Albemarle Street: Portraits, Personalities and Presentations at The Royal Institution

Cover
Series page
Albemarle Street: Portraits, Personalities, and Presentations at the Royal Institution
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
1 Setting the Scene
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Some Eminent Visitors to Number 21 Albemarle Street in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
1.3 The Unique Qualities of the RI
1.4 RI Christmas Lectures
1.5 RI Christmas Lectures in Japan
1.5.1 More Recent RI Christmas Lectures and their Influence
1.6 Mathematics at the RI
1.7 The Central Role of Mathematics in a Cosmic Context
1.8 The RI as Mecca
References
2 Count Rumford and his Remarkable Creation in Albemarle Street
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Early Life: Soldier, Statesman, and Scientist
2.3 Bavarian Adventures
2.4 West Point or Albemarle Street?
2.5 Madame Lavoisier
References
3 Sir Humphry Davy: Natural Philosopher, Discourser, Inventor, Poet, and Man of Action
3.1 Introduction
3.2 How Did Davy’s Life Unfold?
3.3 Davy’s Years at the RI
3.4 Davy’s Poetic Interests
3.5 A Selection of Davy’s Other Achievements
3.5.1 Agricultural Chemistry
3.6 The Miner’s Safety Lamp
3.7 Marriage
References
4 Michael Faraday: Paragon
4.1 Introduction
4.2 A Few of Faraday’s Greatest Discoveries
4.2.1 Electromagnetic Induction
4.2.2 The Laws of Electrolysis
4.2.3 Practical and Societal Consequences of Faraday’s Laws of Electrolysis[7]
4.2.4 A Dramatic Lecture-Demonstration
4.3 Faraday and Franklin: Parallels in their Work
4.4 How Did Faraday Get to the RI?
4.4.1 Field Theory
4.5 The Faraday Effect
4.6 Three Women with Whom He Interacted
4.7 Faraday’s Visits to Wales
4.8 Concluding Remarks
4.8.1 An Assessment of Faraday and Davy
4.8.2 What was the Essence of Faraday’s Genius?
4.8.3 Faraday’s Skill in Coining Words
Appendix: Excerpts from the Sermon by the Archbishop of York, Preached at Westminster Abbey at Faraday’s Bicentenary Celebrations in September 1991
References
5 The Incredible Lord Rayleigh
5.1 A Cruise up the Nile
5.2 Brief Outline of his Career
5.3 Professor at Cambridge
5.4 Rayleigh at the RI
5.4.1 Pouring Oil on Troubled Waters with Benjamin Franklin
5.4.2 Franklin’s Monolayer
5.5 The Discovery of Argon
5.6 Conclusion
Appendix 1: A Wager Involving the Age of the Earth
Appendix 2: Rayleigh and Ramsay
Appendix 3: Message from the Current Lord Rayleigh
References
6 The Fuel Cell: William Robert Grove’s Discourse in 1843 and Francis Bacon’s in 1960
6.1 Introduction: The Threat of Climate Change
6.2 William Robert Grove at the London Institution
6.3 A Brief History of the Status of the Fuel Cell
6.4 William Robert Grove: The Man and Some of his Other Achievements
6.5 Conclusion
References
7 Molecular Biology and the Crucial Role Played by the Davy–Faraday Research Laboratory in its Birth
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Crystals of the Living Body
7.3 The Contributions of Astbury and Bernal
7.4 Two Other Major Contributions to Molecular Biology Made at the DFRL: The First-Ever Structure of an Enzyme and the Study of Viruses
7.5 A Final Word about the Importance of Molecular Biology, its Links with the DFRL, and its Relevance to Modern Medicine
Appendix 1: The Importance of a Workshop in a Centre of Research Excellence
Appendix 2: What is Sir Lawrence Bragg doing in your Garden?
