50 Years Ago

The General Board of the Faculties of the University of Cambridge has prepared a report outlining a course whereby students could undertake study of a science subject as well as of an arts subject... The new course would give students the advantages of training in both arts and science. Arts men are trained not only to collect accurate data and to use them systematically, but also to exercise critical judgment upon matters of opinion where scholars may reach quite different conclusions. On the other hand, the conclusions of the scientist are based on precise observations and measurements, involve exact calculations, and must be tested by experiment or controlled observation; agreement on essential issues can therefore ultimately be reached.

From Nature 27 July 1957.

100 Years Ago

We learn with regret of the death of Prof. Egon von Oppolzer at the early age of thirty-seven. Dr. von Oppolzer, who was a son of the celebrated Theodor von Oppolzer, was born at Vienna in 1869, and was educated at the universities of Vienna and Munich. In 1897 he became an assistant in the observatory at Prague, where he discovered in 1901 the variability in the brightness of the planet Eros... Among the subjects on which he wrote are astronomical refraction, solar physics, and the application of physical theory to stellar problems. He also made contributions to meteorology. A new form of zenith telescope was constructed by him, as well as a photometer of novel design. The variability of the minor planets, which has recently become a subject of very great interest, has naturally been investigated with the greatest success by the aid of photography, and it is worthy of note that Dr. von Oppolzer's important discovery in this branch of research was established by visual observations.

From Nature 25 July 1907.