50 Years Ago

Several people have speculated on the thesis that if a sufficiently high concentration of an insect sex pheromone could be maintained in the atmosphere the sexes could not find each other for mating purposes ... Their conclusion was that this could lead to control or possibly eradication of the species ... We have for the first time obtained experimental confirmation that pre-mating communication between the sexes can be disrupted by permeating the atmosphere with an insect pheromone ... The successful disruption of male orientation to females may be caused by sensory and (or) central nervous system adaptation to the pheromone ... The result of this experiment indicates that economic control of an insect over large areas may be possible by behavioural control using sex pheromones.

From Nature 18 March 1967

100 Years Ago

Mr. Moullin divides tumours by their mode of origin into two classes: one due to the sudden awakening of the innate reproductive power of the tissues, in virtue of which they give birth to “buds” that grow into tumours; the other due to details of structure not being carried out so completely as they ought to be. The distinguishing feature of the former class of tumours is their independence: they grow quite irrespective of the tissue in which they develop ... Development is the influence which restrains the potentiality possessed by the cells of the tissues to multiply indefinitely, and is due to chemical influences. All that is needed, then, for tumour formation is some exciting cause, mechanical or chemical, to give the growth a start.

From Nature 15 March 1917

Footnote 1