full-time research entomologist effectively ended in 1967, with his appoint-
ment as Director of the Canada Department of Agriculture Research Institute at Belleville, Ontario. The Institute, formerly known as the Canadian Institute for Biological Control, adopted, under Corbets direction, the broader remit of discovering and developing methods for pest suppression that avoided, or greatly reduced, the use of synthetic organic chemical pesticides. This responsibility, which Corbet discharged for four years, marked a turning point in his personal priorities. As an ecologist with a responsibility for pest management, Corbet saw clearly the driving role of human population pressure in destabilising ecosystems, and also of precipitating pest outbreaks. Thereafter he used his many opportunities as an invited symposium speaker to emphasise this causal relationship and to point to the need for national policies to balance the size of human populations and the resources available to support them on a sustainable basis. His compulsion to communicate these principles more widely led to his acceptance in 1971 of the position of Professor and Chairman of the Biology Department at the University of Waterloo, Ontario and in 1974 as Professor and Director of the Joint Centre for Environmental Sciences at the University of Canterbury and
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Lincoln Agricultural College (now Lincoln University), Canterbury, New Zealand. The directorship of the Joint Centre (later the Centre for Resource Management) afforded Corbet access to a variety of influential fora in which to present the ecological perspective, including service on the New Zealand Environmental Council, the New Zealand Government Fact-Finding Group on Nuclear Energy, the first council of the New Zealand Demographic Society and the first executive of the New Zealand Club of Rome. Many of the graduates from the Joint Centre, which administered a twoyear MSc Degree in Resource Management, secured influential positions in departments and agencies concerned with environmental planning, resource allocation and nature conservation, in New Zealand and elsewhere. An additional source of satisfaction to Corbet and the architects of the programme was that senior employees from resource-oriented government departments were seconded to take the MSc course. While in Canada, Corbet had been trying to gain wider recognition of the need for a population policy and, in 1971, had orchestrated an open letter to the Prime Minister, signed by 25 senior biologists, calling for the Prime Minister to acknowledge this need and to put in place a demographic policy. Like
other such initiatives at that time, it failed to generate a tangible response. In 1978, after four years as Director of the Joint Centre, Corbet resigned to take a chair in the Department of Zoology at the University of Canterbury. He had found that the position at the Joint Centre had become too political and insufficiently scientific for his taste. Soon afterwards he was awarded a Commonwealth Visiting Professorship in the Department of Applied Biology at the University of Cambridge. While there, he and his Swedish wife, who had just become parents, decided to try to relocate in Europe so that their daughter would be able to know her wider family. Accordingly, in 1980, Corbet accepted the foundation Chair of Zoology in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Dundee, where he was Head of Department from 1983 to 1986. While at Dundee, Corbet served on the Nature Conservancy Council Committee for Scotland and chaired the Science Committee of the Scottish Wildlife Trust. In 1983 he was elected first President of the British Dragonfly Society. Among those who study dragonflies, Corbet was well known for his books, especially two synoptic treatments of the behaviour and ecology of the group, both of
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which became accepted as standard texts: A Biology of Dragonflies (1962, reprinted 1983) and Dragonflies. Behaviour and Ecology of Odonata (1999, reprinted 2001 and 2004). Both books came to be regarded as foundation sources for students of dragonflies, the second appearing in Japanese translation in 2006. Corbet also co-authored three other books on dragonflies, each with a regional focus: the New Naturalist Dragonflies referred to above (1960, reprinted 1985, with C. Longfield and N.W. Moore); volume 3 of The Odonata of Canada and Alaska (1975, reprinted 1978 and 1998, with E.M. Walker); and an updated version of the 1960 New Naturalist book (published in 2008 with S.J. Brooks). Corbet died during the final preparation of that book. The book published in 1999, Dragonflies. Behaviour and Ecology of Odonata, was regarded as a definitive synthesis for which Corbet was awarded the Neill Medal for Natural History by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His output of published research was varied and extensive, comprising more than 250 papers in refereed scientific journals reporting findings on fishes, crocodiles, bats, mosquitoes, dragonflies and other aquatic insects, pest management, demography, resource management and arctic microclimate. His research led to
the award of the Degrees of DSc by the University of Reading (1962), ScD by the University of Cambridge (1976) and DSc by the Universities of Edinburgh (2003) and Dundee (2005). He was elected Fellow of the Institute of Biology (1967), the Entomological Society of Canada (1977) , of which he was President from 1971 to 1972 and from which he received the Gold Medal for Outstanding Achievement in 1974, the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (1985), and the Royal Society of Arts (1991). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1987, and awarded the Societys Neill Medal in 2002. Honorary Memberships included the British Dragonfly Society (1991), the Socit Franaise dOdonatologie (1997) and the Dragonfly Society of the Americas (2002). During 2001 to 2003 he was President of the Worldwide Dragonfly Association. He served as consultant, as an applied entomologist, for the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization of the United Nations and for the European Economic Community. In 1990 Corbet retired from the University of Dundee, as Professor Emeritus of Zoology, to work in an honorary capacity at the Department of Zoology, University of Edinburgh, where he was appointed Honorary Professor in
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1996. In that same year he retired to Cornwall where he lived in a converted water mill which had a dragonfly pond nearby. As well as working on his books there and enjoying music (he played the clarinet proficiently), he served on the Council and Executive of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust and as foundation Chair of the Trusts Conservation Strategy Committee. In January 2001 Philip suffered a mild stroke, from which he made
an almost complete recovery. Each of his three marriages had been dissolved but Philip enjoyed great happiness during his closing years from his partnership with Sarah Jewell who, with his sister Sarah Corbet and his daughter Katarina, survived him. Philip Corbet died in Truro Cornwall on 13 February 2008. This obituary is based largely on autobiographical notes prepared by Philip Corbet. Peter S Maitland
Philip Steven Corbet, BSc, PhD, DSc. Born 21 May 1929. Elected FRSE 1987. Died 13 February 2008.
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William Murray Cormie 12 June 1915 8 May 2005
Bill Cormie achieved great distinction in a broad range of activities, professionally and through his contributions to the community. His achievements were matched by a balanced and engaging but modest personality that made him many friends and admirers. He was the eldest of four children, from a family with a craftsmanship background. His father, James, was a foreman iron turner, and this may have influenced his choice of a career in civil engineering. After Dumbarton Academy, he entered the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Glasgow and graduated with First-class Honours in civil engineering in 1937. He financed his studies by lecturing part-time at Stow College. He excelled academically and in other university activities. He was an excellent athlete, being awarded a Soccer Blue by the Athletics Club, of which he was elected vice-president. He was also prominent in the university Engineering Society, of which he later became president. This balance of interests was characteristic of his activities throughout his life.
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He spent university vacations working with Crouch & Hogg, consulting civil engineers and, after graduation, completed his training under agreement with that firm, with which he maintained a lifelong association. Along with several of his fellow graduates, he was commissioned in the supplementary reserve of the Royal Engineers, and on the outbreak of the Second World War was immediately mobilised and sent to France. He was still in France after Dunkirk, blowing up bridges, and was eventually evacuated from the Cherbourg area. In 1944, he was one of the first back into France, to rebuild bridges. In the intervening years he had married Dorothy Smellie, being wed in April 1941 before seeing service in north Africa and Italy. While in north Africa he received a message: To Dorothy - a son. His career in the military was as distinguished as his university one. He rose rapidly to the rank of Lt-Colonel, was twice mentioned in Dispatches and was awarded the OBE for military service, and the ERD. On demobilisation in 1946 he rejoined Crouch & Hogg, which had been founded in 1864 during
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the boom in railway construction. In 1948 Bill was made one of five partners, and became senior partner in 1968, by which time the firm had expanded into a wide range of design and consulting commissions, from dams, water supply and hydro-electric generation, to steelworks, roads and bridges, including the White Cart viaduct at Glasgow Airport, and eventually to the Kessock Bridge near Inverness and the Cromarty and Dornoch Firth bridge crossings. Each of the partners had their particular expertise and responsibilities. Bill Cormies interests were primarily in the field of water supply, drainage and sewage disposal. Various regional schemes were designed and constructed, but the biggest was the Loch Lomond Project, designed to control the water of the loch and make available a water supply to meet industrial and domestic requirements across central Scotland. He was awarded the CBE (to add to his military OBE) for his services to civil engineering and primarily for his participation in the Loch Lomond scheme. His experience, judgment and integrity led to his appointment as an arbiter on disputes in engineering contracts, as an expert witness in the Court of Session to public enquiries by the Houses of
Commons and Lords, and to a lengthy case in Hong Kong, acting for the World Bank. He was also appointed a member of the Reservoir Panel of Engineers under the Reservoir Safety Provisions Act of 1975. Apart from his work in the firm, he gave substantial service to the professional societies of which he was a member. He was Chairman of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Association of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and later served on the council of that organisation in London. He was President of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland from 1971 to 1973 and of the Institution of Water Engineers (Scottish Section) in 1971. His contributions to civil engineering were further recognised by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1971. His interests were not confined to engineering, and among his many services to the community were his time as a director of the East Park Homes for Infirm Children, his more than 50 years as an elder of St Johns Renfield Church, and his eight years on the Court of the University of Glasgow, where his professional experience was of great value in its building and estates affairs. He was a skilful angler, and his favourite leisure time was spent
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on the river Earn. His enjoyed being with family and friends in Strachur and there were many happy holidays in Menorca. He even had time, to the amusement of his friends, to win three Wee Stinker Crossword t-shirts from the Herald. He had a long and happy married life until the death of his wife,
Dorothy, in 2003 after 62 years of marriage. He is survived by his five children, Murray, Inez, Alistair, Angus, Graeme, and seven grandchildren. One of his sons followed him into civil engineering, as has one of his grandsons. A truly remarkable life. Submitted by Professor H B Sutherland
William Murray Cormie, CBE, ERD, BSc(Glas), FICE. Civil engineer. Born 12 June 1915. Elected FRSE 1977. Died 8 May 2005.
This obituary also appeared in The Scotsman on 10 June 2005

