LETTERS

Polar connections

Biographies of Edward A Wilson (1872 to 1912) and William S Bruce (1867 to 1921) have been written by Dr Isobel Williams, a retired hospital consultant.

This pair of books (of 2008 and 2018) will elevate Wilson and Bruce (both sons of doctors) into the ranks of better known polar heroes (Nansen, Amundsen, Scott, Shackleton et al.).

Wilson studied medicine at Cambridge and London’s St George’s Hospital. He made outsanding contributions to Scott’s ‘Discovery’ expedition to Antarctica’s Ross Sea (1902-1904). He perished with Scott and others on the later (1910-12) ‘Terra Nova’s’ unsuccessful quest for priority at the South Pole. Wilson was known as a man of deep faith.

Bruce, grandson of a minister of religion, studied medicine at Edinburgh. With four Dundee whaling ships, he went prospecting for whales in the Southern Ocean 1892-1893. In 1893, he helped build the Ben Nevis Observatory. He also joined several expeditions to Arctic regions.

Bruce promoted a Scottish National Antarctic Expedition on ‘Scotia’ (1902-04) and built Antarctica’s first observatory in the South Orkneys. Back home, he built a Scottish Oceanographic Laboratory by Edinburgh’s Surgeons Hall (1907).

The UK’s first marine laboratory had been built in St Andrews earlier (The Gatty of 1896). This, now named Scottish Oceans Institute, has been recently rebuilt, with a grand reopening pencilled in for June 2019.

In the last 30 years, I have made several expedition cruises to polar waters, north and south. More recently, I have been privileged to attend polar centenary events in Dundee, Glasgow, Cambridge and London. Current concerns with climate change only underline the importance of such earlier work in the polar regions.

J Michael Buchanan, London

Animal Taxi

Reading Jackie Macadam’s article ‘Biblical animals’ in the April 2019 Life and Work reminded me of an encounter I had some years ago with a Palestinian as I walked up the Mount of Olives.

Pointing to his donkey, he said proudly, ‘Taxi Jesus!’

Maureen Jack, St Andrews, Fife

10/60

With reference to the letter from Bill Donaldson (March) relating Prof John Polkinghorne’s elegant illustration of what is meant by a precision of 1 in 10 to the power six (ie 10^60 or 1 followed by 60 zeroes), the printing/typesetting unfortunately rendered this fantastic precision of balance as ‘10/60’ – ie not any usual way of representing the intended quantity. This might have confused some readers.

I remember Polkinghorne from my Cambridge days: he was in Theoretical Physics (ie Applied Maths,) whereas I was in Physics ‘proper’, one might say. Another eminent scientists of noted Christian commitment was Prof Charles Coulson – another “applied mathematician”. At Oxford, he was engaged in using his skills to address the wide topic of Valency (bonding) in Chemistry. Also we might mention Prof Sir Colin Humphreys, a Materials Scientist (not “materialistic”!) at Cambridge: I remember him arriving (from Imperial College) at the Cavendish at the same time I started my own research there – 1963.

Philip Bradfield, Edinburgh

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