1.
Macclesfield
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Macclesfield is a market town and civil parish in Cheshire, England. The population of Macclesfield at the 2011 census was 52,044, a person from Macclesfield is sometimes referred to as a Maxonian. Macclesfield, like other areas in Cheshire, is a relatively affluent town. Situated in the ancient Hundred of Hamestan, the town is recorded in the Domesday Book as Maclesfeld, the English Place-Name Society gives its name as being derived from the Old English name, Maccel, and field, yielding the meaning Maccels open country. Although Silk Town seems to be its preferred nickname, the nickname of Macclesfield is Treacle Town. This refers to an incident when a horse-drawn wagon overturned and split its load of treacle onto the street. Macclesfield was granted a charter by Earl Ranulf III of Chester, in the early 13th century. The parish church of All Saints was built in 1278, an extension of a built in approximately 1220. The borough had a market and two annual fairs, the Barnaby fair, was on St Barnabas day, the other on the feast of All Saints. Macclesfield was the centre of the Hundred of Macclesfield, which occupied most of east Cheshire. The Earl of Chesters manor of Macclesfield was very large, the manor house was on the edge of the deer park, on the west of the town. The Earls of Chester established the Forest of Macclesfield, which was larger than its present-day namesake. It was used for hunting deer and pasturing sheep and cattle, by the end of the 13th century, large areas of the forest had been ploughed because of the pressure of population growth. In 1356, two trees from the forest were given to archer William Jauderell to repair his home, Macclesfield Castle was a fortified town house built by the dukes of Buckingham in the later Middle Ages. Macclesfield was once surrounded by walls and ramparts with three gates, the Chester Gate, the Jordan Gate and the Church Wall Gate. These names are preserved in the names of three streets in the town, Chestergate, Jordangate and Back Wallgate, during the Civil War, in 1642 the town was occupied for the King by Sir Thomas Aston, a Royalist. The walls and castle were damaged when the town was subsequently bombarded, after the war the walls were completely destroyed on the orders of Cromwell and the Council of the Commonwealth. In the Jacobite Rising of 1745, Charles Stuart and his army marched through Macclesfield as they attempted to reach London, the mayor was forced to welcome the prince, and the event is commemorated in one of the towns silk tapestries
2.
Cheshire
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Cheshire is a county in North West England, bordering Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south and Wales to the west. Cheshires county town is Chester, the largest town is Warrington, other major towns include Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Macclesfield, Northwich, Runcorn, Widnes, Wilmslow, and Winsford. The county covers 905 square miles and has a population of around 1 million and it is mostly rural, with a number of small towns and villages supporting the agricultural and other industries which produce Cheshire cheese, salt, chemicals and silk. Cheshires name was derived from an early name for Chester. Although the name first appears in 980, it is thought that the county was created by Edward the Elder around 920, in the Domesday Book, Chester was recorded as having the name Cestrescir, derived from the name for Chester at the time. A series of changes occurred as English itself changed, together with some simplifications and elision, resulted in the name Cheshire. Because of the close links with the land bordering Cheshire to the west. The Domesday Book records Cheshire as having two complete Hundreds that later became the part of Flintshire. Additionally, another portion of the Duddestan Hundred later became known as Maelor Saesneg when it was transferred to North Wales. For this and other reasons, the Welsh name for Cheshire is sometimes used within Wales, after the Norman conquest of 1066 by William I, dissent and resistance continued for many years after the invasion. In 1069 local resistance in Cheshire was finally put down using draconian measures as part of the Harrying of the North, the ferocity of the campaign against the English populace was enough to end all future resistance. Examples were made of major landowners such as Earl Edwin of Mercia, William I made Cheshire a county palatine and gave Gerbod the Fleming the new title of Earl of Chester. When Gerbod returned to Normandy in about 1070, the king used his absence to declare the earldom forfeit, due to Cheshires strategic location on Welsh Marches, the Earl had complete autonomous powers to rule on behalf of the king in the county palatine. Cheshire in the Domesday Book is recorded as a larger county than it is today. It included two hundreds, Atiscross and Exestan, that became part of North Wales. At the time of the Domesday Book, it included as part of Duddestan Hundred the area of land later known as English Maelor in Wales. The area between the Mersey and Ribble formed part of the returns for Cheshire, an example is the barony of Halton. One of Hugh dAvranches barons has been identified as Robert Nicholls, Baron of Halton, in 1182 the land north of the Mersey became administered as part of the new county of Lancashire, thus resolving any uncertainty about the county in which the land Inter Ripam et Mersam was
3.
