Science Britannica

Science Britannica

Episode I

Till the mid 19th century, Old Bailey, now the central criminal court, had been the most notorious prison in Britain. The doors leading the cells narrows one by one.

On January 18th, 1803, George Foster was publically executed here. Crowds were outside watching. It's said that he was given an violent death--his legs were pulled in a speedy way to terminate him.
What's unique of this is his body was taken to an operating table for a publical experiment done by Giovani Aldini who, an advocate for Galvanism, wanted to resurrect him by electricity!!!

The operation of putting the dead body through with electric current(electro-stimulation techniques) could bring him back to life (which did pop his eyes) seemed a step too far for audience then. And Aldini was forced to leave.
Such conduct was assumed as meddling powers beyond control, and the 《Frankenstein 》(1831) few years later was based on such experiment!!!

Science is one of Britain's successful stories:
Alexandra Fleming, 1881-1955, discovered Penicillin which transformed the treatment of infectious bacteria deseases;
Michacl Taradey, 1791-1867, invented the electric motor which made electric the practical and useful thing;
Charles Darwin, 1809-1882, the 《Evolution》, the theory of natural selection which transformed our view of this world~~~

British scientists' contribution to global science is enormous. But, it's also the place where discovery could be controversial.

Back to the time in the early 19th century, public's interest started to switch from art and architecture to science by some natural philosophers.

1802, the public lectures on scientific knowledge were thriving, and the tickets of those lectures were the hottest in the town. Among those scientific subjects, chemistry was the star.

Humphry Davy, aged 23, good-looking, charismatic,  arrogant in some's eyes, is packed with great and good knowledge of its day, and has the passion of communication of science. His  experiment of firing the diamond was conducted first in Italy--fire the diamond, put into liquid oxygen, than release the carbon dioxide. The experiment show the diamond is solely made by carbon.

In his writings, he put it that everything is made of limited elements;  acquiring and applying scientific knowledge gives us power of nature, and future lies in exploring this power!!!

Previously, science was under the realm of religion.  The stereotype of scientists also included creating monsters.

The dark side of science did unleash the monster.

During the WWII, the chemical war, a project of the most powerful weapon was put on agenda.
1942, a secret project was underway in UK. Such project was based on the experiment in 1911--the discovery of atom and individual subatom particles and the energy released in the process of uncleareye collision; and later in 1935--the new element Uranium235 was discovered and its powerful chain reaction(heat the uranium 235 with natrium, the mess is less, energy is released, and the process can go further more. This is the principle of nuclear bomb. What to do next is to find a way to enrich the Uranium purifying in an industrial scale).
1943, the project was shifted to USA as the part of "Manhattan Project"!
6th, August, 1945, the bomb on Heroshima Japan.
This is the watershed moment in human history, which changed the attitude to science.

In the later half of the 20th century, biology thrived. Science is not only the passionate exploration, but the master of life.

It started with the genetically modified, disease-resistant potato(the yeield will up,and the chemicals to treat the disease will down) manifested the genetic makeup of another species.

Another branch of biology was emerged 60 years ago in Old Cavendish Building,Cambridge.
In 1950s, Francis Crick made great discovery in biology--DNA, the molecule carrier that could hold the instruction of whole life.
Francis Crick and James Waltson discovered DNA molecule which carries the genetic information and can hold the instructions of life.

1953, the first model of structure of DNA. There are pairs of molecule. Four types of base of DNA, and the sequence of them creates the living things on earth.

In the early 1970s, the individual genes.

1975, by awearing the potential danger of such scientific discovery,  a conference was held in California by scientists themselves to label the restriction on gene editing.
In 1990s, the fear for Frankinfood and anti-GM was campained in public. There was a feeling of wrong-doing in meddling with life at such basic level. But scientists believe the GM stuff is more efficient and more environment- friendly, and they want to find a better way to persuade the public to share their confidence.

The genuine fear of the unknown, such as the Frankenstein,  is deeply embedded in our culture.

John Hunter, a Scotsman,  the 18th century anatomist and the farther of modern medicine and surgeon techniques, was treated with horror and suspition at his time.

He did surgery in 1780, decades ahead.
He once put it:"Fear was born with ignorance!!!"
In his time, the source of corps on which he exercised experiments were digged from the graveyards by grave robbers which was a high-risk profession.
To combat the fear, public engagement must be increased and education is the ansower. So, he built an exhibition hall known as the Hunterian collection, aiming to move medicine out of the dark ages, where gruesome items of human organs and body parts are exhibited.
There is a leg donated by a patient treated by him.

Today, the experiments on living animals, the so-called animal-testing, are so common, though we know it's morally unacceptable and it's the line we shouldn't cross.
1875, the first animal experiment.

Apart from lab rats, primates and bi-pedles like monkeys are used in experiments to cure of Parkinson's disease.
Less than 100 monkey were deliberately given Parkinson's disease and were undergone medical experiment. Such a luxury!
But the doctor believes this is worthwhile because there is no digital alternatives.

