Science Authors

"YELLOW WATER-LILY. . This beautiful water plant is familiar to all who have ever enjoyed a season of river life, or even to those who make occasional boating excursions on our rivers. It belongs to the same natural order as its more modestly attired sister the , though of a different genus. "In golden armour glorious to behold," it forms a glorious object on the surface or lake or river, and is seen more frequently seen than the White Water-Lily. The golden blossom of this species has a more powerful and not very refined smell resembling ardent spirits, hence it has the common name of Brandy-Bottle. The Greeks prepare a from the flowers."

"Alan Mitchell (1922-1995) became famous in the world of , especially in his native England, as the preeminent tree measurer. He wrote some 9 or 10 tree books, covering identification, history in cultivation, utility to people, and growth. His last, posthumous title cites the abundance, performance, strengths and weaknesses of 163 kinds of trees cultivated in Britain."

"In 1994 The Sacred Yew by Anand Chetan and Diana Brueton ... revealed that Alan Mitchell (1992 - 1995 and founder of the of Britain and Ireland), after becoming increasingly interested in potential antiquity himself, (via corresponding with Allen Meredith in the late 1980’s), considered it entirely possible that wild, stunted yew on the storm swept and barren (the westernmost point of the ) could be truly ancient. This was despite their size; with relatively small girths of around 12ft (3.5 m approx.). By 1994 Alan Mitchell had concluded that “There is no theoretical end to this tree, no need for it to die” ..."

"As the value of the in checking the depredations of s (whiteants) does not seem to be generally known, I should like to call your readers’ attention to it through your columns. My first knowledge of it came from. sleeping on the ground when camping in a compound which proved to be riddled with termite runs. Several of us used water-proof ground-sheets that we had prepared from unbleached by sprinkling grated paraffin wax over it and then running this into the fibre by passing a very hot iron very slowly over it. In the morning the undersides of these ground-sheets were found to be covered wih termite mud, but to be unharmed and to have served as a complete protection to everything upon them, whereas all campers without them had had their blankets and some even their pyjamas badly eaten, some of the blankets having been reduced to rags. At that time termites were a constant menace to the books in the , where almost all the shelves were built into the walls. In view of the above experience, therefore, I tried coating the insides of all the book-cases with paraffin wax. A great improvement resulted immediately, though termites quickly found their way through any small gaps that had inadvertently been left. This incidentally made these easy to locate and to fill in, since when all trouble from termites has ceased, the danger having been completely and apparently finally averted, for it is now a number of years since the treatment was effected. And the same method has subsequently been used with equal success in s and boxes elsewhere."

"The , though they continued the building of immense s, concentrated attention on the s or halls, marvellousily developing the carving of their many rows of monolithic pillars, as may be well seen in and ."

"… British s have been the pioneers or among the most active workers in every area of the world important for species. In the second half of the seventeenth century at was inspiring collection in eastern North America by and receiving plants from . From 1827 was sending back the first conifers from western North America, and his collecting was greatly augmented by the Veitchian collectors and those from the Oregon Society from 1853 to 1856. and were sending plants from Japan in 1860 and 1861, Fortune having already sent some from southern China in 1843. and had followed ’s pioneer introduction {') from South America by many more species in 1847 and 1854. From 1899, and were sending a multitude of species from China and later, Formosa. In India, amateur collectors acquired Himalayan species from 1818 onwards."

"... books, like Louisa Lane Clarke's The Microscope (1858) and 's A World of Wonders Revealed by the Microscope (1859), were directed to broader audiences in a drive to recruit more new microscopists from the general public."

"There is felt by many seaside ramblers a want of some unscientific, easy to the s and contents of s on the English coast. There are most valuable works by }} and }} on the subject, but more expensive and more scientific than suits the minds of those who seek for health and rest in the sweet summer months by the seaside. To supply that want I purpose describing the Seaweeds, not exactly in the order arranged by Algælogists (though a systematic aid is given for the use of Collectors); but, taking the coast anywhere as a book, opening and closing as the great sea ebbs and flows, I shall begin with the first-tide pools, and find interest for my readers until the next range is uncovered, and more objects may be found. Then we shall take advantage of a gale of wind, and see what the waves cast up from depths unattainable by mortal hand."