Haywards Heath
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Haywards Heath is a town in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex, England. It lies 36 miles south of London,14 miles north of Brighton,13 miles south of Gatwick Airport and 31 miles east northeast of the county town of Chichester. Nearby towns include Burgess Hill to the southwest, Horsham to the northwest, the name Hayward comes from Old English meaning an official who protected hedged enclosures from wandering livestock. There is a legend that the name comes from a highwayman who went under the name of Jack Hayward. Haywards Heath gets a mention in English Civil War records, early in December 1642 the High Sheriff of Sussex advanced with Royalist troops towards Lewes in East Sussex from Chichester in West Sussex. He was intercepted in Haywards Heath by local Parliamentarians and defeated, Haywards Heath as a settlement is a relatively modern development. Following the arrival of the London & Brighton Railway in 1841, Haywards Heath railway station opened on 12 July 1841 and served as the southern terminus of the line until the completion of Brighton station on 21 September. Other noted historical events in the towns include, The opening of the Sussex County Lunatic Asylum in 1859. The superintendent here was, for years, Dr Lockhart Robertson, later Lord Chancellors Visitor. The opening of Bannisters Cattle Market, the 12th largest in UK at one point and this was closed to make way for a Sainsburys supermarket in 1989. In the 1960s and 1970s, two industrial estates were built. Office development has resulted in the town being a regional or national centre for a number of national companies. The population has risen from 200 in the early 1850s to 22,800, the area of the civil parish is 974.99 hectares. The parish church, dedicated to St Wilfrid, and the Roman Catholic church of St Paul are among the churches, other places of worship include the Methodist church in Perrymount Road and two Baptist churches, St Richards, the Church of the Presentation and the Ascension Church. The Priory of Our Lady of Good Counsel on Franklynn Road was built in 1886 and is Grade II listed, in 1978 it was converted to a restaurant and offices. Haywards Heath was in East Sussex, but a change to the county boundary in 1974 brought it under the jurisdiction of West Sussex. Housing in Haywards Heath has been expanded significantly in the last ten years due to the creation of Bolnore Village, planning permission was first granted in the late 1990s for 780 new homes on a greenfield site. The first house was completed in October 2002, since then, phases 1,2 and 3 have been built by the house builders Crest Nicholson in conjunction with several other developers
4.
Sussex
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Sussex, from the Old English Sūþsēaxe, is a historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. Brighton and Hove was created as an authority in 1997. Until then, Chichester was Sussexs only city, Sussex has three main geographic sub-regions, each oriented approximately east to west. In the south-west is the fertile and densely populated coastal plain, North of this are the rolling chalk hills of the South Downs, beyond which is the well-wooded Sussex Weald. The name derives from the Kingdom of Sussex, which was founded, according to legend, in 825, it was absorbed into the kingdom of Wessex and subsequently into the kingdom of England. It was the home of some of Europes earliest hominids, whose remains have been found at Boxgrove, in 1974, the Lord-Lieutenant of Sussex was replaced with one each for East and West Sussex, which became separate ceremonial counties. Sussex continues to be recognised as a territory and cultural region. It has had a police force since 1968 and its name is in common use in the media. In 2007, Sussex Day was created to celebrate the rich culture. Based on the emblem of Sussex, a blue shield with six gold martlets. In 2013, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles formally recognised and acknowledged the existence of Englands 39 historic counties. The name Sussex is derived from the Middle English Suth-sæxe, which is in turn derived from the Old English Suth-Seaxe which means of the South Saxons, the South Saxons were a Germanic tribe that settled in the region from the North German Plain during the 5th and 6th centuries. The earliest known usage of the term South Saxons is in a charter of 689 which names them and their king, Noðhelm. The monastic chronicler who wrote up the entry classifying the invasion seems to have got his dates wrong, the New Latin word Suthsexia was used for Sussex by Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu in his 1645 map. Three United States counties, and a former division of Western Australia, are named after Sussex. The flag of Sussex consists of six gold martlets, or heraldic swallows, on a background, blazoned as Azure. Officially recognised by the Flag Institute on 20 May 2011, its design is based on the shield of Sussex. The first known recording of this emblem being used to represent the county was in 1611 when cartographer John Speed deployed it to represent the Kingdom of the South Saxons
5.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
6.
