Speaker John Rankin

Rotary club of Stirling meeting of 11th May.

President Stewart Wilson welcomed our visitors, Rotarians John Mee, William McLaren and Cameron Sommerville from Abertay, Chris Dance and Alan Lorden from Crieff, Alistair Morrison, and last but not least ADG zone 7 Alistair Spowage. Stewart reminded us of two important upcoming events, our AM/AM on Friday 25th May, and Kippen street fair on 9th June. The club assembly is an evening meeting on Thursday 24th May, and there will be no meeting of Friday 25th May, The Spring golf event held at the Eden course St Andrews was won by Crawford Gordon, following which alteration of some handicaps will be required.

Dr John Rankin, fresh back from six week's travels meeting his new grandchild in Australia, chose an unexpected topic for his talk, the achievements of women through the ages, denied formal education, who by their own efforts, made major contributions to science, particularly mathematics and astronomy. Starting with a Korean princess in 625 AD who from the age of 15 studied astronomy, later built an observatory and was able to predict the date of a solar eclipse.  In 1610 Maria Cumly, a linguist and astronomer, whose work on simplified algorithms enabled her to update and correct Kepler's calculations. She also wrote the first book by a woman on astronomy. In 1757 Nicole Rene Lepank, married to a clock maker, worked on the maths of pendulums and was able to predict the return of Halley's comet.  Emma Noether1882, although denied entry to university, attended the classes, later developing her own theories on abstract algebra and symmetry which were essential in the theory of relativity.  Cecilia Payne 1910, although denied entry to Harvard, was able to access a series of images held there from which she correctly deduced that the universe consisted largely of Hydrogen and Helium. She eventually became the first female professor at Harvard.  All these extraordinary women were denied formal education, but by their own efforts produced work of the greatest importance to science.

Next meeting 18th May Speaker's host Ian Richardson, visitor's host John Rankin.

Ian Richardson