1.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
2.
Animal
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Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia. The animal kingdom emerged as a clade within Apoikozoa as the group to the choanoflagellates. Animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently at some point in their lives and their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later in their lives. All animals are heterotrophs, they must ingest other organisms or their products for sustenance, most known animal phyla appeared in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion, about 542 million years ago. Animals can be divided broadly into vertebrates and invertebrates, vertebrates have a backbone or spine, and amount to less than five percent of all described animal species. They include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, the remaining animals are the invertebrates, which lack a backbone. These include molluscs, arthropods, annelids, nematodes, flatworms, cnidarians, ctenophores, the study of animals is called zoology. The word animal comes from the Latin animalis, meaning having breath, the biological definition of the word refers to all members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing creatures as diverse as sponges, jellyfish, insects, and humans. Aristotle divided the world between animals and plants, and this was followed by Carl Linnaeus, in the first hierarchical classification. In Linnaeuss original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, in 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into two subkingdoms, Metazoa and Protozoa. The protozoa were later moved to the kingdom Protista, leaving only the metazoa, thus Metazoa is now considered a synonym of Animalia. Animals have several characteristics that set apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular, which separates them from bacteria and they are heterotrophic, generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae. They are also distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls. All animals are motile, if only at life stages. In most animals, embryos pass through a stage, which is a characteristic exclusive to animals. With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges and Placozoa and these include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and nerve tissues, which send and process signals
3.
Echinoderm
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Echinoderm is the common name given to any member of the phylum Echinodermata of marine animals. The adults are recognizable by their symmetry, and include such well-known animals as sea stars, sea urchins, sand dollars. Echinoderms are found at every ocean depth, from the zone to the abyssal zone. The phylum contains about 7000 living species, making it the second-largest grouping of deuterostomes, echinoderms are also the largest phylum that has no freshwater or terrestrial representatives. Aside from the hard-to-classify Arkarua, the first definitive members of the phylum appeared near the start of the Cambrian, the echinoderms are important both ecologically and geologically. Ecologically, there are few other groupings so abundant in the desert of the deep sea. Most echinoderms are able to regenerate tissue, organs, limbs, geologically, the value of echinoderms is in their ossified skeletons, which are major contributors to many limestone formations, and can provide valuable clues as to the geological environment. They were the most used species in regenerative research in the 19th and 20th centuries, further, it is held by some scientists that the radiation of echinoderms was responsible for the Mesozoic Marine Revolution. Along with the chordates and hemichordates, echinoderms are deuterostomes, one of the two divisions of the bilaterians, the other being the protostomes. During the early development of the embryo, in deuterostomes, the blastopore becomes the anus whereas in the protostomes, in deuterostomes, the mouth develops at a later stage, at the opposite end of the blastula from the blastopore, and a gut forms connecting the two. There are a total of about 7,000 extant species of echinoderm as well as about 13,000 extinct species and they are found in habitats ranging from shallow intertidal areas to abyssal depths. These consist of the Crinoidea and the extinct blastoids and Paracrinoids, a fifth class of Eleutherozoa consisting of just three species, the Concentricycloidea, were recently merged into the Asteroidea. The fossil record includes a number of other classes which do not appear to fall into any extant crown group. All echinoderms are marine and nearly all are benthic, the oldest known echinoderm fossil may be Arkarua from the Precambrian of Australia. It is a fossil with radial ridges on the rim. However, no stereom or internal structure showing a water system is present. The first universally accepted echinoderms appear in the Lower Cambrian period, asterozoans appeared in the Ordovician, echinoderms left behind an extensive fossil record. It is hypothesised that the ancestor of all echinoderms was a simple, motile, bilaterally symmetrical animal with a mouth, gut and this ancestral stock adopted an attached mode of life and suspension feeding, and developed radial symmetry as this was more advantageous for such an existence
4.