"The only representative of found by the was Temnocephala semperi . This species was first found by on s in and , from the plains up to an altitude of 5000 (1872, p. 307). It has since proved to have a wide distribution in the Oriental Region ... The creatures are extremely contractile and their great activity is most striking—indeed it is apt to be startling the first time living specimens are seen. They live, often in large numbers, on the lower surface of the body and among the basal joints of the legs of their host, which is apparently always a crab of the genus ' ... When separated from its host, T. semperi stands and waves its tentacles around, as though trying to perceive a new one, or crawls rapidly about. Occasionally, when it is greatly irritated, the tentacles are doubled back and tucked away beneath the concave ventral surface of the body."

"WHITE WILLOW ' L. Native all over Britain except in N. W. Scotland, Europe, N. Africa to C. Asia. Common along lowland riversides and valleys; usually less numerous than ."

", tittle-tattle, tale-bearing, are the very bindweed of society; as the bindweed destroys the flower, so do they choke every kindly feeling and every noble thought."

"The enjoys such , and so much authority as to be almost a king in his inland territory. By his manorial rights he receives tithes of corn, apples, and lambs, he presides over the petty court which assembles three times a year, called, The Chief Pleas, at which, though he has no vote, yet his veto, or consent is necessary to all their decisions. By virtue of his patent (which however he never exerts,) he can prevent the building of any house without his leave, or the solemnization of any marriage without his consent, and the of the island is also in his gift."

"THE ISLAND OF , separated from by , is not inhabited, except by rabbits burrowing in the heath, the wild bee in its rose-leaf cell, and the which rests and lives on its rocks. The late Governor, , to whom the belonged, built a cottage on it to shelter the fisherman or shipwrecked mariner; but it has fallen into decay. The stormy petrel, rarely found on the British coast, may be taken here with the hand; but it has the singular defence of ejecting a fetid fluid from its bill when alarmed or hurt, which often saves it from capture."

".—I once saw our almost like a field of gold when the was in full blossom. .—Although it grows so well in England and in some parts of Scotland, it is not so common everywhere, as it is here, Henry. , the great botanist, had never seen it in Sweden, his own country; and when he first saw it here in full golden blossom, he knelt down and thanked God for making anything so beautiful. Then its delicious scent, like pleasant , is very refreshing and nice, is it not? Linnæus is said to have lamented that he could not keep this beautiful plant alive in Sweden, even in a . Severe frosts even in England are apt to kill it. In many places the is used to make fires, and is cut down and kept as fuel, especially to heat bakers' ovens. Cattle also will eat it, and in some parts of Wales it is grown expressly to feed the horses during winter. .—But, Granny, how the thorns must prick the horses' mouths and throats! .—Ah, Alice, the Welsh people are wiser than you think. They cut the gorse when very young, and bruise it in a so as to break all the thorns."

"Ferns may be successfully cultivated either in a , a , or the open air. To accomplish this, and even to bring something of the verdure of a country lane into the close atmosphere of the city, by means of a closed or Wardian case, in which not only ferns but also some other plants will live and thrive, is perfectly easy. , the ingenious inventor, succeeded in cultivating many flowers—such as fairy roses, and even the most luxuriant tropical plants, in them. But it must be remembered that the chief object in these closed cases is to secure a moist atmosphere, and freedom from the all-pervading dirt and dust of cities. To many plants the moisture thus secured is injurious, but to nearly all ferns it is peculiarly grateful, and to them, therefore, especially, this mode of culture is chiefly applicable. In Mr. Ward's own book on the subject, he speaks of what may be done to imitate nature in the growth of ferns; how bits of natural scenery may be artificially built up, with water trickling down from elevated portions of rock, and flowing out of the fern-house in one continuous stream."

"All our farinaceous plants contain abundance of , especially wheat, barley, oats, maize, rice, ; and the s differ from each other in size and form so decidedly, that they cannot well be mistaken by a careful observer. They are prepared for the microscope, and sold as polariscope objects, because the examination of a starch granule with shows it with a beautiful black cross, revolving with the polarizer; or, if over a selenite stage, a brilliant play of colours is obtained."

