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