Sea urchin
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Sea urchins or urchins, archaically called sea hedgehogs, are small, spiny, globular animals that, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. About 950 species of echinoids inhabit all oceans from the intertidal to 5,000 metres deep, the shell, or test, of sea urchins is round and spiny, typically from 3 to 10 cm across. Common colors include black and dull shades of green, olive, brown, purple, blue, Sea urchins move slowly, feeding primarily on algae. Sea otters, starfish, wolf eels, triggerfish, and other predators hunt and their roe is a delicacy in many cuisines. The name urchin is an old word for hedgehog, which sea urchins resemble, Sea urchins are members of the phylum Echinodermata, which also includes sea stars, sea cucumbers, brittle stars, and crinoids. Like other echinoderms, they have five-fold symmetry and move by means of hundreds of tiny, transparent, the symmetry is not obvious in the living animal, but is easily visible in the dried test. The irregular sea urchins are an infra-class inside the Euechinoidea, called Irregularia, irregular echinoids include, flattened sand dollars, sea biscuits, and heart urchins. Together with sea cucumbers, they make up the subphylum Echinozoa, Sea cucumbers and the irregular echinoids have secondarily evolved diverse shapes. Urchins typically range in size from 6 to 12 cm, although the largest species can reach up to 36 cm, like other echinoderms, sea urchin early larvae have bilateral symmetry, but they develop five-fold symmetry as they mature. This is most apparent in the sea urchins, which have roughly spherical bodies with five equally sized parts radiating out from their central axes. Several sea urchins, however, including the sand dollars, are oval in shape, with front and rear ends. In these urchins, the surface of the body is slightly domed. This irregular body form has evolved to allow the animals to burrow through sand or other soft materials, Sea urchins tube feet arise from the five ambulacral grooves. Tube feet are moved by a vascular system, which works through hydraulic pressure, allowing the sea urchin to pump water into and out of the tube feet. The lower half of a sea urchins body is referred to as the surface, because it contains the mouth. The internal organs are enclosed in a shell or test composed of fused plates of calcium carbonate covered by a thin dermis and epidermis. The test is rigid, and divides into five ambulacral grooves separated by five interambulacral areas, each of these areas consists of two rows of plates, so the sea urchin test includes 20 rows of plates in total. The plates are covered in rounded tubercles, to which the spines are attached, the inner surface of the test is lined by peritoneum
5.
Echinacea
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Echinacea /ˌɛkᵻˈneɪʃiə/ is a genus, or group of herbaceous flowering plants in the daisy family. The Echinacea genus has nine species, which are commonly called purple coneflowers and they are found only in eastern and central North America, where they are found growing in moist to dry prairies and open wooded areas. They have large, showy heads of flowers, blooming from early to late summer. The generic name is derived from the Greek word ἐχῖνος, meaning hedgehog and these flowering plants and their parts have different uses. Some species are cultivated in gardens for their showy flowers, Echinacea purpurea is used in folk medicine. Two of the species, E. tennesseensis and E. laevigata, are listed in the United States as endangered species, the DNA analysis allows researchers to reveal clear distinctions among species based on chemical differences in root metabolites. The research concluded that of the 40 genetically diverse populations of Echinacea studied, Echinacea species are herbaceous, drought-tolerant perennial plants growing up to 140 cm or 4 feet, in height. They grow from taproots, except E. purpurea, which grows from a caudex with fibrous roots. They have erect stems that in most species are unbranched, both the basal and cauline leaves are arranged alternately. The leaves are hairy with a rough texture, having uniseriate trichomes but sometimes they lack hairs. The basal leaves and the stem leaves have petioles. The leaf blades in different species may have one, three or five nerves, some species have linear to lanceolate leaves, and others have elliptic- to ovate-shaped leaves, often the leaves decrease in size as they progress up the stems. Leaf bases gradually increase in width away from the petioles or the bases are rounded to heart shaped, most species have leaf margins that are entire, but sometimes they are dentate or serrate. The flowers are collected together into single rounded heads at the ends of long peduncles, the inflorescences have crateriform to hemispheric shaped involucres which are 12–40 mm wide. The phyllaries, or bracts below the head, are persistent. The phyllaries are produced in a 2–4 series, the receptacles are hemispheric to conic. The paleae have orange to reddish purple ends, and are longer than the disc corollas, the paleae bases partially surrounding the cypselae, and are keeled with the apices abruptly constricted to awn-like tips. The ray florets number 8–21 and the corollas are purple to pale pink, white
6.
