#Edinburgh fossil

[uk-fossils]

Stigmaria Fossil Stem Carboniferous Coal Measures Scotland UK | Musselburgh Plant Fossil with Certificate

This listing is for a beautifully preserved Stigmaria fossil stem, originating from the Carboniferous Period, specifically the Coal Measures of Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. This is a genuine piece of ancient plant life from approximately 310–300 million years ago, dating to the late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) sub-period.

The fossil shown in the photos is the exact specimen you will receive. It has been carefully selected for its distinct features and natural history significance, making it ideal for collectors, educators, and anyone interested in palaeobotany.

Geological & Palaeontological Details:

Fossil Type: Root/stem structure (rhizomorph) of an ancient lycopsid plant

Genus: Stigmaria (likely belonging to the root system of Lepidodendron or Sigillaria)

Order: Lepidodendrales

Geological Period: Carboniferous

Stage: Pennsylvanian (Westphalian)

Stratigraphy: Coal Measures (part of the Scottish Coal Measures Group)

Location: Musselburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Depositional Environment: Low-lying equatorial swamp and floodplain environments where dense lycopod forests flourished. These environments formed the organic-rich layers that eventually transformed into coal seams.

Morphology & Features:

Stigmaria is characterised by a cylindrical, branching root structure with spirally arranged rootlet scars, forming the distinctive pitted pattern seen on the fossil’s surface

The preserved features show clear detail of the rootlet attachment points that supported anchorage in soft, waterlogged substrates

Typically preserved in grey shale or siltstone, reflecting anoxic burial conditions ideal for fossilisation

Provides key insights into the rooting systems of Carboniferous lycopod trees, the dominant flora of ancient coal-forming forests

Notability: Stigmaria fossils are among the most iconic plant fossils of the Carboniferous. Their distinct morphology and association with Lepidodendron and Sigillaria make them critical to understanding the ecology and evolution of the Earth’s earliest forested ecosystems. This specimen, from the historically significant coalfields near Musselburgh, represents a rare and regionally important find.

Additional Details:

All our fossils are 100% genuine specimens

Includes a Certificate of Authenticity

Photo shows the exact fossil for sale

Scale cube = 1cm – please refer to photos for precise sizing

Whether for education, research, or private display, this specimen offers a tangible connection to the lush primeval landscapes that once covered prehistoric Scotland. A perfect addition to any fossil or palaeobotanical collection.

[brilmans]

Over oude Schotse shit

Strandvakantie in Edinburgh

Begin deze maand vertoefde ik tot mijn verbazing in een zonovergoten Edinburgh. Niet het feit dat ik in de Schotse hoofdstad verbleef, verbaasde mij, dat was tenslotte ruim van tevoren gepland, maar dat het er suptropisch warm was, daar had ik niet op gerekend; dat bedenk je niet. 27 graden!

Gelukkig had ik voor vertrek, de baduitrusting staat standaard op de checklist, een zwembroek en een lichtgewicht badhanddoek tussen mijn poncho, regenbroek en zuidwester gepropt. Die kwamen nu mooi van pas. Mijn strandvakantie kon beginnen! Ik hoefde ik alleen nog maar een strand te vinden.

Na ampel speurwerk, Edinburgh is op z’n zacht gezegd geen echte badplaats, vond ik met behulp van Google Maps ergens langs de kustlijn van de Firth of Forth iets dat op een strandje leek. In Wardie Bay, tussen de golfbreker van Newhaven en die van Granton Harbour leek een strook zand zichtbaar. Omdat het op loopafstand lag, besloot ik erheen te gaan.

Wardie Bay

Bij aankomst bleek het grootste deel van Wardie bay ontoegankelijk. Een stijle zeedijk belemmerde de opgang. Ruim een kilometer verder dan gehoopt, vond ik uiteindelijk bij etablissement Old Chain Pier, van de oorspronkelijke pier was overigens niets meer zichtbaar, een doorgang. Om bij de zee te komen was nog wel het nodige klim- en klauterwetk vereist. Maar dat deerde niet. Ik wilde het strand op. Eenmaal onder aan de zeewering viel alles wat tegen. Het strand was amper dertig centimeter breed en het water ijzig koud.

Omdat ik het door alle inspanningen bloedverziekend heet had, nam ik een snel een plons, brrr, en maakte rechtsomkeer.

Terug in het vakantieverblijf bekeek ik de kaart nog eens aandachtig en vond waar het mis was gegaan: Ik had voor het strand nog ruim een kilometer verder moeten lopen. Het strand was geconcentreerd rond de pier van Granton.