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William Alexander Cramond 2 October 1920 7 June 2004
William Alexander Cramond, psychiatrist and university administrator: born Aberdeen 2 October 1920; Physician Superintendent, Woodilee Mental Hospital, Glasgow 1955-61; OBE 1960; Director of Mental Health, South Australia 196165; Professor of Mental Health, University of Adelaide 196371; Principal Medical Officer in Mental Health, Scottish Home and Health Department 197172; Professor of Mental Health and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Leicester University 197275; Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Stirling University 197580; Director of Mental Health Services, New South Wales 198083; Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Flinders University 198392 (Emeritus); AO 1994; married 1949 Bertine Mackintosh (one son, one daughter); died Adelaide, South Australia 7 June 2004. That Stirling University has an assured place among wellregarded British universities is in significant part due to the wise and constructive Vice-Chancellorship of the distinguished psychiatrist William Cramond. In 1975, when Cramond took over the reins, the future of Stirling University was in peril.
Over dinner in 1974, so serious a scientist as David Phillips (later Lord Phillips of Ellesmere), then Professor of Molecular Biophysics at Oxford University, told me that his advice was to close four British universities one of which he named as Stirling and concentrate resources elsewhere. Moreover, Stirling was uniquely vulnerable. In 1972 there had been a royal visit. The students had been cooped up indoors in cafeterias with access to alcohol. One student, looking malign, but actually benevolently sozzled, approached the Queen bottle in hand, and the threatening picture went round the world. The name of Stirling was besmirched. Potential donors had second thoughts. The infant university, founded in 1967, had lost its gifted first Secretary, Harry Donnelly, and then, in 1973, its Vice-Chancellor Tom Cottrell, the much-respected chemist, died of a stroke brought on by stress. Fred Holliday, later Vice-Chancellor of Durham, stood in. The Appointments Committee looked far and wide for a ViceChancellor who could rescue the dire situation (I know because my father-in-law, John Wheatley, the Lord Justice Clerk, was Chairman
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of the University Court). In Bill Cramond they found their man. William Alexander Cramond was educated at the rigorous Robert Gordons College in Aberdeen and at Aberdeen University, from where he volunteered in 1940 for military service. He was posted to the Third Battalion of the Tenth Gurkha Rifles in India. After a year training for war against the Japanese, he was stricken by polio and returned to Aberdeen University. His first senior job was as physician superintendent at the Woodilee Mental Hospital outside Glasgow between 1955 and 1961. He and his wife, Bertine, also a psychiatrist, had a chance invitation from a visiting Australian for him to become Director of Mental Health for South Australia, which he did for four years before becoming Professor of Mental Health at the University of Adelaide, 1963-71. Tempted back to Britain by the offer of a post as Principal Medical Officer in Mental Health in the Scottish Home and Health Department, he returned to academia as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Leicester University. His inaugural lecture, Prescription for a Doctor, attracted national attention: Sometimes people decide on medicine as a career because of personal illness, or the sickness or
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death of a much-loved family member. Sometimes success in a course of first aid in the Scouts or Guides is the spark that kindles the flame. More rarely nowadays is there a long family tradition of producing doctors. But what, he asked, of the unconscious motives? The first I would mention is the early, normal unconscious identification of the child, boy and girl, with a mother. She seems to be the source of compassion, mercy, nurturing, succouring, healing and comforting. So these values attributed to her are incorporated in the growing child and a choice of profession where they can be acted out is made. Or again there is the theme of curiosity about the body. I guess as children we have all played at being doctors, and for some of us these simple, superficial examinations of the others body in a rather furtive and secretive way become in reality Lets be a doctor in later life, where the final answer to the question of what is really inside is given. Cramond was a champion of many causes. He opposed all forms of restriction, overt or covert, on the entry of women into medicine. While it was true that many never fulfilled their academic or professional potential in terms of the obtaining of higher qualifications or of
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research output, the quality of their work was as high as that of their male colleagues as was their conscientiousness. Cramond concluded: I ask myself my criterion of a good doctor and it is this. Is this the man or woman that I would ask to look after my wife and children, mother and father? If we can answer that question in the affirmative and can apply this to our graduates, then Leicester town and gown will have done well. This must be our steadfast goal and in time our achievement.
Perhaps Cramonds most important legacy was his careful work published in the Journal of Psychiatric Medicine, The Lancet and the British Medical Journal on the care of the dying. Leaving Stirling in an infinitely healthier situation than he found it, in 1980 he returned to Australia to become Director of Mental Health Services for New South Wales and, finally, 198392, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Flinders University, South Australia. Tam Dalyell
William Alexander Cramond, FRCPsych, FRACP, FRANZCP. Born 2 October 1920. Elected FRSE 1978. Died 7 June 2004
First published in The Independent, 24 June 2004 Reproduced with permission from The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/william-cramond6166737.html
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Jack Dainty 7 May 1919 29 May 2009
Jack Dainty, who has died aged 90, was a pioneer in the field of plant biophysics. As a trained physicist, he argued successfully, and sometimes against significant opposition, that the same sort of quantitative physical principles that had so successfully been applied to understanding how animals function could also be applied to plants. Dainty formulated some of the essential physical concepts that describe movement of ions and water into and through plant cells, and ultimately through the plant itself. These uniquely plant-related issues relate to drought and salt stress, and in the context of global warming, affect us all. When, in the 1950s, Dainty transferred his research attentions from physics to plants, plant physiological research had, in general, a reputation for being rather woolly and descriptive. Daintys lucid thinking helped to transform the phenomenological into the hypothesis-driven. His lasting legacy has been, through his research papers and through his mentorship of researchers, to get plant physiologists to think quantitatively. Dainty was raised in a financiallyand culturally-deprived background in Mexborough, near
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Sheffield. He was a precocious child learning to read at three and he excelled in two fields: mathematics and football. He was also interested in natural history and evolution and read widely around the subject, despite little encouragement. This interest, fuelled by long walks in the countryside, ignited his later professional interest in biology. Brought up in a mining community, nobody in Daintys family had pursued education beyond 14, yet he obtained a scholarship to Cambridge University to study Mathematics, then transferring to Physics because he felt the former subject too narrow. At the beginning and end of each term, he would cycle the 120 miles or so between Mexborough and Cambridge carrying all his books with him! After the end of his undergraduate course in 1940, Dainty was recruited in Cambridge to research in one of two small British teams working on nuclear fission. The issue was clear: the prospect of a British atomic bomb. But Daintys realisation was that this was not so much a research problem as a technological one. With some scientists spirited off to Los Alamos, Dainty was left heading the cyclotron team.
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After a period at the Canadian Atomic Energy Labs at Chalk River, Ontario between 1946 and 1949, Dainty returned to the UK and the University of Edinburgh to an academic position in Physics. He lectured on relativity, quantum theory, and the theory of errors. And then something fortuitous happened. In 1952, Dainty was asked to teach physics to a class of 300 medical, dental and veterinary students. Initially he declined, on the basis that he would not wish to teach students who were not interested in physics. An enlightened head of department the nuclear physicist Norman Feather negotiated with the University that there could be a Department of Biophysics as a quid pro quo, with Dainty as its head, were Dainty to undertake the teaching. The Department was established in an ex-chicken-house, and thus Dainty changed career. Although he researched for a short time on ion transport across nerve cell membranes, Dainty wanted to develop novel systems, and viewed plants as an opportunity. Little was known about the physical principles that underpinned the movement of ions and water across plant cell membranes, and Dainty, together with his first graduate student, Enid MacRobbie, established through the application of radioisotopes (to measure ion fluxes) in which
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direction the transport of the ions sodium and chloride was energised. Further insightful and rigorous work in the 1950s used the principles of irreversible thermodynamics to investigate the possibility that aqueous pores existed in plant membranes and to understand how water flows might be related to solute flows. A key critical finding at that time was in alerting investigators to the nature of unstirred layers a principle familiar to physicists and engineers, but widely ignored by biologists. His work was recognised by the Royal Society of Edinburgh who elected him a Fellow in 1952. In 1963, Dainty moved to the University of East Anglia to become one of the four founding chairs in what is now a thriving School of Biological Sciences. There he was able to integrate biophysics as a key element in a biology curriculum. In the ensuing eight years, Dainty established UEA as a centre for plant biophysics. He moved in 1969, first to UCLA and then to take the Chair in Botany at the University of Toronto thereby heading the largest plant sciences department in North America at that time. He spent the final two decades of his career there, making a number of key appointments through visionary academic leadership. Dainty was an avid reader of novels and could converse expertly
on most authors. Perhaps it was this love of literature that made him also an outstanding communicator of science. Some authoritative reviews in the early 1960s not only made accessible to the average plant biologist the biophysical concepts of ion and water transport in plants: they also inspired considerable research in the field. General acceptance of this biophysical framework helped to integrate the two previously-disparate fields of plant biology and physics. Dainty was, above all, a modest and generous person. A lifelong socialist, he always remembered his origins, encouraged young investigators and never sought recognition being much more interested to talk about science than to gossip about accolades. Even so, he was elected to the national science academies of Canada, Italy, France and Scotland. It is a sad reflection of the preju-
dices regarding plant science research during the 1970s that the Royal Society never elected Dainty as a Fellow. Dainty was a true Renaissance Man: besides his love of literature and classical music, he played semi-professional football before World War II during his days in Cambridge and had a trial, as a schoolboy, for Huddersfield Town, the Manchester United of their day. He could converse in Italian, French, and Czech as well as being able to read and write Russian. Dainty has six children (five survived him), four with his first wife, Mary (whom he married in 1941) and two with his second wife Trish (whom he married in 1968). He was a much loved father and was invariably generous and supportive of his children in whatever they did. Dale Sanders
Jack Dainty MA(Cantab), DSc(Edinburgh). Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada; Associ tranger of LAcadmie des Sciences de l Institut de France; Accademico of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome. Corresponding member: American Society of Plant Physiologists; Botanical Society of America. Awarded the Gold Medal of the Canadian Society of Plant Physiologists. Born 7 May 1919. Elected FRSE 1952. Died 29 May 2009. Reproduced by permission of the author from his text given for an obituary later published in a shorter form in The Guardian 24 June 2009.
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Douglas Scott Falconer 10 March 1913 23 February 2004 Professor Douglas Falconer was Emeritus Professor of Genetics, and formerly Professor of Genetics, Head of the Department of Genetics and Director of the AFRC Unit of Animal Genetics at the University of Edinburgh. He made major contributions to the understanding of the genetics of quantitative traits through his research, teaching and writing, notably his book Introduction to Quantitative Genetics, and was elected FRSE in 1972 and FRS in 1973. He was born in Old Meldrum, Aberdeenshire on 10 March 1913, and died in Edinburgh on 23 February, 2004, aged 90. Falconers parents were from Edinburgh, neither coming from a scientific background. His father was a minister of the United Free Church, whose first parish was where Douglas was born, but the family returned to Edinburgh soon after. He attended Edinburgh Academy, where he developed an interest in science, although biology was not taught. His university education was delayed for five years as he contracted tuberculosis, and he did not start at St Andrews University until 1936. There he was particularly influenced by DArcy Thompson, graduating with First-class Honours in
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Zoology in 1940. Apparently, Thompson would have awarded the degree without an exam, but the Dean prevailed, and a nominal oral was held. From there Falconer went to Cambridge and took a PhD under James Gray, working on the behaviour of wireworms. From 1943 to 1945 he held a temporary lectureship at Queen Mary College, London, then based in Cambridge. Falconer developed an interest in genetics, giving a course at QMC. To further this, he took an opportunity for a research assistant position at Cambridge with Sir Ronald Fisher, the leading statistician and geneticist. There Falconer started work with the mouse, the animal that he used so successfully for the rest of his career, to study the genetics of both individual mutant genes and quantitative traits. Falconer concluded that one of Fishers experiments was flawed; but his criticism was ill-received, Fisher telling him the next day that he had better arrange to go to Edinburgh soon, where he had obtained a research post. Falconer was appointed to the ARCs new Animal Genetics and Breeding Research Organisation in Edinburgh in 1947. He was based in the University in the
Institute of Animal Genetics under C H Waddington, Buchanan Professor of Genetics. This comprised an illustrious group indeed, including many Fellows of the RSE, among whom in the 1940s/50s on the quantitative genetic side were Eric Reeve, Jim Rendel, Alan Robertson, Forbes Robertson and Falconer; in mouse genetics were Mary Lyon and Toby Carter; and in other areas Charlotte Auerbach, Geoffrey Beale, Alan Beatty and Mick Callan. Here, Falconers research on genetics of relevance to animal improvement using the mouse flourished and in due course he obtained funds for a large new animal house. The group saw a need to train people in genetics for research and the animal breeding industry. A postgraduate Diploma in Animal Genetics, including courses in quantitative genetics, was established, taught by University and non-University staff. This led to Falconers Introduction to Quantitative Genetics, first published in 1960 and going through four editions, the last in 1996 co-authored by his former colleague Trudy Mackay, with translations into at least nine languages. The Introduction to the first edition defines the subject: Quantitative genetics is concerned with the inheritance of those differences between individuals that are of degree
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rather than of kind, quantitative rather than qualitative. These are the individual differences which, as Darwin wrote, afford materials for natural selection to act on and accumulate, in the same manner as man accumulates in any given direction individual differences in his domestic productions. An understanding of the inheritance of the difference is thus of fundamental significance in the study of evolution and in the application of genetics to animal and plant breeding; and it is from these two fields of enquiry that the subject has received the chief impetus to its growth. The Preface outlines Falconers objectives: My aim in writing this book has been to provide an introductory textbook of quantitative genetics, with the emphasis on general principles rather than on practical application, and one moreover that can be understood by biologists of no more than ordinary mathematical ability... I have had no particular class of reader in mind, but have tried to make the book useful to as wide a range of readers as possible. He certainly succeeded, for me and numerous others. The book has had a great and continuing influence on the development of quantitative genetics, as a class text and a reference for evolutionary biologists, for breeders, and
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for investigators of natural, domestic animal and human populations. Its clarity is matched only by Falconers other writing and teaching. Falconers earlier publications in genetics were on mutant genes in the mouse, which he identified and mapped into linkage groups, including a neurological mutant reeler and the first useful sexlinked mutant Tabby. He also undertook theoretical studies on estimation of mutation rates and linkage. The quantitative genetic work had a longer gestation, for he used selection experiments where the heaviest or most prolific animals were selected as parents of the next generation. This provided a route both to estimate parameters such as heritability of the traits and to investigate how much change could be achieved. Although his experiments could last five or more years, the twenty generations in mice represented a century of cattle breeding. His first published selection experiment was important. There was then a dogma, espoused by Hammond, that rate of improvement was maximised by rearing breeding animals in a high quality environment, regardless of how well commercial stock were managed. By selecting lines for high body weight on both full and restricted feeding, Falconer showed, however, that most response on each was made on
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their own environment, but when transferred to the other diet, those reared on the poorer diet did relatively better. He also had an important insight, that growth on the two environments could be regarded as two traits and analysis could be in terms of the genetic correlation, previously defined only for traits on the same individual. He worked extensively on the inheritance of litter size. Although closely related to fitness and thus previously subject to natural selection, Falconer showed it could be increased by artificial selection. With students, including his subsequent colleague Crad Roberts, he demonstrated the expected deleterious effects of inbreeding, but that the best inbred lines could reach the outbred level. Based on his analysis of litter size he developed an inciteful model to describe maternal effects in terms of a regression of offspring on mothers performance. He further demonstrated the power of selection experiments by increasing the susceptibility to urethane induced lung tumours, nicely illustrating genetic variability in susceptibility to cancer. Falconers last major experiment involved selection for high and low body weight in replicated lines to provide material for subsequent evaluation of its
genetic basis. He designed an elegant experiment, in which chimaeric embryos were made from high and low lines. These differ randomly in the proportions of tissue from each parent, so by using a genetic marker, growth rate could be related to the proportion of high/low genotype in each organ of each individual. No single organ was found to control growth; gene action was both systemic and more dispersed, as might be expected with polygenic inheritance. Stimulated by an enquiry on how to analyse the inheritance in humans of common diseases with all-or-none expression but not due to single genes, such as susceptibility to diabetes or renal stones, Falconer made a major contribution to human genetics. Based on just two quantities, the incidences in the population and in the relatives of affected individuals, he showed how to estimate the heritability of liability to the disease and that in many cases values were high. Falconer became Deputy Director of the ARC Unit of Animal Genetics and, following appointment in 1968 by the University of Edinburgh to a Personal Chair in Genetics, Director of the Unit until his retirement in 1980. He also was Head of the Department of Genetics from 1969 to 1977,
which was an onerous task, for it was in effect a large group of semi-autonomous but highquality research fiefdoms. It continued to thrive under Falconers direction. He was a quiet-spoken and extremely polite individual, most effusive in his thanks, notwithstanding any reservations about the quality of the advice he received. Douglas Falconer married Margaret Duke, a classics teacher and daughter of a classics don at Cambridge, in 1942. She and their two sons survive him. Douglas and Margaret were a close couple, including a shared interest in walking, gardening and music, Douglas playing the flute well into his 80s. He was also a keen bird-watcher and sailor. He developed diabetes in mid life, which he controlled, but in his last years he became increasingly blind. On his retirement, he ceased experimental work, but maintained an office and continued writing. Indeed the 4th edition of his book was published when he was 83, and he still came into the lab for discussions about science. He is remembered with affection by me and his other colleagues and former students, and by many who knew him only through his writing. William G Hill
Douglas Scott Falconer, FRS, Born 10 March 1913. Elected FRSE 1972. Died 23 February 2004.
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Peter Berners Fellgett 11 April 1922 15 November 2008
Peter Berners Fellgett,Emeritus Professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, died peacefully in his sleep in November 2008 at his home in Cornwall. PBF, or as he liked to be known, was the first Professor of Cybernetics in the UK, having been appointed in 1964 into what became the Department of Applied Physical Sciences, which later became the Departments of Cybernetics and Engineering. He was responsible for gathering a group of academics including Peter Atkinson, Paddy Walker, Alex Andrew, George Whitfield, John Seeley, Mike Usher, Arthur Allen, John Foley-Fisher and George Reynolds, being specialists in control, computing, artificial intelligence, instrumentation, electronics and aspects of human biology. They developed the degrees which were eventually called Cybernetics & Control Engineering, Cybernetic Science, Computer Science and Cybernetics and Psychology and Cybernetics - whose cybernetic content was consistent with Wieners definition: control and communication in the animal and the machine. They were responsible for numerous research projects and, unusually at the time, for collaboration with
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industry. When he retired in 1987, these degrees and the Department still existed, despite the fact that the subject of cybernetics had become unfashionable. Since then, Cybernetics at Reading has been able to flourish, thanks to a new set of academics, including his successor Kevin Warwick, but building on what Peter and others had established. PBF is perhaps most famous for the Fellgett Advantage, which arose from work for his PhD at the University of Cambridge. This technique in infrared spectroscopy involves the use of an interferometer which produces interference patterns for all wavelengths of light entering the device at the same time, as opposed to a spectrometer with only sees one wavelength at a time. This allows infrared spectra to be produced with resolution similar to that of optical-range spectra, where previously they had been vague wavy lines. This work, in particular, led to him being made an FRS in 1986. From Cambridge he moved to the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh continuing his interests in instrument science. He commented that the basic idea of instrument physics is to
understand in a full scientific sense why an instrument has a particular performance, he argued: In most cases, a scientific instrument is devised in the first place as a means to the end of making some physical phenomenon or quantity susceptible to observation or measurement, and once it has served this purpose nobody thinks very deeply about it again. Consequently, it is often tacitly accepted that in theory an instrument should have a particular performance, but in practice it does not. This however is not good science, which demands that if theory and practice differ, then one or both must be improved. Had Adams and Le Verrier been content to say that in theory Uranus moves in a particular orbit but in practice in a slightly different one, the planet Neptune would never have been discovered. This approach made him a very suitable candidate when, largely due to Professor Robert Ditchburn, the University of Reading, showing far-sighted initiative, created the Department of Applied Physical Sciences with two chairs, one in Engineering Science, the other in Cybernetics. Thus in 1964, Peter Fellgett became Professor of Cybernetics and Instrument Physics. There his interest in Instrument Science continued and he was responsible
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for encouraging Mike Usher to develop the force feedback seismometer, work which continues even today at Guralp Systems. Later he supervised Dave Keating in the development of the optical force-feedback microphone. This latter work also related to his great interest in audio and another area for which he was renowned, namely Ambisonics. One motivation for this was to introduce more animal aspects into the cybernetics degrees: sound localisation in humans is a non trivial problem. PBF, with Michael Gerzon, Peter Craven and others, was responsible for this major development in sound recording and reproduction, in which the use of four channels allowed surround sound with unprecedented realism. The system was demonstrated, for instance, at a local IERE lecture in Reading. The audience heard sounds moving realistically around and then at one point an ambulance went passed with sirens going - those in the room were unsure whether this was in fact an ambulance going passed or another part of the demonstration. He had a shared interest in instrumentation with his friend James Lovelock, of Gaia hypothesis fame. This led to the appointment of Lovelock as Visiting Professor of Cybernetics, to the mutual benefit of both
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Lovelock and Cybernetics. For instance, several members of the Department were involved in a project headed by Lovelock to study the lives of the dinosaurs, who survived on earth for very much longer than humans have, so far. An aspect of this that received much publicity was the construction and test-flying by George Whitfield of scale models of pterodactyls. Another valuable appointment as Visiting Professor was of Philip Woodward of the Royal Radar Establishment. His early work on information theory applied to radar was fundamental to PBFs work in Edinburgh on automatic cataloguing of stars from necessarily imperfect images, and to instrumentation in general. Significantly, Woodward was head of a small group that wrote the worlds first compiler for a version of Algol 68. From the start, Cybernetics students were taught Algol programming, necessarily Algol 60 at first, but Algol 68 when it became available. PBF was emphatic about the shortcomings of the language known as Basic as an introduction to programming, commenting (in a version bowdlerised by Stan Kelly-Bootle) Basic is manure. Extended Basic is manure with icing.. He also asked rhetorically Is Computer Science?. Retirement did not stop him commenting and advising. He
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continued to correspond with newspapers. He was referred to as the Royal Astronomical Societys long-established curmudgeon-inchief. He wrote to Kevin Warwick on how to run the Cybernetics Department should I be flattered that he did not so write to me when I was Head of Department? He urged that Britains wiring regulations be overhauled, having stumbled across what he believed to be a dangerous anomaly in the rules after narrowly avoiding a shock from the casing of his washing machine. In 2003, he stated that It is a standing vice of geophysics not to argue against unpalatable facts and arguments but simply to ignore them and carry on as if they did not exist. He also provided a generic recipe for cooking: Place the dry ingredients into a clean bowl. Add liquids as appropriate. Stir thoroughly and cook until done. Although it is now 21 years since he retired, he still has an influence on the courses we offer. He stressed the importance of having high loop gain in feedback systems I still use his phrase that the loop gain should be negligibly large. We still teach a Principles of Feedback course where we cover Bodes fundamental work on the maximum attainable feedback. The Gaia hypothesis is also included in a third year module. Instrumentation, and his approach, is still
recognised in the other modules. In addition, we maintain the Fellgett Room in his memory - he was pleased to receive such recognition, commenting that the only other room named after him was an extra toilet he had argued for in Edinburgh. PBF called himself a cybernetist, as opposed to cyberneticist or cybernetician primarily (as he told us in a revision tutorial in my final year) because it was the shortest. He described cybernetics as anything in which he was interested! He had very strong views on the use of English language: in the degree titled Cybernetics & Control Engineering, the ampersand is used rather than and, as the latter would indicate that the degree comprises
jointly the two subjects of Cybernetics and of Control Engineering. He would certainly have had something to say if we had told him that the University Student Record system seems unable to cope with & in a degree title! I remember him as a gifted academic, very supportive of students, always able to pick out the key aspects of a student project. I am for ever grateful for what he and colleagues taught me in Cybernetics, for his advice when I was writing my thesis and that he appointed me lecturer. Dr Richard Mitchell, Senior Lecturer in Cybernetics, University of Reading (with comments from Dr Alex Andrew)
Peter Berners Fellgett, FRS, FIEE, MA, PhD(Cantab). Born 11 April 1922. Elected FRSE 1961. Died 15 November 2008 First published by the University of Reading. Reproduced with permission from Dr Richard Mitchell http://www.reading.ac.uk/sse/about/news/sse-newsarticle-2008-11-25.aspx
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Norman Gash 16 January 1912 1 May 2009
Norman Gash was born on 16th January, 1912, in Meerut, India, where his father Frederick Gash, a professional soldier, was serving with the Royal Berkshire Regiment, a regiment long-associated with India. He was always proud of being born where the first mutinies in the Bengal Army had broken out in 1857. When he was only a few months old the family returned to the UK and lived successively in Portsmouth, Dublin and Reading because of his fathers postings. From 1919 to 1923 he attended Wilson Road School and Palmer School in Reading, winning a scholarship to Reading School in 1923. At Reading School, which had a traditional connection with army families, Norman specialised on the classical and language side with Latin, French and English literature his best subjects. Because of an outstanding history master, J. W. Saunders, in 1927 he switched from V classical to VI modern to concentrate on history. In 1929 he won a Sir Thomas White scholarship to St. Johns College, Oxford. The school governors awarded Norman a travelling scholarship when he left, which allowed him to spend six months in Germany in 1930, mainly in Berlin, attend325
ing a course for foreigners in German language and literature at Berlin University. This course left him with a life-long love of the works of Thomas Mann. He was rueful in later life when people asked if he had attended any of Hitlers rallies. Few if any expected Hitler to emerge as Germanys dictator in 1930, so he had not, though he did hear some of Hitlers broadcasts. As late as the 1970s, his junior colleagues were liable to repeat the canard about him attending a Hitler rally, but that was parallel to the slur about the Duke of Wellington denying that he was an Irishman (as if he would apologise for his existence). Lady Longford long ago showed the lie was manufactured by a Republican Nationalist in the nineteenth century to insinuate that Irishmen like Arthur Wellesley had no right to exist. By the late 1970s Norman Gash, a firm Conservative and a strong supporter of Mrs Thatcher, may have been an unwelcome occurrence to many in an overwhelmingly left-of-centre Academe. He may have opposed sanctions against Rhodesia, but a fascist he was not. At St. Johns, Norman was Kitchener scholar 193033 and a scholar of St. Johns 193034. He
concentrated on modern history under a very good tutor, W. C. Costin, and was a college prizeman in modern history in 1932. He graduated with First-class Honours in Modern History in 1933. It had been a happy undergraduate career, but his luck ran out when he stayed on at St Johns to do a B. Litt. on the agricultural riots of 1830 with special reference to Berkshire. His choice of topic was brilliantly original, and so far ahead of its time that the Marxist historians George Rud and Eric Hobsbawm used his thesis decades later in writing their history from below of the 1830 uprising, Captain Swing. Normans supervisor did not understand his topic, and cared less. Finally, Norman suffered a traumatic oral exam and later summed up his B. Litt. course as Oxford at its worst. He graduated in 1934. Employment in the mid 1930s was difficult, and Normans first post was as history master in a boys preparatory school where he remembered reading Westward Ho to the boys in the evenings before lights out, and them crying when Amyas Leigh was blinded by lightning off Lundy after chasing a Spanish galleon. In August 1935 he married (Ivy) Dorothy Whitehorn, also from Reading, while at Edinburgh University on a temporary lectureship. At the end of that time, in 1936, he went to Univer-
sity College, London, as assistant lecturer, a post he was to hold for the next four years. He later said he had few happy memories of the regime there under Professor (later Sir) John Neale. However, it was now that he began serious research on the landed gentry and their political role which led on to a wider interest in the general political history of Britain from 1815 to 1865. In 1940, Norman enlisted in the army and was assigned to the Intelligence Corps - Field Security. The following year he was commissioned and served as staff officer at Southern Command 194143, and then in MI14 at the War Office 194346, where he specialised in the activities of the SS. He was one of the team that compiled the report into Hitlers suicide that was edited and later published by Hugh Trevor-Roper as The Last Days of Hitler. In 1946 he was demobbed with the rank of major (General Staff), but even after that MI 14 called on him to make trips to occupied Europe in connection with the preparation of cases for the Nuremburg Trials. He recalled meeting a Polish man who had been in one of the camps on a train and their only common language was Latin. In 1946, with his wife and two daughters, Norman moved back to Scotland. He applied for a post in St. Andrews University as a lecturer in modern British and
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American history. The eccentric but shrewd Ulsterman, Jack Williams, who was Professor of History in St. Andrews, instantly deemed Norman the best candidate when he answered a query as to why he wanted to be a historian with the honest reply that having seen something of the profession, he was not sure he did. In St. Andrews he continued the work begun at London University, bringing out his first book Politics in the Age of Peel in 1953. That year he became a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and was also appointed to the chair of modern history at the University of Leeds after favourable notice of his work by Sir Lewis Namier. He held this position until 1955, when he was appointed Professor of History and Head of Department at St. Andrews University, posts that he held until his retirement in 1980. Though a committed modernist, he enthusiastically supported the development of a distinguished department of Medieval History and was privately frustrated by problems with two successive senior incumbents which delayed similar developments in Scottish History until the arrival of Professor Christopher Smout in 1980. He served on the Council of the Royal Historical Society from 1961 to 1964 and from 1963 to 1964 was Vice-President of the Historical Association of Scotland. From
1967 to 1971 he was VicePrincipal of the University of St. Andrews. He also served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1978 to 1980 and from 1955 to 1980 sat on the Military Education Committee. He chaired this committee for many years with increasing responsibilities when the Universities of Dundee and then Stirling amalgamated their OTCs with St. Andrews. He used to enjoy going to summer camp with them. It was during this second time at St. Andrews University that Norman was most productive and Mr. Secretary Peel appeared in 1961. In 1962 he was Hinkley Visiting Professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1963 he became a Fellow of the British Academy. From 1963 to 1964 he was Fords lecturer at Oxford University, publishing these lectures in 1965 as Reaction and Reconstruction in English Politics 193252. In 1968 The Age of Peel was published, followed in 1973 by Sir Robert Peel. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature the same year. In 1976, Peel, a shortened version of the two volume biography came out, followed in 1979 by Aristocracy and People: Britain 181565. In 1977 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. During these years he also contributed to: Essays in honour
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of Sir Lewis Namier ; The Conservative Leadership 18321932; The Prime Ministers; The Long Debate on Poverty. He was also joint author with R.A.B. Butler of The Conservatives: a history from their origins to 1965. He taught himself to sail and used to take his honours students out in his Dysart yawl in the late 1950s. He also found time to be Honorary President of the student Conservative Society and, with his wife, encouraged a group of young Conservative politicians, many of whom served later under Mrs Thatcher. After retirement, books continued to appear: Lord Liverpool in 1984; Pillars of Government in 1986 and Robert Surtees and Early Victorian Society in 1993. There were also contributions to the New Dictionary of National Biography and to Encyclopaedia Britannica. In 1987 Norman was made an Honorary Fellow of his old college at Oxford, St. Johns, and in 1989 he was awarded the CBE for services to education. He also served for several years (after retiring to the area) on the committee at Southampton University, dealing with their collection of Wellington papers. He was a patron of the Peel Society from its formation until his death, and a member of
the Surtees Society from its formation in 1991. He took part in local activities in Langport and was a member of the Parish Council for a few years. His wife died at the end of 1995 after over sixty years of marriage. He married again in 1997. Macular degeneration made gardening, reading and writing increasingly difficult but he continued to collect old roses. Until 2006 he swam in the River Parrett and occasionally off the Dorset coast. Carers and a gardener enabled him to remain independent and in his own home until he died without prior illness, peacefully, sitting in his favourite chair. Norman Gash was a great professional historian. His view of Peel as essentially a moderate pragmatist has been modified recently, only in the sense that this would now be seen as true of Peels policies but not of his command style. Norman Gash was also a great Conservative, but, like his heroine Margaret Thatcher, not a cosy figure for the Westminster or Oxford Establishments. Perhaps, as his family suggest, he would have been accorded much more recognition had he not spent nearly all his professional life in Scotland. Bruce P. Lenman
Norman Gash. MLitt, MA(Oxon), HonDLitt(Strathclyde, St Andrews, Southampton), CBE, FBA. Born 16 January 1912. Elected FRSE 1977. Died 1 May 2009.
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Professor Ronald Haxton Girdwood 19 March 1917 5 April 2006 Ronald Haxton Girdwood, who died on 25 April 2006 in his 90th year, achieved much during his career in Academic Medicine. A graduate of Edinburgh University Medical School in 1939, he was Professor of Therapeutics at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (196282), Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (197579), and President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (1982 85). An unassuming, modest and gentle man, he nonetheless had a dogged determination to succeed. In his autobiography, Travels with a Stethoscope (1991), he describes the moment, standing alone in the doorway of the Chemistry Department, when it occurred to him to attempt to graduate with Honours. He was born on 19th March 1917 in Arbroath, the only child of Thomas Girdwood, a pharmacist, and Elizabeth Haxton. The family moved to Edinburgh and Girdwood was educated at Daniel Stewarts College. Despite frequent illness, his academic performance gained him entry to medical school in 1934. His father had died during the previous year and the family finances at once became strained. The award of a Carnegie Scholarship of 50 per year enabled him to complete the medical course.
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Carnegie could not have wished his wealth better invested. He had a glittering undergraduate career and was awarded an Honours degree and the William Leslie Gold Medal, and was named Ettles Scholar as the most distinguished graduate of his year. His first apprenticeship was with Professor (later Sir) Stanley Davidson in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, but his civilian career was then interrupted by World War II His medical military service was distinguished and mainly in India. He enjoyed his service in India, for he met Mary Williams from Cornwall, a Sister in the Queen Alexandras Imperial Military Nursing Service, whom he married in 1945, and he was able to undertake research into the epidemics of anaemia, sore tongue, weight loss and diarrhoea affecting the British and Indian troops and civilian Indians. This was tropical sprue and he demonstrated the megaloblastic anaemia ultimately found to be due to folate deficiency. His interest in the megaloblastic anaemias was pursued on his return to Edinburgh and during a Rockefeller Research Fellowship at Ann Arbor and a visiting lectureship at Yale in the USA. Although he never emphasised his contribu-
tion to medical science, he was held in the highest regard by haematologists and he lectured in the most distinguished company. His academic excellence is reflected in his MD, for which he was awarded a Gold Medal in 1954, the award of the Cullen Prize by the College in 1970, and his admission to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1978. He published extensively and contributed to many books, including Davidsons Principles and Practice of Medicine, the first medical textbook to sell more than a million copies. Girdwood succeeded Sir Derrick Dunlop as Professor of Therapeutics and, not surprisingly, his research was displaced by administrative duties in which he delighted at the same time as complaining of the number of committees on which he had to serve! He travelled extensively and delighted in relating the many near misses and disasters this occasioned. His staff anticipated hearing about these after every trip, and they were never disappointed. His most memorable must have been the knock at the door by an Indian servant on his wedding night to be told that there had been a murder in the adjoining room! Ronald Girdwood was one of the last of a generation of doctors who could be caring clinicians,
teachers teaching by example, and investigators able to translate clinical problems to the laboratory and make discoveries that were immediately of practical diagnostic or therapeutic importance. Moreover, his caring extended beyond his patients to his staff. Staff members will remember flowers arriving at the maternity hospital when a new family member was born. Girdwood took a lifelong interest in the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) and became its President in 1982. His Presidency saw the building of the Queen Mother Conference Centre at the College and the establishment of the Chronicle, forerunner of the modern Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. In 1986 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to medicine. In retirement he continued for some time as Chairman of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Association. He never lost his interest in the College, and he found time to write his autobiography. His colleagues are grateful for his many contributions to Edinburgh medicine. Ronald Girdwood is survived by his wife Mary, son Richard, a lawyer, daughter Diana, a doctor, and five grandchildren.
Professor Ronald Haxton Girdwood. Born 19 March 1917. Elected FRSE 1978. Died 25 April 2006.
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First published by the Royal College of Physicians (Contributed by A Toft and N Finlayson) http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/publications/obituaries/2006/girdwood.php [RCP Edin OBIT] Obituaries Spring 2006 Reproduced by permission of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
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Alexander Reid Hill 17 October 1919 21 October 2006 Alex Hill was a popular Senior Lecturer in Agricultural Zoology at the University of Glasgow and, over his 36 years of teaching there, his students went all over the world to help the development of agriculture, especially in underdeveloped countries. Alex was born in Dundee on the 17th October, 1919 and died on the 21st October, 2006. With his passing, Scotland lost an influential teacher and an innovative researcher in agricultural zoology. Alex Hills parents were both born in Aberdeen from Aberdeenshire families. His father, Alexander Stewart Hill (born in 1884), and his mother, Barbara Bishop Reid (born in 1883) died within a few weeks of each other in 1948. Both parents encouraged Alex, who was an only child, in his interests and from an early age he found scientific matters fascinating. It was when he began to study biology that he knew he had found his real field of work. One of his early teachers, Miss E.B. Taylor, encouraged him to join the Dundee Naturalists Society and there he learned much of his basic knowledge of natural history. Advice too, was received from his uncle, Archibald Stewart Hill, who was an experienced naturalist and artist who had illustrated publications on Fungi and Orchids for the Milwaukee Museum.
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Alex attended Blackness Primary School, Dundee (192529) and then Harris Academy Primary and Secondary School, Dundee (1929 37), where he was awarded a Dundee Educational Trust Bursary in 1930 and, in 1937, the Pitkeathly Dux medal in Biology. In October1937, he matriculated at the University of St Andrews (University College, Dundee) to study for the degree of Bachelor of Science and during his time there he won University Medals in Natural History (1938) and Botany (1939). In 1941 he was awarded a BSc in Zoology with First-class Honours. The breadth of Alexs interests in biology were shown in his final year, when he was privileged to have W.T. Calman FRS, formerly Keeper of Zoology in the British Museum, as a tutor. Two theses were produced by Alex, one on the fossil fish of Angus, the other on respiratory organs in terrestrial Isopoda. Later in 1941, in receipt of a Carnegie Research Scholarship, Alex started postgraduate research in agricultural entomology under Professor A.D. Peacock. The latter had become involved in essential war-time research on infestations of insects in stored food and as a result, the Ministry
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of Food decided to establish an Infestation Division with scientists posted throughout the UK, many seconded from posts in the universities. Professor Peacock was asked to organise staff in Scotland and, as a result, Alex found himself in Dundee, engaged parttime in the inspection of food stores throughout Scotland. By the spring of 1943, the Infestation Division of the Ministry of Food was well established with a number of full-time scientific inspectors, including Alex. Monitoring activities ranged from Ministry food stores to foodprocessing plants and from major flour mills to small rural mills. Much time was spent by Alex and his colleagues at the seaports of Glasgow, Leith and Dundee, inspecting cargoes of foodstuffs for any infestations. If such were found they were decontaminated at the points of entry so that the introduction of massive infestations was prevented. This was regarded as essential work and continued after the war on a reduced scale. In 1946, Alex was appointed as entomologist to a scientific study unit which had been set up in 1943 in the University College Dundee to study the increasing incidence of diseases in raspberry crops. This was financed by the Agricultural Research Council. Priority was given to a search for vectors of the viruses which were
causing a decline in the health of raspberries. With his colleague, plant pathologist Colin Cadman, Alex Hill surveyed the insects associated with the raspberries and chose to investigate the possibility that the two aphid species most commonly found might be the vectors. Over the previous quarter of a century all attempts to discover the true vectors had been inconclusive but, by careful choice of indicator varieties, taking young plant tissue raised from seed or root cuttings, and by using large numbers of aphids, the two scientists were able to show conclusively that the aphids Amphorophora rubi and Aphis idaei were indeed capable of transmitting most of the viruses. This discovery of the vectors of the viruses opened up a wide field of investigation into the nature of the viruses and the epidemiology of the diseases. Alexs work was subsequently expanded to investigate the bionomics and control of the Raspberry Moth Incurvaria rubiella. Outbreaks of this pest had occurred on a large scale from time to time and one such outbreak had overtaken the growers in the mid-1940s. Though still based in Scotland, from 194649 Alex was actually on the staff of the East Malling Research Station in Kent and he made occasional visits there in
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connection with his research. His future wife, Mary, was also a member of staff at the Dundee laboratory where they both worked. In 1948, Alex was awarded the Degree of PhD by the University of St Andrews for a thesis based on his research in the previous three years. In that same important year, on the 25th August, Alex married Mary Barbara Watt in Park Church, Dundee. Subsequently the couple had three children: Peter Watt Hill, Ann Barbara Hill and Robin Edward Hill, all of whom Alex was inordinately proud of. Following the initiation in 1949 of various lectureships in agricultural science by the University of Glasgow, Alex Hill was appointed there as Lecturer in Agricultural Zoology and Applied Entomology. After an initial year involved in giving courses in general and agricultural zoology, he persuaded the head of the department, Professor Maurice Yonge, FRSE, to allow him to develop an Honours Degree in Agricultural Zoology. Alex then started to organise advanced third and fourth year classes in pure science which were pertinent to agricultural zoology (e.g. ecology and parasitology), and, from 1950 onwards, a number of students followed these courses many of them subsequently obtaining senior posts in various parts of the world. Alex later initiated a post334
graduate course leading to a Diploma in Entomology, which was subsequently expanded to an MSc Degree in Entomology. Both these courses attracted many overseas students to the University. In 1955, Alex successfully applied for a Carnegie Travelling Scholarship and a Kellogg Foundation Travelling Fellowship to visit North America and carry out some research there. He spent time at the University of California at Berkeley, at the Plant Pathology Laboratory in Vancouver and at the Canadian Government Experimental Farm at Ottawa, carrying out research and visiting other research institutions. He was accompanied in North America by his wife and young son, Peter. Just prior to going to North America, Alex had started research on the bionomics of predatory bugs (Hemiptera Heteroptera) of the genus Anthocoris and a major product of his visit was a key for the identification of North American Anthocoris. After returning to Glasgow, Alex, by this time a Senior Lecturer, pursued this interest for many years, publishing the results in various scientific journals as well as fulfilling his teaching duties and supervision of research students. Alexs interest in Anthocoris bugs was a practical one. He had never been a devotee of the use of chemicals to control
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pests and preferred to develop techniques using their natural predators and parasites. Anthocoris bugs prey extensively on aphids and other small pest insect species and clearly had a role to play in pest control. In 1958, Alex was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was also an active member of various other organisations the Institute of Biology (serving twice on the Scottish Committee), the Royal Entomological Society of London (Fellow), the Association of Biologists (Council member), the British Ecological Society, the Scottish Wildlife Trust (Clyde Area Committee member) and the Scottish Field Studies Association. Alexs last research interest in the years before his retirement was a reversion to the aphids with which he had started his research career. Initially he studied a species of cereal aphid, but subsequently moved on to important research on the aphids involved in the transmission of virus diseases of potatoes. It was known that in some years the spread of certain potato viruses markedly increased and an analysis of meteorological data indicated a relationship between the spread of such viruses and the severity of the previous winter. Alex and his research students concentrated their investigations on the cold hardiness of the most important
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aphid vector species Myzus persicae and showed that in this, and other potato aphids, the extent of virus diseases could be predicted from the nature of the previous winter, thus allowing for better planning in their control. Much of this work was published in the Annales of Applied Biology. After he retired, Alex made a conscious decision to discontinue his academic research, although he was very tempted by an approach to carry out some parttime scientific work around Loch Lomond. He declined the invitation, noting that he was determined to enjoy his retirement with Mary, and to spend time with his family around the country. This he did for more than 20 years, encouraging his four grandchildren to take an interest in science and nature, in the arts and, not least, in compassionate living. As an Elder at Wellington Church, Glasgow, he remained very active in church life well into his eighties. He also indulged his passion for visual arts and photography, and enjoyed reading and listening to music. While he took pleasure in travelling around Great Britain, he had no desire to go further afield, being satisfied with the beauty and peace to be found close to home. Visits from Peter in Australia always brought great delight. And Peter always looked forward to receiving the latest
batch of art videos that Alex had taped for him. With Marys health declining through Alzheimers disease, Alex became her carer a task which he took on with characteristic love and dignity. In 2005, the Hills moved to Longniddry, to be close to Robin and his family. Though missing his friends in the west, Alex gained deep satisfaction from being back on what he termed my beloved east coast. Soon he grew to love the local scenery and the community spirit of East Lothian life.
While visiting Ann and her family in Cheshire, Alex celebrated his 87th birthday with a visit to the Jodrell Bank radio telescope. Shortly after this special day, his health declined and he died in Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, on the 21st October 2006. Mary, who by this stage was being cared for in a nursing home in East Lothian, died nine weeks later, on Christmas Day, 2006. I thank Peter, Ann and Robin Hill for their help in the preparation of this obituary. Peter S Maitland
Alexander Reid Hill, BSc, PhD. Born 17 October 1919. Elected FRSE 1958. Died 21 October 2006.
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Thomas Lothian Johnston 9 March 1927 25 March 2009 The announcement of the death of Tom Johnston in The Scotsman made no mention that he was a professor and a principal and included no reference to his doctorate and many honorary degrees. Nor did it say he was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; indeed, had been its President. That was Tom. He would have liked that. Those born in Hawick are known as Teries. Thomas Lothian Johnston was born in Whitburn, the family moving to Newcastleton near Hawick shortly thereafter. So Tom, with a Border surname, became a proud Borderer and in every respect other than his place of birth, a real Teri. A contemporary at Edinburgh University, aware of Toms academic skills, asked him why he had not thought of going to Oxford or Cambridge. Toms reply was that had there been a university at Hawick he wouldnt have come to Edinburgh. From Hawick High School he joined the navy, serving as a sublieutenant. Many who were in the services in these days found it to be a life-changing experience and it was said of Tom that the navy shaped him. Graduating at Edinburgh with First-class Honours, he was much influenced by the legendary professor of economics Sir Alexander Gray, who, recognising Toms potential, appointed him as his varlet, to devil up aspects of Sir Alexanders research. He also encouraged him to continue his studies at the University of Stockholm. This gave him a European, indeed an international, view for the rest of his career. Returning to Edinburgh, he was awarded a PhD in 1955, his subject being the Swedish labour market. From 1955 to 1965 he was a muchrespected lecturer in the Department of Political Economy at Edinburgh, but his skills were recognised internationally when he was invited to be Visiting Professor at University of Illinois and as a Research Fellow at Queens University in Ontario. Appointed as the first Professor of Economics at Heriot-Watt University in 1966, he became Dean of Faculty in 1969. An ever-increasing number of outside appointments came his way, such as membership of the National Industrial Relations Court, the National Youth Employment Council and the Milk Marketing Board.
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In 1976 he left academic life, writing and pursuing his growing interest and skill in industrial relations, mediation and arbitration and was the first chairman of the Manpower Services Committee for Scotland. He was back at Heriot-Watt in 1981 as Principal and ViceChancellor. He would be the first to disclaim a role other than as a member of a team of achievers, but Toms captaincy of the team showed shrewd judgment and effective persuasion and this led to great success for Heriot-Watt. Along with the late Professor Tom Patton he early recognised the importance of the North Sea oilfield and this led to the establishment of the Institute of Offshore Engineering. He was much involved in strengthening the universitys links with industry. Tom brought zest and inspiration to Heriot-Watt, always with a humane and light touch and always with good humour. When given the gown he said: I didnt
expect to have to wear Galas colours. He had, of course, played rugby for Hawick Trades and Hawick, as well as being awarded a Blue at Edinburgh. This was in the days of amateur rugby and Tom said: At Edinburgh University we had to pay to have our jerseys laundered and they were white. Tom was a Fellow of The Royal Society of Edinburgh and its President from 1993 to 1996. Dr William Duncan, Chief Executive speaks of his presidency as an important period in the Societys history and Tom again led a team with vision and a willingness to accept change. That he was to hold this office, occupied in years past by another Borderer, Sir Walter Scott, must surely have pleased Tom Johnston. In 1956 he married Joan. Together they saw the role of the Principals wife as being the universitys official hostess. How well Joan fulfilled that role.
Sir Alexander Gray, as has been mentioned, was Toms mentor, and wrote many poems. One of them, entitled Scotland, includes a verse: This is my country The land that begat me These windy spaces are surely my own And those who here toil in the sweat of their faces are flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone.
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Well, Tom Johnston was begat of the Borders and just to look at his open, honest face is to understand the last lines of the verse. Tom did not seek honours. His honorary degrees are too numerous to record. It is difficult to catalogue his achievements.
Tom is survived by Joan and their five children. In obituaries the details of marriage and family seem to be added almost as a postscript. For Tom, Joan, his family and his home were central to his life. Submitted by Sir Charles Fraser
Thomas Lothian Johnston, DL, FRSE. Born 9 March 1927. Elected FRSE, 1979. Died 25 March 2009.
This obituary also appeared in The Scotsman on 23 April 2009

