Science Tour

We all know that Scotland is breathtakingly beautiful and famous for castles, clans, golf and whisky but there is much, much more to this tiny nation.

Scottish people are unbelievably welcoming and always there to lend you a helping hand.

Besides all this the Scots are true innovators and inventors. In the past as much as for the future and naturally right now too.

Where do I start? The telephone, the “improved” steam engine, penicilin, coloured photography, the hypodermic syringe, the flushing toilet, the toaster, pneumatic tyres, fingerprinting, the vacuum flasks, geology….

More recently, the refridgerator*, the MRI scanner, ATMs, computer games such as Grand Theft Auto, disposable contact lenses and Dolly, the cloned sheep.

It has always fascinated me that such a small nation has produced so many inventions and is still on the forefront of it right now: Click here for an overview of Scottish inventions

Perhaps this is due to the long, long dark winter nights everybody suffers through only to enjoy never ending days during summer time?

Most of the life stories of these many, many Scottish inventors are very much tangible. You still can visit places which have inspired them. Furthermore you can -hands on- evaluate some of their discoveries. If you take, for example, James Hutton, who basically invented geology. He was a product of the Edinburgh based enlightenment. You can follow his foot steps in Edinburgh and if you climb up Arthur’s seat you can still see the formations at “Hutton’s section”, which made him make assumptions about the age of the earth.

You can delve into more depth by visiting Dynamic Earth

Other famous Scots from the period of Scottish Enlightenment are Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, Adam Smith, Dugald Stewart, Thomas Reid, Robert Burns, Adam Ferguson, John Playfair, Joseph Black

This is me very roughly inviting you into James Hutton’s life and this is the other thing Scotland is ever so famous for: Storytelling

Wherever you go in Scotland you always stumble across some amazing history, inventions and stories.

You could spend half a life time following the Enlightenment in Edinburgh and all its key people

Edinburgh as the capital of Scotland was very vibrant during the enlightenment but by no means is this the only place of scientific discoveries.

Pitlochry is know for its theatre, amazing walks, two whisky distilleries and last but not least for its fish ladder which is part of its hydroelectric sheme which was completed in 1950. Famously a salmon ladder was installed to allow the fish to bypass the hydro electric scheme.

However, hydro electric in Scotland dates back to 1891 when the Fort August Abbey sheme was built. Later projects were driven by the aluminuim industry such as the 1907 construction at Kinlochleven

`The industrial revolution has had a massive influence on Scotland whether this was in Glasgow which developed into the world trade centre of tobacco (and slavery) or the building of the railway network.

The early railway network had a close relationship with hotels such as the Gleneagles Hotel .

Besides the well known and celebrated inventions, Scotland has quietly advanced towards a greener future by making use of renewal energy, which beside hydro electric is also readily available through wind and tidal energy.

By 2015 Scotland already produced 60% of her energy like this.

Currently the most exiting news is in tidal energy on Orkney of all places.

There has just an artcle been published “How can Scotland become a world leader in wave energy?”and more on Wave Energy Scoland

Many of Scotland’s lanscapes are unique and need our protection. We can, however, only protect what we know. Therefore suistainable travel to learn, research, educate and understand is a very sensible way to raise awareness.

Whether this is for the ancient Ariundle Oakwoods and perhaps to experience traditional crofting at nearby Darrach Croft or the amazing Biosphere of Galloway & South Ayrshire ,One of Scotland’s many vulcanos or a dinosaur footprint on the Isle of Skye.

Your options are unlimited. Even the choice of your overnight accommodation could turn into an educational venture if you opt for Glenuig Inn, which runs 100% on renewal energy.

What belongs to these landscapes also are – of course- the animals, some of which are unique to Scotland too, such as the Scottish wildcat but also maritime animals and birds. Chanonry Point; is one of the best places to spot dolphines for instance.