Een strand met historie

De volgende dag liep ik de opgang bij de Old Chain Pier voorbij en volgde de kustwal richting Granton. Halverwege trof ik een interessant informatiebord met de titel: Fossils, Feathers and Flowers. Volgens het bord was het door mij gezochte stukje strand een paleontologische vindplaats met een rijke historie. Grote namen uit de natuurhistorie bezochten Wardie bay om er te verzamelen. Louis Agassiz, Hugh Miller en Ramsey H. Traquair deden er geweldige vondsten. Veelal goed geconserveerde fossielen van beenvissen en haaien. Ook is er een amfibie gevonden. Veel van die vondsten liggen nu in het National Museums Collection Centre in Granton. Op een steenworp van de vindplaats dus.

Een coproliet in matrix van een onbepaalde vis uit het Vroeg Carboon. In Wardie bay zijn dit de algemene fossielen.

Fossielen

Eenmaal op het strand kon ik het niet laten even in de voetsporen van Agassiz, Miller en Traquair te treden. Hoe vaak krijg je die kans. In een klein uurtje, ik had mazzel met het lage water, verzamelde ik een aantal fossielhoudende knollen. Precies zoals beschreven op het informatiebord. Helaas bevatten de knollen geen delen van een vissenskelet, dat zou wat zijn geweest, maar met de 340 miljoen jaar oude vissenpoep als inhoud ben ik al meer dan tevreden. Dergelijke vondsten maken een strandvakantie compleet.

Een voor Wardie beach typische Sideriet knol. Met daarin goed zichtbaar een coproliet. De coprolieten die in Wardie Bay gevonden worden kunnen van zoet en zoutwatervissen zijn. Gedurende het Vroeg Carboon moet er op de desbetreffende plek een zoetwatermeer zijn geweest dat zo nu en dan verbonden raakte met de zee, zodat marine fauna’s er toegang toe hadden.

De concentrische lagen, zoals goed zichtbaar in dit exemplaar zijn een typisch kenmerk van de vis coprolieten

Thuis heb ik een klomp doorgezaagd en gepolijst. Hierdoor werd het mogelijk de doorsnee van de coproliet te bestuderen. Onder de microscoop leverde dat interessante beelden op.

In de coproliet zijn duidelijke onverteerde resten zichtbaar. Wat dat durf ik niet met zekerheid te zeggen, maar het lijken wel graten.

Meer lezen

Fossil hunting around the city

Sharks that lived off edinburgh beach brought to life once again

Fossil fish coprolite discoveries on Wardie fossil hunt

Bringing the ancient sharks of Wardie bay back to life

Stan wood and challenging edinburgh fossil site

Granton and Wardie Shore, Edinburgh excursion

Fossil fishes of Great-Britain

[scottishcommune]

Below the cut is a template email to send to Edinburgh Pride regarding sponsorship from Aegon, who have investments linked to the genocide in Palestine. Please feel free to use this text or edit it and make it your own and send it to contact@prideedinburgh.co.uk

Dear Edinburgh Pride,

As a queer person living in Edinburgh, I was deeply saddened to learn that the march partner for Edinburgh Pride 2024 is Aegon.

In December 2023 the ‘Don’t Buy Into Occupation Coalition’ published a report that showed Aegon have US$564million invested via shares and bonds in companies operating in illegal settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territories. Source: https://dontbuyintooccupation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2023_DBIO-III-Report_11-December-2023.pdf

We are watching a live-streamed genocide every day - over 36,000 people in Palestine have been murdered by Israeli forces, including at least 15,000 children. The brutality of these atrocities are unthinkable, with evidence of torture and targeting of hospitals, ambulances and refugee camps.

We all have a responsibility to do what we can to end this genocide. As queer people, we are part of a rich history of resisting oppression and dehumanisation - of both ourselves and those we stand in solidarity with. Pride started as a protest against homophobia, transphobia and police violence. It is an important moment to come together as a community to celebrate queer joy and resilience.

But how can we celebrate using profits stained with the blood of our siblings in Palestine?

Aegon has $564million invested in companies that have been listed by the UN as “raising human rights concerns” for their operations in illegal settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territories, In 1948, 750,000 Palestinian people were displaced from their homes and lands and since then, Israeli settlements have been used to spread this process of colonisation.

In addition to this figure, Aegon also has major investments in Eaton Corp Plc., who supply parts for helicopters and fighter jets to the Israeli military and have recently been the target of major protests at their factory in Dorset. They also invest in Amazon, who support the Israeli military with surveillance technology used against Palestians.

Israel has long used ‘pinkwashing’ as a tactic to justify the brutal repression of Palestinians, using queer people to legitimise this horrific violence. We refuse to allow this to be done in our name.

The tide is turning on companies like Aegon that profit from investments in the companies complicit in genocide. Recently, both Hay and Edinburgh Book Festival have dropped Baillie Gifford as a sponsor after over 800 authors called on them to divest from companies involved in Israel and the fossil fuel industry.