Though the relation between the public and science is controversial, and there are downsides and something sinister there.
Yet, the nuclear weapon does open new opetunities, and the most controversial discoveries do pay their dividend at the end.
The electric shock as the first aid in Defibrillator boxes that can be found everywhere to restart a stopped heart. Which means electric shock can bring back life.


Episode II

On 28th March, 1726, a coffin was layed in Westminster.  It's Isaac Newton, the first scientist, natural philosopher, who was granted such honour!!! From then on, many scientists were honoured in this way.
Britain had become  the bedrock of science. Scientists follow the steps of how we do science: building theories, testing through experiments, and publishing the results.

The Royal Science Society was established in 1660. All members (back to one man--Newton), there transform our understanding of the natural world.

Newton, obsessive, easy to get outraged, was born in 1642, when people were still hunting for witches, at the dawn of the age of reason yet died at the age dominated by scientific knowledge, a country in transition when the reasoning began to flower. He has his feet both in mythical and scientific worlds. He is the first to interrogate the nature.
The prism experiment he conducted reveals the nature of colours themselves, and the white light is made of all those rainbow colours. (When the white light goes through the prism, the rainbow colours are produced. Newton added a second prism and let the green colour from the first prism go through the second and what reflected on the wall is the green colour.)
He interogates the nature, questions what we saw, tests it in experiment.

Newton himself seems strangely unaware of his importance. The joy of discovery of nature is enough for him, and the act of writing them down is secondary to him.
"Nature of things can be natural and securally deduced by their operations, one upon another!" The only way to understand nature is to look at it and use reason and logic to understand and explain what we see!

To simplify the complex world, we use the logical systematic approach.

Roughly 250 years after Newton, such logical method provided a lifeline in the darkest hours.
1940, at the brink of losing the war, the salvation came in the hands of few genius and dedicated people with pencils and paper who were working in Blatchley Park--the place where people dedicated to decode German massages on radio waves on daily basis.

The enigma transmitted between the force and field and the high command in Berlin had been captured.
There was another more complex code, three levels of codes, named "Tuni" by Allies.
Bill Tutte, for three months, with other co-workers,  cracked the code with little more than his brain and pencil, part mathmetic but more logic, by noticing the number 41 is the key to the entire code.

He, obsessed by discovering how things work, used logic, careful observation, and produced tasteful hypothesis to reduce the complex to the simple thing. Such achievement shorten the war by two years.

A ray of driven scientists contributed to our understanding of the world. Because the way of their thought.
There are two traits of scientists:
A) obssessiveness;
B) attention to details. Their minds prioritize the depth over the width of the natural world.

1766, Henry Cavendish, one of those experimental scientists, explored farther than hydrogen(Zink into acid liquid produces gas bubbles, and heated those bubbles produces hydrogen), by experimenting how it works with other elements such as air can produce H2O.

Curiosity driven, design the test, and new science emerged.

No.22, Albemarle Street, the Royal Institution, three leading heads there wanted to democratize science, to make a platform of a new breed--the Faraday Theatre lecture hall for experiments for the public. A place for making sure that the persuit of science is the vital part of our nationhood, and for public engagement to ensure the science's bloodline.

Meanwhile, another root of sharing is to share ideas in written form.
The Scientific Journal which had its first print edition in 1665 with the aim to allow scientists impart knowledge to one another, contributing what they have to the grand design of improving natural knowledge and perfecting all philosophical art and sciences. A platform for sharing scientific findings from scientific giants, such as Newton, Darwin, etc. All those precious articles are kept save in the temperature-controlled vault there.
350 years after its first publish, it's still in print. The articles in it are the facts that can be trusted. Because they are published under the system of peer review. The system can make those bad papers slip through and provide a forum for continual debating.

The difference between a book and a paper is: a book is about the author's opinion, a statement of opinion; The paper is the snapshot of the best of the world, of a particular subject.

There is a epic-scale lab underground. July, 2012, a new chemical practical--the God particle was discovered in Sweden by a group of scientists and was named after a British scientist, Peter Hicks, who worked on it 50 years earlier.

CERN, established for searching for new physics, is composed by two different groups of scientists who can do the cross-check on each other, thus ensuring the power and verlidity of what they do.

Britain, a country of 1% of world population and 3% of investment, produces 15% influential scientific publications. British inquiry minds are valued. Britain's place in science should be cherished, invested in more, and protected for the future.

Episode III

On the New Year's Eve of 1691, Robert Boyle, who is the funding father of chemistry and is famous for his law of relationship between the pressure, volume of gas, and the temperature, was died in London.

At stone's throw from where he lived and died, lies the Royal Society Institution in which kept his handwritten List of his interests--the romantic side of him revealed on a piece of paper. The list is of what he thought could be achieved by science, say: prolonging life; art of flying; transformation of metles; and stop or turn back the aging process.
It seemed scientific fiction then, but we, in nowadays world, have achieved 24 but two items on this list: steamed power, the architecture of atomic, the principle of vaccination,  rada that transformed the travel, world wide web that transformed everything~~~
All these what have been acchieved made Boyle the visionary one who believed science and scientists not only expand our knowledge of the world, but also can change the world, enrich lives, and create better future.

