This paper sets out some of the economic factors underpinning Scotland's move to a low-carbon economy. Economics matters, since it addresses the costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the costs of climate change impacts, and the economic factors that motivate individuals' behaviour and the behaviour of businesses. All of these are important in understanding the barriers to meeting targets and to successful adaptation, and in thinking about how these barriers can be lifted. We discuss the relative merits of market mechanisms such as carbon taxes and cap-and-trade, the cost of including additional targets, and the issue of counting carbon embedded in imported goods. An efficient way of achieving carbon reductions is to widen the scope of carbon trading to include forestry, transport and agriculture. Energy efficiency in businesses and households and adaptation to climate change are a priority, because the benefits will be felt in the short term and at the local level.

The problems of regeneration, and those relating to the production of adventitious structures in general, have not been extensively studied in the Lycopodiales, although the production of adventitious structures, some of them regenerative in nature, has been recorded for all four of the living genera. Selaginella has been examined more thoroughly in this respect than the other three genera. Adventitious roots have been induced to develop from decapitated rhizophores and from isolated lengths of stem; the production of adventitious shoots from rhizophore rudiments has also been obtained by experimental methods. Goebel (7, p. 1220) has described the development of adventitious buds on the leaf bases of Isoetes lacustris, and Osborn (12) has described interesting regenerative developments from detached leaves of Phylloglossum Drummondii. A number of examples of regeneration in various species of Lycopodium has been recorded. Goebel (5, p. 46) states that the first leaves of embryo plants of L. inundatum may produce adventitious shoots. The same writer (6, p. 83) has recorded, but not described in detail, the development of adventitious outgrowths from the decapitated shoots of young plants of L. Selago and from isolated bulbil leaves of the same species. The development of adventitious buds on isolated roots and leaves of L. ramulosum has been described by Holloway (8).

The geological theory of the evolution of the material environment and the biological theory of the evolution of organisms by natural selection are usually treated separately. This paper presents a new evolutionary theory, in which the evolution of the organisms, and the evolution of their material environment, are seen to be so closely coupled as to form a single, indivisible, process. This combined evolutionary system can be taken to be a domain with emergent properties unexpected from a simple addition of its component parts, rather like the eighteenth-century scientific view of the Earth as a super-organism. In homage to James Hutton, who lectured before the Royal Society of Edinburgh about the Earth as a super-organism and on the physiology of the Earth, the new topic is called geophysiology.

The difference between the geophysiological view of the Earth, where the environment and the organisms are tightly coupled, and the co-evolutionary, or biogeochemical view, where the coupling is loose leaving organisms and their environment to evolve more or less separately, is discussed. The paper includes numerical models to illustrate how a close-coupled evolutionary system could have self regulation, homeostasis, as an automatic and emergent property. The models will be compared with the real world past and present and their predictions examined.

Malpighi was the first to announce that all secreting glands are essentially composed of tubes, with blind extremities. Müller, by his laborious researches, has brought this department of the anatomy of glands to its present comparatively perfect condition. Purkinje announced his hypothesis of the secreting function of the nucleated epithelium of the gland ducts, but made no statement to shew that he had verified it by observation. Schwann suggested that the epithelium of the mucous membranes might be the secreting organ of these surfaces. Henle described minutely the epithelium cells which line the ducts of the principal glands and follicles, but did not prove that these are the secreting organs. The same anatomist has stated, that the terminal extremities of certain gland ducts are closed vesicles, within which the secretion is formed, and which contain nucleated cells. Henle has not, therefore, verified the hypothesis of Purkinje, although he is correct in stating that the terminal vesicles of certain gland ducts are closed. It will be shewn, in the course of this paper, that the secretion is not formed, as Henle has asserted, in the closed vesicles, but in the nucleated cells themselves.

The mountain of Gibraltar is situated in 36° 9' north latitude, and in 5° east longitude from Greenwich. It is the promontory which, with that of Ceuta upon the opposite Coast of Barbary, forms the entrance of the Straits of Gibraltar from the Mediterranean; and Europa Point, which is the part of the mountain that advances most towards Africa, is generally regarded as the most southern promontory in Europe. The form of this mountain is oblong; its summit a sharp craggy ridge; its direction is nearly from north to south; and its greatest length, in that direction, falls very little short of three miles. Its breadth varies with the indentations of the shore, but it no where exceeds three quarters of mile. The line of its ridge is undulated, and the two extremes are somewhat higher than its centre.