I ask that Edinburgh Pride:

Calls on Aegon to commit to divest from companies involved in supplying technology to Israel and operating in illegal settlements.

Drop Aegon as a sponsor until they are able to show evidence of divestment.

Publicly call for a ceasefire and a free Palestine.

There is no pride in genocide.

I look forward to hearing your response.

XX

Sources:

Investments in companies operating in illegal settlements https://dontbuyintooccupation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2023_DBIO-III-Report_11-December-2023.pdf

Investments in Eaton https://extranet.secure.aegon.co.uk/static/sxhub/pdf/client-pen-distribution.pdf

Investments in Amazon https://www.aegon.co.uk/content/dam/auk/assets/publication/fund-factsheet/standard_bkj9zs0.pdf

Israel’s pinkwashing: https://bdsmovement.net/pinkwashing

War on Gaza statistics: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker

Edinburgh book festival ends Baillie Gifford sponsorship: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm553zrr3e4o

[alphynix]

Dorypterus hoffmanni was a stem-actinopterygian fish that lived during the late Permian, around 259-254 million years ago, in shallow warm lagoons covering what is now northwestern Europe.

About 13cm long (~5"), it had a tall narrow disc-shaped body convergently similar to modern reef fish, and it was mostly scaleless with only a few scales on its underside, below its pectoral fins, and along the top of its tail. It also appears to have been toothless, and probably used its large scissor-like jaws to snip off mouthfuls of soft food such as algae.

But its most distinctive feature was its highly elongated pennant-like dorsal fin, which may be an example of sexual dimorphism – fossils of short-finned individuals have also been found, and although they were originally named as a separate species (Dorypterus althausi) they probably actually represent female D. hoffmani.

———

NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon

References:

Gill, E. Leonard. "XXXI.—The Permian Fish Dorypterus." Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh 53.3 (1925): 643-661. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0080456800027526

Nelson, Joseph S., Terry C. Grande, and Mark VH Wilson. Fishes of the World. John Wiley & Sons, 2016. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301290410_Fishes_of_the_World_Fifth_Edition

Westoll, T. Stanley. "The Permian fishes Dorypterus and Lekanichthys." Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London B111 (1941): 39-58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1941.tb00042.x

Wikipedia contributors. “Dorypterus” Wikipedia, 23 Dec. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorypterus

[reasonsforhope]

"The Hague made international headlines for being the first city in the world to approve legislation prohibiting marketing of fossil fuel-related products and services. This major ruling, issued earlier this month, seeks to limit the promotion of items with a high carbon footprint, such as gasoline, diesel, aviation, and cruise ships. The ban, which goes into effect at the start of next year, will affect both government and privately funded advertisements, including those on billboards and bus shelters throughout the Dutch metropolis.

This groundbreaking legislation establishes an important precedent in the global fight against climate change. Other cities have attempted to limit the reach of high-carbon items through council ordinances or voluntary agreements with advertising operators, but The Hague’s prohibition is the first that is legally binding. It is a major step forward for cities around the world that want to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change head-on.

A response to global calls for action

The prohibition comes after UN Secretary-General António Guterres called earlier this year for countries and media outlets to take tougher action to combat fossil fuel advertising, citing parallels with existing tobacco advertising bans. Guterres stressed that, as with the tobacco industry in the past, fossil fuel businesses are contributing to a worldwide public health crisis—in this case, climate change. Governments can help change public behavior and prevent the normalization of high-carbon lifestyles by limiting their capacity to market.

Several cities have already made tiny moves in this direction. Edinburgh, for example, approved a council vote in May prohibiting fossil fuel-related ads in city-owned venues. The Scottish capital also prohibits enterprises that sell these products from sponsoring events or developing partnerships. However, unlike The Hague’s legislation, Edinburgh’s ban is voluntary and only applies to council spaces.

A legally binding first

The Hague’s new law is significant since it is legally binding. The restriction affects not only specific items, such as gasoline, diesel, and fossil fuel-powered vehicles but also businesses such as aviation and cruise ships. However, the rule exempts fossil fuel firms’ political advertising or efforts supporting a generic brand, allowing these businesses to keep prominence...

The impact of advertising on behavior

Advertising’s impact on consumer behavior is well-documented, and many experts say that fossil fuel marketing undercut climate legislation by encouraging unsustainable behavior. Thijs Bouman, an associate professor of environmental psychology at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, stated that “fossil fuel advertising normalizes the use of high-carbon products and services, making it more difficult to change consumer habits.” ...

Catalyzing change worldwide

The Hague’s move may have repercussions beyond its borders, spurring similar actions in other cities around the globe. Cities such as Toronto, Canada, and Graz, Austria, are already launching campaigns to outlaw advertising for fossil fuels. In the Netherlands, both Amsterdam and Haarlem have outlawed marketing for climate-damaging products like beef, but these measures have yet to become legislation.