"SHINGLE OAK ' South-eastern USA 1786. Infrequent; a few large gardens and collections in all parts."

"You wouldn’t let your schooling interfere with your education."

"... Throughout history, food has done more than simply provide sustenance. It has acted as a catalyst of social transformation, societal organization, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion. From prehistory to the present, the stories of these transformations form a narrative that encompasses the whole of human history. Food's first transformative role was as a foundation for entire civilizations. The adoption of agriculture made possible new settled lifestyles and set mankind on the path to the modern world. But the staple crops that supported the first civilizations— and in the Near East, and in Asia, and maize and potatoes in the Americas—were not simply discovered by chance. Instead, they emerged through a complex process of , as desirable traits were selected and propagated by early farmers. These staple crops are, in effect, inventions: deliberately cultivated technologies that only exist as a result of human intervention."

"As the tides of history have ebbed and flowed, different drinks have come to prominence in different times, places, and cultures, from villages to ancient Greek dining rooms or s. Each one became popular when it met a particular need or aligned with a historical trend; in some cases, it then went on to influence the course of history in unexpected ways. Just as archaeologists divide history into different periods based on the use of different materials—the stone age, the , the , and so on—it is also possible to divide world history into periods dominated by different drinks. Six beverages in particular—beer, wine, , coffee, tea, and —chart the flow of world history. Three contain , and three contain , but what they all have in common is that each one was the defining drink during a pivotal historical period, from antiquity to the present day."

"When hackney carriages were first introduced into London — these were the first carriages that you could hail in the streets — so, basically taxis — this led to a massive backlash from .. the incumbent providers of rides in London— who were the . And that was how you used to get around London. You would hail a boat by the river and say “I want to go to ” or “I want to go up to ”. And so they all complained and they said their profits were running away on wheels, because these hackney carriages had showed up."

"We've been caught out in the past by unexpected exhaust products from transport infrastructure. First it was horse manure, then it was CO². This time it's data. We must not make the same mistake again!"

"During Queen Victoria's reign, a new communications technology was developed that allowed people to communicate almost instantly across great distances, in effect shrinking the world faster and further than ever before. A worldwide communications network whose cables spanned continents and oceans, it revolutionized business practice, gave rise to new forms of crime, and inundated its uses with a deluge of information. ... The telegraph unleashed the greatest revolution in communications since the development of the ."

"This is Tom Standage's third pocket-sized book delving into the history of science and engineering, and yet again he has found a subject that is not only fascinating, but which also resonates with contemporary issues. In ', Standage explored the development of the telegraph, which permitted long-distance instantaneous communication for the first time. … In The Neptune File , Standage explained how in the 19th century a new unseen planet was discovered because of its gravitational tugging, which caused Uranus to deviate from its predicted path. … Now we have The Mechanical Turk, the story of the 18th-century automaton that convinced everyone that a machine could play world-class chess, a feat that was only truly achieved in the last decade. Standage reveals how our ancestors reacted to this first apparent example of artificial intelligence. He explains how the machine actually worked, and he brings us up to date with the terrible moment when a computer beat , the world chess champion."

"Far below the , between Israel, Jordan and , researchers have found evidence of a that has no precedent in human experience. From depths of 300 metres below the landlocked basin, drillers brought to the surface a core that contained 30 metres of thick, crystalline salt: evidence that 120,000 years ago, and again about 10,000 years ago, had been only about one fifth of modern levels. The cause in each case would have been entirely natural. But in the region where human civilisation began, already in the grip of its worst drought for 900 years, it is a reminder of how bad things could get and a guide to how much worse human-induced climate change could become."

"Modern European and Asian people may owe more than skin or hair colour to ancestry. 50,000 years ago between two species of human may also have bequeathed a sunburn hazard called , to , and a greater risk of . That the forebears of modern ‘’’’ and the long-extinct Neanderthals lived side by side is well known: that they interbred, and that up to 4% of modern human DNA is inherited from the first Europeans, was confirmed only in 2010."

