Brian J Ford

• Fellow at Cardiff University

Imperatives derived from Cartesian reductionism underpin contemporary interpretations of multicellular organisms and the manifestation of life in protists. Our failure to elucidate the mechanisms underpinning the phenomenology of response in the living cell is seen as a failure to interpret the physics of metabolic and sensory processes; however, t...

The microscopic realm is generally ignored by the media, and (when it is included) it is usually grossly misrepresented. This article is a summary of the plenary address to the Royal Microscopical Society in Manchester.

Tongs spread disease. Everywhere you find a buffet, you will see tongs - designed to prevent the spread of infection. In reality they spread disease. A single person could theoretically infect 23,000 others in the space of three days whereas - without tongs, and picking food up by hand - the most people at risk would be just a handful. Trays, peppe...

Traditions of Eastern thought conceptualised life in a holistic sense, emphasising the processes of maintaining health and conquering sickness as manifestations of an essentially spiritual principle that was of overriding importance in the conduct of living. Western science, which drove the overriding and partial eclipse of Eastern traditions, beca...

Brief profile of Brian J Ford in a Cambridgeshire magazine.

Twenty years ago the British government, after years of denial, announced a link between BSE and variant CJD. To provide a source of public information, an "instant book" on the subject was published - it went from agreement to finished copies in bookshops in a month, a record for science publishing. Only ont of the conclusions was rejected, namely...

Global warming is bringing major changes the prospects for our future survival. Sever and uncontrollable weathers is likely to make life increasingly difficult. Microorganisms mediate much of the world's climate yet are rarely brought i to the discussion. And many official initiatives (like the Paris conference on climate change) are likely to be i...

During the past two decades, three new Leeuwenhoek microscopes have come to light. One may have been duplicitously obtained by a Dutch museum from a local citizen who was unaware of its value; another was lurking in a box of silver oddments, and was privately sold for a fraction of its value, while the third was offered for sale on ebay, and was su...

Scanning electron microscope studies show for the first time the details of how Leeuwenhoek made his microscopes in the 1600s. With two new historic microscopes just coming to light, methods are discussed of proving whether a given example is genuine or a copy.

The criminal justice system today is in crisis, marred by dishonesty and an overriding desire for pinning blame instead of uncovering the facts. This article (No 22 in the 'Critical Focus' series) looks at the misuse of scientific evidence for the purpose of securing a criminal conviction.

How many genuine Leeuwenhoek microscopes exist? The standard accounts say there are nine, though one extra example (which had laid for years in a cupboard in Leiden) brings the total to 10. But – and this is the crucial point – how do we know? How could we tell for sure? As with oil paintings by the great masters, we rely on the look of an object,...

A rare brass microscope was discovered in mud dredged from canals in Delft, the Netherlands, in December 2014. The instrument (pictured, left) is thought to have been made by Dutch pioneer microscopist Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723; see P. Ball Nature 520, 156; 2015) and is an important find — if it is genuine. The last Leeuwenhoek microscope i...

Two newly recognized Leeuwenhoek microscopes (dating from around 1690) have been identified in the space of a year. One is made is silver, the other of brass. Each is briefly described with the remarkable circumstances of discovery.

As the science world celebrates the 350th anniversary of the book Micrographia, its brilliant author remains an obscure figure forgotten by the world at large. I t is time to celebrate. The first popular science book in the world is 350 years old this year — and it was a volume devoted to the world of the microscope, aptly titled Micrographia. Our...

The first microscopists are often viewed as amateurs who got lucky with their handmade microscopes, but it was they who developed the techniques used today. E verybody knows the light microscope as the symbol of science — the universal touchstone that people immediately associate with high-end scientific research. But there is another side to this...

research has determined how microscopy began. Until the mid-17th century, no investigator had glimpsed the complexity of living cells, or discerned the communities of microscopic organisms that are everywhere around us. Since that time, many scientific works and television programs have reported how difficult it was to make useful observations thro...

Large sums of money are being doverted to brain research, but much of it will be wasted. Current research focusses on the networks of the mind, and thought processes are seen as devolving on the synapses - the points of contact between nerve cells where they meet, but do not quite touch. It is argued here that this is a mistake: thought does no...

