50 Years Ago

It is not surprising that the Prime Ministers of France and Britain should have been grateful for a few crumbs of agreement to fill out the communique after a recent meeting in London. By all accounts, British membership of the European Economic Community was not a fruitful topic of conversation. It is therefore paradoxical that the two Prime Ministers should have considered this a suitable time for a decision in principle that the tunnel beneath the English Channel should in due course be built ... The case for a tunnel is wearing thin. Alternative ways of crossing what is, after all, a narrow strip of water have become more attractive ... It looks very much as if the two governments may be making the right decision at the wrong time ... it is to be hoped that the two governments will have another close look at the wisdom of the course to which they have committed themselves before the digging of a tunnel actually begins.

From Nature 23 July 1966

100 Years Ago

Like ourselves, the industrial cities of the United States are beginning to realise the serious economic and hygienic effects caused by the unscientific combustion of coal ... Dr W. F. M. Goss has contributed to a paper on “Smoke as a Source of Atmospheric Pollution” ... The author is not very optimistic in his outlook, for he considers that a revolution in practice which will result in the elimination of existing sources of atmospheric pollution is not to be expected “because present-day knowledge is insufficient to supply necessary means” ... We are throwing away ... a valuable inheritance which should belong to coming generations, and which they will never be able to recover.

From Nature 20 July 1916 Footnote 1