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
7.
Ensenada, Baja California
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Ensenada is a coastal city in Mexico, the third-largest in Baja California. Lying 125 kilometres south of San Diego on the Baja California Peninsula, it is referred to as La Cenicienta del Pacífico. It is said that the first Vitis vinifera made it to the regions San Ignacio Mission in 1703, situated on the coastline of Bahía de Todos Santos—an inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the peninsulas Gold Coast—the Port of Ensenada is an important commercial, fishing, and tourist port. The city is home to a base, army base, and Ensenada Airport. Ensenada is the seat and cultural and commercial center of Ensenada Municipality. As of 2015, the city of Ensenada had a population of 519,813, Ensenada is backed by small mountain ranges. Proximity to the Pacific and a warm Mediterranean latitude create mild year-round weather, the rainy season during the winter is short and the area is prone to prolonged droughts, which can threaten its grape harvests. The National Park Constitution of 1857 created the Sierra de Juarez and San Pedro Martir National Parks, when the first European explorers discovered the region, the Yuman Indians inhabited the region, of which tribal groups such as the Kiliwa, Paipai and Kumeyaay still exist. These semi-nomadic indigenous people lived in the bay area and interior valleys of the Sierra de Juárez, Bahia Todos Santos, on which Ensenada now stands, was first reached by sea by the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo on the vessels El Salvador and Victoria. The city was founded September 17,1542 under the name San Mateo, the first permanent settlement was established by the Jesuits during the seventeenth or eighteenth century. After the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1768, the Dominicans took over the representation of Europe in what is now Ensenada, in 1882, Ensenada was designated the capital of Baja California, and attempts at developing the area were made by the English Mexican Land and Colonization Company. These were interrupted by the Mexican Revolution, which left the area devastated, in 1915, the capital was transferred to Mexicali, and in 1930 the population of Ensenada was only 5,000. It really flourished only in the early 1950s, at which time Ensenadas population had risen to 20,000, the hotel finally closed in 1964. It was later reopened as a center and museum. By this time, other hotels had opened, and the population and economy of Ensenada had grown, Ensenada is predominantly a mid-rise building beach city. Several marinas including Ensenada Cruiseport Village, Hotel Coral & Marina, the Bajamar Oceanfront Golf Resort at Baja Mar is also located nearby to the north, and is a prominent seaside resort of Baja California. Many of the terrestrial or marine species inhabiting the surrounding the Greater Ensenada area in the Baja California islands are unique, Guadalupe Island, off the coast of the city, is one of the best places in the world for observing the great white shark. The island has been a sanctuary since 1975
8.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
9.