References
8 Modern Diagnostic Medicine: Memorable Discourse in 1986 by Raymond Andrew on MRI
8.1 Introduction: How Untrammelled Curiosity Leads to Major Technological Advance–the Arrival of MRI and PET11
8.2 The Principles of NMR
8.3 Raymond Andrew and the Magic Angle
8.4 The Discourse at the RI on MRI by Raymond Andrew in 1986
8.5 A Word About Functional MRI
8.6 PET and Transformative Advances in Medicine
8.6.1 Clinical Research and Healthcare Applications[20]
Appendix: A Pictorial Analogue of CT
References
9 Egyptomania at the RI: Howard Carter’s Discourse on the Tomb of Tut-Ank-Amun from Ante-Room to Burial Chamber
9.1 Introduction
9.2 The Colourful Piazzi Smyth
9.3 Howard Carter and his Discourse
9.3.1 The Chalice-Like Cup in Tut-Ankh-Amun’s Tomb
9.4 Zaki Iskander and Cyril Aldred
9.5 Envoi
Appendix 1: Piazzi Smyth and the Pyramid Inch[10]
Appendix 2: A Summary of How Ancient Egyptians Used Coloured Minerals
References
10 Peter Mark Roget: Facilitator of the Writing of Good English and Two of his Distinguished Successors as the Fullerian Professor of Physiology (Thomas Henry Huxley and Sir Peter Medawar)
10.1 Introduction
10.2 The Unusual Professor Roget
10.3 Roget’s Thesaurus
10.4 Roget’s Successors as Fullerian Professors of Physiology at the RI
10.5 Some Specific Contributions by Huxley and Medawar
10.5.1 Thomas Henry Huxley
10.5.2 Peter Medawar
10.5.3 Other Qualities Pertaining to Medawar
References
11 The Most Beautiful Experimentin in Physics: Candidates from the RI and Elsewhere
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Thomas Young: Phenomenal Young
11.2.1 The Double-Slit Experiment
11.3 Faraday and Davy
11.4 Lawrence Bragg and Max von Laue
1.5 Eratosthenes and his Measurement of the Circumference of the Earth, Third Century bc
References
12 The Uniqueness of the RI: Some autobiographical reminiscences of my days as Director of the RI
12.1 Introduction
12.2 George Porter
12.2.1 Important Advice from George Porter
12.3 Kathleen Lonsdale
12.4 Michael Atiyah: Knots at the RI
12.4.1 The Responsibilities of Scientists at the Royal Society
12.5 Margaret Gowing
12.6 Some of my Activities and Duties During the Faraday Bicentenary
12.6.1 An opportunity to write a Book on Faraday
12.7 Brian Pippard
12.8 My First Discourse Speakers
12.9 The Night of the Monarch Butterfly
12.9.1 A Human Being Weighing Nine Tons!
12.10 Neil MacGregor
12.11 Three Nobel Laureates
12.12 Officers, Professors, Calendars
12.13 Deputy Directors and Professorships of Natural Philosophy: 1986–2007
12.13.1 David Phillips
12.13.2 Richard Catlow
12.14 Discourse Entertainment
12.14.1 Sam Wanamaker, Jonathan Miller, and Oliver Sacks
12.15 Carl Sagan
12.16 Kirill Zamaraev
12.17 Photographs and Portraits of Some Other Notable RI Performers
References
Afterword
A.1 Max Perutz’s Eightieth Birthday Symposium
A.2 Schools and Christmas Lectures
A.3 The Enzyme Structure Breakthrough
A.4 Reflections on the Role as Director of the RI in my career
A.4.1 Leaving a Highly Effective Research School in Cambridge
A.4.2 Could I Emulate What George Porter Did at the RI?
A.5 Miss Irene James
A.6 Spending Time with Bill Coates
A.7 Undertaking Original Research at the Daresbury Synchrotron Facility
A.7.1 Single-Site Heterogeneous Catalysts (2012)
A.8 Other Pleasures and Privileges of Being Director of the RI
A.8.1 Inviting Christmas Lecturers
A.9 The Royal Family and the RI
A.9.1 The Duke of Kent
A.10 My Views on the Present Status of the RI
References
Index: Albemarle Street