Sleegers believes that The Hague’s move will act as a spur for other towns to follow suit. “More cities have a wish to implement the fossil ad ban through ordinance, but they were all waiting for some other city to go first. The Hague is this city,” she said, predicting that more local governments will now feel empowered to act...

As the world grapples with the rising costs of climate change, The Hague’s pioneering move provides a potential model for other cities looking to minimize their carbon footprints. With cities like Toronto and Amsterdam keeping a careful eye on things, this legislation has the potential to start a global campaign to prohibit fossil fuel advertising. 

More cities may follow suit in the coming years, hastening the transition to a more environmentally friendly and sustainable future."

-via The Optimist Daily, September 26, 2024

[notwiselybuttoowell]

The Science Museum has been forced to cut ties with oil giant Equinor over its sponsor’s environmental record, the Observer can reveal.

Equinor has sponsored the museum’s interactive “WonderLab” since 2016, but the relationship is now coming to close, a move that will be seen as a major victory for climate change campaigners.

The sponsorship deal had been controversial because of Equinor’s role in Rosebank, the biggest undeveloped oil and gas field in the North Sea, which the government gave the go-ahead to develop last year.

The company also inserted a “gagging clause” in its original deal with the museum, which prevented staff from making comments that could be seen as “discrediting or damaging the goodwill or reputation” of Equinor.

The move has added to pressure on the museum to cut ties with other fossil fuel sponsors, including the oil giant BP and the Indian coal-mining conglomerate Adani.

Last year the Church of England cut its fossil fuel investments after concluding no big oil and gas company was “aligned with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, as assessed by the Transition Pathway Initiative”.

The move is a major shift in policy by the museum, which has forcefully defended its relationships with oil and gas companies in the past. In 2019, Blatchford told the Financial Times that “even if the Science Museum were lavishly publicly funded I would still want to have sponsorship from the oil companies”.

The move comes after the controversy surrounding investment manager Baillie Gifford and its ties to Israel and fossil fuel companies.

A campaign by Fossil Free Books led to Baillie Gifford ending funding for nine book festivals, including Edinburgh, Cheltenham and the Hay festival, which was the first to decline sponsorship after speakers began to boycott the event.

[bobnichollsart]

My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...

In 2010 I painted the Early Carboniferous shark, Akmonistion zangerli hunting Acanthodes fish. This was for Matt Dale and the famous Mr Wood's Fossils, in Edinburgh, Scotland: https://www.mrwoodsfossils.co.uk/

[queerbrownvegan]

Proud of the authors that walked out from the Edinburgh book festival not long ago 💚

Culture isn't separate from nature. Fossil fuels have a disastrous impact and we shouldn't dance around it.

-qbv

[scotianostra]

Prof Joseph Black chemist, researcher, teacher, first to identify carbon dioxide, was born on April 16th 1728.

Born in Bordeaux to an Irish father and a Scottish mother, Joseph Black spent his working life in Scotland. He is considered one of the world’s most eminent chemists and one of the founding fathers of the science of chemistry.

Black was a modest man and an excellent teacher. His meticulous research techniques were an inspiration to others in his day and have remained so today. Joseph was educated at home by his mother up until he was 12 when he was sent to live with relatives in Belfast and attend school there.

Four years later he went to Glasgow University to study medicine. Scottish doctor and chemist Dr William Cullen, (yes the same guy from my earlier post) was beginning a new course of lectures in chemistry at this time. Black became Cullen’s laboratory assistant. Chemistry was a passion for Black, alongside his medical education, which he completed in Edinburgh in 1754.

Black was always a meticulous chemist, keeping careful note of all his results and measurements. It was this which led to his discovery of carbon dioxide. He intended to pursue this study further. However from 1756 he became occupied with duties associated with his new appointment as Professor of Chemistry at Glasgow University.

Black met James Watt at Glasgow, University and they became friends and collaborators. Watt the skilled engineer investigating the efficiency of steam engines produced model engines for Black to use in his lectures on the properties of heat.

As well as Watt, another close friend of Black was James Hutton. Hutton left his collection of fossils to Black upon his death in 1797. Both men were Fellows of the newly founded Royal Society of Edinburgh. They were also members of the Oyster Club, a group of intellectuals who met regularly in Edinburgh. In 1766, Black moved back to Edinburgh to become Professor of Chemistry. He was known as an excellent teacher who inspired a number of his students to pursue careers in chemistry.

He was also widely respected both as a scientist and a physician. Several medical works of the late 18th century contain dedications to him. Black was called upon as a consultant to give his expert opinion in many different areas. Although Black appears to have had many friends, he never married. He died in 1799, quietly in his chair, holding a cup of milk. Black’s obituary was written by the philosopher Adam Ferguson.

Black has a rather impressive grave in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh. Both Edinburgh and Glasgow universities have named their chemistry buildings after him.