Evolution of fish
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The evolution of fish began about 530 million years ago during the Cambrian explosion. It was during this time that the early chordates developed the skull, the first fish lineages belong to the Agnatha, or jawless fish. During the late Cambrian, eel-like jawless fish called the conodonts, most jawless fish are now extinct, but the extant lampreys may approximate ancient pre-jawed fish. Lamphreys belong to the Cyclostomata, which includes the extant hagfish, the first jawed vertebrates probably developed during the late Ordovician period. They are first represented in the record from the Silurian by two groups of fish, the armoured fish known as placoderms, which evolved from the ostracoderms. The jawed fish that are extant in modern days also appeared in late Silurian, the Chondrichthyes. The bony fish evolved into two groups, the Actinopterygii and Sarcopterygii. During the Devonian period a great increase in fish variety occurred, especially that of the ostracoderms and placoderms, as well as lobe-finned fish and this has led to the Devonian being known as the age of fishes. It was from the fish that the tetrapods evolved, the non-fish four-limbed vertebrates, represented today by amphibians, mammals, reptiles. Transitional tetrapods first appeared during the early Devonian, and by the late Devonian the first tetrapods appeared, Fish do not represent a monophyletic group, but a paraphyletic one, as they exclude the tetrapods. Fish, like other organisms, have been greatly affected by extinction events throughout natural history. The Ordovician–Silurian extinction events led to the loss of many species, the late Devonian extinction led to the extinction of the ostracoderms and placoderms by the end of the Devonian, as well as other fish. The spiny sharks became extinct at the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the conodonts became extinct at the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, and the present day Holocene extinction, have also affected fish variety and fish stocks. Fish may have evolved from a similar to a coral-like sea squirt. The first ancestors of fish, or animals that were closely related to fish, were Pikaia, Haikouichthys. These three genera all appeared around 530 Ma, Pikaia had a primitive notochord, a structure that could have developed into a vertebral column later. Unlike the other fauna that dominated the Cambrian, these groups had the basic body plan, a notochord, rudimentary vertebrae. All of these early vertebrates lacked jaws in the common sense and these were followed by indisputable fossil vertebrates in the form of heavily armoured fishes discovered in rocks from the Ordovician Period 500–430 Ma
7.
Piltdown Man
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The Piltdown Man was a paleoanthropological hoax in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human. In 1912 amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson claimed he had discovered the link between ape and man. After finding a section of a skull in Pleistocene gravel beds near Piltdown, East Sussex, Dawson contacted Arthur Smith Woodward. Dawson and Smith Woodward discovered more artifacts at the site, which connected to the same individual. These included a jawbone, more skull fragments, a set of teeth, Smith Woodward reconstructed the skull fragments and hypothesised that they belonged to a human ancestor from 500,000 years ago. The discovery was announced at a Geological Society meeting and was given the Latin name Eoanthropus dawsoni, the questionable significance of the assemblage remained the subject of considerable controversy until it was conclusively exposed in 1953 as a forgery. It was found to have consisted of the mandible and some teeth of an orangutan deliberately combined with the cranium of a fully developed, though small-brained. At a meeting of the Geological Society of London on 18 December 1912, according to Dawson, workmen at the site discovered the skull shortly before his visit and broke it up in the belief that it was a fossilised coconut. Revisiting the site on several occasions, Dawson found further fragments of the skull and took them to Arthur Smith Woodward, greatly interested by the finds, Woodward accompanied Dawson to the site. Though the two worked together between June and September 1912, Dawson alone recovered more skull fragments and half of the jaw bone. The skull unearthed in 1908 was the only discovered in situ. He went on to indicate that, save for two human-like molar teeth, the jaw bone was indistinguishable from that of a modern, young chimpanzee, almost from the outset, Woodwards reconstruction of the Piltdown fragments was strongly challenged by some researchers. This reconstruction, by Prof. Arthur Keith, was called Homo piltdownensis in reflection of its human appearance. French Jesuit paleontologist and geologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin participated in the uncovering of the Piltdown skull with Woodward, Woodwards reconstruction included ape-like canine teeth, which was itself controversial. In August 1913, Woodward, Dawson and Teilhard de Chardin began a search of the spoil heaps specifically to find the missing canines. Teilhard de Chardin soon found a canine that, according to Woodward, a few days later Teilhard de Chardin moved to France and took no further part in the discoveries. Noting that the tooth corresponds exactly with that of an ape, Keith pointed out that human molars are the result of side to side movement when chewing. The canine in the Piltdown jaw was impossible as it prevented side to side movement, to explain the wear on the molar teeth, the canine could not have been any higher than the molars
8.
