The Oxford Dodo. Part 1: the museum history of the Tradescant Dodo: ownership,displays and audience

The Dodo Raphus cucullatus, a giant flightless pigeon endemic to Mauritius, became extinct in the late seventeenth century, and so rapid was the birds’ disappearance, that by the beginning of the nineteenth century even its very existence was questioned. Only four specimens were then recorded in European museums, of which the most famous was the Tradescant or Oxford Dodo, now in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. It comprised the head and one foot, and unique soft tissue in the form of skin and traces of feathers. The history of this specimen is reviewed, including the still unresolved question of how it came to Britain, and we provide evidence to show that it was stuffed but probably never mounted. The changes of ownership, and its cataloguing and curation in the different museums are also described, along with its varying roles in entertainment, education and research from the earliest years until the nineteenth century. This is part one of a two-part article; the second deals with the Tradescant Dodo from its dissection in the 1840s until the present day.     

Darwinism and the Origin of Life: The Role of H.C. Bastian in the British Spontaneous Generation Debates, 1868--1873

Henry Charlton Bastian's support for spontaneous generation is shown to have developed from his commitment to the new evolutionary science of Darwin, Spencer, Huxley and Tyndall. Tracing Bastian's early career development shows that he was one of the most talented rising young stars among the Darwinians in the 1860s. His argument for a logically necessary link between evolution and spontaneous generation was widely believed among those sympathetic to Darwin's ideas. Spontaneous generation implied materialism to many, however, and it had associations in Britain with radical politics and amateur science. Huxley and the X Club were trying to create a public posture of Darwinism that kept it at arm's length from those negative associations. Thus, the conflict that developed when Huxley and the X Club opposed Bastian was at least as much about factional in-fighting among the Darwinians as it was about the experiments under dispute. Huxley's strategy to defeat Bastian and define his position as “non-Darwinian” contributed significantly to the shaping of Huxley's famous address “Biogenesis and Abiogenesis.” Rhetorically separating Darwinism from Bastian was thus responsible for Huxley's first clear public statement that a naturalistic origin of life was compatible with Darwin's ideas, but only in the earth's distant past. The final separation of the discourse on the meaning of Brownian movement and “active molecules” from any possible link with spontaneous generation also grew out of Huxley's strategy to defeat Bastian. Clashes between Bastian and the X Club are described at the BAAS, the Royal Society, and in the pages of Nature and other journals. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Photosynthesis genes and their expression in Rhodobacter sphaeroides 2.4.1: a tribute to my students and associates

This minireview traces the photosynthesis genes, their structure, function and expression in Rhodobacter sphaeroides 2.4.1, as applied to our understanding of the inducible photosynthetic intracytoplasmic membrane system or ICM. This focus has represented the research interests of this laboratory from the late 1960s to the present. This opportunity has been used to highlight the contributions of students and postdoctorals to this research effort. The work described here took place in a much greater and much broader context than what can be conveyed here. The ‘timeline’ begins with a clear acknowledgment of the work of June Lascelles and William Sistrom, whose foresight intuitively recognized the necessity of a ‘genetic’ approach to the study of photosynthesis in R. sphaeroides. The ‘timeline’ concludes with the completed genome sequence of R. sphaeroides 2.4.1. However, it is hoped the reader will recognize this event as not just a new beginning, but also as another hallmark describing this continuum. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

约翰·莱尔的人文生态智慧：中西融合的人文生态系统设计思想

中国传统道家生态智慧从哲学层面建立了人地关系的至高至善的标准,对从根源指导生态规划设计具有重要价值。在西方科学理性和技术理性的背景下,约翰·莱尔提出了“道家方式是人文生态系统设计的正确方式”的观点,并认为伊恩·麦克哈格设计的伍德兰兹社区正是西方人充分借鉴吸收道家智慧和道家方式的集中体现。从土地利用与空间布局、自然排水系统、调蓄机制和后期管理4部分探讨伍德兰兹社区现代生态适宜性分析技术与传统道家生态思想的契合,并探索道家思想与现代生态规划设计思想的融合的特征与规律,为生态规划设计提供一种具有创造性实践意义的新思路。     

Oxidation of thymidylate synthase by inorganic compounds

Thymidylate synthase from methotrexate-resistant Lactobacillus casei was rapidly and completely inactivated by low concentrations of permanganate, periodate, or potassium triiodide at 0 degree C. The enzyme was not inactivated to any appreciable extent by iodate, iodide, ferricyanate, iodosobenzoate, or hydrogen peroxide. The inactivation by permanganate was retarded by the substrate 2'-deoxyuridylate and, to a lesser extent, by phosphate. Titration of enzyme activity with permanganate showed that two moles of permanganate were required to completely inactivate one mole of thymidylate synthase.     