I could go on forever with Scottish inventions and science, but because this appears to be never ending I shall just introduce you to one more famous and contemporary Scot and she is a woman: Professor Sue Black . She was born in Inverness and during her studies of Biologiy her phobia of rats and mice made her turn to study the human bone. As a forensic anthropologist she was called by the Foreign Office and her role took her to Kosovo identifying victims laid to rest in mass graves. She was also involved in Thailand after the Tsunami, Sierra Leone & Iraq>

She worte a book, “All that Remains” about her experience. She was invited by the University of Dundee to run the anatomy department. During that time she realised that the mortuary was too outdated for modern embalming methods such as “Thiel technique”. Of the £2 Mio costs for a renovation she raised half with the help of many famous Scottish crimes authors, but this really is another story.

I leave you with a list of Scottish inventors below and invite to discover science in Scotland with me:

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Below a list of Scottish scientists, taking from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scottish_scientists

John Barclay	1758–1826	anatomist	donor of the Barclay Collection at Surgeons’ Hall, Edinburgh
John Goodsir	1814–1867	anatomist	pioneer in the study of the cell
John Struthers	1823–1899	anatomist
Charles Piazzi Smyth	1819–1900	astronomer	Astronomer Royal for Scotland
Johann von Lamont	1805–1879	astronomer	Uranus and Saturn moon orbits calculated
Patrick Wilson	1743–1811	astronomer	type-founder, mathematician and meteorologist
Robert Blair	1748–1828	astronomer	inventor of the aplanatic lens
Robert T. A. Innes	1861–1933	astronomer	Proxima Centauri discoverer
Sir David Gill	1843–1914	astronomer	astrophotography pioneer
Thomas Brisbane	1773–1860	astronomer
Thomas Henderson	1798–1844	astronomer	Alpha Centauri, first measured distance
Williamina Fleming	1857–1911	astronomer	cataloguing of stars contributor, discoverer of the Horsehead Nebula
James Bassantin	fl 16th century	astronomer and mathematician	author of Astronomique Discours, Lyons, 1557
Alexander Wilson	1714–1786	astronomer and meteorologist	also surgeon, type-founder, and mathematician; the first scientist to record the use of kites in meteorological investigations
James Ferguson	1710–1776	astronomer, instrument maker
David Gregory	1659–1708	astronomer, mathematician	Savilian Professor of Astronomy
James Gregory	1638–1675	astronomer, mathematician	Gregorian reflecting telescope, first described, Robert Hooke later built
John James Rickard Macleod	1876–1935	biochemist, physiologist	Nobel Prize laureate, 1923
Patrick Geddes	1854–1932	biologist	urban theorist
Robert Edmond Grant	1793–1874	biologist	Swiney lecturer in geology to the British Museum
D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson	1860–1948	biologist and mathematician	author of On Growth and Form
Alexander Dickson	1836–1887	botanist	morphological botanist
Alexander Gibson	1800–1867	botanist	worked on forest conservation in India
Francis Masson	1741–180?	botanist	1741– c. 1805
George Dickie	1812–1882	botanist	specialist in algae
Henry Halcro Johnston	1856–1939	botanist	also army surgeon and rugby union international
James Edward Tierney Aitchison	1836–1898	botanist	surgeon; collected plants in India and Afghanistan
James Wallace	1684–1724	botanist	participated in the Darien Scheme, and obtained plants from that area
John Hope	1725–1786	botanist	botanist who had genus Hopea named after him
John Hutton Balfour	1808–1884	botanist
John Macadam	1827–1865	botanist	(Scottish-born Australian)
M R Henderson	1899–1982	botanist
Philip Miller	1691–1771	botanist
Robert Brown	1773–1858	botanist	Brownian Motion discoverer
Robert Fortune	1813–1880	botanist
Robert Graham	1786–1845	botanist	Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour	1853–1922	botanist	Sherardian Professor of Botany
Thomas Anderson	1832–1870	botanist	director of the Calcutta Botanic Garden
Thomas Thomson	1817–1878	botanist	Superintendent of the Honourable East India Company‘s Botanic Garden at Calcutta