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Walter Ledermann 18 March 1911 22 May 2009 Walter Ledermann passed away peacefully on 22 May 2009 in London, less than two years short of his 100th birthday. He was born into a Jewish family in Berlin on 18 March 1911, the second of four children. His father, William Ledermann, was a medical doctor and his mother, Charlotte ne Apt, was the daughter of a wealthy metal merchant. He entered the Kllnisches Gymnasium in Berlin in 1917, progressing to the Leibniz Gymnasium in the same city in 1920. There he learnt classics, studying Latin for nine years and Greek for six years. The school also taught French but, as was usual at this time, not much science. Although very little mathematics was taught in German schools in general at this time, Walter had the advantage that the Leibniz Gymnasium taught more mathematics than other schools as a mark of respect for Gottfried von Leibniz after whom the school was named. He enjoyed studying the classics, especially Greek with its wonderful literature, but became fascinated by mathematics from his first lesson at the age of eleven. From that time on he decided to make mathematics his career. Also from age 11 he began learning to play the violin, the cost of a lesson in these times of hyperinflation being set at the
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cost of a loaf of white bread. Music played a large role in Ledermanns life from that time on. In 1928, when he was seventeen years old, Ledermann graduated from the Leibniz Gymnasium and entered the University of Berlin to study for the Staatsexamen, the qualification necessary to enter secondary school teaching. At the University of Berlin, Ledermann was taught by many famous mathematicians and physicists including Issai Schur, Erhard Schmidt, Richard von Mises, Max Planck, Erwin Schrdinger, Heinz Hopf, Georg Feigl, and others. As one might imagine, given this array of famous names, he found it a stimulating experience but the teacher who inspired him most was Schur. Ledermanns main subjects were mathematics and physics, but he also had to study chemistry to a lower level and to take an oral examination on philosophy. During his university studies Ledermann spent one semester in Marburg in 1931 but, other than this, all his courses were taken in Berlin. Ledermann was nearing the end of his studies for the Staatsexamen when Hitler came to power in 1933 and the German government began passing anti-Jewish legislation. In order to complete
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the course he had to write a dissertation and be given an oral examination. Schur gave him the topic for his dissertation On the various ways of expressing an orthogonal matrix in terms of parameters and although Schur, being a Jew, was forbidden from teaching at the University, he was allowed to conduct the oral examination in November 1933. A second examiner at the oral was Ludwig Bieberbach who was wearing Nazi uniform. It was quite clear to Ledermann that he had to leave Germany to escape the Nazi persecution of the Jews. He had already made strenuous efforts to find a way to leave Germany before his oral, but then his elder brother Erich, who was studying medicine in Edinburgh, told him about a scholarship from the International Student Service in Geneva to study at the University of St Andrews. He won the scholarship, funded by the students and citizens of St Andrews, and was supplied with the necessary papers to allow him to travel to Scotland in January 1934. At first it appeared that he might get caught up in the University of St Andrews regulations. The problem was that the Staatsexamen was awarded by the Ministry of Education, not by the University of Berlin, making it a diploma rather than a degree. Fortunately Ledermann was spared the stupidity of having to take the
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undergraduate courses at St Andrews and, for the first time in the five hundred years history of the University, a person with a German state qualification was admitted as a research student. His doctoral studies were supervised by Herbert Turnbull and he was awarded his PhD in 1936. Ledermann had studied the problem of finding the canonical form for a pair of real or complex n x n matrices under simultaneous equivalence. He had also worked on the problem of classifying the stabiliser of the pencil which is a linear combination of the two matrices. Following his doctorate, Turnbull advised him to speak to Edmund Whittaker in Edinburgh about the possibility of a position there. Whittaker arranged a small bursary for Ledermann and suggested that he attend Alec Aitkens lectures. The most fruitful work Ledermann undertook during this period was as a private assistant to Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson at the University of Edinburgh. Thomson headed the Moray House Group in Edinburgh which was undertaking research into intelligence testing, and Ledermann was able to use his expert knowledge of matrix theory to put the work of this group onto a sound mathematical footing. As well as matrix theory, he was involved in using statistical methods and he retained this interest in his later research
publications. The quality of the work Ledermann undertook at this time is clearly shown from the fact that Edinburgh awarded him a DSc for it in 1940. While in Edinburgh, Ledermann also worked with Max Born. He was able to use his mathematical skill in matrix theory to resolve a dispute in Borns favour between Born and the physicists C. V. Raman and N. S. Nagendra Nath. The dispute concerned the foundations of lattice dynamics, in particular, the thermal theory of Xray scattering. This result is contained in his 1943 paper Density of frequencies in lattice dynamics written with Max Born. Ledermann took a six-month break from his work in Edinburgh in 1937 when appointed as a temporary lecturer at the Mathematics Department in Dundee, and in 1938 he returned to St Andrews where he remained until 1946. During this time he became a British citizen (1940) and also undertook some war work. Soon after beginning his teaching career in St Andrews he was struck by the lack of good-quality, cheap, pocket-sized mathematics textbooks which had been common in Germany. His suggestion to Dan Rutherford for a series of such texts was taken up, and the Oliver & Boyd series of mathematical texts was born. Despite being the one to come up with the idea, Ledermann could not become an Editor since it was felt impossible
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at that time to have a German take such a role. While in St Andrews, he formed a close friendship with Finlay Freundlich, head of the St Andrews Observatory, who introduced him to Ruth Stefanie (Rushi) Stadler, whom he married in 1946. Rushi was a Jungian psychoanalyst who shared Walters love of music, and the newly married couple decided to move to a bigger city so that she might be able to pursue her career. Ledermann accepted a lectureship at the University of Manchester in 1946 and spent sixteen stimulating and fruitful years in Manchester. Particularly of note is the fact that he was secretary to the first British Mathematical Colloquium which he organised in Manchester in September 1949, at the request of William Hodge, Henry Whitehead and Max Newman. In organising this conference, he relied heavily on his experience of helping to run the Edinburgh Mathematical Society Colloquium held in St Andrews in the summer of 1934. At Manchester, Ledermann repeated the success of his suggested Oliver & Boyd Series with the Routledge & Kegan Paul student series Library of Mathematics which was again a series of small cheap texts, but primarily aimed at students for whom mathematics was a subsidiary subject. Sensitivity over German names was no longer an issue, so
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Ledermann became the Editor for the series which ran to around twenty volumes. In Manchester he collaborated with a number of colleagues, writing two papers with Harry Reuter on Markov processes, one with John Cassels and Kurt Mahler on the geometry of numbers, two with Bernard Neumann on the automorphism group of a finite group, and six with Peter Hilton on homological ringoids and homological monoids. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1953 and the Ledermanns son Jonathan was born in 1954. By 1960, Rushi was making frequent trips to London as part of her work as a psychoanalyst. Deciding that it would be better for the family to live in or near London, Ledermann began applying for Chairs at London Colleges; he was not successful ,but the newly-established University of Sussex presented an interesting opportunity. In 1962 he accepted a Readership at Sussex and, three years later, he was promoted to Professor. He retired in 1978 and was made Emeritus Professor. As indicated earlier, Ledermann published on Markov processes, homology theory, group theory, and number theory but, despite the different areas in which he worked, there are common threads. As a result of Schurs teaching he developed a liking for concrete mathematics and a
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distaste for abstraction for its own sake. This is evident, even in his work in what is usually thought of as one of the most abstract of topics, homology theory. Ledermanns book Introduction to the Theory of Finite Groups (1949) became a classic. The topics covered in the book look fairly standard today, but one has to remember that in the 1940s there were few group theory texts, and the concept of standard material for such courses did not exist. The little book (152 pages) discusses the group axioms, isomorphisms, cyclic groups, coset decompositions, Lagranges theorem, permutation groups, normal subgroups, quotient groups, homomorphisms, the first and second isomorphism theorems, and the JordanHlder theorem. The simplicity of the alternating groups is proved and the Sylow theorems, p-groups and finitely generated abelian groups are discussed. Ledermann succeeds admirably in meeting his own aims in that he never hesitated to sacrifice completeness for breadth or to reject more modern methods when [he] considered alternative presentations to be more intelligible. Other books which Ledermann has written for undergraduates include Complex numbers (1960), Integral calculus (1964), Multiple integrals (1966), Introduction to group theory (1973), and Intro-
duction to group characters (1977). This last volume, which still shows Schurs influence, strikes a good balance between the abstract approach to representation theory emphasising modules, and the concrete approach built around matrices. It is an outstanding text from which to teach the topic. Among the editorial work undertaken by Ledermann was his editorship of the Journal of the London Mathematical Society (196871) and of the Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society (197477). He served as Vice-President of the London Mathematical Society from 1971 to 1977. He was the chief editor of the Handbook of Applicable Mathematics which consists of nine volumes, an index volume and a number of guide books. This project, again very much in line with Ledermanns approach to mathematics, is designed for professional adults who find themselves needing to understand a particular mathematical idea... will then be able to turn to the appropriate article in the core volume ... and find out just what they want to know. Another important contribution by Ledermann was his work as an external examiner: he served terms at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Keele, Canterbury,
Southampton, Birmingham, Wales, the Open University and the National University of Ireland. For nearly twenty years after his retirement, Ledermann continued to live at Hove near the University of Sussex. For many of these years he continued to teach at Sussex, giving both tutorials and seminars. He continued to publish research articles on his favourite topic of matrix theory, for example A note on skew-symmetric determinants (1993), but he also wrote several fascinating historical papers on Issai Schur. In 1997 he and Rushi moved to Highgate in North London, to be closer to their son and his family. One of the difficulties with this move was Rushi Ledermanns requirement that their London home had a room for two pianos, as had their Hove home. Even in his nineties, Ledermann continued to publish interesting articles about the life and work of Issai Schur. Rushi died on 15 June 2009, about three weeks after her husband. They are survived by their son Jonathan. Recognition of Ledermanns work included his election to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1944 and an honorary doctorate from the Open University in 1993. Edmund Robertson
Walter Ledermann PhD(St Andrews), DSc(Edinburgh), HonDUniv (Open University). Born 18 March 1911. Elected FRSE March 1944. Died 22 May 2009.
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Edward McCombie McGirr 15 June1916 2 May 2003 Edward McGirrs vision, breadth of knowledge and prodigious energy enabled him to play a crucial role in the development of academic medicine and the National Health Service in the 1960s and 1970s. Educated at Hamilton Academy and the University of Glasgow, he had house jobs at the Royal and Western infirmaries in Glasgow before entering the RAMC in 1941 and serving in India, Burma, Siam and Indo-China. His war experience was very influential in his development. In particular, it made him suspicious of parochialism. He later said: I think that it is important to realise that many people have different ways of looking at things, different attitudes, different philosophies. I believe that my years spent with the RAMC made me personally more tolerant. He was demobilised in 1947 with the honorary rank of major and returned to the department of medicine at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, which was being transformed from a teaching department into one active in clinical research. McGirr was an important component in that transformation. Having had the far-sightedness to realise the potential of radioisotopes in medical research, he applied them to thyroid pathophysiology one of the first in Scotland to use radiotracers medically. His delineation of the enzyme defects leading to dyshormonogenetic goitres was a classic piece of work, still quoted in textbooks 30 years later, and led to the award of MD with honours and Glasgow Universitys Bellahouston Medal. In 1961, McGirr was appointed to the Muirhead Chair of Medicine and over the next 15 years built the department into one of the best in the UK for clinical research. He did this by recruiting bright young academics, providing them with opportunities, and encouraging them to establish their independence. His success is indicated by the fact that more than 25 members of his department were appointed to chairs in the UK and beyond. He had high standards and expected staff to live up to them. However, he ran his department calmly and with a quiet sense of humour. The characteristic twinkle in his eye was never far away. In 1974 he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, a post he held until he retired in 1981. In this post, he was influential in many ways, notably in building the research capacity of the
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medical school and in establishing an undergraduate nursing course. His abilities were recognised far beyond the University of Glasgow. In 1970 he was elected president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, one of the youngest to hold the post, and he played a key role in introducing a common MRCP examination and the Joint Committee on Medical Education. He served on, and often chaired, national bodies on health policy and standards. These included the Scottish Council for Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education, the medical sub-committee of the Universities Grants Committee, the medical committee of the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals, the General Nursing Council for Scotland, the National Radiological Protection Board and the Intercollegiate Committee on Nuclear Medicine. McGirr remained active in retirement, helping many voluntary bodies, such as Tenovus-Scotland, St Andrews Ambulance Association and the Clyde Estuary Amenity Trust. He chaired Both-
well Parish Churchs Restoration Appeal, reflecting his love of that church and the spiritual comfort it gave him. He also wrote and lectured on medical history and philosophy. His many contributions to the university and to medicine were recognised by a host of awards including a CBE (1978), Honorary DSc (1994), Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Fellowships of various royal colleges and the post of Dean of Faculties at Glasgow (1992-94). McGirrs professional life was underpinned by the support of his wife, Di, whom he married in 1949. They built a loving and stable home, in which their children, Patricia, Helen, David and Diana, flourished. He was a most accomplished physician and academic who had a national influence. He was also a much loved man, with a wide range of friends. His wife died in 1996 and he is survived by his four children and 11 grandchildren. Submitted by Professor J H McKillop
Professor Edward McCombie McGirr. Born 15 June1916. Elected FRSE 1972. Died 12 May, 2003.
This obituary also appeared in The Scotsman on 27 May 2003