Fellow of the Royal Society
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As of 2016, there are around 1600 living Fellows, Foreign and Honorary Members. Fellowship of the Royal Society has been described by The Guardian newspaper as “the equivalent of a lifetime achievement Oscar” with several institutions celebrating their announcement each year. Up to 60 new Fellows, honorary and foreign members are elected annually usually in May, each candidate is considered on their merits and can be proposed from any sector of the scientific community. Fellows are elected for life on the basis of excellence in science and are entitled to use the post-nominal letters FRS, see Category, Fellows of the Royal Society and Category, Female Fellows of the Royal Society. Every year, Fellows elect up to ten new Foreign Members, like Fellows, Foreign Members are elected for life through peer review on the basis of excellence in science. As of 2016 there are around 165 Foreign Members, who are entitled to use the post-nominal ForMemRS, see Category, Foreign Members of the Royal Society. Honorary Fellows include Bill Bryson, Melvyn Bragg, Robin Saxby, David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville, Honorary Fellows are entitled to use the post nominal letters HonFRS. Others including John Maddox, Patrick Moore and Lisa Jardine were elected as honorary fellows, statute 12 is a legacy mechanism for electing members before official honorary membership existed in 1997. Fellows elected under statute 12 include David Attenborough and John Palmer, prime Ministers of the United Kingdom such as Margaret Thatcher, Neville Chamberlain, H. H. Asquith were elected under statute 12, see Category, Fellows of the Royal Society. The Council of the Royal Society can recommend members of the British Royal Family for election as Royal Fellows of the Royal Society. As of 2016 there are five royal fellows, Charles, Prince of Wales, Anne, Princess Royal, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Prince Andrew, Duke of York. Her Majesty the Queen, Elizabeth II is not a Royal Fellow, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was elected under statute 12, not as a Royal Fellow. The election of new fellows is announced annually in May, after their nomination, each candidate for Fellowship or Foreign Membership is nominated by two Fellows of the Royal Society, who sign a certificate of proposal. Previously, nominations required at least five fellows to support each nomination by the proposer, the certificate of election includes a statement of the principal grounds on which the proposal is being made. There is no limit on the number of nominations each year. In 2015, there were 654 candidates for election as Fellows and 106 candidates for Foreign Membership. The final list of up to 52 Fellowship candidates and up to 10 Foreign Membership candidates is confirmed by the Council in April, a candidate is elected if he or she secures two-thirds of votes of those Fellows present and voting. A further maximum of six can be ‘Honorary’, ‘General’ or ‘Royal’ Fellows, nominations for Fellowship are peer reviewed by sectional committees, each with fifteen members and a chair
9.