William Aiton	1731–1793	botanist
William Lochead	c.1753–1815	botanist	surgeon, curator of the St Vincent Botanical Garden
William McNab	1844–1889	botanist	physician
William Roxburgh	1759–1815	botanist
William Wright	1735–1819	botanist	botanist who had genera Wrightia and Wrightea named after him
Anna MacGillivray Macleod	1917–2004	botanist, biochemist,	professor of brewing
Archibald Menzies	1754–1852	botanist, explorer
John Fraser	1750–1811	botanist, plant collector
Alexander Crum Brown	1838–1922	chemist	organic chemistry
Arthur Pillans Laurie	1861–1949	chemist	pioneered scientific analysis of paint
Daniel Rutherford	1749–1819	chemist	nitrogen element discoverer
James ‘Paraffin’ Young	1811–1883	chemist
James Napier	1810–1884	chemist	antiquarian
Robert Angus Smith	1817–1884	chemist	environmental chemistry, acid rain, discoverer
Sir William Ramsay	1852–1916	chemist	Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1904
Thomas Graham	1805–1869	chemist	discovered dialysis
Thomas Charles Hope	1766–1844	chemist and physician	discoverer of strontium
John Scott Russell	1808–1882	civil engineer, naval architect	solitons
John Logie Baird	1888–1946	engineer	television inventor
William Fairbairn	1789–1874	engineer	structural
Thomas Telford	1757–1834	engineer, architect	civil engineer, canal builder
Robert Stirling	1790–1878	engineer, clergyman	inventor of the Stirling engine
William John Macquorn Rankine	1820–1872	engineer, physicist	Rankine thermodynamic scale (absolute temperature), proposer
Alexander Graham Bell	1847–1922	engineer, scientist	telephone inventor
Alexander Murray	1810–1884	geologist
James Hall	1761–1832	geologist
James Hutton	1726–1797	geologist	scientific basis of geology established
John Flett	1869–1947	geologist	Director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain
Ninian Imrie of Denmuir	c.1750–1820	geologist	Provided the first geological description of the Rock of Gibraltar
Roderick Murchison	1792–1871	geologist	Silurian period first described, investigated
Thomas Webster	1773–1844	geologist	geologist who had websterite, now normally called aluminite, named after him
Thomas Wright	1809–1884	geologist	also physician
William Maclure	1760–1843	geologist
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet	1797–1875	geologist, lawyer	geology pioneer, (British), foremost of his day
Sheina Marshall FRSE, FRS, OBE	1896–1977	marine biologist
Charles Wyville Thomson	1830–1882	marine zoologist	chief scientist on the Challenger expedition
Peter Guthrie Tait	1831–1901	mathematical physicist	proposer of the Tait conjectures in Knot theory
Alexander Anderson	158?–162?	mathematician	c. 1582– c. 1620
Andrew White Young	1891–1968	mathematician	researched temperature seiches in Loch Earn and presented on Mathieu function and Lagrange polynomials
Colin Maclaurin	1698–1746	mathematician	Maclaurin series developer
David Drysdale	1877–1946	mathematician
Duncan Farquharson Gregory	1813–1844	mathematician	also worked in chemistry and physics
Eric Temple Bell	1883–1960	mathematician	science fiction writer
James Ivory	1765–1842	mathematician
James Stirling	1692–1770	mathematician
John Craig	1663–1731	mathematician	Newton colleague
John Napier	1550–1617	mathematician	logarithms
Joseph Wedderburn	1882–1948	mathematician
Marion Cameron Gray	1902–1979	mathematician	discovered Gray graph
Matthew Stewart	1717–1785	mathematician
Robert J. T. Bell	1876–1963	mathematician	Professor of Pure and Applied Mathematics at the University of Otago
Sheila Scott Macintyre	1910–1960	mathematician
Thomas Barker	1838–1907	mathematician	professor of pure mathematics at Owens College
William Arthur	1894–1979	mathematician
John Keill	1671–1721	mathematician and astronomer	disciple and defender of Isaac Newton, Savilian Professor of Astronomy
Mary Somerville	1780–1872	mathematician, astronomer
James Watt	1736–1819	mathematician, engineer	steam engine improvements contributed key stage in the Industrial Revolution
John Leslie	1766–1832	mathematician, physicist	heat research
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin	1824–1907	mathematician, physicist, engineer
