Tyndall and Albemarle Street

News that the Royal Institution's magnificent headquarters in Mayfair, London may be placed on the market have caused somewhat of a divide amongst scientists.

While an editorial in the journal Nature called the RI itself "redundant" and argued for its collection of historic equipment and other resources to be bundled off to the Science Museum, other commentators, including Prof. Bruce Hood have argued, convincingly, for the institution to remain and to remain at its Mayfair location.

Hood argued in the Huffington Post that the Faraday lecture theatre at the RI has become the "iconic home of British science" and a "sacred site".

"[It is] a place that trancends a financial value, a cultural heritage that belongs to the world as much as Stonehenge" writes Hood.

Supporters rightly point to Michael Faraday, a physicist who pioneered the notion that science (and scientists) have a duty to communicate their work to a general audience. It was Faraday who began the famous RI Christmas Lectures in 1825 - they have been broadcast on TV since 1966.

Also worthy of mention here is the noted Irish-born scientist John Tyndall, who succeeded Faraday as Director of the Royal Institution in 1867.Tyndall was born in County Carlow in 1820 and studied in Britain and Germany, making significant contributions to a variety of fields including magnetism, heat and atmospherics. However, like Faraday, one of his great contributions was in science communication.

 Having joined the RI originally in 1853 (he was unsuccessful in applying for jobs at Galway, Cork and elsewhere), Tyndall delivered the RI Christmas lectures 12 times, from 1861 to 1884 and, like Faraday, was conscious of the need for science to be communicated to the public. He had developed his style of lecturing as a schoolteacher and in later years, according to Meadows, found that a drink before lectures improved his performance.

In a preface to the third edition of his book Heat: A Mode of Motion, Tyndall noted that his work on public lectures allowed him an opportunity to acquaint himself with the "knowledge and needs of England".

Tyndall and his contemporaries "deprecated and deplored the utter want of scientific knowledge, and the utter absence of sympathy with scientific studies, which mark the great bulk of our otherwise cultivated English public".

He was convinced that "if a scientific man take the trouble, which in my case is immense, of thinking and writing with life and clearness, he is sure to gain general attention. It can hardly be doubted, if fostered and strengthened in this way, that the desire for scientific knowledge will ultimately coerce the anomalies which beset our present system of education".

John Tyndall

"Science must grow", concluded Tyndall. "Its development is as necessary and as irresistible as the motion of the tides, or the flowing of the Gulf Stream. It is a phase of the energy of Nature, and as such is sure, in due time, to compel the recognition, if not to win the alliance, of those who now decry its influence and discourage its advance".

While it is not my place to tell the British scientific community what to do, Prof. Hood is correct in pointing out that the RI building is not just an important site for British science, it is of worldwide significance and would ideally be maintained for its current purpose. Would the worldwide art community permit the French government to sell off the Louvre or the British government to put the National Gallery up for sale?

In a recent letter to The Times of London, David Attenborough, along with 21 scientists wrote that "If Britain loses the Royal Institution, it loses a part of its past. This institution, with its iconic lecture room where almost all the Christmas lectures have been delivered, is just as precious as any ancient palace or famous painting".

"This must not happen in a country that cares about culture, and least of all in one that pins its hopes for future prosperity on a new generation of scientists and engineers."

There is something to be said about public engagement with science being more than just about bricks and mortar. Hands-on experimentation and web-based interaction are all tremendous leaps forward that, I'm sure, Faraday and Tyndall would have approved of. However, they do not replace a rich cultural heritage of science and scientific communication that is represented by the RI building at Albemarle Street, which is of enormous value besides its monetary one.

You can sign a petition to save 21 Albemarle Street as the home of the Royal Institution here.

The Queen and the Mathematician

Queen Elizabeth II will receive a unique scientific gift when she visits Cork on Friday.

When the Queen visits the Tyndall Institute at University College Cork, President of UCC Dr. Michael Murphy will present her with a scarf inspired by the work of the university's greatest professor and the 'father' of computer science.

A lace scarf, designed by Carmel Creaner will be presented to acknowledge the role of Queen Victoria in establishing the college. The idea was inspired by the presentation by Queen Victoria of scarves to four of the bravest soldiers to fight in the Boer War in 1900. One of these scarves was presented to UCC graduate Richard Rowland Thompson and now is on display in the Canadian War Museum.

