50 Years Ago

In general, the 'epidemic' process can be characterized as one of transition from one state (susceptible) to another (infective) where the transition is caused by exposure to some phenomenon (infectious material) ... People are susceptible to certain ideas and resistant to others. Once an individual is infected with an idea he may in turn, after some period of time, transmit it to others. Such a process can result in an intellectual 'epidemic' ... The development of the psychoanalytic movement in the early part of the twentieth century was in its way no less an 'epidemic' than was the outbreak of influenza in 1917 and 1918. One can argue similarly that Darwin and evolution, Cantor and set theory, Newton and mechanics, and so on, were examples of 'epidemics' in the world of scientific thought which were instigated by the introduction of a single infective into a population.

From Nature 17 October 1964

100 Years Ago

At the present time astronomers have no available organisation by which the news of important astronomical discoveries can be quickly distributed to the leading observatories of the world, nor is there a bureau with which anyone making an important discovery can immediately communicate with the knowledge that the news will at once be circulated world wide. This condition of affairs is due to the fact that the recognised Central Bureau is at Kiel, in Germany, and that the state of war prevents the circulation of any such news ... There is little doubt that if the Royal Astronomical Society of Great Britain would undertake ... the task of receiving and disseminating astronomical information, this act would meet with the approval of astronomers all the world over.

From Nature 15 October 1914