John Woolman's Light in the Night: An Analysis

This is an analysis of a religious experience in the night recorded in the journal of John Woolman, a colonial Quaker. As a basis for analysis, I try to clarify the data of Woolman's experience without presuppositions about causes, states of consciousness, three-dimensional space, or meaning. I then study the phenomena in the light of what we know about perception, dreaming, hallucinatory geometric forms, light, and other people's comparable experiences. Because different modalities of his experience appear to be in different states at the same time, I examine each part of his experience separately. There is discussion of the relationship of dreams to visions and hallucinations, the concept of discrete states of consciousness, and the distinction between simulation and authentic experience while dreaming. The article is both an analysis of a religious experience recorded in 1757 and a discussion of methods of analysis.     

Experimental erythrocyte autoantibodies. V. Induction and suppression of red blood cell autoantibodies in mice injected with rat bromelain-treated red blood cells

Mice injected with rat red blood cells (RBC), or rat bromelain-treated (brom) RBC, produce RBC autoantibodies and suppressor cells that specifically inhibit the autoimmune response without inhibiting the net production of antibodies against rat RBC. It has been investigated whether suppressor cells induced by injections of rat RBC are effective in preventing autoantibody production induced by rat brom RBC and vice versa. Autoantibodies were induced in C3H mice by weekly ip injections, each 0.2 ml, of a 6% suspension of rat RBC or rat brom RBC. Autoantibody production was assayed using Coombs' test. Suppressor cells were present in the spleens of mice positive in Coombs' tests and were shown by intravenous injections of 40 X 10(6) viable cells per mouse into untreated syngeneic mice 18 hr before the first injection of rat RBC or rat brom RBC. Autoantibodies eluted from mice positive in Coombs' tests after injections of rat RBC or brom RBC were absorbed by either type of rat RBC but not by RBC from sheep. This suggests that rat RBC and rat brom RBC display antigens that are similar, if not identical, to autoantigens on the mouse RBC. Spleen cells from mice injected with rat RBC suppressed autoantibodies induced by both rat RBC and rat brom RBC. In contrast, spleen cells from mice injected with rat brom RBC suppressed autoantibodies induced by rat brom RBC but not those induced by unmodified rat RBC. This differential suppression may be due to the removal from rat RBC, by bromelain, of a suppressor site and/or autoantigens of some specificities. Thus rat brom RBC may not induce the total range of specificities of autoantibodies, and of suppressor cells, induced by rat RBC.     

Using the therapy and enhancement distinction in law and policy

In a first major study, the UK’s Royal Society found that 76% of people in the UK are in favour of therapeutic germline genomic editing to correct genetic diseases in human embryos, but found there was little appetite for germline genomic editing for non-therapeutic purposes. Assuming the UK and other governments acted on these findings, can lawmakers and policymakers coherently regulate the use of biomedical innovations by permitting their use for therapeutic purposes but prohibiting their use for enhancement purposes? This paper examines the very common claim in the enhancement literature that the therapy v enhancement distinction does little meaningful work in helping us think through the ethical issues, a claim that has significant implications for these lawmakers and policymakers who may wish to regulate genomic editing techniques to reflect the findings of this important study. The focus of this paper is on germline genomic editing as one of the main themes in this special issue.     

Simplified Resting Metabolic Rate—Predicting Formulas for Normal‐Sized and Obese Individuals

Objective: Resting metabolic rate (RMR) is known to be proportional to body weight and to follow allometric scaling principles. We hypothesized that RMR can be predicted from an allometric formula with weight alone as an independent variable. Research Methods and Procedures: An allometric, power‐law scaling model was fit to RMR measurements obtained from a cohort of patients being treated for weight loss. This, as well as many of the commonly used RMR‐predicting formulas, was tested for RMR prediction ability against a large publicly available RMR database. Bland‐Altman analysis was used to determine the efficacy of the various RMR‐predicting formulas in obese and non‐obese subjects. Results: Power law modeling of the RMR—body weight relationship yielded the following RMR‐predicting equations: RMR_Women = 248 × Weight^0.4356 ? (5.09 × Age) and RMR_Men = 293 × Weight^0.4330 ? (5.92 × Age). Partial correlation analysis revealed that age significantly contributed to RMR variance and was necessary to include in RMR prediction formulas. The James, allometric, and Harris‐Benedict formulas all yielded reasonable RMR predictions for normal sized and obese subjects. Discussion: A simple power formula relating RMR to body weight can be a reasonable RMR estimator for normal‐sized and obese individuals but still requires an age term and separate formulas for men and women for the best possible RMR estimates. The apparent performance of RMR‐predicting formulas is highly dependent on the methodology employed to compare the various formulas.