{"title":"Green Laboratories: Plant studies in the early modern period.Introduction","authors":"Fabrizio Baldassarri","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2023.0030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2023.0030","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":509077,"journal":{"name":"Notes and Records","volume":"40 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139526715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The impact of British chemistry and physics upon Japanese science in the late nineteenth century: the Williamson–Sakurai connection at University College London","authors":"Yoshiyuki Kikuchi","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2023.0054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2023.0054","url":null,"abstract":"The Meiji period between 1868 and 1912, when the introduction of Western science into Japan started in earnest, was also the time when specialization became an increasingly pressing and complex issue in natural science, especially in Victorian Britain where specialization went hand in hand with ‘interconnectedness’ between various fields of study. This article examines the impact of this complicated situation surrounding ‘specialization’ in nineteenth-century British science on Meiji Japan, taking chemistry and physics (natural philosophy) teaching at University College London (UCL) in the 1870s as an example. It reveals how chemistry and physics became interconnected with each other in UCL's science education by the presence of its chemistry professor, Alexander William Williamson (1824–1904), and the impact of this connection on Japanese science with a focus on Williamson's Japanese student, Sakurai Jōji. This paper argues that the interconnectedness of UCL's chemistry and physics significantly affected the disciplinary identity of the Department of Chemistry at the Imperial University of Tokyo through Sakurai.","PeriodicalId":509077,"journal":{"name":"Notes and Records","volume":"36 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139441399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Creating life in the laboratory: Francis Bacon's journey from living spirits to animate bodies","authors":"Dana Jalobeanu","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2023.0037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2023.0037","url":null,"abstract":"This article aims to reconstruct a complex inquiry into the nature of life delineated in Francis Bacon's ‘last writings’, a series of manuscripts discovered at the end of the twentieth century. I show that these fragmentary texts can be understood if we place them in the larger context of Bacon's posthumous works: the Sylva Sylvarum and the Historia densi et rari. Taken together, these texts unveil Bacon's last bold project of a History and inquisition into the nature of animate and inanimate [Historia et inquisitio de animato et inanimato], an investigation focusing on the possibility of creating life in the laboratory. I show that Bacon's last project marks a revaluation of earlier definitions and explanations regarding the nature of life, as well as a change in the vocabulary. I suggest that some of these changes might have originated in practice; and I show how various recipes, observations and experiments recorded in Bacon's late writings can illuminate and justify some of his new terminology.","PeriodicalId":509077,"journal":{"name":"Notes and Records","volume":"2 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139439439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Eloge to James (JIM) Arthur Bennett2 April 1947 — 28 October 2023","authors":"Anna Marie Eleanor Roos","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2023.0084","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2023.0084","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":509077,"journal":{"name":"Notes and Records","volume":"7 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139439524","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vegetal agency: the sap controversy in early eighteenth-century France treatises on plants and gardening","authors":"Sarah Benharrech","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2023.0033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2023.0033","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines how the apologetics of the abbé Noël-Antoine Pluche (1688–1761) impacted his presentation of botanical knowledge in the ten dialogues published in the first and second volumes of his natural history book Le Spectacle de la nature (1732–1750). Pluche popularized a conception of the physical world where plants are reducible to inert mechanisms, devoid of life and agency. First, I examine the various intertwinements of science and theology in his depiction of plant anatomy, by investigating his use of mechanical analogies, his adoption of the sap circulation hypothesis, and his application of the pre-existence theory to account for both generation and vegetative multiplication. I then compare Pluche's understanding of plant growth with those offered by contemporaneous gardening treatises, demonstrating that part of Pluche's project included opposing the materialist and animist undertones found in these gardening treatises that emphasized vegetal life, self-organization, and sap agency.","PeriodicalId":509077,"journal":{"name":"Notes and Records","volume":"39 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139441312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Originality conundrum: British education of engineers in Meiji Japan (1868–1912)","authors":"Tomoko Yoshida","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2023.0058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2023.0058","url":null,"abstract":"Britain played a vital role in the early years of Meiji Japan (1868–1912), when the country was undergoing rapid transformation as it adopted Western technologies like railroads and the telegraph. The British influence extended beyond simply transferring technical skills, however. Young, idealistic British instructors wanted to help cultivate in their Japanese students the spirit of an engineer—an independent and creative mindset that could change the world. In teaching these ideas, the British professors were fighting against a widespread prejudice that the Japanese were