British achievements in science and technology

     In 1831, using his "induction ring", Michael Faraday made one of his greatest discoveries - electromagnetic induction: the "induction" or generation of electricity in a wire by means of the electromagnetic effect of a current in another wire. The induction ring was the first electric transformer. In a second series of experiments in September he discovered magneto-electric induction: the production of a steady electric current. To do this, Faraday attached two wires through a sliding contact to a copper disc. By rotating the disc between the poles of a horseshoe magnet he obtained a continuous direct current. This was the first generator [11, p. 281]. From his experiments came devices that led to the modern electric motor, generator and transformer.

     Michael Faraday continued his electrical experiments. In 1832, he proved that the electricity induced from a magnet, voltaic electricity produced by a battery, and static electricity were all the same. He also did significant work in electrochemistry, stating the First and Second Laws of Electrolysis. This laid the basis for electrochemistry, another great modern industry.

     Faraday also liquefied chlorine, isolated benzene, and established the laws of electrolysis. With William Whewell he coined many concepts - electrode, electrolyte, anode, cathode and ion. 
 

     2.5 James Joule and Thompson Kelvin 
 

     James Joule was educated at home until 15. Later he did not have the opportunity to attend university. However, his great desire was to study science, so he set up a laboratory in his home and began experimenting before and after work each day. As well as the great experimenter, Joule was one of the most underrated scientists until his meeting with Kelvin.

     In 1839, Joule began a series of experiments involving mechanical work, electricity and heat. He showed that the amount of heat produced per second in a wire carrying an electric current equals the current (I) squared multiplied by the resistance (R) of the wire. The heat produced is the electric power lost (P). This relationship is known as Joule’s Law [8, p. 220]. James showed his researches to the Royal Society. The Royal Society showed little enthusiasm for Joule’s paper, and published only a brief summary of his findings.

     In 1843, Joule calculated the amount of mechanical work needed to produce an equivalent amount of heat. This quantity was called ‘the mechanical equivalent of heat’ [11, p. 122]. Again he presented a paper on his findings - this time to the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Again the response was unenthusiastic. Several leading journals also declined to publish papers on Joule’s work.

     Joule’s work on the relationship of heat, electricity and mechanical work was largely ignored until 1847. His work then came to the attention of William Thomson (Thomson, who was later known as Lord Kelvin).

     Although only 23 years old at the time, Thomson was already Professor of Physics at the University of Glasgow. Thomson recognized that Joule’s work fitted in with the unifying pattern that was beginning to emerge in physics and he enthusiastically endorsed Joule’s work. (In fact, Joule’s work made a significant contribution to the process of unifying the fragmented sections of physics.)

     The principle of energy conservation involved in Joule’s work gave rise to the new scientific discipline known as thermodynamics. While Joule was not the first scientist to suggest this principle, he was the first to demonstrate its validity. Although Thomson and a number of other scientists later made significant contributions to thermodynamics, Joule is correctly recognized as the chief founder of thermodynamics. He showed that work can be converted into heat with a fixed ratio of one to the other, and that heat can be converted into work.

     Joule was one of the first scientists to recognize the need for standard units of electricity, and he strongly advocated their establishment. In recognition of Joule’s contribution in relating heat and mechanical motion, the unit of energy (or work) in physics was later named the ‘Joule’ [9, p. 19].

     Since 1852 Joule started work in cooperation with Thomson. The two scientists complemented each other perfectly - Joule, the accurate and resourceful experimenter with only limited training in mathematics, and Thomson, the mathematically talented physicist concerned with extending the theory underlying physics. Joule worked with Thomson on a number of important experiments to confirm some of the predictions being made in the new discipline of thermodynamics. The most famous of these experiments involved the decrease in temperature associated with the expansion of a gas without the performance of external work. This cooling of gases as they expand is known as the ‘Joule - Thomson effect’. This principle provided the basis for the development of the refrigeration industry.

