Hugh Miller: stonemason, geologist, writer

Hugh Miller was born in 1802 in Cromarty, Ross-shire. He started his working life as a stonemason’s apprentice; he later became a social commentator and crusader. His was a household name in his lifetime, not only in Scotland but across the English-speaking world. A recent revival in Scottish history and culture, and a reassessment of the 19th century debates in science, geology and religion, have all led to a fuller appreciation of the rich and complex stories in which Hugh Miller played a part, and of the man himself. With the benefit of recent research for the 2002 conferences, this biography does full justice to the self-educated man, a figure of renown in the 19th century whose literary genius and scientific acumen still resonate in the 21s

Quantum metrology and its application in biology

Quantum metrology provides a route to overcome practical limits in sensing devices. It holds particular relevance to biology, where sensitivity and resolution constraints restrict applications both in fundamental biophysics and in medicine. Here, we review quantum metrology from this biological context, focusing on optical techniques due to their particular relevance for biological imaging, sensing, and stimulation. Our understanding of quantum mechanics has already enabled important applications in biology, including positron emission tomography (PET) with entangled photons, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using nuclear magnetic resonance, and bio-magnetic imaging with superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). In quantum metrology an even greater range of applications arise from the ability to not just understand, but to engineer, coherence and correlations at the quantum level. In the past few years, quite dramatic progress has been seen in applying these ideas into biological systems. Capabilities that have been demonstrated include enhanced sensitivity and resolution, immunity to imaging artifacts and technical noise, and characterization of the biological response to light at the single-photon level. New quantum measurement techniques offer even greater promise, raising the prospect for improved multi-photon microscopy and magnetic imaging, among many other possible applications. Realization of this potential will require cross-disciplinary input from researchers in both biology and quantum physics. In this review we seek to communicate the developments of quantum metrology in a way that is accessible to biologists and biophysicists, while providing sufficient detail to allow the interested reader to obtain a solid understanding of the field. We further seek to introduce quantum physicists to some of the central challenges of optical measurements in biological science.Comment: Submitted review article, comments and suggestions welcom

Charles W. Peach, palaeobotany and Scotland

The move south from Wick to the city of Edinburgh in 1865, some four years after retirement from the Customs service, provided Charles W. Peach with new opportunities for fossil-collecting and scientific networking. Here he renewed and maintained his interest in natural history and made significant palaeobotanical collections from the Carboniferous of the Midland Valley of Scotland. These are distinguished by some interesting characteristics of their documentation which the following generations of fossil collectors and researchers would have done well to emulate. Many of his fossil plant specimens have not only the locality detail,but also the date, month and year of collection neatly handwritten on attached paper labels; as a result, we can follow Peach's collecting activities over a period of some 18 years or so. Comments and even illustrative sketches on the labels of some fossils give us first-hand insight into Peach's observations. Study of these collections now held in National Museums Scotland reveals a pattern of collecting heavily biased towards those localities readily accessible from the newly expanding railways which provided a relatively inexpensive and convenient means of exploring the geology of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. Charles W. Peach had a very 'hands-on' practical approach to scientific investigation which led him to construct novel glass plates with mounted Sphenopteris cuticle, removed intact from Lower Carboniferous shales and limestones originating in West Lothian. These resemble the herbarium sheets with which he was familiar from his parallel and highly significant work on extant flora including nearshore marine algae. He also prepared hand ground glass microscope slides,particularly of permineralised plant material from Pettycur in Fife, using whatever materials he had to hand at the time. Peach's collection raises questions about the evolution of accepted standards of documentation in private collections, in parallel with the evolution of collecting practices by the new professionals such as the workers of the Geological Survey. Its relatively rapid deposition in museums,compared to many private collections, may also have contributed to its apparently high rate of usage by contemporary workers

INCENTIVE-BASED SOLUTIONS TO AGRICULTURAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

Theory predicts that incentive-based regulatory instruments reduce compliance costs by encouraging efficient resource allocation and innovation in environmental technology. Cost reductions from pollution permit trading often have exceeded expectations, but the devil is in the detail: the rules matter. In recent years, IB instruments of many kinds, from permit trading to various informal voluntary agreements, have been introduced in many countries. Point-nonpoint trading programs have been established in the U.S., but recorded trades have been rare. We speculate about prospects for performance-based monitoring of agricultural nonpojnt pollution which, we believe, would encourage trading to the benefit of farmers and society.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Influence of wear algorithm formulation on computational-experimental corroboration

Experimental wear testing is well-established as an important part of the TKR design process. Recently, in-silico models have proved their value to corroborate long-term in-vitro results on a much shorter timescale [1]. Both FE-based models & multi-body dynamics can be used to predict contact pressures, sliding distances and cross-shear (CS). The precise mechanisms of wear are not sufficiently understood to permit analytical calculations, and so empirical formulations are used to estimate wear depths & volumes.Most early simulations were based on a modified Archard/Lancaster formulation; more recently a number of alternative formulations for cross shear have been proposed; it is unclear which is the most robust or accurate for the widest range of activities. The aim of this study was to develop and corroborate a fast in-silico wear model, and use this to compare different wear formulations

ARE U.S. FARM PROGRAMS GOOD PUBLIC POLICY? TAKING POLICY PERFORMANCE SERIOUSLY

Distributional analysis is employed to assess the ethical acceptability of agricultural policy along plurastic moral criteria. Using 1999 micro-data from USDA ARMS survey and the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, we discuss policy performance (measured as the effect of direct government payments on the distribution of incomes and profits) relative to policy goals. We show that current programs only minimally address the post-?farm problem? objective of providing a safety net, and the goal of providing an abundant supply of agricultural products is potentially well-implemented given institutional constraints.Agricultural and Food Policy,

POINT-NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION TRADING USING COLLECTIVE PERFORMANCE INCENTIVES

Point-nonpoint trading markets must accommodate the problem of monitoring individual nonpoint source discharges (NPS). A permit trading market that allows the regulator to monitor noncompliance based on observable aggregate NPS pollution levels, through the use of a collective enforcement mechanism, may be more efficient than traditional technology-based trading.Environmental Economics and Policy,