Alexander Buchan	1829–1907	meteorologist, oceanographer and botanist	established the weather map as the basis of weather forecasting
John Aitken	1839–1919	meteorologist, physicist and marine engineer	inventor of the koniscope, (also known as the Aitken dust counter)
Alexander Fleming	1881–1955	microbiologist	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1945
James Gregory	1832–1899	mineralogist	believed claims of diamond discoveries in South Africa were false
William Gregory	1803–1858	mineralogist
George Johnston	1800–1874	naturalist	also physician and mayor of Berwick
James Bell Pettigrew	1834–1908	naturalist	Croonian Lecturer; authority on animal locomotion
John Richardson	1787–1865	naturalist
John Scouler	1804–1871	naturalist	Enicurus scouleri is named after Scouler
William Jardine	1800–1874	naturalist
William MacGillivray	1796–1852	naturalist
John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr	1880–1971	nutritionist	Nobel Peace Prize winner
Malcolm H. Chisholm, FRS FRSE	1945-2015	Organometallic chemist	Contributed to the synthesis and structural chemistry of transition metal complexes
Alexander Wilson	1766–1813	ornithologist	ornithology pioneer pre-Audubon (American)
Phillip Clancey	1917–2001	ornithologist	ornithology pioneer
William Robert Ogilvie-Grant	1863–1924	ornithologist
Hugh Falconer	1808–1865	palaeontologist
David Bruce	1855–1931	pathologist, microbiologist
James W. Black	1924–2010	physician	Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1988
John George Macleod	1915–2006	physician	author of medical books
Sir James Young Simpson	1811–1870	physician	anaesthetic chloroform discoverer, midwifery pioneer
Thomas Addison	1881–1949	physician	nephrology pioneer
David Cuthbertson	1900–1989	physician, biochemist, medical researcher, nutritionist	leading authority on metabolism
William Cullen	1710–1790	physician, chemist
Anderson Gray McKendrick	1876–1943	physician, epidemiologist	pioneer of the use of mathematical methods in epidemiology
Dr William Alexander Young	1889–1928	physician, yellow fever researcher	posthumously awarded the Médaille des Epidémies du ministère de la France d’outre-mer, 1929
Adam Anderson	1783–1846	physicist	contributor to Edinburgh Encyclopædia and Encyclopædia Britannica
Charles Wilson	1869–1959	physicist	cloud chamber inventor
James Dewar	1842–1923	physicist	low temperature, vacuum flask inventor
John Kerr	1824–1907	physicist	electro-optics pioneer, discovery of Kerr effect
Cargill Gilston Knott	1856–1922	physicist and mathematician	pioneer in seismology
James Alfred Ewing	1855–1935	physicist, engineer	discoverer of hysteresis
James David Forbes	1809–1868	physicist, geologist
John Gray McKendrick	1841–1926	physiologist
Muriel Robertson	1883–1973	protozoologist and bacteriologist	Made key discoveries of the life cycle of trypanosomes
David Brewster	1781–1868	scientist	Royal Scottish Society of Arts founder
James Clerk Maxwell	1831–1879	scientist	thermodynamics, electromagnetics theorist
James Croll	1821–1890	scientist	astronomical theory of 19th-century climate change, leading proponent
Joseph Black	1728–1799	scientist	carbon dioxide discoverer
Professor George Forbes	1849–1936	scientist	electrical engineering, hydro-electric power generation
Robert Watson-Watt	1892–1973	scientist	radar inventor
Alan MacMasters	1865–1927	scientist, inventor, industrialist	inventor of the toaster
Elaine Bullard	1915–2011	self-taught botanist	Official Recorder of Orkney for the Botanical Society of the British Isles for 46 years
Robert Barclay	d.1973	statistician	scholar of Orkney
Udny Yule	1871–1951	statistician	Yule–Simon distribution
Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, OM, FRS	1827–1912	surgeon	Antiseptic surgery introduced, eponymous Listerine
Andrew Smith	1797–1872	zoologist
Isabella Gordon	1901–1978	zoologist	carcinologist
James Wilson	1795–1856	zoologist	contributor to Encyclopædia Britannica
Malcolm Laurie	1866–1932	zoologist	specialist in arachnids, especially scorpions
Norman Boyd Kinnear	1882–1957	zoologist
William Baird	1803–1872	zoologist	author of The Natural History of the British Entomostraca
John Anderson	1833–1900	zoologist and anatomist	curator of the Indian Museum