An update on the aquatic dinosaur theory, summarizing evidence and reviewing some of the developments (and criticisms) since the theory first appeared in print.

Death may appear as an instantaneous ending, but looking into the microscope reveals that life often persists long after we think people have died. B irds sang and the sun had just risen when, at 5:30 a.m. on a bright spring morning, with a sudden swish and a thud the silver bright blade of the guillotine slid down its wooden runners and severed th...

Everywhere around the world, bacteria are developing a resistance to antibiotics. Patients with a simple infection cannot be treated by any of today's drugs. O ur lives are at risk. The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is a global security threat that requires action across government sectors and society as a whole. In Atlanta, the Center...

Snowflakes have an intrinsic beauty and have been studied for over 450 years, yet many of the pioneer researchers of snow crystals are unknown to modern science. S now swirled around my sleeves as I stepped out from my rented room in Prague and climbed into a tram. I alighted near the museums and spent a few hours in research before I scrunched thr...

A fossilized egg from the Hekou Formation of southern China has been published in iScience (21 Dec 2021). The authors use sketches to suggest it is similar to a chicken. However, x-rays taken at Uppsala by Martin Kundrat show that it’s even more like a developing crocodile. The aquatic dinosaur theory suggests that dinosaurs must have had much in c...

Personal profile article by Robin Healey published inn the Mensa magazine (with front cover portrait photograph).

P aleontologists get dinosaurs wrong. They look at them as gigan-tic terrestrial monsters, but there are other ways of contemplating them. I prefer to envisage them as communities of micro-scopic cells. This understanding of life at the cellular level leads me to one great truth: Dinosaurs must have developed in water and not on land. I am not simp...

A new theory on the origins of human society, in which microscopical evidence is used to substantiate that humans evolved through kleptoparasitic association with wolves.

Demonstrations with video excerpts showing how incombustible mammalian tissues can be induced to burn in the manner of spontaneous human combustion

L ast November, a 42-year-old man was standing outside a record store in Sweden, appar-ently waiting for someone. Suddenly fire appeared from his clothing and he burst into flames. He blazed from within and formed into a fireball as he fell to the ground. The man, who remains anonymous, narrowly escaped with his life. It was an astonish-ing and gho...

An hypothesis that human evolution was crucially aided by kleptoparasitism of carnivores (such as wolves) that eventually led to 'peaceful co-existence'.

The 150th anniversary of the naming of the nucleus by Robert Brown in 1831 was commemorated by recreating some of his most important observations. Two of Brown's microscopes were used to observe specimens similar to those in his original publications. In spite of the diminutive nature of the single lenses used as magnifiers in these ‘aquatic’ micro...

Many myths survive about the work of Antony van Leeuwenhoek. The author's discovery and study of letters and specimens at the Royal Society of London reveal just how remarkable a microscopist and scientist he was.

From neurons that behave like tiny computers to amoeba that build complex shells, the single cell can tell us a lot about the roots of intelligence

We consider the influence of physics on the development of the microscope, using the unusual approach of working backwards in time from the present day to the earliest times. Modern microscopes use techniques including stimulated emission depletion microscopy and near-field scanning optical microscopy that relies on the properties of evanescent wav...

Biology needs revolution. All my adult life, I have been lost with admiration for the achievements in molecular biology and genetics, and I have come to know many of the main proponents. Yet there is an alternative aspect: in studying the minutiae, we have lost sight of the whole cell as organism. Living cells within the body are modelled in this p...

Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Nancy Harrison Grosset and Dunlap ISBN 0448437643 £3.36 112pp Reviewed by Sue Dale Tunnicliffe99% Ape — How evolution adds up Jonathan Silvertown (Editor) Natural History Museum / Open University ISBN: 9780565092313 £14.99 224pp Reviewed by Alan CadoganThis Thing of Darkness Harry Thompson Headline Publishing (H/bc...

Carl von Linné (Linnaeus) was the pioneering tax- onomist of the 18th century. His microscope survives along with the collections at his former residence in Sweden, though little has been known about it. The instrument is here described and its performance is demonstrated. Curiously, Linnaeus showed little in- terest in, or knowledge of, microscopi...

