Sir

In your Year of Physics supplement (Nature 433, 213–257; 2005), several authors repeat the mistaken idea that the botanist Robert Brown observed the motion that now carries his name while watching the irregular motion of pollen grains in water. The microscopic particles involved in the characteristic jiggling dance Brown described were much smaller clay particles. I have regularly studied pollen grains in water suspension under a microscope without ever observing brownian motion.

From the title of Brown's 1828 paper “A Brief Account of Microscopical Observations ... on the Particles contained in the Pollen of Plants...”, it is clear that he knew he was looking at smaller particles (which he estimated at about 1/500 of an inch in diameter) than the pollen grains.

Having observed ‘vivid motion’ in these particles, he next wondered if they were alive, as they had come from a living plant. So he looked at particles from pollen collected from old herbarium sheets (and so presumably dead) but also found the motion. He then looked at powdered fossil plant material and finally inanimate material, which all showed similar motion.

Brown's observations convinced him that life was not necessary for the movement of these microscopic particles. Brown was not the first to observe the motion that now carries his name and that Einstein famously explained. However, he was convinced his was the first really detailed study of the phenomenon and he clearly hoped for priority for his description.