Pipe-shaped breccia bodies associated with diorite intrusions are composed mainly of angular clasts of local schists with a few transported clasts of quartzite. Plate shaped fragments are commonly oriented to define planar fabrics in the breccias. These features indicate the operation of gas fluidisation within the pipes and both entrainment and expanded bed conditions are inferred. The fabrics result from the collapse of the fluidised suspensions as the gas flow declined. Dilational fracture patterns in the country rock comparable with the stress release patterns found around mine shafts can be matched with the fractures required to produce the angular schist clasts. It is concluded that fracturing and the introduction of fragments into the fluidised breccia system was a continuous process and that the pipe diameter increased progressively with time. Microdiorite sheets and related stock like bodies of diorite cut and metamorphose the breccias. Compaction, hornfelsing and hydrothermal alteration also contributed to breccia formation.

The ocean/sea-ice interaction of the Antarctic open ocean region is described through a one-dimensional model. The model includes processes responsible for maintaining stability in this marginally stable region and reveals the importance of the various processes controlling deep water formation/ventilation and sea-ice thickness and their sensitivity to climate change. This information is used to estimate changes, as they impact water column stability, induced by glacial conditions. Increased stability is conducive to greater ice cover and less deep water formation/ventilation; decreased stability conducive to the opposite.

Sensitivity studies show that the system is destabilised given: (1) shallowing of the pycnocline (induced by increased gyre vigor); (2) decrease in the ratio of heat to salt through the pycnocline (induced by introducing a colder and/or saltier deep water or by increasing the salinity of the surface water); (3) decreased pycnocline strength (induced by a fresher deep water or saltier surface water) and (4) increased atmospheric heat loss. Most of the assumed glacial conditions drive the system toward destabilisation, but the critical effect of changes in NADW characteristics depends strongly on the temperature and salinity of the replacement water. The importance of this deep water influence is evident today—as little as 3Wm−2 in the upper ocean heat balance or an additional 15 cm of ice growth is sufficient to overturn the water column in some regions.

Notwithstanding the progress made of late years in animal chemistry in connection with comparative anatomy, I am not aware of any observations that have yet been published on the urinary secretion of fishes. The neglect of this inquiry probably has arisen from several circumstances,—the nature of the element inhabited, the peculiarities of the urinary organs, the difficulty of collecting the matter voided, and its having no well-marked distinctive qualities obvious to the senses.

For some years, as leisure and opportunities offered, I have given attention to the subject, and in the paper which now I have the honour to submit to the Society, I beg to communicate the observations I have made. Few and imperfect as these are, they are given mainly with the hope of attracting notice to the inquiry and of inducing others more favourably situated to engage in its prosecution.

The results of recent seismic refraction profiling across the Carboniferous West Lothian basin are described. Data from two 90-km refraction lines within the Midland Valley are combined with short–medium range, c. 30 km, profiles recorded using quarry-blast sources. Integration of seismic, gravity and structural data suggest thin-skinned deformation with at least two levels of detachment. Major faults mapped at the surface define domains comprised of thin flakes deformed into dome and basin structures. The data are interpreted in terms of a dextral strike-slip linked fault model for the region.

Malacolite was first observed in Scotland by Dr Macculloch, who included it with the second sub-species, under the name of Sahlite.

He, in his different works, noted its occurrence—“near the church of Rodel in Harris,”- “in Tiree,”-“Glen Elg,”-“Glen Tilt,”-and “in Rannoch.” With his usual power he describes the occurrence, varieties, and even the crystalline form of the mineral,—the clearness and precision of his descriptions being only equalled by the utter want of precision and frequent mystifications as to their localities.

The above sentence conveys all the direct information which Dr Macculloch vouchsafes as to the five localities indicated by him, though in a vague manner he may occasionally lead one to conjecture that certain particular spots are meant.

By the time that the mineralogist, led by Dr Macculloch to Glen Elg, Tiree, or Rannoch, has walked some twelve or twenty miles in an unsuccessful search, he begins to think that if he be successful, he has some claim to be himself regarded as an independent discoverer.

1. The existence of relations between the coaxial minors of a determinant was first discovered by MacMahon in 1893. The whole literature of the subject is comprised in three papers, viz.:—

MacMahon, Phil. Trans., clxxxv. pp. 111–160.

Muir, Phil. Mag., 5th series, xli. pp. 537–541.