Paleontology
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Paleontology or palaeontology is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene Epoch. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms evolution and interactions with each other, paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuviers work on comparative anatomy, and developed rapidly in the 19th century. The term itself originates from Greek παλαιός, palaios, i. e. old, ancient, ὄν, on, i. e. being, creature and λόγος, logos, i. e. speech, thought, study. Paleontology lies on the border between biology and geology, but differs from archaeology in that it excludes the study of modern humans. It now uses techniques drawn from a range of sciences, including biochemistry, mathematics. The final quarter of the 20th century saw the development of molecular phylogenetics, molecular phylogenetics has also been used to estimate the dates when species diverged, but there is controversy about the reliability of the molecular clock on which such estimates depend. The simplest definition is the study of ancient life, paleontology is one of the historical sciences, along with archaeology, geology, astronomy, cosmology, philology and history itself. This means that it aims to describe phenomena of the past, hence it has three main elements, description of the phenomena, developing a general theory about the causes of various types of change, and applying those theories to specific facts. Sometimes the smoking gun is discovered by an accident during other research. Paleontology lies on the boundary between biology and geology since paleontology focuses on the record of past life but its source of evidence is fossils. In addition paleontology often uses techniques derived from other sciences, including biology, osteology, ecology, chemistry, techniques developed in engineering have been used to analyse how ancient organisms might have worked, for example how fast Tyrannosaurus could move and how powerful its bite was. As knowledge has increased, paleontology has developed specialised subdivisions, vertebrate paleontology concentrates on fossils of vertebrates, from the earliest fish to the immediate ancestors of modern mammals. Invertebrate paleontology deals with fossils of such as molluscs, arthropods. Paleobotany focuses on the study of plants, but traditionally includes the study of fossil algae. Palynology, the study of pollen and spores produced by plants and protists. Micropaleontology deals with all microscopic fossil organisms, regardless of the group to which they belong, one example is the development of oxygenic photosynthesis by bacteria, which hugely increased the productivity and diversity of ecosystems. This also caused the oxygenation of the atmosphere, together, these were a prerequisite for the evolution of the most complex eukaryotic cells, from which all multicellular organisms are built
10.
Natural History Museum, London
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The Natural History Museum in London is a museum of natural history that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum, the Natural History Museums main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road. The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections, botany, the museum is a world-renowned centre of research specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, the museum is recognised as the pre-eminent centre of natural history and research of related fields in the world. Although commonly referred to as the Natural History Museum, it was known as British Museum until 1992. Originating from collections within the British Museum, the landmark Alfred Waterhouse building was built and opened by 1881, the Darwin Centre is a more recent addition, partly designed as a modern facility for storing the valuable collections. Like other publicly funded museums in the United Kingdom, the Natural History Museum does not charge an admission fee. The museum is a charity and a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge is a patron of the museum, there are approximately 850 staff at the Museum. The two largest strategic groups are the Public Engagement Group and Science Group and this purchase was funded by a lottery. Sloanes collection, which included dried plants, and animal and human skeletons, was housed in Montagu House, Bloomsbury, in 1756. Most of the Sloane collection had disappeared by the decades of the nineteenth century. Dr George Shaw sold many specimens to the Royal College of Surgeons and had periodic cremations of material in the grounds of the museum and his successors also applied to the trustees for permission to destroy decayed specimens. In 1833 the Annual Report states that, of the 5,500 insects listed in the Sloane catalogue, the inability of the natural history departments to conserve its specimens became notorious, the Treasury refused to entrust it with specimens collected at the governments expense. The huge collection of the conchologist Hugh Cuming was acquired by the museum and that collection is said never to have recovered. The Principal Librarian at the time was Antonio Panizzi, his contempt for the history departments. The general public was not encouraged to visit the Museums natural history exhibits, in 1835 to a Select Committee of Parliament, Sir Henry Ellis said this policy was fully approved by the Principal Librarian and his senior colleagues. Many of these faults were corrected by the palaeontologist Richard Owen and his changes led Bill Bryson to write that by making the Natural History Museum an institution for everyone, Owen transformed our expectations of what museums are for
11.
