Observ. XVIII. Of the Schematisme of Texture of Cork, and of the Cells and Pores of some other such frothy Bodies. –OR– Biology Begins.
January 27, 2011
Unbeknownst to Hooke, it was a short description and plain drawing half-way through the book that would eventually revolutionize our understanding of life itself.
Top: Hooke's skech of the "cells" he saw in thin slices of cork. Micrographia
“I Took a good clear piece of Cork, and with a Pen-knife sharpen’d as keen as a Razor, I cut a piece of it off, and thereby left the surface of it exceeding smooth, then examining it very diligently with a Microscope , me thought I could perceive it to appear a little porous…I with the same sharp Pen-knife, cut off from the former smooth surface an exceeding thing piece of it, and placing it on a black object Plate, because it was it self a white body, and the light on it with a deep plano-convex Glass, I could exceeding plainly perceive it to be all perforated and porous, much like a Honey-comb, but that the pores of it were not regular…these pores, or cells, were not very deep, but consisted of a great many little Boxes, separated out of on continued long pore, by certain Diaphragms”
Hooke goes on to conjecture that these airtight pores are responsible for the impermeability of the cork to water and air, while allowing the plasticity of shape that made Cork invaluable as a means of securing the mouths of bottles. He also mentions that he has observed similar structures in “an Elder, or almost any other tree…hollow stalks of several other Vegetables: as of Fennel, Carrets…Fearn, some kinds of Reeds, &c”.
Hooke didn’t even begin to imagine how this observation would change our understanding of the physical world, but he did recognize that he has discovered something utterly new.
“I…discern’d these (which were indeed the first microscopical pores I ever saw, and perhaps, that were ever seen, for I had not met with any Writer or Person, that had made any mention of them before this), but me thought I had…the discovery of them”
Hooke, R. Micrographia. (1665) 112-116.
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Account of a Comet. By Mr. Herschel, F. R. S.; communicated by Dr. Watson, Jun. of Bath, F. R. S.—OR—Understatement.
January 6, 2011
“On Tuesday the 13th of March, between ten and eleven in the evening, while I was examining the small stars in the neighborhood of H Geminorum, I perceived one that appeared visibly larger than the rest: being struck with its uncommon magnitude, I compared it to H Geminorum and the small star in the quartile between Auriga and Gemini, and finding it so much larger than either of them, suspected it to be a comet.”
Position of Herschel's comet (starbust with white center)
Herschel hadn’t found a comet, and he knew it. Comets and planets have a few characteristics in common, including their movement compared to the “fixed stars”, their changing diameter as they approach the earth, and the proportional increase in their diameter as magnification increases. Herschel painstakingly shows that this new object meets all of these criteria, showing off for the first time the unprecedented magnification of his homemade telescope.
Herschel never refers to his discovery as a planet; he simply notes that he has been unable to observe the “least appearance of any beard or tail”, the defining characteristic of a comet. In fact, Herschel had discovered the first new planet in 4000 years – Uranus, or Georgium Sidus (George’s Star) as Herschel called it.
Having stated these facts, Herschel “was happy to surrender” his comet “to the care of the Astronomer Royal”, who would quickly confirm Herschel’s discovery and announce the discovery of the new planet.
Herschel, W. “Account of a Comet.” Philosophical Transactions (1781) 71:492-501.
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An Experimental History of Cold – OR – Happy Winter Solstice!
December 21, 2010
A review of the treatise New Observations and Experiments in order to an Experimental History of Cold by Robert Boyle, this article details the 21 experiments described therein, including, but not limited to:
Experiments and Observations touching Bodies Disposed to be Frozen.
Experiments touching Bodies, Indisposed to be Frozen.
Experiments touching the the Tendency of Cold Upwards or Downwards.
Experiments and Observations touching the Preservation and Destruction of (Eggs, Apples, and other) Bodies by Cold.
Experiments and Observations touching the Sphere of Activity of Cold.
Of the Strange Effects of Cold.
Promiscuous Experiments and Observations concerning Cold.
However, the article closes with a lament that the treatise would already be publicly available “if the extremity of the late Frost had not stopt the Press.”
“An Experimental History of Cold” Philosophical Transactions (1665) 1:8-9.
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“That no real Species of Living Creatures is so utterly extinct, as to be lost entirely out of the World, since it was first Created, is the Opinion of many Naturalists; and ‘tis grounded on so good a Principle of Providence taking Care in general of all its Animal Productions, that it deserves our Assent.”
Hmmmm. Sorry, Dr. Molyneux, but that’s not exactly correct.
Ostensibly this report from 1695 is a straightforward description of “the third Head…found by casual trenching in [an] Orchard… within the Compass of an Acre of Land… about four or five Feet under Ground, in a sort of Boggy Soil…measuring ten Foot ten inches from the tip of the right Horn, to the Root where it was fastened to the Head”. Dr. Molyneux goes so far as to “have likewise added a Draught of a pair of common Stags Horns…all done according to the same Scale; that by this means, at one and the same time, may appear the grand disproportion between these sorts of Heads, and also the difference and agreement in their Shape”.