British Columbia
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British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, with a population of more than four million people located between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. British Columbia is also a component of the Pacific Northwest and the Cascadia bioregion, along with the U. S. states of Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The first British settlement in the area was Fort Victoria, established in 1843, subsequently, on the mainland, the Colony of British Columbia was founded by Richard Clement Moody and the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, in response to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Port Moody is named after him, in 1866, Vancouver Island became part of the colony of British Columbia, and Victoria became the united colonys capital. In 1871, British Columbia became the province of Canada. Its Latin motto is Splendor sine occasu, the capital of British Columbia remains Victoria, the fifteenth-largest metropolitan region in Canada, named for the Queen who created the original European colonies. The largest city is Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, the largest in Western Canada, in October 2013, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,606,371. British Columbia evolved from British possessions that were established in what is now British Columbia by 1871, First Nations, the original inhabitants of the land, have a history of at least 10,000 years in the area. Today there are few treaties and the question of Aboriginal Title, notably, the Tsilhqotin Nation has established Aboriginal title to a portion of their territory, as a result of the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision. BCs economy is diverse, with service producing industries accounting for the largest portion of the provinces GDP and it is the endpoint of transcontinental railways, and the site of major Pacific ports that enable international trade. Though less than 5% of its vast 944,735 km2 land is arable and its climate encourages outdoor recreation and tourism, though its economic mainstay has long been resource extraction, principally logging, farming, and mining. Vancouver, the provinces largest city and metropolitan area, also serves as the headquarters of many western-based natural resource companies and it also benefits from a strong housing market and a per capita income well above the national average. The Northern Interior region has a climate with very cold winters. The climate of Vancouver is by far the mildest winter climate of the major Canadian cities, the provinces name was chosen by Queen Victoria, when the Colony of British Columbia, i. e. the Mainland, became a British colony in 1858. The current southern border of British Columbia was established by the 1846 Oregon Treaty, British Columbias land area is 944,735 square kilometres. British Columbias rugged coastline stretches for more than 27,000 kilometres and it is the only province in Canada that borders the Pacific Ocean. British Columbias capital is Victoria, located at the tip of Vancouver Island. Only a narrow strip of the Island, from Campbell River to Victoria, is significantly populated, much of the western part of Vancouver Island and the rest of the coast is covered by thick, tall and sometimes impenetrable temperate rainforest
10.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
11.
University of St Andrews
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The University of St Andrews is a British public research university in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland, St Andrews was founded between 1410 and 1413, when the Avignon Antipope Benedict XIII issued a papal bull to a small founding group of Augustinian clergy. St Andrews is made up from a variety of institutions, including three constituent colleges and 18 academic schools organised into four faculties, the university occupies historic and modern buildings located throughout the town. The academic year is divided into two terms, Martinmas and Candlemas, in term time, over one-third of the towns population is either a staff member or student of the university. It is ranked as the third best university in the United Kingdom in national league tables, the Times Higher Education World Universities Ranking names St Andrews among the worlds Top 50 universities for Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities. St Andrews has the highest student satisfaction amongst all multi-faculty universities in the United Kingdom, St Andrews has many notable alumni and affiliated faculty, including eminent mathematicians, scientists, theologians, philosophers, and politicians. Six Nobel Laureates are among St Andrews alumni and former staff, a charter of privilege was bestowed upon the society of masters and scholars by the Bishop of St Andrews, Henry Wardlaw, on 28 February 1411. Wardlaw then successfully petitioned the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII to grant the university status by issuing a series of papal bulls. King James I of Scotland confirmed the charter of the university in 1432, subsequent kings supported the university with King James V confirming privileges of the university in 1532. A college of theology and arts called St Johns College was founded in 1418 by Robert of Montrose, St Salvators College was established in 1450, by Bishop James Kennedy. St Leonards College was founded in 1511 by Archbishop Alexander Stewart, St Johns College was refounded by Cardinal James Beaton under the name St Marys College in 1538 for the study of divinity and law. Some university buildings that date from this period are still in use today, such as St Salvators Chapel, St Leonards College Chapel, at this time, the majority of the teaching was of a religious nature and was conducted by clerics associated with the cathedral. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the university had mixed fortunes and was beset by civil. He described it as pining in decay and struggling for life, in the second half of the 19th century, pressure was building upon universities to open up higher education to women. In 1876, the University Senate decided to allow women to receive an education at St Andrews at a roughly equal to the Master of Arts degree that men were able to take at the time. The scheme came to be known as the L. L. A and it required women to pass five subjects at an ordinary level and one at honours level and entitled them to hold a degree from the university. In 1889 the Universities Act made it possible to admit women to St Andrews. Agnes Forbes Blackadder became the first woman to graduate from St Andrews on the level as men in October 1894