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Donald Bertram McIntyre 15 August 1923 1 October 2009 Donald Bertram McIntyre was born at Edinburgh on 15 August 1923, the second child and elder son of Rev. Robert Edmond McIntyre, then minister of Orchardhill, Giffnock. His mother was Mary, daughter of Dr Thomas Brown Darling and Jessie Walker. The family moved to Edinburgh on R.E. McIntyres translation to Morningside High Church in 1935. Having started his schooling in Giffnock, Donald moved in Edinburgh to George Watsons College. In 1939 he and his brother were evacuated to Speyside where he became Dux of Grantown Grammar School in 1941. McIntyre entered Edinburgh University to major in chemistry and was sufficiently enthralled (and competent) while an undergraduate to collaborate with Dr Arnold Beevers of that Department to examine the crystallography of fluor-apatite in relation to tooth and bone structure. Some twenty years later McIntyres interest in X-Ray fluorescence was rekindled when a machine was purchased by Pomona College for the chemical analyses of granite by Dr A.K. Baird, one of his staff. In 1967 the Pomona team of Baird, McIntyre and Welday analysed the geo347
chemistry and structure of a granite batholith in California. They carried out over 1000 XRF analyses and using 1960s highspeed computers, trend surface and vector analyses, processed and interpreted their data. McIntyre and his small team added computing and more rigorous statistical and sampling techniques to their armoury, and Professor Bernard Leake has told us that Pomona became the leading laboratory in the world for the XRF analysis of granitic rocks. Dr Robert Campbell, McIntyres Director of Studies at Edinburgh, persuaded him to change his degree course from chemistry to that of geology and he graduated with First-class Honours in 1945. The Grant Institute of Geology at that time was a hotbed of granitisation, the much criticised theory by which granitic rocks are formed by metamorphism rather than by the intrusion of molten magma. Under supervision of the shy but brilliant Professor Arthur Holmes and egged on by the Professors exuberant wife, Dr Doris Reynolds, McIntyre mapped the Loch Doon granite in the Southern Uplands of Scotland and was awarded a PhD in 1947. Later that summer, with the help of a Cross Research Fellowship, he travelled to
Neuchtel to work under Professor Wegmann, the leading structural geologist in Switzerland. That year abroad, doubtless organised by Holmes with a view to giving his gifted student a better understanding of the structural implications of granitisation, gave McIntyre an insight into the world of structural geology, Alpine-style, with its emphasis on fold-axes, stereographic projections and petrofabrics. McIntyre returned to the Grant Institute in 1948 as Lecturer in Economic Geology and, as a round peg in a square hole, relished the opportunity to learn blowpipe analysis and adapt his expertise in stereographic projection to the needs of mining surveyors. In 1949 he presented the results of his research on the Loch Doon granite to the Geological Society of London, where he argued that the apparently intrusive granodiorite and granite were transformed country rock. He met strong opposition from the petrological establishment, including Drs A.G. McGregor, Deer and Nockolds. However Dr J. Phemister was pleased to find a rising generation of petrologists at once so enthusiastic and. eloquent. Five years later the Publications Committee of that Society was still requiring changes to the submitted paper but McIntyre by this time was heading for a new life in California. His Loch Doon work remains unpublished.
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McIntyre had other geological interests besides granite. Using his new Alpine techniques, he mapped fold structures in Highland rocks in Strathspey and presented the results to another meeting in the Geological Society in 1951. He was able to project folds seen at the surface to depths of eight miles and received warm plaudits in the ensuing discussion. This time his paper was published. In the same year he was awarded the Daniel Pigeon Fund from the Geological Society for the promotion of original research. In 1951 he was appointed Secretary of Section C (Geology) when the British Association for the Advancement of Science held its annual meeting in Edinburgh. At the end of the meeting he led a party to the Scottish Highlands to look at geological structures. There he met and attracted the attention of Professor Frank Turner of the University of California, who invited him to spend the summer of 1952 at the Geology Department at Berkeley. McIntyre brought with him deformed marbles from Strathspey and during that summer discovered some of the complexities of the deformation of quartz and calcite crystals in both field and laboratory. Outside geology, Donalds zest for life was boundless. He became President of the Edinburgh University Mountaineering Club
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and, in 1946, a member of Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamiltons ATC mountain training team, which included the Everest climber and geologist N.E. Odell. He learned to play the bagpipes, initially in the basement of the Grant Institute of Geology, but was banished to the relative isolation of Craigmillar Quarry. His year in Neuchtel (194748) gave him an appreciation of wine which, on his return to Edinburgh, led him to found the Oenological Club, the rules of which were so bibulous that the club did not survive beyond its inaugural meeting! McIntyre quickly became known to academia in the States through the networking of Dr Frank Turner. Donalds personality and scientific work attracted the attention of Pomona College, a small liberal arts institute at Claremont, California where Dr A. O. Woodford, Head of the Department of Geology, was about to retire. So McIntyre left his cold but stable Scotland in 1954 to become associate professor at Pomona College and succeeded Professor Woodford in the following year in warm unstable California surrounded by earthquakes and growing mountains and a staff of two. He left Scotland in the midst of controversy about the structure of Ben Lui, which he claimed was not a recumbent fold as described by Sir Edward Bailey. Ben Lui is now known to be a large-scale recumbent syncline;
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and yet McIntyre was not wrong in his detailed analysis of the fold. Controversy on folds in the Highlands of Scotland continued in the American Journal of Geology. Dr Mike Johnson has reminded us that McIntyre is now remembered as a pioneer in the use of structural analysis and petrofabrics in the Highlands of Scotland, built on his Swiss experience. Donald returned to Scotland in 1957, a visit which culminated in his marriage to Ann Alexander of Edinburgh and Moffat in December of that year. In 1961 their son, Ewen, was born, whose happy nature and special needs, because of cerebral palsy, have had a profound influence on the family and all who know him. Pomona is a college with generous donors, including Frank Seaver of Hydril and his wife Blanche. The Seaver Science Centre for Geology and Biology was opened in 1959, just five years after McIntyre had been appointed. In 1964 a state-of-theart IBM 360 computer was bought. As Donald said later Mrs Seaver insisted that I must have one for my own department! Indeed McIntyre drove to the IBM centre in Riverside to place the order at a cost of $268,000 on the very day that the new computer was publicly announced. He already had access to the Physics Departments Clary DE-60 for use
in crystallography and geochronometry. Shortly afterwards McIntyre was appointed first Director of the Pomona Computer Centre. He became adept at using the IBM 360 to plot contour maps showing not only elevation, but also population density and mineral content. Other applications followed, including the analysis of poetry. Help with computerising finance and other business matters was soon requested by the Registrars office. Indeed, it was claimed that McIntyre was so adept at the uses of the machine that he became more expert than the IBM systems engineer assigned to Pomona. McIntyres early and enthusiastic exposure to the world of computing brought him into contact with gifted mathematicians. Kenneth Iverson, who developed APL (A Programming Language) became a close friend. McIntyre learned APL and its derivative language J and in 1994 received the Kenneth E Iverson award for his outstanding contribution to the development and application of APL. The 75th anniversary of the foundation of the Geological Society of America gave McIntyre the opportunity to show his diverse talents at the conference and in the subsequent celebratory book (1963), firstly as a historian of geology, with Hutton at the centre and secondly as a selftaught statistician investigating
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precision in the age-dating of rocks. Surprisingly, Arthur Holmes, his mentor and internationally renowned as the Father of Age Dating, was not mentioned. McIntyres contribution to this volume James Hutton and the Philosophy of Geology was his first published work on the history of science. It was an appropriate debut for McIntyre, who had walked the same streets as had Hutton; was a Fellow of this Society of which Hutton was a Founding Fellow, and had graduated from the Geology Department of the University of Edinburgh which had counted among its professors Sir Archibald Geikie, who revived Huttons right to be regarded as the Founder of Modern Geology. In this paper McIntyre brought to the notice of a North American readership the dispute over Huttons possible debt to the writings of G H Toulmin or, as appears more probable, the reverse, which had been revived or perhaps initiated by S I Tomkeieff. Tomkeieffs work had remained unnoticed until the publication of McIntyres paper, in which he gladly acknowledged his debt to Tomkeieff. In 1970, McIntyre received a Guggenheim Fellowship for a sabbatical year in Edinburgh to research The Rise of Scottish Geology, an ambitious task which occupied his thoughts for the rest of his life. In his address at the Opening Convocation of the Centennial
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Year of Pomona College in 1987, McIntyre invited his audience to set out on a Critical Inquiry in which We are to take nothing for granted. On the contrary, we will use our intellectual microscopes to scrutinize all statements and conclusions Such a historical approach had long been applied in Scottish law and became the metaphysical basis of Scottish science in the Enlightenment. Donald McIntyre was not merely a scholar of that Enlightenment but a product and embodiment of it. James Huttons Edinburgh: The Historical, Social, and Political Background the subject of McIntyres address to the Hutton bicentennial meeting organised by this Society was a tour de force in this approach. This extraordinary mlange of dates and relationships proved to be a revelation to many unfamiliar with Scottish history. McIntyres research on Hutton and Clerk of Eldin as field geologists will probably be recognised as his most important historical contribution. When the text of the third volume of Huttons Theory of the Earth with Proofs and Illustrations, edited by Sir Archibald Geikie, was published in 1899, it revealed much about the excursions which Hutton had undertaken with his friends in search of proofs of his theory in the field. In particular, it was known that many of these geological proofs had been drawn by John Clerk of Eldin, but their
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whereabouts was not known and substitute illustrations had to be made for Geikies edition. As we have seen, McIntyre was interested in the genesis of Huttons ideas and as part of his research he studied the background and interests of Huttons friends. Searches in the Scottish Record Office revealed several small diaries in which Clerk of Eldin wrote details of his travels in Galloway with Hutton and of his geological observations. By happenstance, while McIntyre was so engaged, a folio of drawings was found at Penicuik House which Sir John Clerk brought to The Royal Scottish Museum where they were recognised as The Lost Drawings of Clerk of Eldin and those of Arran by his son Lord Eldin. This led to their publication in 1978, together with an explanatory book of which McIntyre was a co-author. He was also coauthor with A McKirdy of James Hutton, The Founder of Modern Geology, an excellent popular account of Hutton published in 1997. McIntyres last published work, in 2008, The Royal Society of Edinburgh, James Hutton, the Clerks of Penicuik and the Igneous Origin of Granite shows that his interest in Hutton and his contemporaries remained as lively as ever. The gem contained in this paper is McIntyres recognition and proof that certain boulders collected by
Hutton to illustrate the relationship of the Athol granite with the schistus into which it was intruded and of subsequent vein intrusions were, as Hutton wrote in the third volume of the Treatise, from Glen Tarf. Clerk of Eldin had mistakenly captioned his own drawings as being from Glen Tilt, a neighbouring locality from which other illustrative boulders had been collected. McIntyre was a brilliant speaker and inspirational teacher, perhaps happier speaking than writing. This exceptional talent was recognised in 1985 by his election from some 5,000 eligible professors as Californias Professor of the Year. In the same year he was awarded the Medal of the Geological Society of China, following a lecture visit to Beijing and Nanjing on the use of computer geology.
In 1989 McIntyre retired from Pomona and, with his family, settled in Perthshire. Donald immediately campaigned against what he regarded as the desecration of the Kinfauns churchyard and later against the quarrying of Dunsinane Hill. His enthusiasm for the worth of the environment soon led to his appointment as Chairman of Perth Civic Trust. He was a member of the Piobaireachd Society and his understanding of the great music led him to play it not only on his pipes but also to write the music notation into a computer programme which is used as a teaching tool at the College of Piping in Glasgow. Professor Donald McIntyre, a pipe tune played at the Professors memorial service, was composed in his honour by his teacher and friend Norrie Sinclair. Donald McIntyre had bravely fought Parkinsons disease but died on 21st October 2009. Gordon Y Craig Charles D Waterston
Donald Bertram McIntyre. BSc, PhD, DSc(Edinburgh), HonDSc(Pomona), FGSAm, FAmAAS, FCalAcadSci, FEdGS, MGA(London). Born 15 August 1923, Elected FRSE 1953, Died 21 October 2009.
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Robert William Milne 13 July 19565 June 2005 Dr Rob Milne died on Mt. Everest on 5th June 2005 of a sudden heart attack. Dr Milne was at 8450m en route to the summit of Everest which would have been the seventh of the highest peaks on each of the seven continents that Dr Milne had climbed. Before setting off on his Everest expedition, Dr Milne invited the Society's Fellowship to propose research work he could undertake while acclimatising at Base Camp and agreed enthusiastically to the studies he was asked to perform. Just prior to his departure for Everest, Dr Milne accepted the Society's invitation to be a Mentor to Enterprise Fellows, a role in which he would doubtless have offered much wisdom and encouragement, imparted with great warmth and humanity. The obituary below, first appeared in The Independent on 9 June 2005. Reproduced by permission of The Independent Robert William Milne, AI scientist: born Libby, Montana 12 July 1956; Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, US Air Force Institute of Technology 1982-85; chief scientist, US Army Artificial Intelligence Centre 1985-86; managing director, Intelligent Applications, 1986-2005; FRSE 2003; married (one son, one daughter); died Mt Everest 5 June 2005. Rob Milne was a key figure in pioneering artificial intelligence applications. He died on Sunday while climbing Mount Everest. His objective had been to climb the highest peak on each continent, and Everest was the last of the eight. He was born in Libby, Montana, in 1956 and later held dual US and UK citizenship. Brought up in
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Colorado, he was educated at MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), receiving a BSc in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1978. He then moved to Edinburgh, where he met and married his wife, Valerie, in 1981. Following the award of a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from Edinburgh University in 1983, he began to seek increasingly innovative applications of AI in the real world, becoming in 1985 Chief AI Scientist for the Pentagon. Returning to Scotland in 1986, he founded Intelligent Applications Ltd in Livingston, West Lothian, one of the first UK companies to market expert systems technology. Under his astute direction, the company became an industry leader in developing intelligent
software solutions; a fact recognised by many awards, including the Queen's Award for Technology. Milne was a leader in the information technology field in Scotland, having for a time been Director of ScotlandIS, the industry body for IT and software companies in Scotland. He was a mentor to a number of start-up companies and guided other entrepreneurs in their efforts to establish successful businesses. Despite these demands on his time, he also engaged enthusiastically with academia and the wider AI and software engineering communities. He was one of those rare individuals able to maintain a link between academic and industry work. Through a variety of visiting and honorary posts, including a visiting professorship in the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute at Edinburgh University, he assisted universities in maintaining their relevance to industry and still found time to publish the results of his own work in traditional academic journals. He chaired many of the major conferences in AI fields and played a leading role in European AI, in 2000 becoming the President of the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence. Most
recently, he led the successful bid to bring the world's major AI conference, the International Joint Conference in Artificial Intelligence, to Scotland in 2005, only the second time that the meeting has been held in the UK (the last was in 1971). In recognition of his research work and leadership, Milne was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2003. Rob Milne was already a keen mountaineer when he arrived in Scotland to begin his PhD studies. Indeed, in his first meeting with his prospective supervisor he demonstrated how to climb a vertical brick wall; the supervisor declined to try. As Munroist number 1860, he "bagged" his final Munro in 1997; he went on to become a senior figure in the Scottish Mountaineering Club and the author of a book on the Scottish Corbett hills (The Corbetts and Other Scottish Hills, 2002). Milne's life was characterised by setting very ambitious goals and single-mindedly pursuing them until he succeeded. His prominence in AI and software engineering and the achievements and accolades that followed are testament to his vision and tenacity. He led, inspired and befriended many of the people he met.
Robert William Milne, BSc, PhD, MBCS, CEng, EUR ING, FECCAI. Born 13 July 1956. Elected FRSE 2003. Died 5 June 2005.
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Karl Howard Overton 12 August 1925 22 July 2009 Karl Overton came to the UK from Austria in 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, as one of the 10,000 Jewish child refugees on the Kindertransports, thus avoiding almost certain death at the hands of the Nazis. He lived a long and full life as a scientist, a classical musician and a lover of the arts, the natural world, good food, wine and conversation. He was born Karl Heinz Oberweger in Vienna, the younger child of Berta and Joseph Oberweger. Ashkenazy Jews, the family lived on Flossgasse in the Jewish (second) district of Vienna. He remembered the build-up to the Anschluss of Austria by Germany in 1938, the anti-Semitic bullying on the way home from school and his mother and sister being made to scrub the streets by the Nazis. Fortunately his mother realised the approaching danger and applied for him, aged 13, to travel to England on one of the Kindertransports in January, 1939. His mother and sister followed shortly afterwards and went into service. His father stayed in Vienna, somehow avoiding deportation, and died there peacefully in 1942. Karl was enrolled in Coopers Company School in Londons East End and was immediately evacuat355
ed to Frome in Somerset in September 1939. He was billeted with an English family, who took the greatest possible interest in his welfare. He always said he would not have had the opportunities in Vienna as a Jew that he had in England. His landlady, Lillian Maggs, whom he regarded as his foster mother, made sure he continued his violin lessons and taught him English with an accent that was imperceptibly traceable to his continental roots. He did well at school and entered the University of London in 1944, where he first graduated in pharmacy and subsequently, following a brief period in the pharmaceutical industry, in chemistry. He went to Birkbeck College to work for a PhD under the direction of Professor Sir Derek Barton, the Nobel Laureate. His research topic was the constitution and stereochemistry of a-onocerin, an unusual triterpenoid. This period with Sir Derek kindled his life-long interest in the chemistry of natural products and in conformational analysis. In 1955 Karl was appointed to a Lectureship in Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, where he remained for all of his professional life, eventually retiring as Professor Emeritus. He taught
generations of chemistry and medical students and inspired a succession of gifted PhD students, many of whom went on to have distinguished careers themselves in academia or the pharmaceutical industry. Karls early research was concerned with the structure elucidation of complex natural products from plants and fungi. In the era before the general introduction of NMR methods, structure elucidation involved a combination of chemical transformations, IR and UV spectroscopy and microanalysis. Practical skills were very important, especially the ability to manipulate, purify and crystallise small amounts of material. Karl was a highly-skilled practical chemist and trained his students well in these areas. He published many interesting structures, including the (then) unusual bicyclofarnesol sesquiterpenoid drimenol from Chilean Drymis winteri, the rearranged diterpene rimuene, related diterpenoids from Erythroxylon monogynum and the unusual cisclerodane diterpenoids columbin and palmarin from Colombo root. However, the major contribution of the Overton group in this period was in the area of the tetranortriterpenoids (limonoids), complex metabolites of the Meliaceae and Rutaceae families, an area which flourished after the historic elucidation of the structure of limonin (from grapefruit
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seeds) by Barton, Arigoni, Jeger and their colleagues in 1960. The interest started by chance when Karl was asked by a colleague from Edinburgh to look at the extract of the seeds of Swietenia macrophylla (mahogany tree). This work led to the discovery of the unusual bicyclononanolide system of compounds such as swietenine, swietenolide and mexicanolide, and to the isolation from other species of the Meliaceae family of compounds, which lent strong support to the biogenetic pathway proposed for the formation of these compounds. Fifty years later, many new tetranortriterpenoids are still being published in the scientific literature. In the late 1960s, as structure elucidation became (sometimes) less challenging as a result of advances in NMR methods and Xray crystallography, Karl switched his interests to synthetic, biosynthetic and mechanistic aspects of natural products. With the help of the late Dr Dennis Butcher of the Botany Department, he set up a plant tissue culture unit. One of the first successful cultures was from Andrographis paniculata, a plant that normally produces the diterpenoid andrographolide. Interestingly, this culture did not produce any diterpenoids, but instead yielded several bisabolane sesquiterpenoids, the paniculides. The culture and the related cellfree systems proved to be very versatile and were used to study
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the biosynthesis of a-bisabolene and the paniculides, the mechanism of terminal double bond isomerisation in prenyl alcohols and pyrophosphates and the manner of their cyclisation, and they were particularly useful in a study of the role of the amino acid leucine in terpenoid biosynthesis. Using specifically labelled leucines, Karl and his colleagues clearly demonstrated that leucine was not incorporated intact into the sesquiterpenes, but was first degraded to acetyl-CoA. In association with his dear friend, Dr Siegfried Huneck, of the Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Halle, Germany, Karl elucidated the structure of the unusual polypropionate metabolite portentol, from the lichen Rocella portentosa. Subsequently, he unravelled the biosynthesis of portentol using cells of Rocella fuciformis. Karls support and friendship were greatly appreciated by Dr Huneck, especially during the period of the DDR. Alongside his biosynthetic studies, Karl pursued an interest in synthesis, initially in the biomimetic synthesis of polycyclic terpenoids such as rosanes and pimaranes, and the fungal metabolite rosenonolactone. Later, he turned his attention to adamantane chemistry and to the enantioselective synthesis of naturally-occurring a-amino acids by nitrone cycloaddition reactions.
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He was particularly intrigued by the stereochemical outcome of certain reactions related to enzyme processes, and set up laboratory models to probe the SE2 and SN2 reactions. This work led to his appointment as the Royal Society of Chemistry Tilden Lecturer and Medallist in 197778 and formed the topic of his Tilden lecture. He was awarded the degree of DSc by the University of London in 1968, appointed to a Chair of Organic Chemistry at the University of Glasgow in 1973 and elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1979. Karl published over 130 scientific papers and reviews and was the senior reporter of the Chemical Society Specialist Periodical Report on Terpenoids and Steroids from its inception in 1971 until 1977. Throughout his life, Karl continued to develop his passion for music. He met his first wife, Jenny Townrow, at music camp and they built their home in Glasgow, raising two daughters and two sons. He had a deep and extensive knowledge of the classical chamber music repertoire, centred on string quartets, and took every opportunity to play either violin or viola in quartets and amateur orchestras. For many years he was principal viola of the Glasgow Chamber Orchestra under Sam Bohr. He was a prime mover in the Milngavie Music Club for more
than twenty years and developed a talent for spotting and hiring the best young chamber musicians before they became too expensive. Many now-famous musicians passed through the Overton home early in their careers. Karl emerged from the combined challenges of retirement and marriage breakdown with renewed direction and engagement. He worked as a volunteer with the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health, editing an invaluable weekly report which was circulated to local, national and international organisations responsible for the treatment and prevention of HIV infection. It was at an HIV/AIDS conference in Florence that he met his second wife, immunologist Karin Froebel. They set up home in Edinburgh in 1998. Karl continued to embark on new interests, including working as a classroom assistant in the local primary school, studying the arts and humanities with the Open University and taking violin lessons with Lucy Cown from the International Cello Centre at Edrum, still striving to master the elusive Viennese style of bowing. In the later years of his life, Karl reembraced his continental Jewish origins. He joined the group of
Kindertransportees that was formed in Glasgow, and visited Israel with them, where he met hitherto unknown relatives from Vienna. He travelled with Karin to revisit Vienna and to search out his fathers village near Zyleschiki in Western Ukraine. Warm and generous, Karl thrived on making contact with others and enjoyed many friendships throughout his life. Although not formally religious, he explored reality and its meanings throughout his life, learning equally from science and spirituality. It was his wish to be buried near his mother in the Jewish cemetery in Glasgow, a wish that was fulfilled by the Glasgow Jewish community. Karl is survived by his wife Karin, the four children of his first marriage Ann, Dennis, John and Ruth and by five grandchildren. On a personal note, I had the special privilege and pleasure of being Karls first PhD student and I benefited greatly from his wise counsel and friendship throughout my career. I shall always remember him with gratitude and great affection. I am grateful to Karls wife Karin and daughter Ann for much of the information in this obituary. Joe Connolly
Karl Howard Overton, PhD, CChem, FRSC. Born 12 August 1925; Elected FRSE 1979; Died 22 July 2009.
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Sir Rutherford Ness Robertson 29 September 1913 5 March 2001 Sir Rutherford Ness (Bob) Robertson was one of Australias most influential, best loved and respected scientists in the second half of the last century. Descended from a dynasty of ministers of religion, Bobs tolerance, unselfishness, and unswerving sense of duty is legendary. His wisdom and generosity touched thousands of Australians now eminent in all walks of life. He served the ANU as Master of University House (1969 1972), as the second Director of the Research School of Biological Sciences, retiring in 1978, and as Pro-Chancellor from 1984 to 1986. Born in Melbourne, schooled there and in Christchurch, New Zealand, Bob took an Honours degree in botany at the University of Sydney that earned him an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship and entry to St. Johns College Cambridge as a PhD student in 1936. There, in 1937, he married Mary Rogerson, a Sydney botany/ geology major, and is survived by Mary, their son Rob and family. Returning to teach at Sydney University in 1939, Bob researched grain and food-storage problems throughout the war and later joined CSIRO Division of Food Preservation and Transport. There he built a joint CSIRO University research unit that
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trained and mentored a generation of plant scientists who were responsible for much of Australias pre-eminence in this field today. After the war, Bob quickly reestablished links with leading US and British scientists, and his personal research began to attract international attention. Bobs influence is perhaps first evident in an Annual Reviews chapter (1952). His renowned, pragmatic style is most evident 40 years later in a prefatory chapter for the same series that concludes with acknowledgement to Mary who not only played a major role in shaping my life, but helped me write about it. His research was recognised in the first election of Fellows to the Australian Academy of Science (1954), as a Fellow of the Royal Society (1961) and as a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Science (1962). Bob was among the first to appreciate the nexus between respiration and ion-transport across membranes, presaged by Lundegrdh in the 1940s. In Sydney, Adelaide and Cambridge, Robertson and his colleagues provided stoichiometric and structural evidence that led, via Philosophical Reviews, to his monograph Protons, Electrons,
Phosphorylation and Active Transport (1968). Experiments with plant roots, carrot disks, and later with plant chloroplasts and mitochondria, provided the clean experimental proofs for the chemiosmotic hypothesis, so eloquently espoused by Mitchell (Nobel Prize 1978). With typical generosity Bob detailed his long correspondence with Mitchell in a chapter for the History of Biochemistry (1995). Again and again others have watched askance as Antipodean and Eastern Hemisphere achievements have been discounted by the distance from Stockholm. An outstanding administrator and executive who admitted that he was not always temperamentally suited to such activities, Bob maintained active research groups while serving on the Executive of CSIRO (1958), after he became Professor of Botany in the University of Adelaide (1962), and at the ANU. Along the way he established the Australian Research Grants Scheme at the invitation of John Gorton, and served as President of the Australian Academy of Sciences, for which he received a knighthood. He played major roles in the adoption of the Web of Life school biology program, the establishment of ABC Radio science reporting and the opening of scientific and cultural exchanges with the Peoples Republic of China.
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Family connections in the Binalong/Yass area led Bob and Mary to a very active retirement adjacent to the national capital. They retained close links with the Academy and the University. Bob was an active participant in the international Robertson Symposia sponsored by the Research School of Biological Sciences. These often seemed to coincide with his birthday and the AFL grand final, events that presented scheduling difficulties and (opportunities) for the organisers. Inevitably, he conveyed the excitement of his distinguished research career in these meetings and always challenged participants with original thoughts that stretched their thinking abilities. In 19982000 Bob Robertson was at it again, as the prime mover for another adventure in blue skies research. His Dare to Dream manifesto brought 25 researchers to RSBS on March 19 to discuss their progress in the biomimetics of photo synthesis. Travelling to Sydney with Bob for a previous meeting of the group, through the valley mists of Yass and Gunning, into the most incredibly beautiful sunrise imaginable, has left his agenda indelible. Professor Barry Osmond Director ANU Research School of Biological Sciences, 199198
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Sir Rutherford Ness Robertson. Born 29 September 1913. Elected FRSE 1983. Died 5 March 2001. First published in the Australian National University Reporter, 30 March 2001 Reproduced by permission of the Australian National University http://oa.anu.edu.au/uploads/obituaries/1392/ sir_rutherford_ness_obit_2001.pdf Obituaries Australia Robertson, Sir Rutherford Ness (19132001), Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/robertson-sir-rutherford-ness-1392/text1391 accessed 7 November 2012.
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David John Tedford 12 July 1931 11 November 2004 David Tedford will be best remembered for his many contributions to Scotland and the University of Strathclyde. However, two things stand out most vividly. Firstly, he was a very good natured and genuine person who was generous, some would say over-generous, with his time to others. Secondly, he was a distinguished visionary academic who recognised at a very early stage that for a university to be truly successful it had to have strong collaborative relationships nationally and internationally. These features in turn guided his actions throughout his life. David was born in 1931 in Coatbridge and lived most of his life there. He went to Coatbridge High School and showed his gifts in numerous ways. Excelling in his academic studies, he was dux of the school, with a special aptitude for mathematics and was advised that he should study engineering. David was also a talented athlete in several sports, reaching high standards in football and tennis. He inherited a love of music from his parents and learned to play piano at a young age. Playing classical pieces was one of his methods of relaxation. In 1948, David went to the Royal College of Science and Technolo362
gy, now the University of Strathclyde, to study for a BSc in electrical engineering and gained a First-class Honours degree in 1952, together with various prizes. In the non-teaching periods, David completed an 18month practical training with the General Electric Company in Birmingham. He then went on to do a PhD and his thesis was concerned with time lag in uniform field spark gaps. The insight gained led to the technique forming a major aspect of high voltage research. After gaining the higher degree in 1955, David joined a research team in Ferranti Limited, Edinburgh, developing an analogue computer for use in an aircraft guidance system. After two years, David returned to the University of Strathclyde as a lecturer in the Electrical Engineering Department and became the foundation Professor of Electrical Engineering (High Voltage) in 1972. Two years later he became the Head of Department and led a number of initiatives which contributed substantially to the growth of the Department into one of the largest and most successful in the UK. He was also involved in the establishment, development and management of one of the largest
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university electrical power research groups in the UK designated as the Centre for Electrical Power Engineering (CEPE). The progress of this Centre demonstrated in reality his belief in the value of university and industrial collaboration. As his career developed, David emerged as a university statesman and took on many central university activities. He subsequently occupied senior academic positions and served as Vice-Principal (198486) sandwiched between two terms as a Deputy Principal (19821991). His effectiveness in handling difficult situations was due to his clear understanding of the objectives, a perfectionist approach to doing preparatory work, a willingness to let the conflicting parties air their cases, enormous amounts of patience and his good humour. In the latter three years he had special responsibility for International Affairs, and in his new role he had the job of formulating overseas recruitment strategy, advising on policy generally and acting as chief global ambassador. As a result, he became a true globetrotter and formulated, negotiated and signed many successful collaborative agreements in both teaching and research with leading universities, colleges and other overseas institutions. David had extensive activities outside of the University of
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Strathclyde. Some representative examples include council member (198992) and then Vice-President (199295) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, where he served the learned institution with great enthusiasm and distinction. He was the first holder of the post of Chief Scientific Advisor to the Secretary of State for Scotland (199497) addressing policy and long term issues concerning science, engineering and technology. He was elected a member of the Council of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (199295). He became the Chairman of the Court of the University of Abertay and laid the foundation for its success in higher education. He was invited by the Hong Kong government to be one of five overseas members on the Planning Committee of its new university, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and he served on that Universitys first council. David was strongly committed to the idea that Science and Technology must contribute to the wellbeing of Scotland and he was actively involved in the work of Scottish Science Trust and the creation of the Science Centres. His broad knowledge and experience on educational matters led to him being much sought after by many organisations and his travels took him to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, China and the USA.
Wherever he went he was remembered as an academic ambassador for both the University of Strathclyde and the City of Glasgow. David received a number of awards and these included the Order of the British Empire (OBE), the Institution of Electrical Engineers Achievement Medal and Honorary DScs from Robert Gordon and Abertay Universities. It was the winning of the coveted decoration of the Order of Merit, Poland that gave him most pleasure. Ever since the collaborative relation between the Technical University of Ldz and Strathclyde University was signed in the late 1960s, David took on the responsibility to ensure that the link was live and beneficial to both parties. A task that was extremely demanding especially in the early
days, but it provided a shining star in a darkened sky. David could not have fulfilled all his multitude of commitments without the support of his wife, Mamie, who went to the same school but got to know David later. Mamies role in Team Tedford in their 48 years together ranged from caring for their daughter and three sons, cooking meals for the visitors and students that David regularly took to their home, and acting as a valuable source of social information and provider of latest gossip. For those who knew David in various capacities they will miss his straight forward manner, high principle, honesty, good nature and wisdom. Chengi Kuo
David John Tedford OBE, OM (Poland). BSc, PhD(Glasgow), ScD(Ldz), HonDTech(Abertay), HonDSc(Robert Gordon), DUniv, FUniv(Strathclyde). ARCST, CEng, FIEE, FInstP, SMIEEE, FRSA. Born 12 July 1931. Elected FRSE 1978. Died 11 November 2004.
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Ewart Kendall Walton 8 November 1924 23 June 2009 Ken Walton, internationallyrenown expert on turbidite sediments and Emeritus Professor of Geology at the University of St Andrews died on June 23, 2009 aged 84. Most of his professional career was spent as Professor of Geology at St Andrews University (19681988) where he also served as Master of the United College (19721976). A hallmark of Kens life was a common humanity that clearly stemmed from his working class roots in a northern mining community. He was responsive when academic institutions the world over were being challenged in the late 1960s and early 70s by newly-confident student communities, and contributed significantly to modernising St Andrews, then a very traditional university uneasy with departures from the status quo. Born in 1924 in Ashington, Northumberland, one of a family of four, he attended Bedlington Grammar School before entering the University of Durhams Kings College at Newcastle-on-Tyne. He graduated in 1949 and gained a PhD in 1952. He started his academic career as an Assistant in the Geology Department of Glasgow University, progressing to a Lectureship and then Readership in the Department of Geology at Edinburgh University.
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In 1968 he was appointed to the Chair of Geology at St. Andrews University, following the untimely death of Charles Davidson, and in 1969 he was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Ken made several very important contributions to geological research. First, his early researches helped to clarify and quantify the transportation and deposition processes associated with turbidity currents turbulent, fast-moving suspensions capable of conveying vast volumes of sediment into ocean deeps. His work centred on the interpretation of structures within turbidites (the sediments and rock sequences formed by such mechanisms), and it is also noteworthy for the innovative and ingenious experimental techniques that he pioneered. This work was done in collaboration with his colleague Gordon Craig, along with his first research student Gilbert Kelling OBE and an eminent Polish collaborator, Stanislaw Dzulinski. The collaboration with Dzulinski and his colleagues in the Jagiellonian University of Krakow (despite the difficulties of the cold war period) was particularly fruitful, and Ken was elected to Foreign Membership of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. His books
and many of his numerous papers are still consulted today and cited by contemporary workers in this field of sedimentology. Secondly, his studies (with Gordon Craig and others) of ancient turbidite rocks across much of southern Scotland led to a wholesale reappraisal of the stratigraphy and structure of the Southern Uplands, and his publications, including chapters in Gordon Craigs Geology of Scotland, laid the foundations for modern accretionary prism and terrane interpretations of this key piece of the Caledonian orogen jigsaw. Another important part of Ken Waltons geoscientific oeuvre was his work, with the late Donald Duff and Tony Hallam, on the nature and causes of cyclicity in sedimentary successions, and the contribution that careful statistical analysis of such cycles can make to our understanding of depositional processes, especially in ancient deltaic sequences. In drawing attention to evidence in the rock record for the operation of both autocyclic (internal) and allocyclic (external) controls on such cycles, it can be argued that this work foreshadowed the currently popular paradigm of sequence stratigraphy. At St Andrews University, Ken had the difficult task of modernising a rather traditional department of geology. He managed the task well and, in 1972, was invited by Principal Steven Watson to
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become Master of the United College to help modernise and strengthen the university, following the separation a few years earlier of Queens College Dundee into an independent university in that city. Steven Watson and Ken were fellow Geordies and got on well, and Ken was entrusted with one of the most important portfolios; with responsibility for all academic and student matters. He could not have anticipated the rough ride he would receive as Master. The student riots in France in 1968 finally manifested themselves somewhat less turbulently in St Andrews in 1973. He had to engage with wellheeled and articulate student Trotskyites, a somewhat baffling combination to a working class lad from a poor mining village. Yet with astuteness, charm and patience he won over most of these dissidents. Many issues were symbolic but some were real, most notably the (then) disproportionately high failure rates of Scottish Higher students in the Science Faculty. The University was accused by students of catering primarily for English A-level entrants at the expense of the Scots, and the data seemed to support their case. Ken had inherited this issue and quickly put in place the changes that would finally solve it, but not without some bruising encounters and much media involvement.
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After serving as Master, Ken was invited to join the Physical Sciences Committee of the University Grants Committee (UGC). This was an important national role that influenced the funding of every university physical science department in the UK, and the committee visited each department in every university on a regular cycle. The end of his academic career coincided with the UGCs Earth Science Review that culminated in the closure of several university geology departments across the UK. Due at least in part to Kens political skills and working knowledge of the system, the Geology Department at St Andrews University escaped the worst of the cuts and indeed was the smallest department to survive nationally while several larger departments were closed. The price of survival was the merger with Geography and Ken opted at this stage (1987) to retire a few years early. He remained active as a consulting geologist for a few years, and ran local field excursions for youngsters and enthusiasts for many more years. Ken was a devoted family man. His first wife Margaret was an enormous support, especially when his role as Master demanded a major social commitment. They had two children, Judith and Richard, who both inherited their parents love of sport and of whom he was very proud. Sadly Margaret died in 1982. Before he
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retired from the University Ken married Sue Doyle and became a devoted step-father to Danny, Barney and Ze. His final years were spent in his wonderful cottage overlooking Crail Harbour, where his parties and barbeques, usually culminating in a spontaneous ceilidh, were regular and eagerly awaited events. Eventually, after several months of poor health, Ken succumbed to respiratory and coronary problems, although his mind remained sharp and inquisitive until the end. Unsurprisingly for someone from Ashington, the home village of legendary footballing brothers Jack and (Sir) Bobby Charlton, Ken was always keen on sport, a passion he shared with Margaret. Even in his 50s, when he was Master of the United College, it was not beneath his dignity to knock a few lumps out his student charges on the football park, and he regularly annihilated staff half his age on the squash court. After retirement he became an active member of tennis and badminton clubs in Crail, and did much to encourage youth participation in sport. His retirement years were heavily involved in community work in Crail, serving on numerous committees particularly in relation to heritage and youth activities. In his later years he convened a local Writers Club for friends to meet and discuss each others written works.
Ken made his mark as an international scientist of distinction, and in Edinburgh and St Andrews he was a much-loved teacher of geology. In particular, he was a man of his times who skillfully steered his department and the university through one of the most difficult and turbulent periods in 20th Century academia. He is also fondly remembered in Crail, where he made his mark
through his community work, sporting contributions, social events and intellectual soirees. Most of all, he was a kind and generous friend who was arguably even more interested in people than in rocks, notwithstanding his great enthusiasm for the latter and his highly successful career as a geologist. Edryd Stephens
Ewart Kendall Walton BSc, PhD (Dunelm), ForMem Polish Academy Arts & Sciences. Born 28 November 1924. Elected FRSE 1969. Died 23 June 2009.
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Hamish Christopher Swan Wood 8 May 1926 3 July 2009 Hamish Wood, former Professor of Organic Chemistry and VicePrincipal of the University of Strathclyde died on 3 July 2009 after a long illness. Hamish hailed from Hawick where his father, Joseph Wood, ran one of the first mail-order knitwear firms. He inherited his teaching gene from his mother, Robina Baptie, who was a teacher and headmistress, and perhaps his inventiveness gene from his great-grandfather, James Swan, who was reputedly the inventor of the screw propeller. Despite the restrictions caused by the 193945 War, Hamish was able to develop a great interest in chemistry thanks to the influence of the Head of Chemistry at Hawick High School, Dr Alison Cook. She no doubt encouraged Hamish to become an undergraduate in chemistry at her alma mater, the University of St Andrews from which he graduated with a First-class Honours degree in Chemistry in 1947, receiving the Harkness Exhibition and Purdie Bursary on the way. During his secondary school and student years, Hamish played a major role in the Scout movement, becoming an expert piper thereby. During wartime, as a scout, Hamish was a messenger for the Home Guard and was awarded the Defence Medal. At University he was a
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founder member of the University Rover Scout Crew and a leading piper at jamborees in Scotland and in Norway. On moving to Glasgow, Hamish continued to drive the Scout movement ahead being one of the founders of the 1st Glasgow Rover Scout Group. The Scout movement was an interest that he shared with Jean, his wife to be, also from Hawick, whom he married in December 1951. Both of their children, Sheena and Colin, also graduated in science from the Unversity of St Andrews in due course. Hamishs scientific training was developed during his PhD studies in natural product chemistry at St Andrews, under the supervision of Dr John Dewar and Dr H T Openshaw. However, the determining time in Hamishs scientific career was his post-doctoral work between 1951 and 1953 at the Australian National University, which was then located in Euston Road in London. Hamish worked with Adrien Albert, one of the real creators of modern medicinal chemistry, expounded in Alberts seminal book Selective Toxicity. The field of study to which Adrien Albert introduced Hamish concerned the compounds known as pteridines, of which folic acid, well known as a breakfast cereal additive, is an example. The study
of the synthesis of pteridines and their biological properties became the centre of Hamishs scientific research at the University of Strathclyde, which he joined as a lecturer in 1954 in its former embodiment, the Royal College of Science and Technology (RCST). As a lecturer and senior lecturer at the RCST, Hamish laid great emphasis on sharing his enthusiasm for chemistry with school pupils as well as with his degree students. Well documented and well remembered is Hamishs travelling lecture Throwing Light on Chemistry which included a number of spectacles, notably the nylon rope trick and cold light chemiluminescence, both of which are now staples of chemistry demonstrations. Hamish maintained a reputation for inspirational teaching throughout his career and was a major influence in the careers of many outstanding scientists. These included Ronald Cresswell, formerly of Parke-Davis, and Allen Miller, formerly of the University of Dundee and Wellcome, both of whom are Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), and Allan Baxter, a Vice President at Glaxo SmithKline. Hamishs first independent publications date from the mid 1950s in a series of papers called Pteridine derivatives which dealt with methods of synthesis and chemical reactivity of many
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compounds in the class; this work was extended into studies of the biosynthesis of pteridines which led to an understanding of the biosynthesis of riboflavin. Together, this work led to recognition through election as a Fellow of the RSE in 1968. This honour was a major factor in Hamishs appointment as the first Personal Professor at the University of Strathclyde. The next evolutionary step in research was to see whether novel synthetic compounds could beneficially modulate the biosynthesis of pteridines and, following Alberts concept of selective toxicity, become drugs. This work, part of which I came to share, created new classes of compounds, notably the so-called blocked dihydropterins, which were intended to have antibacterial applications. In one sense, the work was clearly ahead of its time because some of the most interesting applications have proved to be in fields of biology that were unknown at the time of the first synthesis of the compounds. The application of academic skills in this way was of course very much in keeping with the philosophy of John Andersons University, the University of Strathclyde. But it was not in keeping with a good deal of contemporary conventional chemical wisdom. We both became unhappy with what we
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saw as short-sighted thinking and in 1979, we published together a short review article called Should Organic Chemists Meddle with Biochemistry?. This short paper was one of the first pieces of advocacy for research at the chemistrybiology interface, a field that has now become one of the main growth areas in science. The full body of Hamishs research to that time, and its importance, was recognised by the award of the Royal Society of Chemistrys Prize for Medicinal Chemistry in 1986. Throughout all of this period, Hamish occupied important positions in University management, successively as Head of Department, Dean of School, Deputy Principal, and VicePrincipal from 1984 to 1986. When Hamish first became a University manager, structures and procedures of the University were traditional and highly centralised, with initiative and responsibility resting with only a few. Hamish was at the heart of the first stages of transforming things into the modern University of Strathclyde through two major aspects of University business, developing mechanisms of resource allocation towards the modern position that devolves responsibility and initiative to individual budget holders, and secondly reducing the number of University committees so that decision making
could be more focused and effective. Hamishs managerial accomplishments were widely recognised and Hamish was appointed by the Secretary of State for Scotland to be Chairman of the Governing Body of Glasgow Polytechnic, which later became Glasgow Caledonian University. Hamish became the first Chairman of Court of Glasgow Caledonian University. All of these contributions were recognised by the award of the CBE in 1993. Before devolution, Hamish also served as a member of the Universities Funding Council appointed by the Secretary of State for Education and Science. This was a challenging role too and one in which Hamish came face to face with many people from other walks of life who did not understand, or in some cases would not understand, the extent of the contribution of universities at large to society. Working through the RSE, Hamish led a group that produced a report highlighting the huge beneficial impact of scientific research in Scottish universities in economic and business terms as well as in international scientific terms. Formally, Hamish retired in 1991, but he continued to maintain a great interest in his two Universities in Glasgow, in their academic progress and in the commercialisation of discoveries arising from
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his research at Strathclyde. He served on the Strathclyde Convocation until 2009, representing the RSE, the Council of which he had also served on from 1992 to1995. When Hamish and his family moved to Glasgow in the early 1950s, they settled in Bearsden with a happy, full, and active home and family life, strongly engaged with the community. Throughout the whole of his life in Bearsden, a period close on 55 years, and for as long as he was able, Hamish was a prominent member of the congregation of Killermont Parish Church, serving on its Congregational Board and
Finance Committee from 1974 to1998. It was no surprise that at his funeral service in July 2009, the congregation was made up of a substantial section of Scottish society, including academic teaching and scientific colleagues, academic management colleagues, members of Killermont Parish Church, representatives of Scottish government agencies, and of the RSE. Hamish was a man who served others to the fullest through his manifold skills and left his mark; this mark can be recognised not simply in what he did himself, but also in what others have been able to build upon from his achievements. Colin Suckling
Hamish Christopher Swan Wood CBE. BSc, PhD(St Andrews), HonDUniv(Strathclyde), HonLLD(Glasgow Caledonian), CChem, FRSC, HonFScotvec, Hon FSQA. Born 8 May 1926. Elected FRSE 1968. Died 3 July 2009.
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Edward Maitland Wright 13 February 1906 2 February 2005
Sir Edwards working life was full and long. He supported himself from the age of 14 until he retired as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen at the age of 70. He had been elected to the Chair of Mathematics there at the early age of 29. While under his guidance as Principal, the university went through a vigorous expansion with many new buildings and new appointments. He had enormous affection for Aberdeen, both the city and its ancient university. When he retired he stayed on in Aberdeen, until at the age of 90, he left to live with his son in Berkshire. He died peacefully a few days before his 99th birthday and is buried in Oxford. He particularly enjoyed the company of his grandchildren, Jane, Lucy, Vicky and Edward and was delighted when he became a great-grandfather. He was bom on 13 February 1906 in a village just outside Leeds. Initially the family was highly prosperous. His father owned a soap factory making Wrights Washall Soap. Unfortunately, when he was three years old, his fathers business collapsed. His parents separated and he and his mother moved south. She was a skilled musician and music teacher who obtained jobs at boarding
schools where she could, for a reduction in salary, have her young son living with her. At the age of 14 he became independent by working as a pupil teacher at a small preparatory school in Woking. His duties included playing football with the pupils and teaching them French! He was well educated in classics and modem languages but, until the age of 14, had not come across any mathematics except arithmetic. He was introduced to algebra and became hooked on mathematics from then onward. When he was 16 he was working as a teacher of French at a school in London, taking evening classes in physics at Woolwich and teaching himself mathematics. A school inspection took place. The inspector reported that Edward Wright was far too young for the post he was occupying. He was immediately sacked. He then got a teaching job at Chard Grammar School in Somerset. Since he had no access to laboratory facilities he gave up on experimental physics but re-doubled his efforts in teaching himself mathematics. At that time it was possible to take a University of London Degree as an external candidate, that is, without any requirements to attend courses. Working on his
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own in Chard he taught himself for a BSc in Mathematics, achieving First-class Honours. One of the other teachers was a graduate from Cambridge who said: Oh, a London degree is only equivalent to entrance scholarship standard for Oxford and Cambridge. Nettled by this, he investigated Oxford and Cambridge and found only one college in either university which had a scholarship open to someone over the age of 19. This was Jesus College, Oxford, which had one scholarship not restricted to age or subject. He competed for the scholarship and won it. His period at Oxford was happy and fruitful. He won the Junior Mathematics Prize as an undergraduate and the Senior Mathematics Prize as a postgraduate. He met his future wife Phyllis, a student of English at St Hildas and cox of the Oxford womens eight, marrying her in 1934. He became a research student of G.H. Hardy. He obtained the first ever Junior Research Fellowship awarded by Christ Church (at that time known, somewhat strangely, as a research lectureship). Joining the University Air Squadron, he learned to fly. At Hardys urging, he spent a year in Germany at Gttingen. This was just before Hitler came to power and Gttingen was still one of the major mathematical centres in the world. He was well
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treated in Germany but came home convinced that another war was inevitable. At that time Churchill and his supporters, who urged re-armament, were in a small minority, and decried as warmongers. Lord Cherwell (subsequently scientific advisor to Churchill) was a Professor of Physics at Oxford and had rooms in Christ Church. Because of their shared political views on the dangers of appeasement, Edward Wright became friendly with both Cherwell and R.V. Jones. Arising from these connections, during the war years he was seconded from his chair in Aberdeen to work in Scientific Intelligence at MI6 headquarters in London. He greatly enjoyed doing research in mathematics and was the author of some 140 papers. Apart from a gap during the war, he published steadily from 1930 until 1981. (For many years his research was supported by the US Army through a succession of research contracts.) In collaboration with G.H. Hardy he wrote An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers, which is still in demand after over sixty years in print. After meetings of the London Mathematical Society in Piccadilly, Hardy and he would have dinner together at the Trocadero. It was during one of these dinners that the book was first planned. Their method was for each to write different chap-
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ters and then revise and criticise the work of the other until the revisions converged to an agreed version. Sadly, Hardy died before a second edition was needed. Edward Wright prepared all the subsequent editions, from the second to the fifth. The book has been translated into many languages, including Japanese. Sir Edward had many honours and distinctions, but wore them lightly. These included honorary degrees from St Andrews, Strathclyde and Pennsylvania. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was awarded its Macdougall-Brisbane Prize in 1952. He was the longest-serving member of the London Mathematical Society and won its Senior Berwick Prize in 1978. In the same year he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Order of Polonia
Restituta of the Polish Republic. He was the longest-serving Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, having been elected at the same time as Harold Wilson. He was a big man, both intellectually and physically. Over 6 feet 4 inches, broad shouldered and built like the rowing man he had been in his youth. His early struggles and triumphs make it clear that he was unusually determined and exceptionally intelligent. But those who knew him best will remember him most strongly for his kindness, his generosity and his sense of humour. He is survived by his son, Professor J D M Wright. I thank John Wright for much help in the preparation of this notice. A R Pears
Edward Maitland Wright, BA(Lond), MA, DPhil(Oxon), LLD(St And, Penn, Aberd), DSc(Strath). Born 13 February 1906. Elected FRSE 1937. Died 2 February 2005.
First published in Bull. London Math. Soc. 39 (2007) 857-865 and reproduced by kind permission of the London Mathematical Society.
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TRUSTEES REPORT TO 31 MARCH 2011

GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT The RSE Council, chaired by the President, comprises thirteen Trustees, including four VicePresidents, the General Secretary, the Treasurer, the Fellowship Secretary and five ordinary members. Subject to annual reelection, Council members serve for three years, except for the General Secretary and Treasurer, who may serve for up to four years. All are unpaid. The Council is responsible for the strategic direction and policies of the RSE, and normally meets quarterly. An Executive Board has delegated responsibility from the Council for delivery of the RSEs activities. It is chaired by the General Secretary, and also has as its elected members, the Treasurer, the Convenors of the main operational committees and the Curator, as well as the Chair of the RSE Scotland Foundation and senior executive staff. The Executive Board normally meets quarterly and reports to the Council. The Council members and the office-bearers serving on the Executive Board are all elected annually by the Fellowship in a postal ballot. New members of Council and the Executive Board are given an extensive induction through discussions with the Chief Executive and senior staff. The Audit & Risk Committee (see Risk Management), Fellowship Committee, Investment Committee and Prizes & Medals Committee report directly to Council. Reporting to the Council through the Executive Board are operational committees, including the Education Committee, International Committee, the Business Innovation Forum, various Research Awards Committees, the Meetings Committee and the Young Peoples Committee. These Committees largely, but not exclusively, comprise Fellows of the RSE and are concerned with the operational delivery of the RSEs varied activities. All Fellows are actively encouraged to participate in the RSEs activities. Two other charitable trusts founded by and closely connected to the RSE, the BP Research Fellowship Trust (the BP Trust) and the RSE Scotland Foundation (the Foundation), are included in the consolidated financial statements. The Foundation plays a leading role in the RSEs public outreach activities and manages the premises in George Street. Its Trustees are appointed for three years by the RSE Council. Following a transfer of assets in 2009, the Foundation is also responsible for managing the programme of activities in support of research in Scotland, funded by the Caledonian Research Fund.
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The BP Trust was created following a donation of 2m in 1988 from BP to support a scheme of post-doctoral research fellowships in specified subjects and which are awarded at the sole discretion of the RSE. The RSE President, General Secretary and Treasurer are the BP Trustees, ex officiis. STATEMENT OF COUNCILS RESPONSIBILITIES The Council is responsible for preparing the Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). Under charities legislation applicable in Scotland, the Council is required to prepare accounts for each financial year that give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the RSE and of the incoming resources and application of resources of the RSE for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Council is required to:
departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
prepare the financial statements on a going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the RSE will continue in operation.
The Council is responsible for keeping accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the RSE and which enable it to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and RSEs own Laws. It is also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the RSE and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. The Council is also responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the charity and financial information included on the RSEs website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions. RISK MANAGEMENT The Audit and Risk Committee, operating on a joint basis with the Foundation and the BP Trust, reports directly to the Council, the
select suitable accounting policies and apply them consistently; observe the methods and principles of the Charities SORP; make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent; state whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any
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Trustees Report and Accounts to 31 March 2011
Foundation and the BP Trust. Its Chair, who cannot be a Trustee or other Office Bearer of the RSE, is invited to attend Council meetings as an observer. Its remit includes keeping under review the effectiveness of internal control and risk management systems of the RSE and its connected charities. The Council believes that the existing systems and the structure of decision-taking and reporting through senior staff, the Executive Board and the Council continue to provide assurance that risks are assessed and carefully managed. OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES Mission and Role In keeping with its Royal Charter, the mission of the RSE is to provide public benefit through the continued advancement of learning and useful knowledge. To fulfil this, it promotes learning and puts the multidisciplinary expertise of its Fellows to work for the good of Scotland and its people. Its role is to:
The difference the RSE aims to make All of the Societys activities aim to contribute to the following public benefit outcomes:
enhancing the capacity of world-class science and culture researchers working in Scotland increasing Scotlands research and development connections internationally improving connections between business and academia enhancing the capacity of school-age children to adopt science as a career enhancing the publics understanding of science and culture issues informing and influencing public policy decisions The Society seeks to make a difference through its programmes of Core Public Benefit, Fellowship and Support services. Overarching these are the following strategic priorities: developing partnerships and connections with others providing independent advice on major issues affecting public policy developing arts and humanities activities and their interface with science broadening public engagement
Strategic Priorities
promote and recognise excellence in, and its application to, all areas of learning be a source of independent and expert advice on matters affecting the wellbeing of Scotland and its people advance public discussion on matters of national and international importance
diversifying funding sources