Victoria University of Manchester
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The former Victoria University of Manchester, now the University of Manchester, was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the joined the federal Victoria University, gaining an independent university charter in 1904 as the Victoria University of Manchester after the collapse of the federal university. The university was founded in 1851 as Owens College, named after John Owens, a textile merchant and its first accommodation was at Cobden House on Quay Street, Manchester, in a house which had been the residence of Richard Cobden. In 1859, Owens College was approved as an examination centre for matriculation candidates of the University of London. As the college progressed it became inadequate so a move to Chorlton on Medlock was planned in 1871, alfred Waterhouse was the architect of the new college building, west of Oxford Road, which was opened in 1873. Owens College became the first affiliate college of the federal Victoria University in 1880, in 1884, University College Liverpool also joined the Victoria University, followed in 1887 by the Yorkshire College in Leeds. In 1903 University College Liverpool left the Victoria University to become the independent University of Liverpool, the new Victoria University of Manchester was established by royal charter on 15 July 1903, the university and Owens College were merged by Act of Parliament on 24 June 1904. In the mid-1960s the university and the city corporation commissioned Hugh Wilson, the Precinct Centre building included the oldest part of the Manchester Business School, Devonshire House and Crawford House and the St Peters House, the University Chaplaincy. It stood on Booth Street East and Booth Street West and Oxford Road ran through it at ground level, the architects were Wilson & Womersley, in association with the universitys planning officer, H. Thomas, for St Peters House the architects were Cruickshank & Seward. The new university was inaugurated on 1 October 2004, the university had more than 18,000 full-time students by the time it merged with UMIST. It was regarded as one of the top universities in the country, see also Category, Vice-Chancellors of the Victoria University of Manchester The chief officers of the university were the vice-chancellor, the registrar, the bursar and the librarian. In the early decades of Owens College, a few outstanding faculty members set high standards for the new institution and these included statistician Stanley Jevons, jurist James Bryce, and particularly Henry Enfield Roscoe Professor of Chemistry and Principal of the college. Since the later 1800s many notable people have worked and studied at the Victoria University of Manchester, the motto of the university was Arduus ad solem, meaning striving towards the sun. It is a metaphor for aspiring to enlightenment and it is quoted from Virgils Aeneid book II, and the archives do not record the reasons for its choice. The original verse refers to a serpent and the sun, both of which featured in the university coat of arms, the serpent is traditionally associated with wisdom. The arms were granted in October 1871 to Owens College while the Victoria University had arms of its own which fell into abeyance from 1904 upon the merger of the College with the University. According to Norman Marlow, the motto Arduus ad solem - taken from Aeneid II - was a play on words, Victoria University The University of Manchester List of modern universities in Europe Charlton, H. B. Manchester, Manchester University Press Fiddes, Edward Chapters in the History of Owens College and of Manchester University, Manchester, Manchester University Press Hartog, P. J. editor The Owens College, Manchester, a brief history of the college and description of its various departments
12.
Geological Society
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The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with over 12,000 Fellows, Fellows are entitled to the postnominal FGS, over 2,000 of whom are Chartered Geologists. The Society is a Registered Charity, No.210161 and it is also a member of the Science Council, and is licensed to award Chartered Scientist to qualifying members. The Society was founded on 13 October 1807 at the Freemasons Tavern, Great Queen Street and it was partly the outcome of a previous club known as the Askesian Society. It received its Royal Charter on 23 April 1825 from George IV, since 1874, the Society has been based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London. This building houses the Societys library, which more than 300,000 volumes of books. It is a member of the UK Science Council, in 1991 it merged with the Institution of Geologists, which had been formed in 1977 to represent the geological profession. The Society celebrated its bicentenary in 2007 and it ran programmes in the geosciences in Britain and abroad, under the auspices of the science writer and palaeontologist Professor Richard Fortey, the president that year. The Society has 24 specialist groups and 15 regional groups which serve as an opportunity for those with specific interests to meet and they are all free for members to join and some are open to non-members. It also publishes the magazine Geoscientist for Fellows, and has a share in Geology Today and it also co-publishes journals and publishes on behalf of other organisations. The society counts many famous geologists amongst its past presidents, later well-known names include Alfred Harker, Arthur Trueman, H. H. Read, and Frederick Shotton. In 1831 it began issuing an annual award for geology. This is still the Societys premier medal, which in 2006 was awarded to James Lovelock, worth Prize The William Smith Fund The Distinguished Service Award Herries Davies, G. L
13.
