Guest editorial: Asking the right questionsThe opinions expressed in the following article are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of either the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Editor or the Editorial Board of Green Chemistry.

As the year draws to a close, it is traditional for an Editorial to reflect on the past 12 months, including some up-beat comments to lift the usual Winter gloom. In a year which began with the MTAS recruitment debacle and ended with a series of sporting disappointments, it may be hard to find too many positive messages on this occasion. It has been a year when bird flu and bio-terrorism disappeared from the tabloid front pages, to be replaced by hospital-acquired ‘superbugs’. In response to the media frenzy and a new set of government targets, hospitals adopted ‘nothing below the elbow’ policies: consultants were spotted entering wards without the customary Saville Row suit and tie, with a fob-watch becoming the new ‘must have’ fashion accessory. Gone are the days when a jacket was considered a ‘badge of office’ for any doctor at registrar level or above. It remains to be seen how patients will recognise ‘seniority’ when MMC produces its first 29 year-old consultant: a certificate of completed training may not have the same therapeutic effect as pin-stripes or padded shoulders… Acute Medicine’s arrival in the ‘big league’ was announced by the first International meeting of the Society for Acute Medicine, in Glasgow this autumn. The success of this meeting was an enormous boost to the speciality, and a great credit to its organisers. Having been initially sceptical about the ability of our young speciality to pull off such an ambitious event, it was a great relief to have been proven wrong. The momentum built up by the autumn meeting was continued with the publication of the RCP Acute Medicine Task Force report at the end of October. The document entitled ‘Acute Medical care: the right person in the right setting, first time’ should provide a major boost to the speciality, with strong recommendations for expansion of acute medical units and the need for increase in consultant numbers. Despite these positive signs for the speciality, anxieties about the future still remain amongst some of those training in acute medicine. At the SAM meeting in October, one trainee questioned deputy First Minister of the Scottish Parliament, Nicola Sturgeon as to whether central funding for new consultant posts would be made available. Another trainee asked whether competition from non-acute medicine specialists with dual accreditation in GIM would continue in the era of the ‘Specialist Acute Physician’. The first SpRs to have undertaken Acute Medicine training programmes will acquire their CCTs in the next few months, with many more to follow in 2008. It is essential that the existing consultants in acute medicine act quickly to develop business cases for additional colleagues, to recognise the likely rise in the number of suitable applicants over coming months. Finally a brief word of thanks to Dr Mike Bacon who recently stood down from his role on the editorial board; his contributions will be missed by the team, but hopefully admirably replaced by those of Dr Nicola Cooper, Consultant in Acute and Elderly Care medicine at Leeds General Infirmary.

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XXXIV. On the transit of Venus in 1769. To the Right Honourable The Earl of Morton, President to the Council and Fellows of the Royal Society, this discourse is, with all humility, inscribed, by their humble servant, Thomas Hornsby

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London ◽

10.1098/rstl.1765.0035 ◽

1765 ◽

Vol 55 ◽

pp. 326-344 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Keyword(s):

Royal Society ◽

The Sun ◽

The Real ◽

The Earth ◽

Theory Of Gravity ◽

The Right ◽

Made In

The observations of the late transit of Venus, though made with all possible care and accuracy, have not enabled us to determine with certainty the real quantity of the sun's parallax; since, by a comparison of the observations made in several parts of the globe, the sun's parallax is not less than 8" 1/2, nor does it seem to exceed 10". From the labours of those gentlemen, who have attempted to deduce this quantity from the theory of gravity, it should seem that the earth performs its annual revolution round the sun at a greater distance than is generally imagined: since Mr. Professor Stewart has determined the sun's parallax to be only 6', 9, and Mr. Mayer, the late celebrated Professor at Gottingen, who hath brought the lunar tables to a degree of perfection almost unexpected, is of opinion that it cannot exceed 8".

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XXV. A letter from Mr. William Mountayne, F. R. S. to the Right Honourable James Earl of Morton, President of the Royal Society, containing some observations on the variation of the magnetic needle, made on board the Montagu Man of War, in the years 1760, 1761, and 1762, by Mr. David Ross, Surgeon

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London ◽

10.1098/rstl.1766.0025 ◽

1766 ◽

Vol 56 ◽

pp. 216-223 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Keyword(s):

Atlantic Ocean ◽

Royal Society ◽

The Earth ◽

The Right ◽

Magnetic Needle

My Lord, The following tables I have compared with the variation chart, published in the year 1756, and so find that they agree pretty well in general, making allowance for the time elapsed: it is true, that, in some few places in the Atlantic Ocean, they differ; yet this may probably arise, as is often the case, from an error in the Montagu's supposed longitude, where such observations were made. But the greatest difference (a greater than should arise, I think, according to common course) appears upon the coast of Portugal, Cape Saint Vincent, and about Gibraltar, near and within sight of land, where the observations are ascertained to the spot. Hence, if mine observed about the year 1756, and those of Mr. Ross's, were both near the truth, at the respective times when they were taken, I know not how to account for this considerable encrease, unless those late extraordinary convulsions, in the bowels of the earth, upon those several coasts, may be found, by further experiments, to have there influenced the directions of the magnetic needle.

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XIII. On the laws of polarisation and double refraction in regularly crystallized bodies. By David Brewster, LL. D. F. R. S. Lond. and Edin. In a letter to the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. G. C. B. P. R. S

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London ◽

10.1098/rstl.1818.0015 ◽

1818 ◽

Vol 108 ◽

pp. 199-273 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Keyword(s):

Present State ◽

General Principle ◽

Royal Society ◽

Physical Science ◽

Double Refraction ◽

General Law ◽

Relative Value ◽

Combined Action ◽

The Subject ◽

The Right

Dear sir, In the different memoirs which you have done me the honour of submitting to the Royal Society, I have considered principally those branches of the polarisation of light which relate to the superficial action, or the superinduced properties of uncrystallized bodies. In the course of these enquiries, my attention was frequently directed to the phenomena of regular crystals; but from the difficulty of procuring proper specimens, and the extreme perplexity of the subject, it was not till lately that I succeeded in reducing under a general principle all the complex appearances which result from the combined action of more than one axis of double refraction. Before I proceed to trace the steps which have conducted me to this general law, I must entreat the indulgence of the Society, while I attempt to give a brief and rapid view of the present state of our knowledge respecting the laws of double refraction. They will thus be able to appreciate more correctly the relative value of those successive generalisations by which this subject has been raised to one of the most interesting departments of physical science.

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Green Chemistry in 2017

Green Chemistry ◽

10.1039/c6gc90126c ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 15-17 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Philip Jessop ◽

Walter Leitner

Keyword(s):

Green Chemistry

Walter Leitner, who retires as Chair of the Editorial Board, and Philip Jessop, the new Chair, share their thoughts on Green Chemistry and the field at this time.

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