innately imitative and lacked the ability to think creatively and take initiative. This paper focuses on the pedagogical approach of professors at the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokyo, and its effect on the careers of their students. The main protagonists of this story are Henry Dyer, the College's principal, and two of his students, railway engineer Minami Kiyoshi and biochemist Takamine Jōkichi.","PeriodicalId":509077,"journal":{"name":"Notes and Records","volume":"30 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139118030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Originality conundrum: British education of engineers in Meiji Japan (1868–1912)","authors":"Tomoko Yoshida","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2023.0058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2023.0058","url":null,"abstract":"Britain played a vital role in the early years of Meiji Japan (1868–1912), when the country was undergoing rapid transformation as it adopted Western technologies like railroads and the telegraph. The British influence extended beyond simply transferring technical skills, however. Young, idealistic British instructors wanted to help cultivate in their Japanese students the spirit of an engineer—an independent and creative mindset that could change the world. In teaching these ideas, the British professors were fighting against a widespread prejudice that the Japanese were innately imitative and lacked the ability to think creatively and take initiative. This paper focuses on the pedagogical approach of professors at the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokyo, and its effect on the careers of their students. The main protagonists of this story are Henry Dyer, the College's principal, and two of his students, railway engineer Minami Kiyoshi and biochemist Takamine Jōkichi.","PeriodicalId":509077,"journal":{"name":"Notes and Records","volume":"30 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139121875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Originality conundrum: British education of engineers in Meiji Japan (1868–1912)","authors":"Tomoko Yoshida","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2023.0058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2023.0058","url":null,"abstract":"Britain played a vital role in the early years of Meiji Japan (1868–1912), when the country was undergoing rapid transformation as it adopted Western technologies like railroads and the telegraph. The British influence extended beyond simply transferring technical skills, however. Young, idealistic British instructors wanted to help cultivate in their Japanese students the spirit of an engineer—an independent and creative mindset that could change the world. In teaching these ideas, the British professors were fighting against a widespread prejudice that the Japanese were innately imitative and lacked the ability to think creatively and take initiative. This paper focuses on the pedagogical approach of professors at the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokyo, and its effect on the careers of their students. The main protagonists of this story are Henry Dyer, the College's principal, and two of his students, railway engineer Minami Kiyoshi and biochemist Takamine Jōkichi.","PeriodicalId":509077,"journal":{"name":"Notes and Records","volume":"30 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139122567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Originality conundrum: British education of engineers in Meiji Japan (1868–1912)","authors":"Tomoko Yoshida","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2023.0058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2023.0058","url":null,"abstract":"Britain played a vital role in the early years of Meiji Japan (1868–1912), when the country was undergoing rapid transformation as it adopted Western technologies like railroads and the telegraph. The British influence extended beyond simply transferring technical skills, however. Young, idealistic British instructors wanted to help cultivate in their Japanese students the spirit of an engineer—an independent and creative mindset that could change the world. In teaching these ideas, the British professors were fighting against a widespread prejudice that the Japanese were innately imitative and lacked the ability to think creatively and take initiative. This paper focuses on the pedagogical approach of professors at the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokyo, and its effect on the careers of their students. The main protagonists of this story are Henry Dyer, the College's principal, and two of his students, railway engineer Minami Kiyoshi and biochemist Takamine Jōkichi.","PeriodicalId":509077,"journal":{"name":"Notes and Records","volume":"30 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139119300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Originality conundrum: British education of engineers in Meiji Japan (1868–1912)","authors":"Tomoko Yoshida","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2023.0058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2023.0058","url":null,"abstract":"Britain played a vital role in the early years of Meiji Japan (1868–1912), when the country was undergoing rapid transformation as it adopted Western technologies like railroads and the telegraph. The British influence extended beyond simply transferring technical skills, however. Young, idealistic British instructors wanted to help cultivate in their Japanese students the spirit of an engineer—an independent and creative mindset that could change the world. In teaching these ideas, the British professors were fighting against a widespread prejudice that the Japanese were innately imitative and lacked the ability to think creatively and take initiative. This paper focuses on the pedagogical approach of professors at the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokyo, and its effect on the careers of their students. The main protagonists of this story are Henry Dyer, the College's principal, and two of his students, railway engineer Minami Kiyoshi and biochemist Takamine Jōkichi.","PeriodicalId":509077,"journal":{"name":"Notes and Records","volume":"30 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139123940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}