"Between 1980 and 2005, I commissioned working scientists to write for The Guardian newspaper — from astronomers royal to impoverished doctoral students — and almost all of them delivered high-standard, well-focused newspaper prose and many of them went on to live by the pen. I also encountered distinguished scientists who had already become literary stars. One was the astronomer Carl Sagan, who told me that his literary hero was Thomas Henry Huxley. Another was the industrial chemist, poet and writer Primo Levi, who when I tried to ask him about the Two Cultures debate — the apparent divide between the humanities and sciences — gently reminded me that Dante Alighieri (himself the subject of at least one paper in Nature), was a member of the Florentine guild of physicians and apothecaries. And a third was the Czech poet and dissident , who wrote his occasional Guardian column in English, and asked that at the end of each I describe him as the author of Immunology of Nude Mice (1989). All three were better writers than most writers: two will still be famous as writers a century from now."

"India is truly a mystery containing all that is the worthiest, most spiritual, and intellectual in humankind and the worst aspects of humankind one could ever hope to find including total lack of concern for others, extreme material poverty, and spiritual bankruptcy and fraud. India is the world in other words with everything in the world revealed both of the highest form and lowest denominator. I love India. I hate India. I cannot ever go to India without returned with strong feelings about it. My later writings would not be the same without my frequent stays in India and the influences that this country has had on my thoughts and feelings. If India did not exist, we would create it just as it is perfect in its imperfection."

"The Physics of Christianity... received... bad reviews from very smart people like John Walker."

"Tipler has been criticized... for mixing religion with science. ...also ...for making wrong scientific assumptions. ...[I]t appears that the is accelerating and ...left to itself, will never enter the phase ...a prerequisite for the scenario ...Tipler is certainly wrong on many points that will be corrected by future scientists. But dismissing him as a crank is... like dismissing Leonardo as a crank because his aircraft sketches wouldn’t fly..."

"[P]eople near the omega point could not... communicate their wishes to us, or work miracles (today). They did not create the universe... [nor] invent the laws of physics—nor could they violate those laws... They may listen to prayers... (perhaps by detecting very faint signals), but they cannot answer them. They are... opposed to religious faith, and have no wish to be worshipped. ...But Tipler ...argues that most of the core features of the God of the Judeo-Christian religions, are... properties of the . Most religious people will... disagree..."

"Since the intelligences in the computer will be creative thinkers, they must be classified as "people". ...And so he claims... at the omega-point limit... an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent society of people. This society, Tipler identifies as God."

"In his enthusiasm... Tipler has neglected part of the Popperian lesson about what the growth of knowledge must look like. If the omega point exists, and if... created in the way... Tipler... set out... the late universe will... consist of embodied thoughts of inconceivable wisdom, creativity and sheer numbers. But... problem solving means rival s, errors, criticism, refutation and backtracking. Admittedly, in the limit (which no one experiences), at the instant the universe ends, everything that is comprehensible may have been understood. But at every finite point our descendants' knowledge will be riddled with errors. Their knowledge will be greater, deeper and broader than we can imagine, but they will make mistakes on a correspondingly titanic scale too. Like us, they will never know certainty or physical security, for their survival, like ours, will depend on... creating a continuous stream of new knowledge. If they... fail, even once... to increase... computing speed and memory capacity... the sky will fall in on them and they will die. Their culture... will be split by passionate controversies. ...[I]t seems unlikely that it could... be regarded as a 'person'. Rather... a vast number of people interacting... disagreeing. ...often ...mistaken, and many mistakes ...uncorrected for... long periods (subjectively). Nor... ever... morally homogeneous...Nothing will be sacred... and... people will continually be questioning assumptions that other[s]... consider... fundamental moral truths. ...[B]y the methods of reason, every... controversy will be resolved. But... replaced by... more... fundamental controversies. Such... is very different from... God... But... some subculture within it... will be resurrecting us if Tipler is right."

"Tipler uses the theological term 'omniscient'... but... The omega point will not know everything. The overwhelming majority of abstract truths... will be inaccessible to it as they are to us."

"Tipler makes use of a handy linguistic device... common in mathematical physics... misleading if taken too literally. ...[T]o identify a limiting point of a sequence with the itself. ...What he does not mean is that there is that there is a knowing entity literally at the end point of ... there is no physical entity there at all. Thus... the knows nothing, and can... exist only because some... explanations... refer to the limiting properties of physical events..."