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OVERVIEW The result for the year of 0.327m includes two non-recurring items an initial payment of a legacy from Dr Gethin Lewis of 62,500 and an exceptional credit in respect of pension accounting of 240,000. The latter item arises mainly from the Lothian Pension Fund revaluing pension liabilities using CPI rather than RPI as an inflation measure. The underlying financial outcome for the year was a surplus of 19,000, an improvement on the budget expectation of a modest deficit. Total net incoming resources ,000 Net 327 Less:Legacy (62) Appeal income (6) Exceptional pension credit (240) Surplus on recurring activities 19 The highlights of the successful year and which are detailed in the report include:

ment including two Major Research grants Launch of a major Inquiry Report on Facing up to Climate Change The report on Digital Scotland, setting out strategic priorities for Scotlands digital future Live Webcast by the BBC of the schools Christmas lecture by Allan Little on Reporting the World in an Age of Conflict RSE@Dumfries & Galloway an ongoing programme of activities across the Dumfries & Galloway region Medieval week a programme of eight lectures over four days in partnership with the British Academy Award of the final Gannochy Trust Innovation Award to Matt McGrath of Aircraft Medical, which has developed the worlds first portable video laryngoscope The first in a series of seminars held in partnership with the French Embassy and the Collge de France for early-career French and Scottish scientists in areas of science where Scotland and France have strengths Completion and dissemination of the chemistry exemplification materials in support of the Curriculum for Excellence Eight corporate partners continued as Friends of the Society
Award of a total of six Scottish Government Personal Research Fellowships, each of up to five years length, also eligible for the Marie Curie COFUND travel funding awarded in 2008. There are now a total of 17 Personal Research Fellows in post Award of a further 12 Enterprise Fellowships throughout the UK Arts & Humanities awards supported by Scottish Govern-
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ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE YEAR This section describes the achievements of RSE, the Foundation and the BP Trust, reflecting the fact that the Financial Statements are presented on a consolidated basis for this Group of connected charities. The performance of the RSE and its connected charities in the year, as compared to the output targets set in the Operational Plan, is reported quarterly to the Executive Board, and thereafter to RSE Council and to the Trustees of the other connected bodies. These reports have again shown that the majority (>95%) of the targets were reached or exceeded. In many areas, additional targets, not in the initial Operational Plan were also delivered. The core public benefit programme activities are described in more detail below, according to the outcomes to which they contribute. Enhancing the capacity of world-class science and culture researchers working in Scotland RSE Research Awards continued to support some of the most outstanding young scientists and innovators working in Scotland today. The Research Fellowships Awards Programme successfully enhance the capacity of worldclass science and culture researchers working in Scotland; and increase Scotlands research
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and development connections internationally. It creates conditions that attract those with outstanding potential conducive to becoming research leaders, to establish their career in Scotland and make long-term contributions to the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics base and its application in Scotland. It provides scope to place special emphasis on areas of research key to the well-being of Scotland; for example energy, environment and biosciences and complements similar programmes available on a UK-wide basis from the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, Research Councils and major Research Charities. It is only through valuable partnerships with key bodies such as BP, the Caledonian Research Foundation, the Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland and the Scottish Government that we were able to provide these awards and we offer our sincere thanks to each of these partners, for their continuing support. The following awards in science were made during the year:
One new five- year BP Personal Research Fellowships from 11 applicants was awarded Six Personal Research Fellowships were awarded from 54 applicants and five started during the year
Three Support Research Fellowships were awarded from eight applicants Seven CRF European Visiting Research Fellowships in Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Cormack awards: one Undergraduate Prize, one Postgraduate Prize and six Vacation Research Scholarships plus one Piazzi Smyth Vacation Scholarship Six Lessells Travel Scholarships
to support a new Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Works of Robert Louis Stevenson and the cataloguing, exhibition and reinterpretation of Turkey red and other decorative textile collections held at the National Museums of Scotland. Since its inception in 2007, this programme has enabled 57 individuals to develop links with people and organisations they would not otherwise have easily been able to work with. Early evidence shows that the objective of improving understanding of human culture past and present is being met by setting in motion long-term dialogue, both interdisciplinary and inter-institutional, across Scotland and beyond, involving artists, curators, art historians, librarians, archivists, scientists and research students. An independent evaluation of the scheme so far is planned for 201112. The Royal Medals of the Royal Society of Edinburgh are its most prestigious award, recognising outstanding research excellence and scholarship. The 2010 medals were awarded, with the approval of Her Majesty The Queen, to Professor Sir Fraser Stoddart FRS HonFRSE, for his outstanding contribution to chemistry, and in particular the area of molecular nanotechnology; and Dr James MacMillan CBE FRSE, for his outstanding contribution to music
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The Scottish Government-funded Personal Research Fellowship scheme now offers six, five-year fellowships per year and is the largest fellowship scheme administered by the RSE for postdoctoral researchers.The research fellowships lever benefits for Scottish research since 2003 6.1m of support provided for fellowships has enabled more than 46.8m of further research funding to be obtained by research fellows.Also supported by Scottish Government grant, the Arts & Humanities programme supported the award of:

Six Research Workshops Nine Small Research Grants Four Research Networks Two Major Research Grants
Two existing Research Networks were supported in their second year of a two-year grant. The Major Research Grants were awarded for the first time this year
in Scotland and beyond. The Medals were presented by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh at a ceremony at the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The IEEE/ RSE/Wolfson, James Clerk Maxwell Award for 2010 was awarded to Dr Amar G. Bose FIEEE founder of Bose Corporation and developer of advanced Electronic Systems for sound and entertainment for his outstanding contributions to consumer electronics in sound reproduction, industrial leadership and engineering education. Increasing Scotlands research and development connections internationally This programme seeks to increase Scotlands research and development connections internationally; and increase the number of world-class science and culture researchers working in Scotland. It helps create conditions for talented people to live, learn, visit, work and remain in Scotland; and supports Scotlands reputation as a distinctive global identity, an independent-minded and responsible nation at home and abroad and confident of its place in the world. Since 2003 Scottish Government funding has supported the establishment of formal Memoranda of Understanding between the RSE and 12 overseas sister Academies, and also supported
the development and maintenance of relationships and activities with other overseas Academies. Based on the good relationships developed, the Bilateral and Open exchange schemes support researcher exchanges that lead to collaborative projects and result in further research funding from other sources. A particularly strong part of the programme, which cements relationships and collaborations are the joint research projects run over two years between Scottish and overseas Institutes (currently the National Natural Science Foundation of China), supporting longer-term collaborations and levering further funding. During the year, 39 Bilateral and 20 Open Exchange Scheme grants were awarded, which amounted to 186.5 person weeks of researcher support (for visits between Scotland and over 20 countries worldwide). Seven new joint projects with the NSFC were awarded for two years from Spring 2011 in the area of information science and 12 existing joint projects in engineering and public policy, and biological sciences were supported in their first and second years. Funding was also awarded for a collaboration between the University of Stirling and the Institute of Automation, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, to support a ScotlandChina Higher
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Education Research Partnership for PhD Studies in the area of Telecommunications and Information Technologies. In partnership with the French Embassy in London, the University of Edinburgh and the Collge de France, a seminar series of eight events entitled Seven Keys to the Digital Future was held in October 2010 as the first stage of a threeyear collaboration. The collaboration will consist of events run for early-career French and Scottish scientists in areas of science where there is excellence in both France and Scotland. The purpose of the seminars is to explore and publicly present areas of science where both Scotland and France have strengths and to stimulate FrancoScottish collaboration in science. In November 2010, the Rt Hon Lord Patten of Barnes CH delivered the annual MacCormick European Lecture entitled European Foreign Policy is it Desirable or Possible? Improving connections between business and academia The Enterprise Fellowship schemes run by the RSE encourage commercialisation of technology-based business ideas from academic institutions into spin-out companies. The schemes help create sustainable companies with high-value jobs that make a positive contribution to the economy in the long term. The RSE administers three Enterprise
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Fellowship Schemes, funded separately by Scottish Enterprise (SE), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The Enterprise Fellows selected demonstrate the entrepreneurial spirit needed to create a thriving business from a research idea. What the fellowship offers is support to develop their business skills, together with introductions to mentors, potential collaborators, investors and other specialists to help get their businesses firmly established. The RSE/SE Enterprise Fellowships programme, which aims to appoint 60 Fellowships over five years, has appointed 29 over the first three years. The fifth round took place in Spring 2010 and three Fellows were appointed who took up post in October 2010. The sixth round took place in Autumn 2010 and five Fellows were appointed who took up post in Spring 2011. The Scottish Enterprise funded Fellowships have created 61 (64% survival rate) companies, which in the last five years have secured 51m of further investment for the 5.5m funding given. Both of the Research Council schemes operate on a UK-wide basis and encourage the commercialisation of research previously funded by BBSRC and STFC. The BBSRC
scheme attracted an encouraging number of applications and, following a rigorous selection process, one BBSRC Enterprise Fellow took up post in October 2010, with another taking up post in Spring 2011. Two STFC Enterprise Fellowships awarded in June 2010 began in October 2010. Since 2003, with the support of the Gannochy Trust, the RSE has awarded an annual innovation award of 50,000 to recognise the best of Scotlands young innovators. The 2010 recipient was Matt McGrath, founder of life sciences firm Aircraft Medical, which has developed the worlds first fully portable video laryngoscope. This technological innovation, developed in Scotland, is designed to address the risk of failure to deliver oxygen to a patient once they have received a general anaesthetic prior to surgery and it has already been used in over 250,000 cases around the world. This was the final year of the award and the RSE is extremely grateful to the Gannochy Trust for its generous support, which resulted in us being able to recognise the work of seven highly innovative and entrepreneurial individuals. Moreover, this support has helped contribute to Scotlands well-being through generating around 4 million of added value for the Scottish
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economy, as evidenced by an independent evaluation of the programme. RSE Business Innovation Forum The Business Innovation Forum identified the crucial role of national infrastructure in supporting the national economy, with powerful digital networks being increasingly vital parts of this infrastructure, and set up a working group to look at the issues. In October 2010, the RSE published a report entitled Digital Scotland, setting out why Scotlands digital future is a crucial issue, why Scotland needs to act, and what needs to be done. The Scottish Governments strategy for Scotlands Digital Future, published in March 2011, reflected recommendations made in the Digital Scotland report. In December 2010, the Forum held a joint event with the Swiss Embassy on Stimulating Innovation. This compared the experiences of stimulating innovation in Scotland and Switzerland, with a view to helping improve innovation policy in Scotland by learning from Switzerlands successful approaches. The event was also used as an opportunity to launch the RSEs Innovation Friendly Scotland advice paper, which identified key priorities for the support of business innovation development in Scotland.
Enhancing the capacity of school-age children to adopt science as a career The Schools Programme continues to use RSE Fellows and other experts to share their knowledge and understanding of science and culture with pupils, with a particular focus on enthusing those already engaged, and reaching those pupils who are not in close proximity to Scottish universities and science centres, and who therefore have more limited opportunity to participate and meet with experts. The activities this year were held throughout Scotland and comprised 55 events 60 were planned attended by 1595 school pupils. These were:
Scotland via GLOW and the RSE web site
Christmas Lecture Reporting the World in an Age of Conflict schools lecture in Stranraer, which was webcast live by the BBC A national schools competition in liaison with the RSE Inquiry Facing up to Climate Change in which ten schools took part (five primary and five Secondary)
27 interactive Start-up Science Masterclasses for S1& S2 pupils in university venues around Scotland RSE@Schools 24 talks for S3, S5 and S6 pupils on applied science and technology SET Summer School 14 workshops given during a oneweek event to S5 pupils in the Lothians All-day Discussion Forum for S5 and S6 students from two schools from Glasgow and Fife on conservation and biodiversity using the film Avatar by James Cameron as a source of inspiration, with associated material distributed to all schools in
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Building on the success of the pilot RSE@ project in Arbroath, a second year-long, locally-tailored programme of outreach activities, RSE@Dumfries & Galloway, commenced in September 2010. The aim of this initiative is to enhance and improve the understanding and appreciation that people, particularly school-aged children, have for their local community. The focus is on themes both historical and contemporary that are relevant to the Dumfries and Galloway region and include science and environment, history and identity, literature and the arts and entrepreneurship. Events took place in venues in towns and villages across the region, including Langholm, Dumfries, New Galloway, Newton Stewart, Stranraer, Lockerbie and Kirkcudbright.
Enhancing the publics understanding of science and culture issues Events Each year the RSE delivers a multidisciplinary programme of events aimed at a wide variety of audiences. In 201011 we delivered 36 events attended by 3747 people our targets were 23 events attended by 3200. Public Lectures and discussion forums were attended by 3375 people: 22 Lectures :
Facing up to Climate Change Thomas Telford Engineering a Sustainable Scotland Wind, Water and Waves European Foreign Policy is it Desirable and Possible Adapting UK Institutions to Climate Change Reporting the World in an Age of Conflict The Next Economy Why Do We need a Lighthouse? The Bell Rock and the Stevensons Now Food Security and Sustainability: One Cant Make an Omelette Without Cracking Some Eggs Gannochy Trust Innovation Award Prize Lecture The Twin Towers: 10 years 10 Lessons on Sustainable Infrastructure On Our Humble Dumfries Boards? Galloway Waterways
Thomas Reid and the Art of Philosophy Chinas environmental challenges and the contribution of the Flora of China Project to resolving them The Art of (Women) Walking: An Embodied Practice An epidemiological perspective on the causes and prevention of breast cancer Global Action on Climate Change: the Road to Cancun The Wobbly Kaleidoscope Religion in our Time James Clerk Maxwell and how a hologram was made of his statue Art In Madness: Dr W. A. F. Brownes collection of patient art at Crichton Royal Institution, Dumfries in the mid-nineteenth century
Eight Lectures as part of Medieval Week held in partnership with the British Academy:
Monuments in Motion Portable Christianity: Relics in the Medieval He That All Our Comford Was? Robert the Bruce in Scottish Sources Before Barbours Bruce
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More than Skimble-Skamble Stuff: the Medieval Welsh Poetry Associated with Owain Glyndwr The Middle Ages A Distant Mirror Medieval Life and Death through the Centuries Personifications of Old Age in Medieval Poetry The Past as Propaganda: The Declaration of Arbroath The Past as Propaganda: The Mongol World History A Question of Chemistry? The role of the composer and librettist in the creation of opera Climate Change during the last 10,000 Years: Reconstructions and uncertainties
events were added to the website, and 25 written summary reports of activities in the public events and schools programme were published on the site soon after the events had taken place. Plans are developing to use the new website launched in May 2011 to further improve the reporting of and access to our activities. Media briefings and press releases were provided for most major events and launches, and there was appreciable media coverage of many of the significant activities in the RSE programme. Four issues of ReSourcE, the RSE newsletter were published and distributed to the Fellowship and around 3,000 others, including business leaders, journalists, research institutes, schools, MPs, MSPs and interested individuals. Fellows received a monthly ebulletin, which enabled them to keep up to date with and disseminate information on the RSE and its work. In addition, seven public e-bulletins were sent out during the year to promote various events and schools activities. Two issues of Science Scotland entitled Towards a Greener Future and Informatics, were published in the year. Science Scotland continues to increase peoples awareness of cutting-edge science and technology activities in Scotland. Since April 2010, the web site has had almost 8,000
Three Discussion Forums
Assisted Dying Mock Trial Conferences 372 people attended three conferences
CRF Conference 2010 Diabetes & obesity: getting to the heart of the matter The Bell Rock Lighthouse, the Stevensons: Emerging Issues in Aids to Navigation Assisted Dying Workshop
Communications The RSE website provides information for the public and for Fellows. This year an increased number (20) of audio/ video recordings of
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unique hits and has been viewed by people in over 32 countries. The RSE, through the Foundation, publishes two journals Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Proceedings A: Mathematics. Copies of the journals are sent to 350 University Libraries, Academies and Institutions world wide, as part of the RSEs exchange programme. The journals are highly regarded by academics as publication vehicles for their research, and they both maintain a respectably high impact factor in comparison with similar journals in their fields. Six issues of Proceedings A were published during the 201011 year. Six issues of Transactions were published. The digitisation of the RSEs archive journals Transactions: Earth Sciences (17851979), Proceedings (18321940), Proceedings A (19411999) and Proceedings B (19411996) was progressed by Cambridge University Press during the year and the digital archive will be marketed and made available for sale to the public during 201112 thus making the RSEs highly regarded journal archive more easily accessible to a world-wide audience.
Informing and influencing public policy decisions Key outputs of the RSEs Policy Advice Unit were two briefing papers, one for MSPs on the Curriculum for Excellence and a paper on the Future of Agricultural Support for the Scottish Parliament Rural Affairs and Environment Committee; 17 Advice papers, 14 to the Scottish Parliament and/or the Scottish Government:
Scotlands Higher Activity Radioactive Waste Policy End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill Graham Donaldsons Review of Teacher Education in Scotland Reform of the Rule Against Double Jeopardy Towards a Low Carbon Economy for Scotland Scotlands International Engagement Preventative Spending Scotlands Enterprise Network An Agenda for Research at a Time of Educational Reform in Scotland Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Bill Innovation-Friendly Scotland: Priorities for Innovation and Business Development A Land Use Strategy for Scotland
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The Teaching of History in Scottish Schools Scotlands Next Energy Revolution The Future of Higher Education in Scotland Delivering Sustainable Flood Risk Management Course Rationale and Summary for New National Qualifications in History
Loughran (Life Sciences, Scottish Enterprise.) RSE Inquiry, Facing Up to Climate Change The Inquiry, launched in October 2009, continued its work during the year and issued its report Facing up to Climate Change in March 2011. The Inquiry took written and oral evidence from over 110 organisations, more than 40 individuals and from six public meetings around Scotland, involving some 400 people. The Committee also visited exemplar case studies, hosted or took part in over 30 seminars and conferences, and carried out a national schools competition. The Inquiry received funding from over twenty corporate and charitable supporters, and the RSE is grateful for their assistance in ensuring the Inquiry remained wholly independent. The Inquiry committee was headed by climate scientist Professor David Sugden, Professor of Geography from the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh and a world leader in ice sheets and global climate change. The Report sets out ten primary recommendations aimed at overcoming the barriers that are stopping Scotland from taking steps towards a low-carbon society, and from meeting its ambitious climate change targets.
Three of these Advice papers were proactive interventions: Innovation-Friendly Scotland, An Agenda for Evaluation of Educational Reforms and the Teaching of History in Scottish Schools. Oral evidence to Scottish Parliamentary Committees was provided on a range of subjects including: Carbon Capture and Storage, Digital Scotland; the Future of Agricultural support; Climate Change, Women in Science, and the Inquiry into Preventative Spending. A Science and the Parliament event was held in partnership with the Royal Society of Chemistry, which attracted 34 exhibitors and more than 300 delegates, including MSPs. Amongst the keynote speakers, on the topic of Science and the Scottish General Election were: Iain Gray MSP, Professor Anne Glover (Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland), Professor Paul Hagan (Director of Research and Innovation, SFC), Dr Oonagh
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These call for urgent action on making the energy grid in Scotland fit for purpose in the renewables age; the retrofitting of regulation created at a time when reducing CO2 emissions was not a concern; mobilising private finance in support of a lowcarbon society; and embedding the need to reduce emissions across all government and local authority functions, and in all organisations. A short animated film was developed to accompany the report and made available via YouTube, with the aim of reaching new audiences through the internet. RSE Education Committee The RSE Education Committee members contributed to the development of policy in relation to helping 21st-Century education, most specifically in relation to improving science, computing and history education in schools. Following the RSEs submission to Graham Donaldsons Review of Teacher Education in Scotland, members of the RSEs Education Committee met with him to discuss the issues being explored by his review. In partnership with the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the RSE undertook a Chemistry exemplification project to support Curriculum for Excellence implementation. The RSE/RSC Chemistry exemplification materials were launched in November
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2010 with a class of S2 pupils at Craigmount High School in Edinburgh. The materials were developed by Dr Shona Scheuerl who was, for a year, seconded on a part-time basis to explore the exemplification of a subset of Chemistry-related Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes into classroom work, materials and laboratory or outside activities. The exemplification materials produced, including teachers and pupils guides, are hosted on the RSC website with links from the RSE, Scottish Schools Education Research Centre, Education Scotland and GLOW (Scotlands national intranet for schools). During the year the Education Committee has been considering how this innovative and wellreceived approach can be adapted in future for other subjects, particularly history and computing. The Fellowship Programme The RSEs Fellowship includes men and women from all parts of Scotland, the UK and overseas, and encompasses the full range of disciplines, including science, engineering, social sciences, arts, humanities, law, education, business and industry. In March 2011, the RSE announced the election of four new Corresponding Fellows, one Honorary Fellow and 40 new
Fellows. This followed the scrutiny in 2010 of 149 candidates through a four-stage committee process, culminating in the postal ballot in December to the entire Fellowship. The addition of new Fellows in 2010 brought the numbers of all categories of Fellows up to 1546 66 Honorary Fellows; 61 Corresponding Fellows and 1419 Fellows. The discipline balance of the Fellowship is broadly represented by four cognate sectors. The current balance of these sectors for Fellows is 36% (Life Sciences Sector A), 37 %(Physical Engineering and Informatic Sciences Sector B),16% (Humanities and Creative Arts Sector C) and 11% (Social Sciences, Education and Public Service Sector D). The RSE holds an Induction Day each year for the new Fellows. This provides an opportunity for new Fellows to meet with members of Council, the Executive Board and RSE staff, and to be formally admitted to the RSE. There were also events primarily for Fellows, including the Fellows Summer Reception, the Royal Medals Award Ceremony, and the Annual Statutory Meeting. RSE Scotland Foundation In addition to publishing the RSE Journals, the Foundation continued to support education and the transfer of useful knowledge through letting the conference
facilities in George Street. Income from this activity was down from the previous year; although the number of hires was almost the same as 2009/10. The Foundation was also responsible for letting surplus space to tenants Universities Scotland and Lakeland Ltd. The income generated from these lettings supported the RSE public benefit programmes. Caledonian Research Fund (CRF) The Foundation continues to administer funds received from CRF in 2009 in accordance with the transfer agreement. The Trustees agreed firstly to honour the existing financial commitments of the CRF in support of scientific research, and thereafter to apply the assets at their discretion, with the proviso that they should have regard to the existing activities of the CRF. At the time of the transfer the existing schemes of the CRF comprised: PostDoctoral Research Fellowships in Bomedical Sciences; European Visiting Fellowships to enable scholars from continental Europe to spend short periods working in Scotland and vice versa; Postgraduate Scholarships for students undertaking research leading to a PhD degree in Scotland; and an annual international conference on aspects of the biomedical sciences. Five postdoctoral research fellows and six postgraduate students were in post in 2009 and were
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due to conclude between July 2010 and September 2011. Since then the Trustees have agreed to the award of one postdoctoral Fellowship and one postgraduate studentship in each of 200910 and 201011. Other commitments made in 201011 comprised seven grants for European Visiting Research Fellowships totalling 17,540 and a Conference entitled Diabetes and obesity: getting to the heart of the matter, which took place in May 2010. All of the activities of the CRF are administered on behalf of the Foundation by the RSE, except the administration of the postgraduate scholarship scheme, which remains with the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. Scottish Bioinformatics Forum (SBF) SBF actively promotes training and knowledge transfer of bioinformatics skills, including facilitating multi-centre collaborations, industry and academic joint ventures, partnering, knowledge transfer, and bioinformatics training. It performs an important role in promoting bioinformatics as a key enabling technology in Life Science research and development.
During the year, SBF was run as a project of the Foundation supported by grant funding. As this funding came to an end it was necessary to seek a new mechanism for sustaining the established and well-supported network of SBF. In March 2011, agreement was reached to merge the SBF activities with those of Nexxus, the life science networking organisation for Scotlands life scientists established in 2003, which has broadly similar aims to the Forum and is already familiar to many of its members through its website, publications and events. BP Research Fellowship Trust After obtaining the agreement of BP to the restructuring of the postdoctoral fellowship scheme, the first five-year appointment to the revised fellowship was made in Spring 2010 and commenced in September 2010. As well as an extended period of support from the Trust, BP Research Fellows will now be eligible to apply for other external grant funding in support of their research. A new Hutton Prize in Energy Innovation will be awarded in alternate years when there is no Fellowship award. It is planned that the first Hutton Prize in Energy Innovation will be awarded in 2011.
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FINANCIAL REVIEW AND POLICIES Investment powers and policy The management of the investment funds of the RSE, the Foundation and the BP Research Fellowship Trust is carried out by Speirs & Jeffrey & Co on a discretionary basis. The objectives set by the Council are to ensure a sufficient level of income to meet the target set annually by the Council, and to invest for real capital growth over the long term. The Council has delegated the detailed monitoring of performance to an Investment Committee chaired by the Treasurer and which includes at least one ordinary member of Council and two external investment experts. Comparisons are made against a composite benchmark reflecting the mix of assets held and the WM Charities Income Constrained Index. The performance of the portfolios in the year was as follows: Income Target 000 214 123 315 Actual Income 000 214 123 314 Total Benchmark Return % % 9.3 7.8 (RSE) 9.0 7.8 (BP) 6.5 7.8 (FDN)
review, no compliance issues arose which required to be reported to the Committee. Operating policies grant making The RSE makes grants to individuals in higher education institutions in support of research activities in the categories of postdoctoral Research Fellowships, Support Research Fellowships, post-graduate Studentships, undergraduate Vacation Scholarships, Enterprise Fellowships and international exchange grants. Each of these categories is specifically funded from various sources, including the RSEs restricted funds. The basis of eligibility and selection varies according to the detailed scheme regulations, which are published on the RSEs website (www.royalsoced.org.uk). Grants are also made in support of research activities of Fellows of the RSE, including support for travel connected with research or scholarship, small scale specialist meetings, to assist research visitors to Scotland to undertake collaborative research work with a Fellow, to assist a visiting lecturer to come to Scotland, to assist research collaboration between two institutions in Scotland or between universities and industry and to assist in the publication of books written by Fellows. These grants are funded by the RSEs designated Grants Fund. The
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The Investment Committee meets twice annually with the investment managers to discuss their compliance with the constraints set by the Committee and risk environment. In the year under
Grants Committee is responsible for making awards in accordance with the detailed rules set out by the Council of the RSE for the disbursement of the Grants Fund. Reserves policy and funds The RSE holds a number of restricted funds resulting from bequests for particular purposes, details of which are set out in note 2 to the financial statements. The Council has created designated funds, from its unrestricted funds, the purposes of which are also set out in note 2 to the financial statements. The General Fund represents the balance of unrestricted funds arising from past operations. The Council has examined the requirement to hold unrestricted funds, and concluded that, whilst the present level of reserves gives adequate working capital for core costs, it is desirable to have a General Fund reserve in the range of six months expenditure on central costs or approximately 780,000. The current fund balance is 758,000. The Council has also reviewed the purposes and amounts of each of the designated funds, which comprise allocations for specific purposes of sums that had been donated in prior periods, together with the Development Fund and the Capital Asset Reserve.
Result for the year The surplus of consolidated net incoming resources for the year was 327,000, compared to the 62,000 deficit achieved last year. As outlined above, this was after crediting exceptional pension adjustments of 240,000 arising mainly from the calculations of future pensions increases being based on Consumer Prices Index rather than the Retail Prices Index, and legacy and appeal income of 68,000. The underlying surplus was therefore 19,000. Investment gains comprised 8,000 realised in the year and 515,000 unrealised at the year end. The net movement on funds for the year after the FRS17 actuarial adjustment was 1.026m. Income and Expenditure Total incoming resources Total incoming resources were 5.94 m (2010 5.29m), an increase of 12%. The increase arose mainly from increases in income received from charitable activities, of which the increase in funding for the Scottish Government Research Fellowships and the Arts & Humanities awards was the largest contribution. Voluntary income (note 4) of 409,000 includes Fellows subscriptions, the grant in support of SBF, together with an initial distribution from a legacy from Dr Gethin Lewis and contin395
uing contributions from the Friends of the Society corporate partners of the RSE, listed in note 26(d). Incoming resources from charitable activities of 4.61m increased by 17% from the 2009 10 level of 3.94m. The increases in income for promotion of research and innovation were for Arts & Humanities research funded by the Scottish Government and the increased duration of Scottish Government Research Fellowships. Income was received for the Gannochy Trust Innovation Award this year again, having not been awarded in 2009. In other charitable activities income received for the Climate Change Inquiry was recognised as the work progressed. Resources expended Total resources expended on a like-for-like basis increased by 9%. The expenditure after the exceptional pension adjustment, has increased by 5% (0.26m) from last year. This reflects the increased expenditure on charitable activities, as governance and costs of generating funds are similar to previous years. Cost of generating funds (note 6) includes the cost of the Fellowship office, the costs of building management in respect of income from letting of surplus space, as well as fundraising costs, both
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direct and management time in securing funding. Overall, expenditure on charitable activities has increased by 488,000. Grants payable in support of research and innovation made up the major part of this increase, rising from 3.64m to 4.01m. Expenditure on Scottish Government-funded research rose by 636,000, offset by reductions in the CRF grants payable as expenditure was reduced to balance income and a fall in expenditure on Enterprise Fellowships due to the timing of appointments made. Expenditure on influencing public policy also increased, due to an increase in the volume of activity and staff capacity. Governance costs, which have remained at a similar level to previous years, represent less than 3% of total recurring income. Transfers between funds shown in the Statement of Financial Activities comprise the recurring transfer from the Capital Asset Reserve of a total of 101,000 to match the depreciation of buildings and the capital repayment of the loan to the Foundation; and a transfer on consolidation from the Foundation restricted fund balance to the General Fund, equivalent to the net inter-entity income received in the RSE.
Balance sheet Consolidated net assets have increased from 21.15m to 22.18m; about half the increase coming from the unrealised surplus on investments of 516,000 with the balance arising from the FRS17 pension adjustments. These comprise the exceptional credit of 240,000 due to the change in calculation of pensions increases and an actuarial gain recognised of 175,000. Although the gain calculated by the actuary was 262,000, the amount recognised in the financial statements was restricted so that no net pension asset was recognised, because it is unlikely that such an asset could be realised in the foreseeable future. Net current assets decreased from 1.99m to 1.54m, as cash deposits of 500,000 were transferred to fixed asset investments in the year, to improve the investment return. Debtors have increased by 446,000, mainly reflecting the timing of receipt of Scottish Government grant claims. Creditors have increased as a result of grants and awards commitments made in the second half of the year. Future plans In the context of the 16% cut in the RSEs Scottish Government grant for 201112 and uncertainty about external financial
conditions, the continuing strategy of diversification of income is essential. The Councils aim of building relationships with a view to working in partnership is progressing in respect of the corporate sector through the Friends of the Society, and good progress was made in the year. The aim of building the Development Fund as an internal resource continues, although this is of necessity a long term plan. As a major project in 201112, plans are now well advanced for the creation of a Young Academy of Scotland, drawn from the younger generation of researchers, scholars, business people and professionals. The Academy will present an opportunity for this group to interact with each other and integrate with the decision makers and opinion formers to address the important issues in Scottish life today. Public sector funding is likely to continue to be uncertain, but our review of the Strategic Framework and priorities for the period from 2012, will seek to mitigate the effects of these uncertainties. The focus will remain on the successful delivery of RSEs varied programme of activities with public benefit outcomes within the priorities set by the Council. Signed on behalf of the Council Ewan Brown CBE Treasurer September 2011
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AUDITORS REPORT AND ACCOUNTS