[troythecatfish]

Palestine Action group targeted 20

Barclays Bank branches over its investment in Elbit Systems, Israel's largest weapons company

In a joint action with Shut The System, Palestine Action announced its targeting of Barclays Bank was aimed at "demanding divestment from Israel's weapons trade and fossil fuels". As part of the overnight actions, 'Barclay's Wealth and Investment Management' office in Edinburgh was spray painted with the words "drop Elbit". The group calls for escalating responses, after Elbit System's CEO publicly pledged to ramp up weapons productions.

Source: Mintpress

[adropofhumanity]

The Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) has ended a 20-year partnership with asset management firm Baillie Gifford following pressure from activists over its ties to Israeli technology and military companies, as well as the fossil fuel industry.

In an announcement on Thursday evening, EIBF's board cited security concerns and said that "threats of disruption" had "compromised" their ability to deliver a "safe and successful" event.

"The pressure on our team has simply become intolerable," EIBF's chief executive, Jenny Niven, said.

The announcement follows the Hay Festival's decision last week to suspend its arrangements with Baillie Gifford after a series of cancellations by speakers and performers - including Charlotte Church, Nish Kumar, Labour Party peer Shami Chakrabarti and MP Dawn Butler - over the sponsorship.

Additionally, Baillie Gifford sponsors several other literary festivals including the UK's most prestigious nonfiction award, the Baillie Gifford prize.

According to Art Workers for Palestine Scotland, the Edinburgh-based firm has nearly £10bn ($12bn) invested in companies with ties to Israel's defence, technology and cybersecurity industries, including NVIDIA, Amazon and Alphabet.

This figure is more than double its reported investments in oil and gas companies.

In addition to its military ties, Baillie Gifford is also invested in Cemex, Cisco Systems and Booking Holdings, the parent company of Bookingcom, which is involved in the maintenance and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine.

Thursday's announcement came shortly after the campaign group Fossil Free Books (FFB) published a statement that garnered over 700 signatures from authors and publishing industry professionals, including Naomi Klein and Sally Rooney.

The signatories reiterated previous demands for the firm to divest from the fossil fuel industry and "from companies that profit from Israeli apartheid, occupation and genocide".

[typhlonectes]

How Many Dinosaurs Remain Undiscovered?

Paleontologists say more non-avian dinos are waiting to be uncovered than have previously been found

Paleontologists are uncovering new dinosaurs at an astonishing rate. On average, a new species of “terrible lizard” is named about every two weeks from fossil sites all over the world. And as experts announce each astonishing species, the nature of the dinosaur family tree shifts. Fossil hunters are not just uncovering new dinosaur species—they’re revealing entirely new dinosaur groups that were unknown even ten years ago. “One of my go-to lines whenever I’m giving a public talk or writing a pop science article or book,” says University of Edinburgh paleontologist Stephen Brusatte, “is that we’re in the golden age of paleontology...”

Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-many-dinosaurs-remain-undiscovered-180982560

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Plastic-eating bacteria turn waste into useful starting materials for other products

Mountains of used plastic bottles get thrown away every day, but microbes could potentially tackle this problem. Now, researchers report in ACS Central Science that they've developed a plastic-eating E. coli that can efficiently turn polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste into adipic acid, which is used to make nylon materials, drugs and fragrances. Previously, a team of researchers including Stephen Wallace engineered a strain of E. coli to transform the main component in old PET bottles, terephthalic acid, into something tastier and more valuable: the vanilla flavor compound vanillin. At the same time, other researchers engineered microbes to metabolize terephthalic acid into a variety of small molecules, including short acids. So, Wallace and a new team from the University of Edinburgh wanted to expand E. coli's biosynthetic pathways to include the metabolism of terephthalic acid into adipic acid, a feedstock for many everyday products that's typically generated from fossil fuels using energy-intensive processes.

Read more.

[sustainableprosperity2]

Global Oil Depletion | Alister Hamilton

When do you think we’ll run out of oil?

2050? 2100? Never? That’s understandable given the IPCC models access to oil until 2100; politicians like Rishi are betting big on North Sea deposits. Petroleum is the life blood of our global economy, and it’s difficult to imagine it drying up. More often, when we talk about transitioning away from fossil fuels, it’s because of the necessity to limit global warming—not because we run out.

But a team in Scotland are warning exactly that—we’re running out. Fast. Alister Hamilton is a researcher at the University of Edinburgh and the founder of Zero Emissions Scotland. He and his colleagues self-funded research into oil depletion around the world and the results are shocking: We will lose access to oil around the world in the 2030s.