Nanson, Phil. Mag., 5th series, xliv. pp. 362–367.

My present object is to continue the investigation of the relations in question, and more particularly to draw attention to an explicit expression for a determinant of the 4th order in terms of its own coaxial minors. At the outset some fresh considerations regarding determinants in general will be found useful.

This memoir is the result of over thirty-nine years' work among the crinoids of the Scottish Carboniferous limestones. When I began the systematic collection of these fossils few records were noted in any publications dealing with Scottish geology, and in our national museums such as those of Edinburgh and Glasgow there were, and still are, comparatively few species represented. In the official memoirs of the Scottish Geological Survey, dealing with typical Carboniferous counties like Fife and the Lothians, little more than a dozen species are recorded. Some, if not most, of these records are of doubtful value.

Scientific societies played a crucial role in the emergence of a professional culture of science in Britain in the mid- to late-19th Century. At first sight, James Croll's membership of a limited number of scientific associations may be assumed to be the result of his lack of social credit and scientific connections. In this article, by examining Croll's correspondence, I demonstrate that Croll's select participation in scientific clubs and associations reflected his strategic pursuit of a vision of science set apart from party or societal affiliation. I focus on the contrasting histories of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Geological Survey, as well as the institutional history of the Philosophical Magazine. Situating the institutions in their respective social and cultural contexts, I argue that the more meritocratic, inclusive social structure of the Survey and Magazine helps explain Croll's choice to avoid affiliation with the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Agnostid trilobites are relatively abundant and taxonomically diverse in outer shelf facies of the Yangtze Platform and Jiangnan Transitional Belt regions of the South China Plate. Nine Arenig and Llanvirn species, representing at least five genera or subgenera in the Agnostidae, Diplagnostidae and Metagnostidae, are treated in a taxonomic review of the South Chinese Agnostida, based on new material from the Dawan and Kuniutan formations of W Hubei and the Zitai and Jiuxi formations of N Hunan. The new genus Han is established to incorporate the globally youngest known diplagnostid species. The new species Han solo, Geragnostus (Geragnostus) balanolobus and G. (G.) waldorfstatleri are established. G. carinatus is recognised as being based on inaccurately interpreted material, and is only tentatively retained within Geragnostus. Three further taxa represented by poorly preserved material are left in open nomenclature. The geographic distributions of different agnostid species across the South China Plate, and the endemicity to the palaeoplate displayed by all Arenig–Llanvirn South Chinese species, suggest that these agnostids at least were either benthic or epibenthic.

The morphology of the mastoid region in predators is informative about the hunting strategies and capacity of carrying prey. The purpose of this research was to describe the mastoid region and reconstruct the associated musculature of †Stipanicicia pettorutii Reig, 1956, a Pleistocene weasel with a distinctive morphology compared to its living relatives, and to make inferences about its predatory abilities. Galictis, a living weasel closely related to Stipanicicia, as well as other carnivorans, were used as comparative models. The muscle insertions identified in Stipanicicia presented a similar or larger development than Galictis. The insertion area of the muscles obliquus capitis cranialis, longissimus capitis, sternocephalicus pars mastoidea and cleidocephalicus pars mastoidea were found to be markedly developed and in a lateralised position with respect to the atlanto–occipital joint in hyaenids and mustelids, and especially in Stipanicicia, suggesting powerful lateral flexion and rotation movements in the fossil. The larger degree of advancement of the mastoid process in mustelids, and secondary in felids, would allow a powerful ventral flexion of the head. Stipanicicia would have exhibited powerful lateral movements and retraction of the head and neck, over restricted extension movements and, therefore, would have been a weasel specialised in subjugating and carrying prey of a relatively large size.

