50 Years Ago

Living with the Atom. By Prof. Ritchie Calder — The author gives his ... contributions to a discussion on responsible reporting. It is difficult for the reporter to steer a course between the attractive liveliness that approaches the sensational, and the dry factual report that few will read ... There is a fear and distrust of scientists, as people who ought to be above human fallibility but unforgivably err like everyone else; and he points out the dangers also of the responsibility for major decisions resting in the hands of men who do not know sufficient about science to be able to challenge with any confidence the advice that comes to them from their experts. There is something in this, although one would feel that a knowledge of men and a flair for consulting the right experts is what brings men to high office.

From Nature 2 February 1963

100 Years Ago

'Luminous halos surrounding shadows of heads' — The phenomenon referred to ... can also be seen on grass when the sun is low in the sky ... If the grass surface is near to the observer, a faint halo is seen to surround the shadow of his head, and this is more easily perceived if he is moving than if standing still; my attention was indeed first attracted to this phenomenon when bicycling. J. Evershed

I happened to be watching our shadows as we passed along the edge of a field of young green wheat, when, to my surprise, I noticed a halo of light round the shadow of my own head and neck ... The fact that each observer sees only his own halo obviously precludes this phenomenon from having been the origin of the halos recorded in sacred writings round the head of Christ and others. L. L. Fermor

From Nature 30 January 1913