They calculated this by establishing the Energy Return On Investment (EROI) and found that whilst there will still be oil deposits around the world, we would use more energy accessing the oil supply than we would ever get from burning it. This is because we’re having to mine further into the earth’s crust to access lower-grade oil. According to their calculations, the oil in the North Sea will be inaccessible—in a dead state—by 2031, and the oil in Norway by 2032. Around the world, oil reserves see the same trend through the 2030s.

Petroleum is the life blood, and we haven’t yet built out a different circulatory system to support renewable energy—in less than a decade, the world as know it could crash.

🔴 Alister: https://www.eng.ed.ac.uk/about/people.

[justforbooks]

Stephen Salter, who has died aged 85, was the inventor of the Salter’s Duck, a wave-power device that was the first of its kind and promised to provide a new source of renewable energy for the world – until it was effectively killed off by the nuclear industry.

In 1982, after eight years of development under Salter’s direction at Edinburgh University, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) was asked by the government to see if the duck might be a cost-effective way of making large quantities of electricity. To the great surprise of Salter, and others, the UKAEA came to the conclusion that it was uneconomic, and that no further government funding should be given to the project.

A decade later it emerged that thanks to a misplaced decimal point, the review had made Salter’s duck look 10 times more expensive than the experiments showed it was likely to be. The UKAEA claimed this was just a mistake, but Salter, who had never been allowed to see the results of the secret evaluation, put it another way: asking the nuclear industry to evaluate an alternative source of energy was like putting King Herod in charge of a children’s home, he suggested.

By then, however, Salter had become interested in other projects, and as a result his duck has never been tested at sea – although wave-power devices using some of his technology are now in development in the Orkneys and off the coast of Portugal.

The prototype ducks, developed in a multidirectional wave tank of Salter’s invention, are now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, where there are a number of other exhibits with links to him, including the only remaining Black Knight rocket, a UK ballistic missile from the 1950s, and Freddy the Robot, from the 60s, the first machine to have artificial intelligence that could “see” and had a sense of touch. He also invented the Dervish, a low-cost method of clearing landmines, by using a revolving three-wheeled mechanism with a constantly changing path.

Perhaps the range of those projects sums up Salter’s mind better than anything else. Colleagues who worked with him said that while other scientists concentrated for years on one subject to the exclusion of all others, Salter was fascinated by new problems.

Although it was the oil shock of 1973 that first stimulated his interest in renewable energy, he later became one of the first scientists to realise the dangers of climate change. Doubting that the slow pace of cutting fossil-fuel use would be enough to save the planet from dangerous overheating, at the turn of the 21st century he set up a scheme to develop marine cloud brightening – an idea to produce more and brighter clouds in the middle of the oceans in order to reflect sunlight back into space, thereby keeping the oceans cooler and reducing sea-level rise.

He designed a project to build a large number of automated ships spraying aerosols from sea water into the atmosphere to create and brighten clouds in the middle of the world’s oceans and – having made a considerable fortune by selling some of his inventions – was able to set up the Lothian School of Technology just outside Edinburgh for £2.4m. The centre provides premises for up to 60 of his students to work on inventions and develop them commercially beyond their time at university.

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Stephen was the son of British parents who had emigrated there, Rachel (nee Floyd) and Willoughby de Carle Salter. His father joined the Royal Navy as a meteorologist during the second world war and afterwards the family moved to Britain, where Willoughby became head of a prep school in which Rachel also taught. Stephen attended two boarding schools and then Framlingham college in Suffolk.

By that time he was designing, building and flying model aeroplanes, and his ambition was to take an engineering degree at Cambridge University. But he failed to get good enough grades, instead becoming an apprentice at Saunders-Roe, an Isle of Wight aero- and marine-engineering company, where he was involved in the Black Knight rocket project. After studying at night classes he was finally accepted at Cambridge to study natural sciences including metallurgy.

He moved to Edinburgh University in 1967, aged 29, to become a research fellow working on artificial intelligence in robots. Within six years he was also a lecturer and had begun his work on wave energy. In 1984 he became professor of engineering design.

Perhaps Salter’s left-leaning politics and his willingness to take on the London establishment prevented him from being showered with the honours he deserved, but he was elected to a fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1991, made MBE in 2004, and inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame in 2021. He never stopped working, becoming an emeritus professor at retirement age and continuing to research, advise companies and refine his inventions until the end.

He married Margaret Donaldson, a professor of development psychology at Edinburgh University, in 1973. She died in 2020. He is survived by his younger brother, Edmund.

🔔 Stephen Hugh Salter, inventor, born 7 December 1938; died 23 February 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[redbirdandbluebird23]

So.... I signed up just to talk to you about your UK visit recs hahaha. Don't know if I'm even messaging you properly. This is Winterine from ao3, but annoyingly someone took that name here and I cbb going for variants when I am pretty sure I was the original Winterine lol. But yes, realistically, I'm planning to head to the UK for a big solo walk/cycle tour or historical/interesting/spooky/beautiful/natural places maybe 2025 or 2026 after I finish uni, I'm thinking around April-May ish. Keen to hear what you think I should see/do, or if I should go at a different time of year etc.

