100 YEARS AGO

In the course of an interview reported in the Westminster Gazette of Friday last, Lord Kelvin is reported to have expressed himself as being decidedly of the opinion that the source of energy of the heat emitted by radium is not in the element itself. He remarked:— “It seems to me absolutely certain that if emission of heat at the rate of 90 calories per gram per hour found by Curie at ordinary temperature, or even at the lower rate of 38 found by Dewar and Curie from a specimen of radium at the temperature of liquid oxygen, can go on month after month, energy must somehow be supplied from without.”

ALSO

A Reuter message from Wellington, New Zealand, reports that the King has sent the following telegram to Captain Scott, leader of the National Antarctic Expedition:— “I have read with interest your report, which Sir Clements Markham sent me. I congratulate you and your gallant crew on your splendid achievements, and wish the Discovery a safe journey home. I hope to see you on your return to England.”

From Nature 2 June 1904.

50 YEARS AGO

It is no bad thing that a broadsheet entitled “Graduate wives”... has provoked considerable discussion regarding the value of university education for women, and perhaps more particularly when that education has only been possible because of the help received from public funds in some form or another. That latter point was not specifically covered by the inquiry, although it is noted that many thousands of pounds of public money are spent on the education of the four thousand women graduates who leave the universities of Great Britain every year... the fact that the majority of those covered by this inquiry made no direct use of their academic qualifications after marriage does not imply that the public money expended on their university education has been wasted, though it may well induce some re-examination of the system of university awards and a fuller consideration of the whole purpose of university education. As the broadsheet points out, the indirect contribution which a trained mind and cultured outlook can make to family life and to the life of the nation generally is very great indeed.

From Nature 5 June 1954.