Nobel laureates Series

The discovery of new elementary gas in the atmosphere in 1894 aroused much interest, and public attention has again been directed to the air, which was, for many centuries, a fruitful field for speculation and conjecture. The account of this discovery, communicated to the Royal Society in January 1895, was, however, necessarily couched in scientific language; and many matters of interest to the chemist and physicist were written in an abbreviated style, in the knowledge that the passages describing them would be easily understood by the experts to whom the communication was primarily addressed. But persons without any special scientific training have frequently expressed to me the hope that an account of the discovery would be published, in which the conclusions drawn from the physical behaviour of argon should be accompanied by a full account of the reasoning on which they are based. An endeavour to fulfil this request is to be found in the following pages. And as the history of the discovery of the better known constituents of the atmosphere is of itself of great interest, and leads up to an acquaintance with the new stranger, who has so long been with us incognito, an effort has here been made to tell the tale of the air in popular language.

Since the discovery of strongly radioactive substances, research on radioactivity has been greatly developed. I propose in this article to give an account of the actual state of our knowledge relative to this subject, laying particular stress on the most recent work. (Pierre Curie - 1904)

Nordmann has presented Einstein’s principle in words which lift the average reader over many of the difficulties he must encounter in trying to take it in. Remembering Goethe’s maxim that he who would accomplish anything must limit himself, he has not aimed at covering the full field to which Einstein’s teaching is directed. But he succeeds in making many abstruse things intelligible to the layman. Einstein’s theories have brought about a profound revolution in science. In their light the world seems simpler, more co-ordinated, more in unison.

The pathology of the blood, especially of the corpuscular elements, though one of the most interesting, is certainly one of the most confusing, of all departments of pathology, and to those who have not given almost undivided attention to this subject it is extremely difficult to obtain a comprehensive and accurate view of the blood in disease. Professor Ehrlich by his careful and extended observations on the blood has qualified himself to give a bird's-eye view of the subject, such as few if any are capable of offering; and his book must remain one of the classical works on blood in disease and on blood diseases.

In this work, I have endeavoured to give a complete and connected account, from a physical standpoint, of the properties possessed by the naturally radio-active bodies. I have found the theory that the atoms of the radio-active bodies are undergoing spontaneous disintegration extremely serviceable, not only in correlating the known phenomena, but also in suggesting new lines of research. The present edition includes a large amount of new material relating to the nature and properties of the radiations and the emanations. In the limits of this book, it would have been found impossible, even had it been thought desirable, to include more than a brief sketch of the physiological effects of the rays. (E. RUTHERFORD - 1905)

The scientific attitude of mind is necessarily critical, but never sceptical without proper investigation and knowledge. The Translator hopes, therefore, that English-speaking men of science will not judge the question of international language before they have quietly and dispassionately examined the arguments so ably set forth in the following pages. It is not a question of "another language"; it is a question of the final solution by the methods of science of one of the greatest of scientific problems. Internationalisation of thought is the motto of the twentieth century, the device on the banner of progress. Science, the Super-Nation of the world, must lead the way in this as in all other things. Amidst the clangour and the clamour of political and commercial strife, the quiet empire of knowledge grows, noiseless and unseen. Let all those who believe that this peaceful empire is destined to become the controlling force of the world assist in the attunement of its common language.

The probability that the most accurate method of determining the solar parallax now available is that resting on the measurement of the velocity of light, has led to the acceptance of the following paper as one of the series having in view the increase of our knowledge of the celestial motions. The researches described in it, having been made at the United States Naval Academy, though at private expense, were reported to the Honorable Secretary of the Navy, and referred by him to this Office. At the suggestion of the writer, the paper was reconstructed with a fuller general discussion of the processes, and with the omission of some of the details of individual experiments.

From time to time the news of some great discovery rushes over the land like a mighty wave; but never before has the intelligence of a great achievement been received with such universal delight. There is hardly a man, woman or child that does not bewail the loss of some dear relative taken away by Tuberculosis, the most terrible of all foes. More terrible because it stealthily creeps into the system and takes a firm hold before its presence can even be surmised. Now the appearance of a deliverer is hailed as would the advent of the Messiah.

The subject of Physiological Chemistry, or Biochemistry, is enlarging its borders to such an extent at the present time that no single text-book upon the subject, without being cumbrous, can adequately deal with it as a whole, so as to give both a general and a detailed account of its present position. It is, moreover, difficult, in the case of the larger text-books, to keep abreast of so rapidly growing a science by means of new editions, and such volumes are therefore issued when much of their contents has become obsolete. For this reason, an attempt is being made to place this branch of science in a more accessible position by issuing a series of monographs upon the various chapters of the subject, each independent of and yet dependent upon the others

The laws of energy in the inorganic world and the laws of evolution in the organic world furnish mental instruments for a conceptual elaboration of the material provided by science, instruments capable not only of unifying present knowledge, but also of evoking the knowledge of the future.

To scientific readers, Professor Charles Richet needs no introduction, but to the public at large it may be necessary to mention that he is one of the best known of French physiologists. He has occupied for a good many years the Chair of Physiology in the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and he has contributed greatly to the progress of the science to which he has devoted his life; some of his discoveries are alluded to with all modesty in the pages which follow. The object of this book is to set forth, as impartially as possible, the reasons which militate for and against vivisection. It is, however, a physiologist who is speaking, therefore no one will be surprised that he should defend a practice which is at the basis of the science he teaches.