50 Years ago

Although the problem of alcohol and road safety has been much in the public eye, there has hitherto been little precise evidence as to the effects of small quantities of alcohol on driving skill. For this reason, the careful study by Prof. George Drew and his colleagues recently published by the Medical Research Council ... will attract widespread interest. This report describes the effects of small doses of alcohol (the highest being roughly equivalent to only five fluid ounces of whiskey for a man of average weight) upon performance on the 'Miles motor driving trainer' ... It was found that the mean error of forty subjects on the test increased significantly with increasing blood alcohol ... These results strongly suggest that amounts of alcohol far too small to give rise to recognizable signs of intoxication may none the less significantly impair driving ability.

From Nature 6 February 1960.

100 Years ago

Readers of these columns should be fairly well acquainted with Prof. Lowell's views concerning the Martian features and their significance, but they will find interesting the comprehensive summary given by Prof. Lowell in No. 13 of Scientia ... Therein the author reviews the observations of the melting snow-caps, of the “canals” and oases, which, by virtue of their dependent vegetation, undergo striking changes in conformity with the Martian seasons, and the theoretical considerations which have led him to conclude that Mars is habitable by organisms not essentially different from those with which we are acquainted. That Mars has no water except that contained in its atmosphere and that which forms the snow-caps, Prof. Lowell avers, but he contends that that water is artificially “engineered” in such a way that organic existence is rendered possible.

From Nature 3 February 1910.