Carmel Creaner, the artist, explains that George Boole, the first Professor of Mathematics at UCC (then Queen's College Cork) is at the centre of the design:

"I chose to use the mathematical notation found in Boole’s notes as inspiration for the scarf. Some of the elements of the notation such as the three dots for “therefore” inspire random cross stitches and french knots which in turn become zeros! Binary notation is also included in the scarf, most specifically, the binary notation for 1849 – the year Queen Victoria came to Cork and 2011 the year of Queen Elizabeth’s visit. George Boole’s signature - Prof Boole Queen’s College Cork- is also printed on the scarf referring to the original name of the University. The coat of arms of the University and UCC 2011 are also featured.”

John Tyndall - Science Communicator

Queen Elizabeth II will visit the Tyndall National Institute at University College Cork on Friday, but who was John Tyndall?

The National Institute or 'The Tyndall' as it is generally known was formed in 2004 and brought together several academic departments at UCC, along with the former National Microelectronics Research Centre (NMRC) and researchers at Cork Institute of Technology. The objective was, and is, to act as a focal point for Information and Communications Technology in Ireland and to support industry and academia nationally.

John Tyndall (1820-1893) is one of Ireland's most successful scientists and educators. A draftsman, surveyor, physics professor, mathematician, geologist, atmospheric scientist, public lecturer and mountaineer; his great strength was his ability to communicate science to any audience.

Tyndall was born is Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, the son of a police constable. After a local schooling, he became a draftsman with the equivalent of the modern Ordnance Survey and moved to work in England in 1842.

"The desire to grow intellectually did not forsake me" said Tyndall. "and, when railway work slackened, I accepted in 1847 a post as master in Queenwood College." At the Hampshire boarding school, he became good friends with Edward Frankland and the pair headed to Germany to advance their scientific education.

Tyndall extension under construction 2008

In Germany, the Irishman studied under Robert Bunsen for two years. He returned to England in 1851 and started the bulk of his experimental work. In 1853, after a number of unsuccessful job applications, he became Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution in London. Tyndall eventually succeeded Michael Faraday as Superintendent of the Royal Institution in 1867.

He had a variety of scientific interests including solving why the sky is blue: the scattering of light by small particles suspended in the atmosphere. He made the first studies of atmospheric pollution in London and developed the first double beam spectrophotometer.

He demonstrated how light could be sent through a tube of water via multiple internal reflections. He referred to this as the light-pipe and it was a forerunner of the optical fibre used in modern communications technology.

Tyndall was interested in Pasteur's work on sterilisation and developed a process (now known as Tyndallization) which was more effective than Pasteurisation. The process involved heating a substance to 100 degrees C for 15 minutes for three days in a row. The process gets rid of the bacterial spores which are not destroyed by other methods.

Tyndall delivering a public lecture at the Royal Institution

Despite all his scientific breakthroughs, perhaps Tyndall's great legacy is his work as a science communicator. He wrote science columns in many periodicals and gave hundreds of public lectures on a variety of topics. He toured America in 1872 giving public lectures on the subject of light. The substantial proceeds from this lecture tour, he donated to an organisation for promoting science in the US. He published 17 books in his lifetime.

In 1878, it was written of Tyndall: "Professor Tyndall has succeeded not only in original investigation and in teaching science soundly and accurately, but in making it attractive.... When he lectures at the Royal Institution the theatre is crowded".

Tyndall described the vocation of teaching, saying: "I do not know a higher, nobler, and more blessed calling".  He finished one of his books with these inspiring lines:

"Here, my friend, our labours close. It has been a true pleasure to me to have you at my side so long. In the sweat of our brows we have often reached the heights where our work lay, but you have been steadfast and industrious throughout, using in all possible cases your own muscles instead of relying upon mine. Here and there I have stretched an arm and helped you to a ledge, but the work of climbing has been almost exclusively your own. It is thus that I should like to teach you all things; showing you the way to profitable exertion, but leaving the exertion to you.... Our task seems plain enough, but you and I know how often we have had to wrangle resolutely with the facts to bring out their meaning. The work, however, is now done, and you are master of a fragment of that sure and certain knowledge which is founded on the faithful study of nature.... Here then we part. And should we not meet again, the memory of these days will still unite us. Give me your hand. Good bye."

Tyndall had married at the age of 55 and did not have any children with his wife Louisa Hamilton. In his later years, he would often take chloral hydrate to treat insomnia. He died on 4th December 1893 due to an accidental overdose of the drug. He is buried in Haslemere, some 45 miles southwest of London.