"Tipler says, it will be omnipotent. But... this... is not absolute. ...[I]t is strictly limited by the available matter and energy, and is subject to the laws of physics."

"[I]f the observed acceleration were to continue forever, the Theory would be refuted. But the expansion of life to engulf the universe is EXACTLY what is required to cancel the positive cosmological constant (a.k.a. the Dark Energy)..."

"Tipler makes the point that the science of cosmology has tended to study the past... of spacetime. But most of spacetime lies to the future... Existing cosmology does address the issue of whether the universe will or will not recollapse, but... there has been very little theoretical investigation of the greater part of spacetime. ...[T]he lead-up to the has received far less study than the aftermath of the Big Bang. Tipler sees the omega-point theory as filling that gap. ...[It] deserves to become the prevailing theory of the future of spacetime until and unless it is experimentally (or otherwise) refuted. (Experimental refutation is possible because the existence of an omega point in our future places certain constraints on the condition of the universe today.)"

"The mechanics of 'steering' the universe to the omega point require actions to be taken throughout space. ...[I]ntelligences will have to spread all over the universe in time to make the first necessary adjustments. This is one of a series of deadlines that Tipler has shown that we would have to meet—and he has shown that meeting... them is, to the best of our... knowledge, physically possible."

"Tipler makes... additional assumptions—some plausible, others less so—which enable him to fill in more details of future history. ...[His] quasi-religious interpretation... and his failure to distinguish that... from the underlying scientific theory, that have prevented the latter from being taken seriously."

"What a pile of crap."

"[H]ow would this work if the brain and computer were separated by several light years? And if not, then what difference does it make if 1032 years of death intervene before the simulation begins to run? ...continuity of consciousness?"

"The review in Nature called POI a "masterpiece of pseudoscience". ...I don't think it's that good."

"Tipler notes that an infinite amount of knowledge will have been created by the time of the omega point. He... assumes... the [far future] intelligences will, like us, want (or... need)... knowledge other than... necessary for... survival. ...[T]hey have the potential to discover all [physically knowable] knowledge, and Tipler assumes that they will do so. So in a sense, the omega point will be omniscient."

"The Omega Point Theory suggests that the particle physics Standard Model (SM) is sufficient to explain both [dark matter and dark energy]: the Dark Energy is just the currently uncancelled part of the positive cosmological constant, and the Dark Matter is just the Standard Model SU(2)_{left} field, coupled to the SM Higgs field. I was very worried when I wrote PHYSICS OF IMMORTALTIY that the entropy in the CMBR would make an acceleration in the collapsing phase of universal history impossible. I propose to solve this problem by claiming the temperature of the CMBR — currently "measured"... 2.2726 degrees — is actually... ! I show in a paper I put on the lanl data base (xxx.lanl.gov) last November that such an apparently ridiculous claim is possible, because any quantized gauge field in a homogeneous and isotropic universe would NECESSARILY have a Planckian spectrum, even at zero temperature! What the measurements of CMBR showing that it is Planckian... are really measuring... not the temperature, but the size of the universe. In my paper, I show how to convert the... "temperature" of 2.2726 into the size of the universe."

"And how are we going to use the Higgs field to compute, organise information systems out of free quarks and pure energy... the Boundary Condition Postulate... that says that on Easter Day, 2001, Jesus Christ will return, raise the dead, etc. ...inevitable."

"Ok, the visible universe has around 1080 particles in it. The universe at Tipler's point of maximum expansion is, say, 10,000 times bigger... But... we're not using mere matter to store bits anymore. We're using (drumroll) the Higgs field... And when will this happen? ..."between 10−1010 and 10−10123 seconds before the Omega Point is reached". Whew, saved by the Gong of Doom."

"I take the last existing copy of the complete works of Tipler and heave it across the event horizon of my TidyTrash™ home black hole."

"[W]hy worry about a big rock hitting the Earth, destruction of the biosphere by inadvertent human action, accidental nuclear war..? Surely the Boundary Condition rules out those much smaller worries... Don't worry; be happy."

"[U]nless I'm missing something, the wheels fall off Starship Eternity."