I honestly think April/May is the best time to visit because it's out of the main tourist season and the weather is starting to get better. Don't get me wrong, it will rain, but it won't be as cold and miserable, or as hot and miserable 😂.

I definitely got carried away listing places, but I figured if I listed everything and why, you'd be able to pick and choose what sounds best to you

Scotland:

- Inverness and Loch Ness: I was obsessed with the Loch Ness monster as a kid which is one of the main reasons I visited, but Inverness is also a really beautiful town and there's a lot of walks/hikes nearby 

- Glen Coe, Fort William, Ben Nevis, and Glenfinnan viaduct: we did all these in the same day, but we were driving and didnt actually walk up Ben Nevis. Glen Coe is a place that looks as close to lord of the rings as you can get outside of New Zealand, there's plenty of hikes/bike routes through it. Fort William is a little town directly at the bottom of Ben Nevis, so it's a good place to see/climb the mountain, and there's also hikes/bike routes. The Glenfinnan viaduct is most famous from Harry Potter, but it's also a really pretty place full stop.

- Oban and the Isle of Mull: Oban is a historic seaside town that's famous for it's whiskey distillery (which I recommend the tasting at) and seafood. There's a ferry that runs several times a day to the Isle of Mull, which has plenty of great places to visit, lots of hikes/bike routes.

- Edinburgh: it's honestly one of my favourite cities and looks exactly like it does in pictures. There's a lot of history and literary influence, and I highly recommend Armchair Books, which is a little second hand book shop. The castle is also worth visiting.

Wales:

-Snowdonia and Mount Snowdon: absolutely loads of hikes/bike routes, but if you don't want to walk up Snowdon, there's a little railway that I highly recommend. Because Snowdon used to be under the sea, it's also possible to find marine invertebrate fossils at the top.

- Llandudno: most famous as where Alice in Wonderland was written/inspired. But also a great little seaside town

- New Quay: lovely little coastal town with loads of walks/bike routes around it

-St David's: the UK's smallest city, very pretty and lots of hikes/bike rides around

-Portmeirion: this is, hands down, one of the strangest places I've ever been. It's basically a fake town that was used as a set for the TV show The Prisoner, but it's now a tourist attraction. I can't really describe what it's like, just very fantastical and strange, it even has a pet cemetery

England:

(The Peak District and London I've done as separate lists at the bottom due to all of the places I recommend in them)

-The Lake District: absolutely loads of walks/hikes/bike routes. Very picturesque and there's a lot to do and see. It's also where Beatrix Potter wrote all of her books so there's a lot of Peter Rabbit related stuff around.

-Bamburgh Castle and Lindisfarne: there's lots of hikes/bike routes through Northumberland, but I think Bamburgh Castle is worth a visit, it's been used in a lot of films. Lindisfarne is an island that used to be home to monks, they brew their own mead and its the first place the vikings landed in Britain.

-Scarborough, Whitby, and Robin Hoods Bay: these places encompass my childhood because we used to go on caravan holidays with my granddad every year. This whole stretch of coast is very good for walks/bike routes. Scarborough is a very stereotypical English seaside town with amusements and 2p machines, but Anne Brontë is buried there and it actually has a lot of history. Whitby is one of my favourite places on earth, not only because of its ties to Bram Stoker, Dracula and goths, but it's also very historic and the abbey is incredible. The kippers and fish and chips at the Magpie Cafe are a must. Robin Hoods Bay is a tiny little village that it really picturesque and has a history of smugglers.

-York: very historic, very old English. There's loads of tea rooms, interesting shops, second hand book shops and there's even a shop where you can buy your own little York ghost friend.

- Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield: lumping these three together, and no one can get mad as me for it because I'm originally from one of them 😂. All of these cities have changed a lot from when I was a kid and all now have thriving food and drink scenes. But they're also all historic centres of industry. Manchester used to be a textile capital of the world, Leeds is known for it's engineering and canals, and Sheffield was vital to the war effort due to it's steel production. Depending on what interests you, they're all worth a look.

-Birmingham: not just for peaky blinders! Birmingham actually has more canals than Venice and a lot of industrial history. It's also got a thriving food and drink scenes and a lot of shopping locations.

-Cambridge: I've only been once, when I toured the uni when I was applying at 17, but it's very picturesque and has a lot of history. Ngl, some of the people can be quite snobbish and very stereotypical posh English.

-Winchester: old historic town, famous for it's Cathedral but also as where Jane Austen lived and died. There's a lot of literary influence and a lot of amazing book shops.