South America
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South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere, mostly in the southern hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere. It may also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the used in nations that speak Romance languages. The reference to South America instead of other regions has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, North America and it includes twelve sovereign states, a part of France, and a non-sovereign area. In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers. Its population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000, South America ranks fourth in area and fifth in population. Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela. In recent decades Brazil has also concentrated half of the regions GDP and has become a first regional power, most of the population lives near the continents western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, the continents cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the majority of South Americans speak Portuguese or Spanish. South America occupies the portion of the Americas. The continent is delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate, South Americas major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. These resources found in South America have brought high income to its countries especially in times of war or of rapid growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity often has hindered the development of diversified economies and this is leading to efforts to diversify production to drive away from staying as economies dedicated to one major export. South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on earth, South America is home to many interesting and unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a proportion of the Earths species. Brazil is the largest country in South America, encompassing around half of the land area
14.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
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Pikermi
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Pikermi is a town and a former community of Attica, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rafina-Pikermi, the municipal unit has an area of 21.522 km2. Pikermi is situated at the edge of the Mesogaia plain. It is 5 km east of Pallini,6 km west of Rafina and 19 km east of Athens city centre, greek National Road 54 passes through Pikermi. The municipal unit Pikermi consists of the settlements Pikermi, Drafi, Pikermi features a paleontological site which has more than forty mammal species from the late Miocene. What is special about Pikermi is that it is one of the first localities to be discovered and it was discovered in 1839 by Bavarian soldiers of king Otto. Since it was one of the first localities, many of the species named there are type species, similar fossils are found on Samos Island in Greece and Shanxi China
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Athens
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Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, culture, education and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the later on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines, Satine, and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common
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Lists of prehistoric fish
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Prehistoric fish are early fish that are known only from fossil records. They are the earliest known vertebrates, and include the first, the study of prehistoric fish is called paleoichthyology. A few living forms, such as the coelacanth are also referred to as fish, or even living fossils. Fish which have become extinct are not usually referred to as prehistoric fish. Groups of various prehistoric fishes include, Evolution of fish Prehistoric life Vertebrate paleontology Janvier, Philippe Early Vertebrates, Oxford, New York, the Rise of Fishes,500 Million Years of Evolution, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press
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Royal Society
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Founded in November 1660, it was granted a royal charter by King Charles II as The Royal Society. The society is governed by its Council, which is chaired by the Societys President, according to a set of statutes and standing orders. The members of Council and the President are elected from and by its Fellows, the members of the society. As of 2016, there are about 1,600 fellows, allowed to use the postnominal title FRS, there are also royal fellows, honorary fellows and foreign members, the last of which are allowed to use the postnominal title ForMemRS. The Royal Society President is Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, who took up the post on 30 November 2015, since 1967, the society has been based at 6–9 Carlton House Terrace, a Grade I listed building in central London which was previously used by the Embassy of Germany, London. The Royal Society started from groups of physicians and natural philosophers, meeting at variety of locations and they were influenced by the new science, as promoted by Francis Bacon in his New Atlantis, from approximately 1645 onwards. A group known as The Philosophical Society of Oxford was run under a set of rules still retained by the Bodleian Library, after the English Restoration, there were regular meetings at Gresham College. It is widely held that these groups were the inspiration for the foundation of the Royal Society, I will not say, that Mr Oldenburg did rather inspire the French to follow the English, or, at least, did help them, and hinder us. But tis well known who were the men that began and promoted that design. This initial royal favour has continued and, since then, every monarch has been the patron of the society, the societys early meetings included experiments performed first by Hooke and then by Denis Papin, who was appointed in 1684. These experiments varied in their area, and were both important in some cases and trivial in others. The Society returned to Gresham in 1673, there had been an attempt in 1667 to establish a permanent college for the society. Michael Hunter argues that this was influenced by Solomons House in Bacons New Atlantis and, to a lesser extent, by J. V. The first proposal was given by John Evelyn to Robert Boyle in a letter dated 3 September 1659, he suggested a scheme, with apartments for members. The societys ideas were simpler and only included residences for a handful of staff and these plans were progressing by November 1667, but never came to anything, given the lack of contributions from members and the unrealised—perhaps unrealistic—aspirations of the society. During the 18th century, the gusto that had characterised the early years of the society faded, with a number of scientific greats compared to other periods. The pointed lightning conductor had been invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1749, during the same time period, it became customary to appoint society fellows to serve on government committees where science was concerned, something that still continues. The 18th century featured remedies to many of the early problems