     In 1856 Kelvin developed one of the thermometers. There were several other versions of thermometers by Italian inventor Santorio Santorio and German physic Anders Celsius. Kelvin’s thermometer measures temperature, by using materials that change in some way when they are heated or cooled. In a mercury or alcohol thermometer the liquid expands as it is heated and contracts when it is cooled, so the length of the liquid column is longer or shorter depending on the temperature [4, p. 164].

     Thomson also redesigned the cable to work under water. He invented the telegraph receiver and siphon recorder, made the telegraph wildly successful, and becomes a rich man. He also wrote more than 600 scientific papers, took out more than 70 small patents, and earns more honorary letters after his name than anyone else in the world. 
 

     2.6 Charles Darwin 
 

     Darwin is the first of the evolutionary biologists, the originator of the concept of natural selection. His principal works, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection and The Descent of Man marked a new epoch. His works were violently attacked and energetically defended, then; and, it seems, yet today.

     In 1859, Darwin's shattering work, The Origin of Species, came out. It is now recognized as a leading work in natural philosophy and in the history of mankind. Simply stated, Darwin's theory is that things, and, in particular, life, evolves by a process which Darwin called "natural selection." In Darwin's time, most scientists fully believed that each organism and each adaptation was the work of the creator. [21, p. 40].

     Before the developing of his theory, Darwin had made three fundamental ideas. Darwin’s original contributions were the mechanism of natural selection and copious amounts of evidence for evolutionary change from many sources.  He also provided thoughtful explanations of the consequences of evolution for our understanding of the history of life and modern biological diversity.

     His first idea was that Species (populations of interbreeding organisms) change over time and space.  The representatives of species living today differ from those that lived in the recent past, and populations in different geographic regions today differ slightly in form or behavior. 

     The second idea was that all organisms share common ancestors with other organisms.  Over time, populations may divide into different species, which share a common ancestral population.  Far enough back in time, any pair of organisms shares a common ancestor.  For example, humans shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees about eight million years ago, with whales about 60 million years ago, and with kangaroos over 100 million years ago.   Shared ancestry explains the similarities of organisms that are classified together: their similarities reflect the inheritance of traits from a common ancestor. 

     And the third idea was that evolutionary change is gradual and slow.  This claim was supported by the long episodes of gradual change in organisms in the fossil record and the fact that no naturalist had observed the sudden appearance of a new species in Darwin’s time.  Since then, biologists and paleontologists have documented a broad spectrum of slow to rapid rates of evolutionary change within lineages [2, p. 14].

     On these fundamental ideas Darwin developed mechanism of change over time or simply known process of natural selection.  This mechanism causes changes in the properties of organisms within lineages from generation to generation.

     Darwin’s process of natural selection had four components. The first was Variation. Organisms (within populations) exhibit individual variation in appearance and behavior. These variations may involve body size, hair color, facial markings, voice properties, or number of offspring.  On the other hand, some traits show little to no variation among individuals - for example, number of eyes in vertebrates.

     Inheritance was the second component. Some traits are consistently passed on from parent to offspring. Such traits are heritable, whereas other traits are strongly influenced by environmental conditions and show weak heritability.

     High rate of population growth was the third component. Darwin noticed that most populations have more offspring each year than local resources can support leading to a struggle for resources. Each generation experiences substantial mortality.

     And final component was Differential survival and reproduction. Individuals possessing traits well suited for the struggle for local resources will contribute more offspring to the next generation.

     From one generation to the next, the struggle for resources (what Darwin called the “struggle for existence”) will favor individuals with some variations over others and thereby change the frequency of traits within the population.  This process is natural selection.  The traits that confer an advantage to those individuals who leave more offspring are called adaptations. In order for natural selection to operate on a trait, the trait must possess heritable variation and must confer an advantage in the competition for resources.  If one of these requirements does not occur, then the trait does not experience natural selection [14, p. 66].

     Darwin’s theory of evolution fundamentally changed the direction of future scientific thought. It was built on a growing body of thought that began to question prior ideas about the natural world. Later Darwin’s theory will initiate whole movement called Darwinists and will cause lots of contributes between church and science. These facts had only increased the importance of Darwin’s theory and added him in the history as the greatest biologist. 
 