Independent Auditors Report to the Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh We have audited the financial statements of the Royal Society of Edinburgh for the year ended 31 March 2011 which comprise the group statement of financial activities, the charity statement of financial activities, the group balance sheet, the charity balance sheet, the cashflow statement and the related notes. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). This report is made solely to the charitys Trustees, as a body, in accordance with section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulation 10 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitys Trustees, as a body, those matters we are required to state to them in an auditors report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charitys Trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed. Respective responsibilities of trustees and auditor As explained more fully in the Trustees Responsibilities Statement, the Trustees are responsible for the preparation of financial statements which give a true and fair view. We have been appointed as auditor under section 44(1)(c) of Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and report in accordance with regulations made under that Act. Our responsibility is to audit and express an opinion on the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland). Those standards require us to comply with the Auditing Practices Boards (APBs) Ethical Standards for Auditors. Scope of the audit of the financial statements An audit involves obtaining evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements sufficient to give reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement, whether caused by fraud or error. This includes an assessment of: whether the accounting policies are appropriate to the charitys circumstances and have been consistently applied and adequately disclosed; the reasonableness of significant
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accounting estimates made by the Trustees; and the overall presentation of the financial statements. In addition, we read all the financial and non-financial information in the Trustees Report to identify material inconsistencies with the audited financial statements. If we become aware of any apparent material misstatements or inconsistencies we consider the implications for our report. Opinion on financial statements In our opinion the financial statements:
Matters on which we are required to report by exception We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Charity Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
the information given in the Trustees Annual Report is inconsistent in any material respect with the financial statements; or proper accounting records have not been kept; or the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.
give a true and fair view of the state of the group and the charitys affairs as at 31 March 2011 and of the group and charitys incoming resources and application of resources, for the year then ended; have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulation 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006.
Henderson Loggie Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditors (Eligible to act as an auditor in terms of section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006). 5 September 2011
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ACCOUNTS
Group statement of nancial activities (incorporating the income & expenditure account) for year ended 31 March 2011
Note General Fund Income Voluntary income Activities for generating income Investment income 4 4 4 25,078 143,446 232,721 62,500 114,071 253,487 506,615 409,292 253,487 675,139 433,811 258,362 663,688 Designated Funds Restricted Income Restricted Funds 2011 Total 2010 Total
Incoming resources from generated funds Incoming resources from charitable activities Total incoming resources 5
257,799 77,619 335,418
205,946 4,179,542 205,946 4,179,542
874,173 354,518 1,228,691
1,337,918 4,611,679 5,949,597
1,355,861 3,937,256 5,293,117
Expenditure Cost of generating funds Charitable activities Exceptional FRS 17 pension credit Governance Total resources expended 6 6 6,12 6 (206,179) (237,267) 240,000 (117,244) (320,690) (65,625) (4,179,542) (42,377) (1,056,611) (9,845) (55,780) (4,179,542) (65,429) (948,805) (281,453) (5,421,394) 240,000 (159,621) (5,622,468) (154,189) (5,355,535) (267,938) (4,933,408)
Net (outgoing)/incoming resources before transfers Transfers between funds Other recognised gains/(losses) Gains/(losses) on investment assets Realised gains/(losses) Unrealised gains/(losses) Actuarial gain/(losses) on Lothian Pension Fund Net movement in funds Balance brought forward at 1 April 2010 Balance carried forward at 31 March 2011
14,728
140,321
172,080
327,129
(62,418)
218,288
(101,818)
(116,470)
459 2,248
29,363 143,738
(21,672) 369,824
8,150 515,810
341,629 2,873,292
175,000 410,723 211,604 403,762
175,000 1,026,089
(607,000) 2,545,503
347,514
7,487,006
13,321,065
21,155,585
18,610,082
758,237
7,698,610
13,724,827
22,181,674
21,155,585
400
Group balance sheet at 31 March 2011
Note
2011
2011
2010
2010
Fixed assets Tangible xed assets Fixed asset investments Investments at market value 15 17,087,892 20,859,963 Current assets Debtors Cash at bank and in hand Money Market deposits Designated funds Money Market deposits Restricted funds Money Market deposits General funds 16 1,217,162 130,051 96,343 1,637,362 29,356 3,110,274 Current liabilities Creditors: amounts falling due within one year 17 (1,570,713) (1,316,484) 770,792 310,904 95,864 1,499,620 636,180 3,313,360 16,083,212 19,963,701 14 3,772,071 3,880,489
Net current assets Total assets less current liabilities Provision for liabilities and charges Net assets excluding pension fund Lothian Pension Fund dened benet scheme asset/(liability) Net assets after pension fund asset/(liability) 18
1,539,561 22,399,524 (217,850) 22,181,674
1,996,876 21,960,577 (389,992) 21,570,585
23 22,181,674
(415,000) 21,155,585
Funds General Fund Add: Pension reserve 19 Designated Funds Restricted Funds Total funds 20 21 758,237 7,698,610 13,724,827 22,181,674 758,237 762,514 (415,000) 347,514 7,487,006 13,321,065 21,155,585
The accounts were approved by the Council on 5 September 2011 and signed on its behalf by: Ewan Brown, CBE Treasurer
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RSE balance sheet at 31 March 2011
Note
2011
2011
2010
2010
Fixed assets Tangible xed assets Fixed asset investments Investments at market value Loan to RSE Scotland Foundation 14 15(a) 15(b) 2,115,452 6,064,793 1,703,904 9,884,149 Current assets Debtors Cash at bank and in hand Money Market deposits Designated funds Money Market deposits Restricted funds Money Market deposits General funds 16 1,124,283 109,181 96,343 1,637,362 29,356 2,996,525 Current liabilities Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Net current assets Total assets less current liabilities Provision for liabilities and charges Net assets excluding pension fund Lothian Pension Fund dened benet scheme asset/(liability) Net assets after pension fund asset/(liability) Funds General Fund Add: Pension reserve 19 Designated Funds Restricted Funds Total funds 20 21 758,237 7,698,610 1,919,338 10,376,185 758,237 762,514 (415,000) 347,514 7,487,006 1,847,771 9,682,291 23 10,376,185 18 17 (2,286,639) 709,886 10,594,035 (217,850) 10,376,185 (1,709,422) 1,322,775 10,487,283 (389,992) 10,097,291 (415,000) 9,682,291 604,866 195,667 95,864 1,499,620 636,180 3,032,197 2,171,157 5,242,639 1,750,712 9,164,508
The accounts were approved by the Council on 5 September 2011 and signed on its behalf by: Ewan Brown, CBE Treasurer
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RSE statement of nancial activities (incorporating the income & expenditure account) for year ended 31 March 2011
Note
General Fund
Designated Funds
Restricted income
Restricted funds
2011 Total
2010 Total
Income Voluntary income Investment income 232,721 109,545 62,500 143,446 6,249 70,026 301,470 323,017 280,542 313,620
Incoming resources from generated funds Incoming resources from charitable activities Total incoming resources
342,266 109,622 451,888
205,946 4,570,000 205,946 4,570,000
76,275
624,487 4,679,622
594,162 4,122,775 4,716,937
76,275
5,304,109
Expenditure Cost of generating funds Charitable activities Exceptional FRS 17 pension credit Governance Total resources expended 12 (206,179) (237,267) 240,000 (117,244) (320,690) (65,625) (4,570,000) (88,556) (9,845) (55,780) (4,570,000) (88,556) (216,024) (4,951,603) 240,000 (117,244) (5,044,871) (114,751) (4,762,486) (197,551) (4,450,184)
Net incoming/(outgoing) resources before transfers Transfers between funds Other recognised gains/(losses) Gains /(losses) on investment assets Realised gains/(losses) Unrealised gains/(losses) Actuarial gains (losses) on Lothian Pension Fund Net movement in funds Balance brought forward at 1 April 2010 Balance carried forward at 31 March 2011
131,198 101,818
140,321 (101,818)
(12,281)
259,238
(45,549)
459 2,248
29,363 143,738
14,223 69,625
44,045 215,611
124,265 862,785
23
175,000 410,723 211,604 71,567
175,000 693,894
(607,000) 334,501
347,514
7,487,006
1,847,771
9,682,291
9,347,790
758,237
7,698,610
1,919,338
10,376,185
9,682,291
403
Group cash ow statement for the year ended 31 March 2011
2011 Cash ow statement Net cash outow from operating activities Returns on investments and servicing of nance: Interest received Dividends received 24,097 642,040
2011
2010
2010
(827,373)
(490,497)
31,429 632,259 666,137 663,688 (18,110) 4,008,894 (3,951,866) 157 (494,247) 39,075 212,266 7,143 219,409
Capital expenditure and nancial investment: Purchase of tangible xed assets Proceeds from sale of investments Purchases of investments Capital receipt (13,527) 2,968,391 (3,449,111)
Net cash ow before nancing: Appeal receipts (Decrease)/Increase in cash in the year Reconciliation of net cash ow to movement in net funds (Decrease)/Increase in cash in the year Net funds at beginning of year Net funds at end of year (note 27) Reconciliation of net movement in funds to net cash outow from operating activities Net incoming/(outgoing) resources before transfers Retirement benet scheme current service cost Retirement benet scheme contributions Retirement benet scheme nance cost Appeal receipts Dividends receivable Interest receivable Depreciation Capital receipt in cash Capital receipt in shares Increase in debtors Increase in creditors Movement on provision for liabilities Net cash outow from operating activities (437,368) 254,229 (172,142) (827,373) 327,129 147,000 (144,000) (243,000) (6,027) (651,042) (24,097) 121,945
(655,483) 6,027 (649,456)
(649,456) 2,542,568 1,893,112
219,409 2,323,159 2,542,568
(62,418) 61,000 (120,000) 6,000 (7,143) (632,259) (31,429) 122,208 (157) (40,801) (308,233) 762,971 (240,236) (490,497)
404
notes to the nancial statements
1 Accounting basis
The accounts have been drawn up to comply with the provisions of the Charities & Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006, and follow the recommendations of the Statement of Recommended Practice for charities (SORP) approved by the Accounting Standards Board in February 2005 and applicable accounting standards. The accounts have been prepared under the historical cost accounting rules as modied to include the revaluation of investments. The accounts comprise ve primary nancial statements: the Group and RSE statement of nancial activities incorporating the income and expenditure account, the Group and RSE balance sheet and the Group cash ow statement. On the basis of the RSEs reserves and cash position and the secured and expected incoming resources for the next twelve months, the Council considers that it is appropriate to prepare the nancial statements on a going concern basis. The consolidated nancial statements include the nancial statements of the RSE and of entities which are under its control: RSE Scotland Foundation and BP Research Fellowship Trust. As the objectives of each of these entities are narrower than those of the RSE, they have been treated as restricted funds.
Designated Funds Capital Asset Reserve Fund representing the book cost of the buildings at 22-24 George Street and 26 George Street together with the building project loan to the RSE Scotland Foundation. Development Appeal Fund to provide development nance to implement the RSE Strategic Framework. Programme Fund a fund created to act as a source of funding for meetings activities. C H Kemball Fund income from this fund is used to provide hospitality for distinguished visitors from other learned societies and Academies. Dr James Heggie Fund income from this fund supports the RSEs activities with young people. Grants Fund a fund created by contributions and legacies from Fellows and used to provide grants to support research activities to Fellows. Restricted Income Fund income funds received for expenditure on current projects. Restricted Funds Robert Cormack Bequest to promote astronomical knowledge and research in Scotland. Lessells Trust to fund scholarships abroad for engineers. Auber Bequest to fund research in Scotland and England by naturalised British citizens over 60 years of age. Prizes Fund to fund various prizes. Dryerre Fund to fund postgraduate scholarships in medical or veterinary physiology. Fleck Bequest Fund to promote interest, knowledge and appreciation of science and its applications throughout Scotland. Piazzi Smyth Legacy Fund to fund high altitude astronomical research. Sillitto Fund to promote interest in physics among young people.
CASS Fund to fund academic / industrial liaison. Retailing Seminar Fund to fund a programme of seminars on retailing. Edinburgh Drug Absorption Foundation Fund to fund a series of conferences on the broad theme of Drugs Futures. RSE Scotland Foundation a trust to advance the education of the public in Scotland in science, engineering and technology, incorporating assets transferred from the CRF. The CRF funds remain restricted until preexisting awards and appointments are concluded. BP Research Fellowship Trust a trust to fund postdoctoral research fellowships in Scotland.
3 Accounting policies
Incoming resources Voluntary income Subscriptions are accounted for on the basis of the subscription year to October 2011 and include income tax recoverable on the subscriptions paid under Gift Aid. Revenue grants are credited to income in the period in which the RSE becomes entitled to the resources. Donations of a recurring nature from other charitable foundations and one-off gifts and legacies included in other income are taken to revenue in the period to which they relate. Investment income Interest and dividends are accounted for in the year in which they are received.
Incoming resources for charitable activities Incoming resources for activities are accounted for on an accruals basis.
2 Funds
The RSEs funds are classied in accordance with the denitions in SORP into Restricted Funds, where there are restrictions placed by a donor as to the use of income or capital, Designated Funds where the Society has set aside sums from its unrestricted funds for a particular purpose and the General (unrestricted) Fund. The classications made are as follows: General Fund A discretionary Fund available to the Council to meet the ordinary activities of the Society.
405
Publication income receivable in foreign currencies is converted into sterling at rates of exchange ruling at the date of receipt. Incoming resources for research fellowships are accounted for in the period in which the RSE becomes entitled to the resources. Income received for specic projects, and received in advance of the commencement of the project, is deferred. If the project were not to proceed as planned, the RSE would not be entitled to retain the funds. For performance-related grants, where entitlement to the incoming resource only arises with the performance of the specic outputs agreed under the contracts, income is deferred. Resources expended Expenditure and support costs All resources expended are included on an accruals basis, having regard to any constructive obligations created by multi-year grant commitments. Where directly attributable, resources expended are allocated to the relevant functional category. Overhead and support costs are allocated to functional category on the basis of direct staff costs in each area of activity. Cost of generating funds The cost of generating funds includes expenditure incurred in supporting the Fellowship and incurred on fundraising and development initiatives.
Charitable activities Grants payable are recognised as a liability when the RSE is under an actual or constructive obligation to make a transfer to a third party. Where grants are time related to future periods and are to be nanced by specic grants receivable in those future periods, they are treated as liabilities of those periods and not as liabilities at balance sheet date. Such grants are disclosed as future commitments. Governance costs Governance costs are those incurred in connection with the management of RSE assets, organisational administration and compliance with constitutional and statutory requirements. Tangible xed assets, depreciation and repairs
The RSEs principal assets are its buildings in George Street, Edinburgh. Under FRS15 the Society depreciates the buildings assuming a 50-year life. It is the policy of the Council to maintain the buildings to a high standard. Any permanent diminutions in value are reected in the statement of nancial activities. Costs of repairs and maintenance are charged against revenue. Expenditure incurred by the RSE Scotland Foundation in the improvements to 26 George Street is being depreciated from the date of completion of the refurbishment over the period of the lease to the RSE Scotland Foundation to 30 June 2047.
Minor equipment is charged against revenue in the year of purchase. Computer and audio-visual is depreciated on a straight line basis over 320 years. Investments Investments are stated at their market value at the balance sheet date. Gains and losses on disposal and revaluation of investments are charged or credited in the statement of nancial activities and allocated to funds in accordance with their proportionate share of the investment portfolio. Pensions The RSE participates in dened benet pension schemes which are externally funded. The cost of providing pensions is allocated over employees working lives with the RSE and is included in staff costs. Pension fund assets arising from valuations under FRS 17 are recognised only to the extent that the asset is recoverable in the foreseeable future. Foreign exchange Assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies are translated at the rate of exchange ruling at the balance sheet date while transactions arising during the year are translated at the spot rate prevailing when the transaction arises. Exchange gains or losses arising in the year are recognised in the statement of nancial activities.
406

4 Incoming resources
Current year 2011
Voluntary income
Activities for generating income
Investment
Fellows Individuals and legacies Companies Charitable trusts Scottish Government Public sector bodies Bank interest Dividends RSE BP Research Fellowship Trust -dividends and interest RSE Scotland Foundation grant re SBF grants & donations rental income charitable activities dividends and interest
208,823 70,148 16,250 6,249
Promotion of research and innovation
Other charitable activities
Total 2011
123,533 2,214,640 1,068,472 24,097 214,454
17,666 75,268 54,905 680,910 21,768
208,823 87,814 91,518 184,687 2,895,550 1,090,240 24,097 214,454 4,797,183 122,113 107,822 253,487 354,517 314,475 5,949,597 Total 2010
301,470
238,551 122,113
3,406,645
850,517
107,822 253,487 354,517 314,475 409,292 253,487 Activities for generating income 675,139 Investment 3,406,645 Promotion of research and innovation 1,205,034 Other charitable activities _ 8,747 33,262 49,708 679,755 12,253
Voluntary income Prior year 2010 Fellows Individuals Companies Charitable trusts Scottish Government Public sector bodies Bank interest Dividends RSE BP Research Fellowship Trust -dividends and interest RSE Scotland Foundation grant re SBF rental income charitable activities dividends and interest Transfer of assets from the CRF 206,940 8,386 16,250 48,966
206,940 17,133 49,512 123,664 2,258,117 1,248,004 31,429 195,853 4,130,652 131,224 120,620 258,362 314,428 305,182 5,260,468 32,649 5,293,117
24,990 1,578,362 1,235,751 31,429 195,853
280,542
227,282 131,224
2,839,103
783,725
120,620 258,362 314,428 305,182 401,162 32,649 433,811 258,362 258,362 663,688 663,688 2,839,103 2,839,103 1,098,153 1,098,153
407

4 Incoming resources (continued) 4a Voluntary income
2011 Contributions from RSE Fellows Admission fees Annual subscriptions Income tax recoverable under Gift Aid Lessells Trust additional receipt Appeal receipts Legacies Fleck Trust transfer Friends of the Society corporate partners Other income 11,200 167,971 29,652 208,823 6,249 6,027 62,500 16,250 1,621 301,470
2010 11,200 167,280 28,460 206,940 8,008 7,143 40,958 16,250 1,243 280,542
In addition to the donations set out above, the RSE receives donations made specically in support of activities which are included in activities income (see note 26(b)).
5 Incoming resources from charitable activities

2011 Scottish Government Grant research fellowships Scottish Government Grant Marie Curie COFUND Scottish Enterprise BBSRC Enterprise Fellowships STFC Enterprise Fellowships Gannochy Trust Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland Scottish Crucible arts & humanities awards 1,727,569 487,071 22,931 573,831 369,177 99,253 105,000 18,533 3,280 3,406,645 Scottish Government Grant generating & communicating knowledge Scottish Government Grant International activities Wider outreach activities Meetings Policy and advice income IEEE / RSE / Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award Educational activities Sale of sundry publications 373,624 307,286 34,367 36,298 70,473 22,294 5,790 385 850,517 RSE Scotland Foundation Journal publications RSE Scotland Foundation Conference facilities letting RSE Scotland Foundation Science and society 206,070 128,847 19,600 354,517 4,611,679 Further information relating to grants, donations and receipts and their application is set out in note 26. 719,598 449,060 65,593 2,607 22,383 1,500 2,839,103 372,358 307,398 41,457 33,672 20,776 7,803 261 783,725 148,165 150,623 15,640 314,428 3,937,256 2010 1,456,169 122,193
408

6 Resources expended
2011 Direct costs Costs of generating funds Fundraising Fellows subscriptions Appeal donations 9,596 RSE Scotland Foundation Building management BP Research Fellowship Trust Investment fees Total costs of generating funds Charitable activities Enhancing World-Class Research Increasing International Research Connections Improving Connections Between Business and Academia
Increasing Numbers Taking Science as a Career
2010 Total 2011 127,419 78,760 9,845 216,024 65,099 330 356 3,249 264,689 2,893 Direct costs 2,893 Support costs (Note 12) 106,903 78,286 9,468 194,657 70,032 Total 2010 109,796 78,286 9,468 197,550 70,032 356 267,938
Support costs (Note 12) 117,823 78,760 9,845 206,428 65,099
9,596
330 9,926 271,527
281,453
2,627,491 195,361 1,001,380

