100 YEARS AGO

Inaugural address by the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour: Reflections suggested by the New Theory of Matter.

If we jump over the century which separates 1804 from 1904, and attempt to give in outline the world-picture as it now presents itself to some leaders of contemporary speculation, we shall find that in the interval it has been modified, not merely by such far-reaching discoveries as the atomic and molecular composition of ordinary matter, the kinetic theory of gases, and the laws of the conservation and dissipation of energy, but by the more and more important part which electricity and the ether occupy in any representation of ultimate physical reality... But to-day there are those who regard gross matter, the matter of everyday experience, as the mere appearance of which electricity is the physical basis; who think that the elementary atom of the chemist, itself far beyond the limits of direct perception, is but a connected system of monads or sub-atoms which are not electrified matter, but are electricity itself... Surely we have here a very extraordinary revolution. Two centuries ago electricity seemed but a scientific toy. It is now thought by many to constitute the reality of which matter is but the sensible expression.

From Nature 18 August 1904.

50 YEARS AGO

Institution of Electronics Exhibition in Manchester. The commercial section was impressive chiefly for its evidence of steady progress in the development of known techniques. Applications of television were prominent, and there were on view no fewer than three industrial closed-circuit television channels... The Institute of Cancer Research exhibited ultrasonic echo-locating equipment, used for the examination of brain structure. When the equipment is in use, a quartz transducer in acoustic contact with the head emits a narrow, pulsed beam of ultrasound. Any echoes incident on the transducer are transmitted as pulses through amplifier and display circuits, and appear on an oscillograph screen. The position of the pulse on the screen gives a measure of the distance of the source of the echo from the transducer. At present, observations are being compared with what is known of the ‘normal’ brain, with the view of the possible identification of abnormal structures.

From Nature 21 August 1954.