     2.7 Charles Bell and James Young  
 

     Britain can be really proud of her medical innovations. First William Harvey with his excellent discovery of blood circulation system and then Charles Bell with his none the less great discovery of nervous system.

     A graduate of the University of Edinburgh, Charles Bell came to London in 1804 to practice surgery and teach. He had spent seven years studying nerves, and published the results of his research. His book Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain (1811) is called "the Magna Carta of neurology" because it freed science from all the old shibboleths and explains how the nerves work [7, p. 291].

     Bell showed that nerves consist of separate fibres in a common sheath; that a fibre transmitted either sensory or motor stimuli, but not both; and that nerves transmitted in one direction only. Bell’s Palsy (a partial facial paralysis) is named after him because he identified the affected cranial nerve.

     Soon after Bell, James Simpson, one of young students who entered Edinburgh University at fourteen, sated his medical examinations. He was only eighteen when he started his experiments. Not allowed to practice medicine until he was twenty, he took the enforced time off to study obstetrics.

     Simpson became interested in preventing Puerperal fever, which killed so many women in childbed after the birth of their children and in treating their pain during childbirth. Ignoring bugaboos that childbirth should be painful since it was natural (no other pain received the same consideration) Simpson began experimenting.

     According to the British Medical Journal, in 1847 James Simpson “discovered chloroform by chance when testing a number of volatile fluids in the hope of finding one that was easier to breathe than ether. Chloroform was less irritating to the lungs and produced unconsciousness swiftly.” Chloroform immediately became the anaesthesia of choice. Dr John Snow gave chloroform to Queen Victoria during the birth of Prince Leopold in 1853 [14, p. 41].

     Without Bell's research into the nervous system, surgery to repair injuries would be impossible. And without Simpson’s anaesthesia any operative intervention would cause fatal pain. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

     3 BRITISH SCIENCE TODAY 
 

     Today Britain is still famous for its works in science: exploring the boundaries of biology, medicine, physics and technology. The UK is home to over seventy Nobel prizes in science and some of the finest research facilities in the world. As well as creating new knowledge in the form of research results, British academics also contribute to innovation by creating new instrumentation and methods, assisting with technological problem-solving, generating new firms, supplying skilled graduates, keeping industry up-to-date, providing advice and information, and building corporate image.

     One third of the human genome map, one of the greatest scientific milestones of our lifetime, has been produced in the UK, at the Sanger Centre in Cambridgeshire. The Kew Millennium Seed Bank project aims to address the loss of the Earth's biodiversity by securing the future of all of the UK’s native flowering plants and saving over 24,000 plant species from extinction worldwide. In the 20^th century Britain launched several important air projects including first hovercraft and Concorde. British medicine stands are on a very high level, especially in the sphere of diagnostics and prevention.

     Today British scientists remain at the forefront of physics, genetics, medicine, engineering and technology. Britain has largest genome sequencing centre, richest medical companies, advanced manufacturing sciences and solid theoretical base. 
 

     3.1 Medicine and biology 
 

     At the beginning of the 20^th century Britain  made several great discoveries in medicine. The most important was insulin and anaesthesia. Today, when a “diabetes epidemic” is sweeping the western world, the discovery of therapeutic insulin was a life giver. Frederick Banting and Charles Best working in Canada in the laboratories of John MacLeod with the indispensable help of James Collip managed to isolate the hormone insulin in a pure form that is effective in treating diabetes. Insulin is a naturally-occurring hormone secreted by the pancreas. Insulin is required by the cells of the body in order for them to remove and use glucose from the blood. From glucose the cells produce the energy that they need to carry out their functions. Oddly, only Banting and Macleod received the Nobel Prize for the discovery, but Banting voluntarily shared his award with Best, and MacLeod shared his prize money with Collip [17, p. 139].

     Nowadays Britain plays leading role in the improving of diabetics lives. Two largest companies in that field Novo Nordisk and Abbott Laboratories concerned with diagnosis and treatment of diabetes. Novo Nordisk produces insulin, insulin injectors and needles for them. Abbot laboratories concerned with producing of glucometers (a battery-powered instrument used to calculate blood glucose from as little as one drop of blood, also called blood glucose monitor).

