Hidden depths: Halley, hell and other people

During the long eighteenth century, boundaries between theology and natural philosophy, between imaginary and factual travel narratives, between fiction and social commentary, were far more fluid than they are today. To explore these relationships, this paper links Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein—a book often hailed as the first science fiction novel—to two earlier works which are now less well known: Edmond Halley’s article about terrestrial magnetism, in which he suggested that God had created inhabited illuminated cavities inside the earth; and a satirical fantasy voyage written by the Danish author Ludvig Holberg, but published anonymously as Niels Klim’s journey to the underground and immediately translated into many languages. Attention is focussed on how the ambiguous presentation of these and other texts blurs any straightforward classification of genres. The aim of examining these writers together is not to search for direct mappings from one project to another, but instead to introduce Holberg’s unfamiliar yet important book and also to cast new light on Frankenstein, one of England’s most famous works of literature.     

An unusual silver celestial planisphere in the Whipple Museum

An unusual silver celestial planisphere is held in the collection of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science (Wh.1762); little information about this object is recorded in the museum’s documentation. A comparison of this silver example with celestial planispheres printed on paper, coupled with the consideration of other aspects of the lives and work of the cartographers and instrument-makers involved in producing such objects, suggests some possibilities regarding its production. Through this individual case study, I aim to demonstrate that the careful examination of an individual instrument, coupled with an understanding of the class of instruments to which it belongs and the milieu in which it was produced, can result in a deeper understanding of any given artefact, its circumstances of design and manufacture, and its intended use and users.     

哈雷彗星爆发的短期非引力效应

探讨伴有喷流的彗星爆发是否造成可观测的非引力效应。分析哈雷彗星在１９８５年三次爆发时期的定位资料，结果表明，这三次爆发后哈雷彗星的地心赤经和赤纬跟历表推算值的偏差都明显地大于误差，说明彗星爆发确实造成可观测的短期非引力效应，且此三次爆发情况不同。     

Hydrothermal plume anomalies along the Central Indian Ridge

Water column turbidity and temperature were investigated along the Central Indian Ridge （CIR） from 25°19＇S to 23°48＇S during a December 2005 cruise on board Chinese PJV DayangYihao. Measurements were made using NOAA＇s MAPR （Miniature Autonomous Plume Recorder） sensors during CTD casts, TV grabber operations, and tow-yo profiles, yielding the following results on hydrothermal plume anomalies： （1） Strong hydrothermal turbidity and temperature anomalies were recorded over the previously discovered Kairei （25°19.2＇S, 70°02.4＇E） and Edmond （23°52.7＇S, 69°35.8＇E） vent fields, with the plume anomalies concentrated at depths of 2150--2300 m and 2700--2900 m, respectively. The maximum height of the turbidity anomalies near the Kairei vent field recorded in December 2005 was slightly below 2100 m, which is consistent with the plume depth measured in June 2001, indicating that the Kairei plume may have maintained its buoyancy flux in the intervening 4.5 years. （2） The water column beneath the Kairei plume has background anomalies of about 0.005ANTU, whereas no such background turbidity anomalies were observed below the Edmond hydrothermal plume. （3） No visible turbidity anomalies were detected from 24°42＇S to 24°12＇S including the Knorr Seamount. Thus 24°12＇S marks the southern end of the hydrothermal plume. （4） Significant turbidity anomalies were observed at four individual sections from 24°12＇S to 23°56＇S at the depth of 2500--3000 m along the eastern rift valley wall. Whether the individual sections of anomalies are connected is still unknown due to the absence of data at the intervening gaps. If the four sections are connected with each other and are linked to the Edmond vent field farther to the north, the total along-axis length of the plume anomaly would be more than 37 km, implying a plume incidence value Ph of 0.38, greater than the predicted Ph of 0.21 --0.25 based on the spreading rate of the Central Indian Ridge.     

ON THE INVARIANT FOR A FAMILY OF DEFORMED HALLEY METHODS

In this paper,an invariant determined by a function used to guarantee the convergence of all members with ι≤κ in the family of deformed Halley iterative methods for solving nonlinear equation in complex field is given.Results include some known ones as this special cases.We get not only the error estimates of the iterative sequences ｛zn,ι｝ but also those of f(zn,ι) for all ι≤κ.     

Isaac Newton and Augustan Anglo-Latin poetry

Although many historians of science acknowledge the extent to which Greek and Roman ideals framed eighteenth-century thought, many classical references in the texts they study remain obscure. Poems played an important role not only in spreading ideas about natural philosophy, but also in changing people’s perceptions of its value; they contributed to Newton’s swelling reputation as an English hero. By writing about Latin poetry, we focus on the intersection of two literary genres that were significant for eighteenth-century natural philosophy, but seem alien to modern science. We classify Augustan Latinate scientific poetry by considering the audiences for whom the poems were intended. We distinguish three broad categories. One type of poetry was circulated amongst gentlemanly scholars (we look particularly at Tripos verses, and laments for Queen Caroline). A second group comprised poetry written specifically to promote or criticise Newton and his books, particularly the Principia (we look at versions of Pope’s epitaph, and Halley’s Lucretian poem). After Newton’s death, a third type of poetry became increasingly significant, included in collections of poems rather than in texts of natural philosophy. Overall, we show how the classical past was vital for creating the scientific future.     

一族变型Halley迭代方法的收敛性

研究了Banach空间中求解非线性算子方程的一族带参数的变型Halley迭代方法的收敛性问题;在二阶导数满足H lder条件下建立了它的半局部的收敛性定理及误差估计.     

求多项式全部零点的快速并行Halley算法

在Halley圆盘迭代法的基础上,用圆盘算术构造了一种求多项式全部零点的快速并行Halley算法,并在与Halley迭代法相同的条件下建立了其收敛性定理, 该算法取得了10阶收敛速度。     

Microbe-related precipitation of iron and silica in the Edmond deep-sea hydrothermal vent field on the Central Indian Ridge

Microbial mats, several millimeters thick and brown-yellow to white in color, were collected in hollow inside of chimney structure from Edmond hydrothermal field on the Central Indian Ridge. Microbes with shapes of rod and helical stalk-like filaments were observed in the microbial mats, and are com- monly characterized by their cells completely encrusted by thick mineralized layers, made up of large amounts of amorphous silica and minor amounts of iron oxides. Transmission Electron Microscope observation has demonstrated that the acicular Fe-bearing matter was not only heterogenously dis- tributed on the surface of the cell wall, but also deposited in the inside of cell, suggesting that bio-precipitation of Fe had occurred both on the surface and in the interior of cell. Microbial silicification was also commonly found in the mats. Silica usually precipitated homogeneously on the surface of the microbes and forms micro-laminated layers, which might be controlled by the inorganic process of precipitation in hydrothermal environment. The biomineralization phenomenon in the mi- crobial mats showed that the precipitation of Fe and Si was closely related to microbes in hydrothermal environment. Considering that hydrothermal activities provided required chemical elements for miner- alization, it is suggested that this biomineralization process also might be driven by hydrothermal ac- tivities at the sea floor to some extent.