The 532±5 Ma old Carion pluton is a dark, porphyritic ferro-potassic granitoid emplaced near the late Pan-African Angavo mega-shear zone. A rough normal zoning from tonalitic to granitic compositions can be recognised in the field. Steep magmatic foliations are evidenced by K-feldspar megacryst preferred orientations. Microstructures are either magmatic or typical of incipient solid-state deformation in near solidus conditions. Magnetic susceptibility magnitudes (K) range from 11 to 111×10−3 SI in the pluton and can be correlated to the petrography (highest K values in the tonalites; lowest K in the granites; granodiorites in between). The susceptibility magnitudes display a complex zoning pattern. Combined with the arrangement of magnetic foliation trajectories, it is possible to delineate four nested sub-units, regarded as four magmatic pulses successively emplaced from the west to the east of the pluton. The four pulses are characterised by very similar magma geochemistry, but variable magmatic differentiation. The highest degrees of magnetic susceptibility anisotropies (up to 1·6) are observed along internal contacts between sub-units and along the borders of the pluton. The magnetic lineations are also steeply plunging in some places in each sub-unit, possibly imaging the different feeder zones. Magma emplacement occurred at the end of the activity of the Angavo shear zone, hence avoiding re-orientation of the magmatic structures by the late Pan-African transcurrent tectonics. The diachronicity of the four magmatic pulses is consistent with previously determined palaeomagnetic data, because only the two older sub-units display a magnetic reversal sequence, whereas the two youngest sub-units lack any reversion. Emplacement of these four magmatic batches was responsible for a strain aureole and suggests a diapiric mode of ascent.

An assessment of topsoil (5–20cm) metal/metalloid (hereafter referred to as metal) concentrations across Glasgow and the Clyde Basin reveals that copper, molybdenum, nickel, lead, antimony and zinc show the greatest enrichment in urban versus rural topsoil (elevated 1.7–2.1 times; based on median values). This is a typical indicator suite of urban pollution also found in other cities. Similarly, arsenic, cadmium and lead are elevated 3.2–4.3 times the rural background concentrations in topsoil from the former Leadhills mining area. Moorlands show typical organic-soil geochemical signatures, with significantly lower (P<0.05) concentrations of geogenic elements such as chromium, copper, nickel, molybdenum and zinc, but higher levels of cadmium, lead and selenium than most other land uses due to atmospheric deposition/trapping of these substances in peat. In farmland, 14% of nickel and 7% of zinc in topsoil samples exceed agricultural maximum admissible concentrations, and may be sensitive to sewage-sludge application. Conversely, 5% of copper, 17% of selenium and 96% of pH in farmland topsoil samples are below recommended agricultural production thresholds. Significant proportions of topsoil samples exceed the most precautionary (residential/allotment) human-exposure soil guidelines for chromium (18% urban; 10% rural), lead (76% urban; 45% rural) and vanadium (87% urban; 56% rural). For chromium, this reflects volcanic bedrock and the history of chromite ore processing in the region. However, very few soil types are likely to exceed new chromiumVI-based guidelines. The number of topsoil samples exceeding the guidelines for lead and vanadium highlight the need for further investigations and evidence to improve human soil-exposure risk assessments to better inform land contamination policy and regeneration.

A palynological study of the upper Silurian Öved–Ramsåsa Group in Skåne, Sweden yields a well preserved spore assemblage with low relative abundances of marine microfossils. In total, 26 spore taxa represented by 15 genera were identified. The spore assemblage is dominated by long-ranging cryptospore taxa, and the trilete spore Ambitisporites avitus-dilutus. However, key-species identified include Artemopyra radiata, Hispanaediscus lamontii, H. major, H. verrucatus, Scylaspora scripta and Synorisporites cf. libycus. Importantly, Scylaspora klintaensis was identified, allowing correlation with the Klinta 1 drillcore (Skåne). A Ludlow age is inferred for the exposed succession, which agrees well with previous conodont stratigraphy. The organic residue is dominated by phytodebris and spores, but with high relative abundances of acritarchs at two levels, possibly related to flooding surfaces.

Based on the palynofacies analysis, a near-shore marine environment is proposed. The close proximity to land is inferred by the high proportions of spores, and the dispersed assemblage most likely represents the local flora growing on delta plains. The palynological signal also infers a stable terrestrial environment and vegetation, in contrast to unstable conditions in the marine environment characterised by ooid formation in an evaporitic environment. Comparisons with coeval spore assemblages from Gotland, Avalonia and Laurentia show relatively close similarities in taxonomic composition at the generic level.

The intrinsic symbol of an amphicheiral knot is based on the idea of the sequence of the crossings; it replaces each letter of the alphabetical symbol by a number equal to one-half of the number of crossings intervening before the next occurrence of that letter as the knot is traversed in a definite direction. Hence it is seen that two knots, which have the same intrinsic symbol, are identical. Since the same number of pairs of crossings must elapse before the next occurrence of corresponding crossings of two identical knots when the knots are traversed in a given direction, it is seen that the converse is true also. It may be necessary to consider the complementary intrinsic symbol in order to detect identical knots.