Stephen Hales, experimenting, measuring and establishing modern plant physiology
17th Dec 2022 - Science and Thinking
It was always going to be biology, and being a farm boy, animals and plants were in the mix. So,
We think of the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands as a conservation success, full of seals, peat bogs and birds, the culling then saving of a seaweed-eating breed of cows, and all constantly battered by rain and southern winds. While there is evidence for very early Māori occupation, the group of small islands first came into wider notice as a base for whaling and sealing in the early 19th C, then for a rather mad settlement and immigration scheme. Over the whole of the century, the islands stood inconveniently in the way of ships sailing from Australia to London, and these along with more scientific explorations, and voyages serving the whaling and sealing industry, resulted in shipwrecks which were the stuff of adventure stories. Much of this has been written up, from the 1830s onwards, and features in the article attached here.
17th Dec 2022 - Science and Thinking
It was always going to be biology, and being a farm boy, animals and plants were in the mix. So,
21st Apr 2023 - Blog
Amidst the rampant militarism of the 19th century empire, we don’t hear much about those who objected to serving in