50 Years ago

A general investigation has been in progress for some time in this Department into certain aspects of the chemistry of Ulex europaeus. This common furze has a local reputation as a supplementary animal foodstuff ... No previous results are available on the carotene content of the green matter (spines) of furze and its seasonal variation, which are now reported ... From October to February or March — when furze is fed to stock — the average carotene content is 126 mgm./kgm., indicating that it is a very good, and freely available, source of carotene. The relatively high values during the summer months point to the possibility of using dried furze meal as a supplementary source of carotene in animal feeding. The problem of retention of carotene in dried furze is being investigated.

From Nature 13 June 1959.

100 Years Ago

The interesting problem of the dew-pond still awaits a definite solution. That these ponds are mainly fed by mist, and not dew, can hardly be doubted by anyone who has visited them at night, situated as they are on the topmost ridges of the Downs. In the driest summer the prevailing south-west wind, as it comes up from the sea, forms on these heights after dark thick clouds of mist, which soak everything that comes into contact with them ... The source of the water in these ponds, therefore, seems evident, but the mechanism by which the mist is precipitated into the ponds is not so apparent ... It appears to me that the only possible explanation is that the particles of mist must bear charges of electricity differing in potential from that of the earth. The charge on the earth would, of course, be most dense at the summits of the hills. Hence the tendency for the mist to deposit on the top of the ridge.

From Nature 10 June 1909.