-Weston-super-Mare, Wells and Glastonbury: Weston-super-Mare is another old, typical English seaside town like Scarborough, but it has an absolutely massive beach so people flock to it in summer. Wells is a little town, most well known for the cathedral and the location Hot Fuzz was set and shot in. It's definitely worth a visit. Glastonbury outside of the festival season is a lovely place with lots of hikes/bike routes and a lot of history. 

-Plymouth and Cornwall: again, only been once due to how far it is from home, but I'm actually going again this week for my mum's birthday. Plymouth has a lot of naval history and I'm planning on going to the National Marine Aquarium Thursday which is supposed to be amazing. The only place in Cornwall I've been is Looe, but I highly recommend it as it's so pretty.

-Jurassic Coast: including Weymouth, Lulworth and Durdle Door in this. All very picturesque and where the bulk of UK fossils are found. There's absolutely loads of hikes/bike paths along this coast

-Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch: Bournemouth is mainly known for it's huge beach, Poole is where the RLNI headquarters are and where Lush was founded, and Christchurch is just very picturesque. 

-Portsmouth: where the UK navy is based. Very historic and very flat for walking/biking. Where D-Day was launched from and the D-Day museum is worth a visit. Was also home to Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling. Has a good independent book shop called pigeon books.

The Peak District:

(Growing up so close to it, I have a lot of recommendations, hence the separate category 😂)

(There are hikes/bike trails between most of these places, with apps/guides online for the most popular routes)

-Bakewell: very picturesque, old English town. But obviously you have to try the tart! I recommend trying both the tart and the pudding

-Castleton: another picturesque little town, but it's also full of caves you can go down, one of which was used for the gringotts scenes in Harry Potter. Lots of good pubs for a pint as well.

-Cavedale: very lord of the rings looking picturesque walk, but it's personally one of my favourites because it's where Wesley rolls down the hill while yelling "as you wish!" in the Princess Bride

-Hathersage: lots of great pubs, cafes and restaurants

-Scrivener's books and bookbinding: multi-leveled second hand bookshop in Buxton.

-Chatsworth House: old manor house with huge grounds. The house and gardens are worth visiting to walk around. JFK's sister is buried across the road in the little village of Edensor. But I honestly love visiting because it's used as Pemberly in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice.

-Lady Bower Reservoir: on the route of a lot of hikes, it's where the Dambusters practiced dropping the bouncing bombs during the war

-Eyam: the first place to social distance and lockdown during the Black Death, lots of history there.

-Padley Gorge: also looks like something out of lord of the rings

London:

Museums: most museums in London are free, but you can book tickets online and not have to queue. 

-The natural history museum (my all time favourite museum, especially as a biologist)

-The science museum (right next to NHM)

 -V&A (across the road from NHM and SM, mainly art and design.

-The British museum (great if you were an ancient Greek or Egypt nerd as a kid (or if you still are)) 

-The Royal Naval College and National Maritime Museum (in Greenwich and where the second Thor was filmed)

-The Tower of London (where the crown jewels are held, they are wonky, it pissed me off 😂)

Bookshops: 

-Hatchards (oldest bookshop in the UK, five floors of books).

-Waterstones Piccadilly (just down the street from Hatchards, absolutely massive)

-Gays the Word (oldest LGBT bookshop in the UK, setting of the film Pride)

-Daunts Books (technically a travel bookstore, but it has other stuff as well. One of the prettiest book shops I've ever been to)

-Lutyens and Rubinstein (very pretty, had a bit of everything(

-Books for cooks (is only a cookbook shop, but it's honestly worth going for the experience because it's also a cafe that cooks from a different cookbook each month)

-The Nottinghill Bookshop (a bit of everything)

-Word on the Water (bookshop on a barge)

Markets:

-Borough Market (one of my absolute favourite places on earth, great for lunch or to pick up snacks)

-Camden Market (alternative fashion, art, music and good food)

-Eatly (near Liverpool Street station, it's an Italian market hall, also good for lunch/snacks)

-Spitlefields (food as well as shops, near eatly)

-Portobello Market (Nottinghill, only on certain days so make sure to check before going)

-Covent Garden (more high end shops, but it's nice to walk around)

Shops:

-Harrods (just worth going to look at the price tags and laugh 😂)

-Fortnum and Mason (just down from Hatchards, expensive food shop, but it's nice to look around in)

-Hamleys (huge toy shop, I haven't been in a while, but it used to be amazing as a kid)

Places that I just think are worth visiting:

-Russel square and Cafe Tropea, and Bloomsbury

-Hyde Park

-Walk down Knightsbridge just to see all the fancy cars

-The Wellcome Collective (cosmetic museum, but it has a reading room where it's free to sit and read)

-The Paddington statue in Paddington station

-You can walk up to Camden Market from London St Pancreas/Kings Cross Station via the regent's canal

I've sadly never been to Ireland, but I hope these are useful and you have a really good trip!!!