50 Years Ago

'The future of nuclear power' — The advanced type of gas-cooled reactor was expected in 1964 to cost less than a coal station of the same date, and within a year of the delivery of this Lecture the firm tender prices for the Dungeness B nuclear station showed that this was, in fact, the case, provided the station is built at the tender price. In the United States similar dramatic falls in costs have been experienced with their water moderated reactors; and Canada's heavy-water reactor is expected to have very low fuel costs, although it will have a high capital cost. These types of reactors, by the end of the century, would be using 100,000 tons of uranium per annum, on reasonable assumptions as to the rate of development of nuclear stations.

From Nature 19 February 1966

100 Years Ago

The memorandum regarding the neglect of science to which you refer in your leading article last week fails in my judgment by its moderation. The proposal that at least as many marks in the Civil Service examinations shall be allotted to science as to classics, may be a step in the right direction, but it is a halting one ... The revelations that have come to light in the course of this bloody war will, we hope, do at least this good, that the people may be induced to appreciate the necessity of basing education upon natural science instead of upon the classics. The appointment of a Minister of Science which is advocated in the memorandum would under existing conditions be of little use. Whatever qualifications he might be selected for, we may safely prophesy that entire ignorance of the subject he is to administer would be one.

From Nature 17 February 1916 Footnote 1