32,349
277,571 116,626 102,698

51,772
2,905,062 311,987 1,104,078

84,121
2,132,356 193,765 1,126,786

8,865
277,395 114,980 107,858

46,928
2,409,751 308,745 1,234,644

55,793
Enhancing Public Appreciation of Science and Culture Informing and Inuencing Public Policy
126,523 73,391 4,056,495
237,657 214,781 1,001,105 40,027 5,710 15,000 95,830
364,180 288,172 5,057,600 157,930 7,452 102,582 95,830 363,794 5,421,394 (240,000)
128,357 40,667 3,630,796 86,602 1,247 105,620
239,151 179,065 965,377 36,181 15,000 92,585
367,508 219,732 4,596,173 122,783 1,247 120,620 92,585 337,235 4,933,408
RSE Scotland Foundation Journal Publications Science and society SBF Conference facilities letting
117,903 1,742 87,582
207,227 Total cost of charitable activities Exeptional FRS 17 pension credit Governance (note 11) RSE RSE Scotland Foundation BP Research Fellowship Trust Total governance costs Resources expended 5,216 5,139 1,260 11,615 4,285,263 4,263,722
156,567 1,157,672 (240,000)
193,469 3,824,265
143,766 1,109,143
112,028 35,978
117,244 41,117 1,260
6,956 3,345 1,196 11,497 3,839,011
107,795 34,897
114,751 38,242 1,196
148,006 1,337,205
159,621 5,622,468
142,692 1,516,524
154,189 5,355,535
Central support costs as set out in note 12 have been allocated to activities in proportion to the employment cost in each area of activity.
409

7 Grants payable
2011 Promotion of research (note 8) Prizes and grants (note 8) Promotion of Innovation (Note 9) 2,852,670 52,392 1,104,078 4,009,140
2010 2,351,920 57,831 1,234,644 3,644,395
8 Enhancing World-Class Research

2011 Promotion of Research Scottish Government Fellowships Marie Curie COFUND actions Arts & Humanities Workshop Grants CRF European Fellowships CRF Personal Fellowships Robert Cormack Bequest John Moyes Lessells Scholarship Auber Bequest Awards Henry Dryerre Scholarship RSE BP Research Fellowship Trust RSE Scotland Foundation CRF 20,333 2,338,500 149,274 95,933 2,583,707 Support costs (note 6) 268,963 2,852,670 Prizes and Grants Support costs (note 6) 43,784 8,608 52,392 2,905,062 An analysis of institutions and individual awards made under this expenditure heading is included in the Societys Review 2010, obtainable from the address on the back cover. 1,601,001 23,467 460,071 18,191 180,180 5,640 29,617 106,428 21,881 272,654 4,901 19,166 3,000 19,543 1,795,476 198,728 88,615 2,082,819 269,101 2,351,920 49,537 8,294 57,831 2,409,751 1,347,903 2010
410

9 Improving connections between business and academia
2011 Scottish Enterprise Fellowships STFC Enterprise Fellowships BRSRC Enterprise Fellowships Gannochy Trust 506,559 90,095 317,780 86,946 1,001,380 Support costs (Note 6) 102,698 1,104,078
2010 647,032 57,616 414,515 7,623 1,126,786 107,858 1,234,644
10 Enhancing public appreciation of science and culture

2011 Meetings Publications Support costs (Note 6) 52,078 74,445 126,523 237,657 364,180 The RSE Scotland Foundation became publisher of the RSEs journals and year book with effect from the 1997 volumes. The RSE retains copyright and incurs editorial costs in respect of these publications. The RSE has made a donation to the RSE Scotland Foundation equivalent to its net decit on publications. 2010 79,621 48,736 128,357 239,151 367,508
11 Governance
2011 Management and secretariat Audit fee Other professional advice from auditors 123,643 RSE Scotland Foundation Management and secretariat 35,978 159,621 112,028 11,615 2010 105,045 11,497 2,750 119,292 34,897 154,189
411

12 Support costs
2011 Salaries (note 13) Secondments Staff training, agency and recruitment costs Non-cash pension cost adjustments (FRS 17) 1,094,681 Other costs Establishment expenses Computer and equipment costs Communication, stationery and printing costs Travel and subsistence, hospitality Publicity Miscellaneous Professional fees and subscriptions Depreciation 189,076 83,936 46,432 21,964 5,820 2,330 11,021 121,945 482,524 Total central costs Exceptional FRS 17 pension credit 1,577,205 (240,000) 1,337,205 1,053,167 12,395 29,119
2010 1,007,318 37,522 (53,000) 991,840 191,555 107,875 40,833 28,531 18,793 1,209 13,680 122,208 524,684 1,516,524
1,516,524
Support costs have been allocated to activities in proportion to the employment cost in each area of activity as set out in note 6. The exceptional FRS 17 Pension Credit is an adjustment to salary costs arising from the calculation of future pension increases being linked to the Consumer Prices Index and not the Retail Prices Index.
13 Employees
Total Payroll RSE Project costs Support costs Wages and salaries Social security costs Other pension costs 839,354 63,157 161,363 1,063,874 10,141 465 101 10,707 829,213 62,692 161,262 1,053,167 Funded by Foundation 112,126 7,573 21,652 141,351 Funded by RSE 2011 728,946 55,398 139,867 924,211 Total 2010 806,728 60,591 139,999 1,007,318
The average number of employees of the RSE including those employed under joint contracts with the RSE Scotland Foundation was 29 (2010:29). One member of staff earned over 60,000 per year and is a member of a dened benet pension scheme.
412

14 Tangible xed assets
Group Cost At 1 April 2010 Additions Disposals At 31 March 2011 Depreciation At 1 April 2010 On disposals Charge for the year At 31 March 2011 Net book value At 31 March 2011 At 31 March 2010 RSE Net book value At 31 March 2011 At 31 March 2010
22 24 George Street Purchase cost 1,103,038
26 George Street Purchase cost 1,647,468
Improvments Purchase cost 2,136,070
Computer & equipment 365,538 13,527 (22,303) 356,762 283,808 (22,303) 22,468 283,973 72,789 81,730
Total 5,252,114 13,527 (22,303) 5,243,338 1,371,625 (22,303) 121,945 1,471,267 3,772,071 3,880,489
1,103,038 242,669 22,061 264,730 838,308 860,369
1,647,468 362,443 32,949 395,392 1,252,076 1,285,025
2,136,070 482,705 44,467 527,172 1,608,898 1,653,365
838,308 860,369
1,252,076 1,285,025
25,068 25,763
2,115,452 2,171,157
15 Fixed asset investments

Value at 1 April 2010 (a) Fixed asset investments RSE Managed Funds Fixed interest UK equities Cash deposits BP Research Fellowship Trust Managed Funds Fixed interest UK equities Cash deposits RSESF Caledonian Research Fund Managed Funds Fixed interest UK equities Cash deposits 729,443 772,104 1,349,530 36,204 2,887,281 1,341,204 2,130,370 4,474,134 7,584 7,953,292 16,083,212 142,228 82,487 243,997 (522,788) (54,076) 707,622 371,495 452,436 (1,559,255) (27,702) 480,720 (579,688) (114,648) (899,042) 1,593,378 (177,263) (58,018)-(253,820) 489,101 (1,653) 767 (8,927) (9,813) (19,378) 849 (26,612) (45,141) (10,909) 43,715 15,294 63,728 122,737 109,116 30,089 57,316 196,521 534,869 736,470 812,634 1,394,508 2,517 2,946,129 1,558,876 2,418,155 4,058,232 41,707 8,076,970 17,087,892 Investments made at cost Proceeds on sale of investments Gain / (Loss) Revaluation Market value at 31 March 2011
973,727 1,768,138 2,463,103 37,671 5,242,639
353,814 236,446 885,650 (913,412) 562,498
(204,358) (342,808) (338,746) 885,912
8,643 13,422 21,980 44,045
68,812 21,962 124,837 215,611
1,200,638 1,697,160 3,156,824 10,171 6,064,793
The loss on sale of investments measured against their historical cost was 678,408 (2010: 226,346) The historical cost of investments was 14,820,983 (2010: 13,661,849). (RSE 5,465,908 2010: 4,689,373). Investments comprising more than 5% of the market value of the portfolio were: European Investment Bank 4.75% (2018).
413
15 Fixed asset investments (continued)

(b) Loan by RSE to RSE Scotland Foundation 2011 Due within one year Due after one year 46,808 1,657,096 1,703,904 The loan bears interest at 4% per annum, capped at the amount of rent received by the Foundation and is repayable over the period to 30 June 2047, the expiration of the lease of 26 George Street. 2010 46,808 1,703,904 1,750,712
16 Debtors
2011 General debtors Prepayments and accrued income Income tax recoverable RSE RSE Scotland Foundation Debtors RSE Scotland Foundation Prepayments BP Research Fellowship Trust Group 1,124,283 76,374 10,897 5,608 1,217,162 1,118,998 5,285 2010 563,664 15,144 26,058 604,866 151,363 10,228 4,335 770,792
17 Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year

2011 Group General creditors Accruals VAT payable University of Glasgow (note 21) Deferred income Event income deferred Advance receipts Publications 433,224 51,341 86,769 1,570,713 870,246 98,260 30,873 2010 550,887 61,713 34,131 7,612 510,486 47,130 104,525 1,316,484
414
17 Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year (continued)

Deferred income and advance receipts analysis At 1 April 2010 Marie Curie COFUND Friends of the Society Climate Change Inquiry Chemistry Project 444,518 8,000 55,474 2,494 510,486 Journal receipts Event income RSE 104,525 47,130 47,250 188,310 9,855 12,250 35,000 Received in year Recognised in year (22,931) (16,250) (70,474) (2,494) (112,149) (206,066) (5,644) 2011 General creditors RSE Scotland Foundation current account Deferred income University of Glasgow (note 21) Symposia income deferred 51,341 2,286,639 878,836 923,238 433,224 (12,363) 433,224 86,769 51,341 2010 483,950 660,244 510,486 7,612 47,130 1,709,422 Exchange difference (12,363) At 31 March 2011 409,224 4,000 20,000
18 Provision for liabilities and charges

Commitments for research fellowships At 1 April 2010 Group & RSE New commitments: Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland Research Fellowships Grants paid in the year RSE @ Dumfries & Galloway At 31 March 2011 The provision represents amounts payable under a constructive obligation in respect of research fellowships due as follows: 2011-12 95,505; 2012-13 45,843
389,992
(162,142) (10,000) 217,850
19 General Fund
At 1 April 2010 Net movement in funds for the year from statement of nancial activities At 31 March 2011
347,514 410,723 758,237
415
20 Designated Funds
At 1 April 2010 Capital Asset Reserve Development Appeal Fund Programme Fund CH Kemball Fund Grants Fund Dr James Heggie Fund 3,896,108 2,629,344 115,505 25,997 596,105 223,947 7,487,006 104,113 4,725 1,063 24,384 9,161 143,446 62,500 (17,229) (11,699) (65,625) 62,500 (36,697) 125,477 5,721 1,288 29,524 11,091 173,101 (101,818) Investment income Other income Expenditure Gains/(Losses) Transfers (101,818)
At 31 March 2011
3,794,290 2,884,737 125,951 28,348 632,784 232,500 7,698,610
The transfers represent the release from the Capital Asset Reserve of a total of 101,818 to match the depreciation of buildings and the amount of capital repayment of the loan to the Foundation.
21 Restricted Funds
At 1 April 2010 Robert Cormack Bequest Lessells Trust Auber Bequest Prizes Fund Dryerre Fund Fleck Piazzi Smyth Sillitto Others Restricted Income Fund RSE RSE Scotland Foundation BP Research Fellowship Trust Total 1,847,771 8,592,037 2,881,257 13,321,065 70,026 314,476 122,113 506,615 5,051,222 109,039 449,231 432,733 69,914 492,520 99,239 14,071 34,046 26,208 Investment income 4,460 18,376 17,701 2,860 20,147 4,059 576 170 1,072 605 4,567,069 4,573,318 477,904 (4,567,069) (4,655,625) (566,308) (163,824) (5,385,757) 83,848 151,380 112,924 348,152 (116,470) (116,470) 1,919,338 8,853,019 2,952,470 13,724,827 (406) 1,298 6,249 Other income Expenditure (6,611) (36,584) (6,711) (7,195) (27,972) (2,139) (938) Gains/(Losses) 5,400 22,249 21,432 3,463 24,394 4,915 697 Transfers
At 31 March 2011
112,288 459,521 465,155 69,042 509,089 106,074 14,406 34,216 28,172 121,375
Edinburgh Drug Absorption Foundation 120,770
416
21 Restricted funds (continued)

Prizes Fund comprises The Keith Fund, The Neill Fund, The Makdougall-Brisbane Fund, The Gunning-Victoria Fund, The James Scott Prize Fund, the Bruce-Preller Lecture Fund, The Dr DA Berry Fund, The Henry Duncan Prize Lecture Fund and The BP Prize Lecture in the Humanities Fund. Others comprise the Retailing Seminars Fund and The CASS Fund. The Restricted Income Fund represents restricted income received and expended in the year. Under the terms of the Lessells Trust the University of Glasgow is entitled to 10% of additional amounts received by the RSE from the Trust. The balance included in creditors at 31 March 2010 represents the total sum apportioned but not yet paid over to the University (note 17). The funds of the RSE Scotland Foundation are treated as restricted in respect of the consolidated accounts and comprise funds received from the CRF 7,958,588, the endowment for the upkeep of the James Clerk Maxwell statue 31,870 and the balance of the Foundation general fund of 601,579.
22 Analysis of assets between funds

General Group Fund balances at 31 March 2011 are represented by: Tangible xed assets Investments Loan to RSE Scotland Foundation Current assets RSE Scotland Foundation current account Deposits Cash Current liabilities Provisions for liabilities and charges Pension fund liability 758,237 General RSE Fund balances at 31 March 2011 are represented by: Tangible xed assets Investments Loan to RSE Scotland Foundation Current assets RSE Scotland Foundation current account Deposits Cash Current liabilities Provisions for liabilities and charges Pension fund liability 758,237 7,698,610 1,919,338 10,376,185 1,124,283 (923,238) 29,356 109,181 (99,483) (1,263,918) (217,850) 96,343 1,637,362 25,064 493,074 2,090,388 3,807,975 1,703,904 1,763,744 2,115,452 6,064,793 1,703,904 1,124,283 (923,238) 1,763,061 109,181 (1,363,401) (217,850) 2,171,157 5,242,639 1,750,712 604,866 (660,244) 2,231,664 195,667 (1,049,178) (389,992) (415,000) 9,682,291 7,698,610 Designated Funds 13,724,827 Restricted Funds 22,181,674 2011 1,124,283 (923,238) 29,356 109,181 (99,483) 96,343 25,064 493,074 2,090,388 3,807,975 1,703,904 1,656,619 12,786,843 (1,703,904) 92,879 923,238 1,637,362 20,870 (1,471,230) (217,850) 1,763,061 130,051 (1,570,713) (217,850) 1,217,162 3,772,071 17,087,892 3,880,489 16,083,212 770,792 2,231,664 310,904 (1,316,484) (389,992) (415,000) 21,155,585 2010 Designated Funds Restricted Funds 2011 2010
417
23 Pension costs
(a) Universities Superannuation Scheme The RSE participates in the Universities Superannuation Scheme, a dened benet pension scheme which is externally funded and contracted out of the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme. The assets of the scheme are held in a separate trustee-administered fund. The fund is valued every three years by a professionally qualied independent actuary using the projected unit method, the rates of contribution payable being determined by the trustee on the advice of the actuaries. In the intervening years the actuaries review the progress of the scheme. It is not possible to identify each Institutions share of the underlying assets and liabilities of the scheme and hence contributions to the scheme are accounted for as if it were a dened contributions scheme. The cost recognised within the result for the year is equal to the contributions payable to the scheme for the year. The latest actuarial valuation of the scheme was at 31 March 2008. The most signicant assumptions, those relating to the rate of return on investments and the increase in salary and pensions are as follows:
Past service liabilities Investment return Salary increase Pension increase 4.4% 4.3% 3.3%
Future service liabilities 6.1% 4.3% 3.3%
At the valuation date the market value of the schemes assets was 28,842.6 million and the value of past service liabilities was 40,619.2 million on the schemes historical funding basis. The value of the assets represented 71% of the benets that had accrued to members, after allowing for expected future increases in earnings. The contribution rate payable by the RSE in the year was 14.0% of pensionable salaries. The actuary has conrmed that it is appropriate to take the pension charge to be equal to the actual contribution paid during the year. The contribution rate payable increased to 16% of pensionable salaries with effect from 1 October 2009. The total pension cost payable to USS in the year was 17,274.
(b) Lothian Pension Fund The RSE also participates in the Lothian Pension Fund, a dened benet pension scheme established under Local Government Pension Fund Regulations. This scheme has determined that it is possible to ascertain the shares of assets and liabilities relating to individual admitted bodies. The assets of the scheme are held in a separate trustee-administered fund. The fund is valued every three years by a professionally qualied independent actuary using the projected unit method, the rates of contribution payable being determined by the trustee on the advice of the actuaries. In the intervening years the actuaries review the progress of the scheme. At the latest valuation date the market value of the schemes assets was 2,903 million and the value of past service liabilities was 3,427 million. The value of the assets represented 85% of the benets that had accrued to members, after allowing for expected future increases in earnings. The contribution rate payable by the RSE was: 21.3%. The actuary has conrmed that it is appropriate to take the pension charge to be equal to the actual contribution paid during the year.
418
23 Pension costs (continued) Pension fund asset / (liability)

The RSE pension fund asset at 31 March and the movements of its component parts comprise: 2011 000 Present value of funded liabilities (dened benet obligation) Fair value of employer assets Net asset at 31 March (2,087) 2,174 87 2010 000 (2,299) 1,884 (415)
In accordance with the accounting policy, this asset is not recognised in the balance sheet as it is not expected to be recoverable in the foreseeable future. 2011 000 2,299 147 (222) 123 46 (299) (7) 2,087 2010 000 1,128 61 13 82 41 981 (7) 2,299
Movement in present value of dened benet obligation At 1 April Current service cost Past service costs Interest cost Contribution by members Actuarial losses/(gains) Benets paid At 31 March
Movement in fair value of employer assets At 1 April Expected return on assets Contributions by members Contributions by the employer Actuarial gains/(losses) Benets paid At 31 March
2011 000 1,884 144 46 144 (37) (7) 2,174
2010 000 1,267 89 41 120 374 (7) 1,884
The net expense recognised in the statement of nancial activities after FRS17 adjustments was Current service cost Interest cost Expected return on employer assets Past service cost/(gain)
2011 000 147 123 (144) (222) (96)
2010 000 61 82 (89) 13 67
The total amount recognised in the statement of nancial activities in respect of actuarial gains and losses is a gain of 175,000 (2010: loss of 607,000). This gain has been restricted from 262,000 to reect the expectations in respect of recovery of the net asset at 31 March 2011.
419

23 Pension costs (continued)
The fair value of the employer assets at 31 March and the return on them in the year was: Value 2011 000 Equities Bonds Property Cash 1,718 174 217 65 2,174 Actual return on plan assets 109
Return 2011 % 7.5 4.9 5.5 4.6
Value 2010 000 1,488 151 170 75 1,884 463
Return 2010 % 7.8 5.0 5.8 4.8
The expected rates of return on plan assets are determined by reference to relevant indices. The overall expected rate of return is calculated by weighting the individual rates in accordance with the anticipated balance in the Plans investment portfolio.
Principal actuarial assumptions (expressed as weighted averages) at the year end were as follows: 2011 % Ination/pension increase rate Salary increase rate Expected return on assets Discount rate The salary increase assumption at 31 March 2011 is 1% per annum for the rst two years thereafter.
The assumptions relating to longevity underlying the pension liabilities at the balance sheet date as based on standard actuarial mortality tables and include an allowance for future improvements in longevity. The assumptions are equivalent to expecting a 65 year old to live for a number of years as follows: Males 2011 Females Males 2010 Females
2010 % 3.8 5.3 7.3 5.5
2.8 5.1 7.0 5.5
Current pensioners Future pensioners The history of the plan for the current and prior periods is as follows: Present value of dened benet obligation Fair value of employer assets Surplus/(decit) Experience gains and losses on assets and liabilities have been as follows: Experience gains/(losses) on liabilities Experience gains/(losses)on assets
20.8 years 22.3 years 2011 000 (2,087) 2,174 87 2011 000 (37)
24.1 years 25.7 years 2010 000 (2,299) 1,884 (415) 2010 000 374 2009 000 (1,128) 1,267 139 2009 000 28 (396) 2008 000 (1,145) 1,437 292 2008 000 (140)
20.8 years 22.3 years 2007 000 (1,298) 1,347 49 2007 000 (1) 8 2006 000 (1,250) 1,130 (120) 2006 000 (30) 171
24.1 years 25.7 years 2005 000 (561) 485 (76) 2005 000 13
The projected amount to be charged in respect of the Lothian Pension Fund dened benet scheme in the next nancial year is 155,000. (c) Pension charge The total pension charge for the year, before the exceptional FRS17 pension credit, was 161,519 (2010: 86,999 after FRS 17 pensions credit).
420
24 Transactions with Related parties

(a) Council members No member of Council received any payments other than reimbursements of expenditure on travel and subsistence costs actually and necessarily incurred in carrying out their duties as Councillors and Ofcers. The aggregate of such reimbursements to those Council members who charged expenses amounted to 1,538 (2010: 2,924). b) Other related parties The RSE President, Lord Wilson of Tillyorn, who is a trustee ex-ofcio of the Foundation, is also a trustee of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, which administers the CRF postgraduate studentships on behalf of the Foundation. The RSE Director of Finance is also a part-time employee of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. In 2010 11 the Foundation made payments in support of the studentship scheme amounting to 95.933 (2010 87,944).
25 Connected charitable trusts

(a) RSE Scotland Foundation The RSE Scotland Foundation is a charitable trust, recognised in Scotland as Scottish charity number SCO24636. It was created in March 1996 with the object of advancing the education of the public in Scotland in science and engineering and in so doing to conserve the scientic and cultural heritage of Scotland. The President, General Secretary, Treasurer, Curator and a Vice-President of the RSE are ex ofciis Trustees of the Foundation, which draws on the resources of the RSE in carrying out its objects. The Foundation also has ve nominated Trustees. The Foundation became publisher of the RSEs journals under a Publications Rights License effective from 1 January 1997. On 1 July 1997 the RSE granted to the Foundation a 50-year lease over 26 George Street carrying an obligation to refurbish the building within a three-year period. The Council of the RSE agreed to make a loan of up to 2.3 million available to the Foundation in support of the refurbishment. The agreed terms of the loan are as described in note 16. (b) BP Research Fellowships Trust The BP Research Fellowships Trust funds a scheme of post doctoral research fellowships administered by the RSE.
26 Supplementary information: grants, donations and receipts

(a) Scottish Government Grants Income 2011 Promotion of research Arts and Humanities Award Generating & Communicating knowledge International activities 1,727,569 487,071 373,624 307,286 2,895,550 2010 1,456,169 122,193 372,358 307,398 2,258,118
The funding for 2010 11 was a grant under S23 Natural Heritage (Scotland) Act 1985 in support of the four programmes of activity: Research Fellowships, Arts & Humanities Awards; International grants & relations and Generating & Communicating knowledge. At 31 March 2011 the nancial commitment in respect of Personal and Support Fellowships awarded subject to Scottish Government funding in the years, 2011 12, 2012 13, 2013 14 and 2014 15 amounted to 1,736,963, 1,699,830, 1,129,066 and 525,489 respectively. These amounts are treated as obligation of future years to be nanced by specic funding expected to be made available from the Scottish Government.
421
26 Supplementary information: grants, donations and receipts (continued)

(b) Recurring donations in support of activities The Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland supports postdoctoral fellowships, postgraduate studentships and lectures and conferences to fund and disseminate research aimed at improving the quality of life for an ageing population. Scottish Enterprise Income Promotion of research & innovation 573,831 105,000 Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland Gannochy Trust
Costs Promotion of research & innovation RSE @ Dumfries & Galloway Provision for future costs RSE administration and staff costs recovery 67,272 573,831 506,559 143,609 10,000 (172,142) 18,533 18,054 105,000 86,946
(c) Other donations in support of activities The RSE gratefully acknowledges all those who make donations in support of activities. The companies, trusts and other bodies which made donations of 1,000 or more in support of activities in the year ended 31 March 2011 were as follows: Buccleuch Charitable Foundation City of Edinburgh Council Darwin Trust Edinburgh Beltane Forestry Commission Scotland French Embassy Gannochy Trust Inchcape Shipping Services Lloyds Banking Group Scotland Scottish Cancer Foundation Scottish Natural Heritage Scottish Water The Holywood Trust
422
26 Supplementary information: grants, donations and receipts (continued)

(d) Friends of the Society The Friends of the Society corporate partners of the RSE, during the year ended 31 March 2011 were as follows: Aegon UK plc Arup Group BP plc Lloyds Banking Group plc Royal Bank of Scotland plc Scottish Enterprise Shell UK Wood Group plc
27 Analysis of net funds

At 31 March 2011 Cash ows At 1 April 2010
Cash at bank Deposits general Deposits designated funds Deposits restricted funds
130,051 29,356 96,343 1,637,362 1,893,112
(180,853) (606,824) 479 137,742 (649,456)
310,904 636,180 95,864 1,499,620 2,542,568
423

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The Royal Society of Edinburgh Review 2012

THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH REVIEW OF THE SESSION 2010-2011

PUBLISHED BY THE RSE SCOTLAND FOUNDATION ISSN 1476-4342

Printed in Great Britain by Henry Ling Limited, Dorchester, DT1 1HD

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ORDINARY MEETINGS

PROCEEDINGS OF THE STATUTORY GENERAL MEETING

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