5 years ago
After a decade-long journey of three billion miles through our solar system, a US spacecraft has made its closest approach to Pluto. New Horizons passed by 7,750 miles above the surface – roughly the same distance from New York to Mumbai – making it the first-ever space mission to explore a world so far from Earth. There was jubilation at Nasa control after the unmanned probe started sending back signals following the unprecedented fly-past.
10 years ago
Scientists using Scottish technology claim to have cracked that age-old question: what came first, the chicken or the egg? Using HECTOR the supercomputer at Edinburgh University, researchers now claim they have evidence the chicken came first. The formation of eggs is only possible due to a protein called ovocledidin-17 (OC-17), say the scientists. “The protein was linked to egg formation but we have been able to see how it controls the process,” said Dr Colin Freedman, of Sheffield University.
25 years ago
Flash floods and torrential rain brought chaos to parts of Scotland yesterday as motorists, householders, and emergency services were caught out by the rising waters. Seven people, including a pregnant woman, were taken to hospital after Kirkcaldy Telephone Exchange was struck by a bolt of lightning. In Strathclyde, the Erskine Bridge and Clyde Tunnel were closed. Motherwell, Renfrew and Glasgow city centre were among a large number of areas hit by floods
50 years ago
A portrait of Pope Julius XV11, which has been in the National Gallery collection since its foundation in 1824, and was assumed to be a copy of Raphael’s original in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, is now disclosed by art detection to be the original, painted around 1511. Mr Cecil Gould, deputy keeper of the National Gallery, said that, if the gallery were acquiring the portrait now, it would be regarded as “one of the most important pictures.” Its value would reach seven figures.
100 years ago
At Hamilton yesterday Sheriff Shennan gave his decision in a prosecution involving the safety of mine shafts by the lining or casing of the same. John Whiteside, Stevenson Cottage, Holytown, manager of the Holytown Colliery, belonging to Messrs James Nimmo and Co., was charged with failing to have a portion of the working shaft of No. 5 Pit, Holytown Colliery, securely cased or lined or otherwise made secure. In the opinion of the Sheriff, the three particular defects alleged had not been proved.