50 years ago

So far as men of science are concerned, the Lambeth Conference report follows much the same pattern as its immediate predecessor. The bulk of the report is concerned with topics which are not the immediate concern of scientists, as such, though they will note the resolution which gratefully acknowledges the work of scientists in increasing man's knowledge of the universe ... [T]wo sections of the report are concerned with problems with which men of science, as such, are equally concerned ... First are the problems involved in reconciliation of the conflicts between and within nations, and second are the group of problems centring around the family in contemporary society ... [T]he concluding section of the report, in which political conflicts are considered, merits close attention, because it poses a problem of action and of impartiality with which scientists are themselves familiar and which lies at the root of any attempt to apply scientific or technological knowledge impartially and objectively in public affairs.

From Nature 11 October 1958.

100 years ago

(1) Selectionsprinzip und Probleme der Artbildung: ein Handbuch des Darwinismus. By Prof. Ludwig Plate; (2) Die Lehre Darwins in ihren letzten Folgen. By Max Steiner — Prof. L. Plate's “Selectionsprinzip” has been so much expanded in its third edition that it deserves to be called a “handbook of Darwinism”. It is a careful and thoughtful text-book by a thorough-going Darwinian, who is at the same time a believer in the transmission of acquired characters ... The author of the second volume before us seems to think that Darwinism has been too much discussed as a biological theory, artificially abstracted from its social consequences. If we understand him, he seeks to put things right by showing what terrible consequences the theory involves.

From Nature 15 October 1908.