The drive of scientific progress is the curiosity of nature, the solution for practical problem, financial gain, and the faith of the scientific future that could better our life.

Through history, British scientists were motivated by how nature works, and they are called the curiosity-driven research or the bluesky research.

John Tyndall, born in 1820 in a working-class family, has a passion of great outdoors. At the age of 32, he was involved in Royal Society and at 33, he had became the professor.
He has the poetic side, mostly by inspired by the beauty of Alps, and a deeper beauty of how and why these things happened.

He did an experiment on the origin of the magnificent colours:
A tank of water, drops of milk in, place a torch at one side of the tank as the source of light, then he created the "sky in the box" as he called it!!!
And the range of spectrum of light waves revealed: the first solution is blue, the shorter wave length scatters around it and dispersed in the water. That's why the sky is blue; as the penetrate deeper, the longer wave of orange and red at sunset.

Yet, he was right in principle, but wrong in details. It's not the dust and water particles in the air, it's the molecule of air itself in which the light scattered.

And, he proceeded his experiment.
He put a box of dust and let them settle day after day; and he put in meat, fish, even urine and found they didn't decay at all. The bacteria sticked at the bottom, so the air was germ-free. Thus, the conclusion is the decay and disease are caused by those microbes in the air.

He followed his curiosity for its own sake, and that's how the curiosity-driven "blue sky" research which is based on the airy-fairy ideas came from.

115 years after him, blue sky research was still expanding our horizons: the telescope to ansower the question of the universe, the peer into the depth of space~~
Say, the quest for the Sun, one of 200 billion stars in the universe, 1.4 million metres in diameter,  high temperature in surface, has got some progress by not cracked it yet. Some question such foundimental research is waste of tax-payers' money. But knowledge has its own value, and the acquisition of knowledge is priceless.

Such controversial argument existed at the heart of the beginning--The Royal Society was fund aiming to recognize,  promote and protect these blue sky dreamers. A book written few years after its founded, 《The History of Royal Science in London》has a picture on the front page indicating the authority, the fame, and the achievement of science that could enrich industries, economic gains as well as scientific benefits.
But these natural philosophers and the pure pursuit of knowledge need money. This problem issues the targeted research, the applied research(the less intellectual merit one) 

A simple experiment in which two paralleled set metal strips--steel and bronze, the bi-metallic strips, was put into heated water to a given temperature, and the two immediately separated to each other.

Well, the blue-sky dreamers will focuse on why this happens; The practical scientists will think of how this is useful.

On 22ed October, 1707, a stormy night, a home-bound English fleet had no idea of where they were and eventurally lost their lives(800 people) in the water of Cornish peninsula boasting jagged rocks underneath.
Till 1714, 200 more lives lost on the sea. Shocked by such casualty,  Parliament demanded financial investment to do something about it.
The problem was there was no method to calculate the longitude on the sea.
John Harrison, a yolkshire carpinter, invented the clock, based on the bi-metallic strips, that can help sailors to get the accurate time and longitude, thus pinning their location in sea voyages. 25 years later, it had evolved into a pocket watch, and had been in use till 1970s.

Thus, considering the time, the effort, and the money, the applied science could be proper.

The electricity lightball, electric telegraph in 1837, telephone in 1877, the steamed turbine, the steel production, the vacuum machine, artificial body part and the list goes on~~~
GSK, the pharmaceutical industry producing the antibiotic medicine and drugs that can make many diseases treatable, thus extending the life. All these are the products of applied science.

Obviously, the targetted science can apply particular solution to particular problem. Is it the time to close the door of serendipity discoveries?!

William Perkins, a 15-year-old boy sent to the Science Institute to study, and 4 years later, he was involved in doing research for synsetic Quinnin--the drug to treat colonial diseases like malaria.

In one experiment,  he found the residue of the muddy black liquid, when mixed with athinal,  could dye cloth in he colour purple. The purple colour was adored by Queen Victoria and the 1820s had become the "Mouveine decade".

Such synsetic dye ushered in the dawn of organic chemistry is the prime example of benefit of serendipity discovery and the rebuke of the expensive wasting of time accusation. If there was no curiosity,  there would be miss-out discoveries.

The argument of the purpose of science: its role is the pure knowledge, its main value is in the application of improving our lots, serving our society.

Francis Crik Institution, built in 2015, is set to combine and balance the two branches. There, scientists in chemistry, bio-chemistry, amd physics are under one roof. There, the freedom and space to these inquiring minds to do serendipity discoveries are given, thus hoping to give the public what they want from science.

By the words:"Born here by chance, thrive here is not.", freedom in science is continued to be celebrated and enjoyed in Britain. There is still be some controversial issues, but the benefit it brought is immeasurable.
Scientists, instead of being forced to deliver only what the public need, should be encouraged to be free thinkers. It should be more space for dreamers to dream.