     In 1930 Adgar Adrian and Charles Sherrington challenged to understand how our nerves work. Adgar Adrian tries to capture most sensitive nerve impulses. To do this he uses the cathode ray tube, the capillary electrometer, and thermionic valves to amplify nerve impulses 5,000. Adrian recorded the electrical discharges in single nerve fibres that are produced by tension, pressure, and touch on muscles. He extended his investigations to a study of the electrical impulses caused by painful stimuli.

     Charles Sherrington also had been studying nerves. He discovered Sherrington's Law – when one set of muscles is stimulated, muscles opposing the action are inhibited. Sherrington investigated nearly every aspect of nervous function, coined the terms neuron and synapse to mean the nerve cell and the point at which the nervous impulse is transmitted, and contributed to the development of brain surgery and the treatment of nervous disorders [14, p. 113]. Charles Sherrington jointly with Adgar Adrian shared the Nobel Prize for their work.

     After the Second World War, Cecil Gray saved millions of lives making major operations less painful. He revolutionized the practice of anaesthesia. Before the Second World War major operations in the chest or abdomen required the patient to be given extremely deep anaesthesia, usually with ether. Muscles did not completely relax, so they had to be cut, leaving unsightly scars, and babies with congenital heart defects died. After the Second World War, which almost killed Gray, he experimented with using the drug curare, an extremely effective muscle relaxant. With colleagues at the Liverpool School of Medicine, he developed the "Liverpool Method", the basis of modern anaesthetic practice. Later, working with Jackson Rees, he developed keyhole surgery for babies [17, p. 201].

     In 1960s James Black saves millions loves with betha-blockades. He sets to work in the 1950s in his Glasgow laboratory to try to discover something that will save patients from dying of heart disease. Scientists had discovered that heart disease was characterized by clogged arteries that restrict blood flow. Stress produces adrenaline, which narrows the arteries even more, and may result in angina or a heart attack. Black decides to develop a drug that will block the effect of adrenaline on the heart and blood vessels. It takes him a decade, but Black manages to create propranolol (Indral), a drug that successfully blocks the heart's adrenaline-responsive beta-receptors. Black's beta-blockers, as they are now called, have saved the lives of countless heart disease patients around the world.

     In 1970-1980s Godfrey Hounsfield Sfield and Professor John Mallard pioneer medical diagnosis with CT scanner and full-body MRI. CT scanner allowed to look inside the human body without hurting it, and create three dimensional images has allowed doctors to diagnose and surgeons to operate. Millions of people have been healed of disease because Hounsfield's CT scanner has shown doctors how to help them. Professor John Mallard, colleagues and students at Aberdeen University took the CT scanner invented by Hounsfield and created a full-body MRI that changed medical practice in hospitals around the world and improved diagnosis.

     In 2007 one in every ten people in Britain was over 60; by 2050 the figure will be one in five. Science is faced with a mighty challenge to come up with a new understanding of the ageing process which will enable new drugs to be devised which can help make old age healthier and happier. Recently, a British research team, led by Dr David Kipling of the University of Wales has taken a step and shown that the clock can be made to run backwards. They took fully senescent cells at the ends of their lifespans which were undergoing the changes of ageing, and showed that they could convert them back into fully youthful cells. The transformation was effected by antibodies designed to block the chemical signals which normally initiate senescence by signalling to cells that their lives are over. Without such signals the cells reverted to youthful behaviour. In Dr Kipling's own words, scientists had believed that cellular senescence is like locking a door and throwing the key away. But now the key has been discovered and may be placed in the hands of the doctors [20, p. 261].

     Since 2003 Laboratories in Britain and the USA have cleared the way for the medical use of xenotransplants, organs and tissues taken from other species, to make it possible to expand the use of transplant surgery beyond what is possible using human donors. Pigs are the preferred species because their organs are closely matched to humans in size and structure. The use of xenotransplants would enable many more lives to be saved by transplant surgery, where the demand for organs increasingly outruns the supply.