However, unsatisfied with mere description, Dr. Molyneux proceeds to wrestle with the philosophical implications of such a find.
While he ignores the possibility of the extinction of an entire species, Molyneux does embrace the possibility “that some entire Species of Animals, which have been formerly Common, nay, even numerous in certain Countries; have, in Process of time, been so perfectly lost, as to become there-utterly unknown… there remains among us not the least Record in Writing, or any manner of Tradition, that makes so much as mention of its Name”.
Considering potential causes of this extinction, Molyneux rejects the proposal that the moose, “like all other Animals might have been destroyed from off the Face of this Country by that Flood recorded in the Holy Scripture to have happened in the time of Noah; which I confess is a ready and short way to solve this Difficulty, but does not at all satisfy me; For (besides that there want not Arguments, and some of them not easily answer’d, against the Deluge being Universal)…we can’t well suppose they could by any means be preserv’d entire and uncorrupt from the Flood, now above Four Thousand Years since”.
Instead, Molyneux insightfully hypothesizes that “this kind of Animal might become extinct here from a certain ill Constitution of Air in some of the past Seasons long since the Flood” or that “as the Country became peopled, and thickly inhabited; they were soon destroy’d, and kill’d like other Venison as well for the sake of Food as Mastery and Diversion”. While it is unclear to me whether humanity is in fact to blame for the extinction of the moose in Ireland, excessive hunting has been blamed for the extinction of the Australian mega-fauna during the Pleistocene era.
Molyneux was equally insightful as he sought to explain how it was that these horns came to be buried at all. He concludes that “Marle was only a Soil that had been formerly the Outward Surface of the Earth, but in process of Time, being covered by degrees with many Layers of Adventitious Earth… for of necessity we must allow the Place where these Heads are now found, was certainly once the external Superfice of the Ground; otherwise ‘tis hardly possible to suppose how they should come there”. He even goes so far as to identify soil erosion from areas of higher elevation as the source for the material covering the horns.
However, some of Molyneux’s suppositions appear less insightful than strange. Observing the world around him, Molyneux supposes that there is “no small Affinity or Agreement in the Sprouting forth, and Branching of Deers Horns, with the way of Growth in Vegetables…this Analogy that Nature observes in casting the Horns of Beasts and dropping the Fruit of Trees, will appear much more evident to any one that will observe the end of a Stalk, from which a ripe Orange or any such large Fruit has been lately sever’d, and the Butt end of a cast Horn”.
While we may scoff at some of his assertions, it is unclear to me that Molyneux would find us to be any less primitive.
“Or had those Barbarous Times been capable of taking Care for the Preservation of this stately Creature, our Country would not have entirely lost so singular and beautiful an Ornament: But this could not be expected from those Savage Ages of the World”.
Molyneux, T. “A Discourse Concerning the Large Horns Frequently Found under Ground in Ireland, Concluding from Them that the Great American Deer, Call’d a Moose, was Formerly Common in that Island: With Remarks on Some Other Things Natural to that Country.” Philosophical Transactions (1695) 19:489-512.
Roberts, R. “New Ages for the Last Australian Megafauna: Continent-Wide Extinction About 46,000 Years Ago” Science (2001) 292: 1888-1892.
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Happy Birthday Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
October 25, 2010
Happy Birthday Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
Born: October 24, 1632
4 Reasons to love van Leeuwenhoek (besides the fact that he discovered bacteria, protozoa, striated muscle, red blood cells, circulation, and sperm):
1. Apparently “Leeuwenhoek” was impossible for the Royal Society to spell. Between 1673 and 1723 papers were published by: Leewenhoecks, Leewenhoeck, Leeuwenhoeck, Leuvenhook, Leuwenhoeck, Leuwenhoek, Lewenhoek, Lewen-Hoek, Lewuenhoek,, Lewenhock, Leuwenhock, and, finally, Leeuwenhoek.
2. “Animalcule” might just be the greatest word ever. As the first person to observe singe-celled organisms, Leeuwenhoek had to name them – and he went with ANIMALCULES.
3. He made his own microscopes and ground his own lenses (nearly 500 have been documented). Having cornered the market on quickly producing quality lenses, he refused to share the process by which they were made; he even declined to share his best microscopes with the Queen Mary when she visited Delft. Leeuwenhoek’s unrivaled status as the leading microscopist of his day, while dependent up on his curious mind and relentless work ethic, must have been due in large part to the superiority of his jealously guarded tools.
4. In addition to discovering new forms of life, Leeuwenhoek also served as the Delft Wine-Gauger (official wine and beer inspector/tax collector for the local pubs). He also served as a Chamberlain to the Sheriffs and was certified as a surveyor. His formal education consisted of an apprenticeship as a linen-draper, a trade that made him one of the prosperous tradesmen in the city. Leeuwenhoek was never employed as a scientist or monetarily compensated for this scientific work.
References:
Hall, A. R. “The Leeuwenhoek Lecture, 1988. Antoni van Leeuwenhoek 1632-1723.” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. 1988, 43:249-273.
De Kruif, P. The Microbe Hunters. Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York. 1926.
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Old School Science 