Little has ever been written on the history of microscopical neurology. The topic is ordinarily ignored – indeed the terms ‘microscope’ (and microscopy), ‘neuron’ (or neurone), ‘cell’ and ‘histology’ are missing altogether from the index to the overview of the history of neurology by Riese (1959). Microscopy was born in the years prior to the eight...

Brief account of avian influenza, with comments on preparations for a future global pandemic.

We believe everything depends on the brain. Although the brain is important for coordinating movement, most of the body functions independently of it. Cells can show their own ingenuity.

Discussion of the aftermath of the SARS epidemic with view on prevention and management. Coronaviruses are discussed.

The benefits and risks of GM crops are discussed. A reduction in toxic spraying could be the most visible benefit of GM technology. When certain GM crops are grown, wildlife seems to reemerge in response to a lowered rate of spraying and health of farmworkers also improves. New methods of cultivation of sugar beet, allows farmers in future to retai...

Illustration emerges from complex and diverse motives. The portrayal of an objective reality may seem to lie at its heart, but there are other subtle factors at work. Preconception guides many an illustrator's hand. A wish to project known realities onto nascent concepts distorts reality in its own ways, and the process of transmuting the subtle re...

From the earliest years of the Society until the start of the Third Millennium, Fellows of the Society have been actively developing the microscope and its uses, from Robert Hooke's pioneering microscopy to the varied forms of the electron microscope. With it they have elucidated the structure of matter, from oolitic limestone to bread, and the nat...

Africa is dying. As much of the world turns its back, and a powerful spokesman in Africa insists that HIV is not the cause of AIDS, unimaginable numbers of young Africans are condemned to an early death. Public opinion in the West, meanwhile, turns its back on the catastrophe. 'The victims are distant blacks in an alien culture. They simply don't c...

A summary of the publication of scientific research in the 1700s and early 1800s in England and overseas, with over 550 citations.

Brian J Ford wins inaugural Köhler medal in America.

A major conference on John Ray and other clerical naturalists, entitled 'John Ray and his successors; the clergyman as biologist,' was held at Braintree, Essex, from 18 to 21 March 1999. Speakers considered Ray's work and beliefs in the context of the theology of his day, and the interplay between religion and biology up to the present time. Some o...

Liberally illustrated with micrographs taken both with original and replica single-lens microscopes, this Encyclopedia Britannica chapter for the 2000 Yearbook recreates the dawn of microscopy and the role of simple microscopes from the mid 1600s to the early Victorian era.

Amateurs, as this paper demonstrates, have long been primary innovators ion science. Academic scientists work well to pursue detailed interests of a topic, but the great quantum leaps are often - indeed, perhaps usually - made by gifted outsiders with a broader view.

Nature is the international weekly journal of science: a magazine style journal that publishes full-length research papers in all disciplines of science, as well as News and Views, reviews, news, features, commentaries, web focuses and more, covering all branches of science and how science impacts upon all aspects of society and life.

A detailed and liberally illustrated account of research into the development of the light microscope, from simple single-lensed instruments to the magnificent brass instruments of the nineteenth century

The experiments by Robert Brown on pollen grains has been recreated using the original microscope and fresh Clarkia pollen. Much interest has focused on Brown's first observations of Brownian Movement* in 1827. His discovery of the phenomenon has been widely misunderstood. It has been believed that Brown's attention was directed to movement of poll...

Leeuwenhoek was a remarkable man - an amateur pioneer of high-power microscopy and the discoverer of the microbial world. Here we review his lifetime of work as the person who, single-handedly, founded the science of microscopy.

Clifford Dobell, whose birth was a century ago this year, became a leading protozoologist. His two books on the subject (1, 2) are detailed and thorough and are characterized by carefully executed diagrams and drawings of organisms, which he made himself with Indian ink and water colour and which stand as classical examples of microbiological artwo...

An account of Linneaus's microscopy (the only account every published in a book).

Antony van Leeuwenhoek laid the foundations of modern microscopy, and some of the original specimens which he sent to London in the seventeenth century have survived to the present day. Their discovery provides an opportunity to examine first-hand material from the earliest days of microscopy. Van Leeuwenhoek's expedient of wrapping the specimens i...