Roger Thomas
Scientific Editor

https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.110.5

So. This is my last issue of Physiology News as Scientific Editor. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in the editor’s chair, ably helped by a sequence of managing editors, first Helen Burgess, then Helga Groll and currently Julia Turan. The current attractive format and appearance owes much to Alex Ford, the designer at the printers Lavenham Press. Andrew Mackenzie, the new Head of Policy and Communications, has already taken a very keen interest. One minor problem that has worried me is the overlap between the magazine and the more ephemeral Society outputs of Twitter feeds and email Newsletters. I think Facebook might be involved too. But Physiology News has the great advantage of being a printed magazine, often kept by members for many years. One of my first efforts as editor was to find a copy of the lost issue number one, which I finally tracked down, thanks to Bob Banks, as described in PN 100.

This issue has as usual many reports on Society activities as well as features on physiological topics. Charles Michel’s feature on work a century ago by Haldane is particularly intriguing as it describes how he was removed from important work on gas masks during WW1 simply because his brother had been accused by the Daily Mail of having German sympathies. The accusation was based on his having praised German Universities several years before. But why the physiologist Haldane should be penalised for his brother’s view is very strange, as indeed is the fact that that newspaper apparently had such power. Brexit makes me wonder if the situation has changed enough. I have a brother who is in favour of Brexit, but he does not read the Daily Mail.

There is also a fascinating feature on chronobiology, or why do teenagers sleep at different times from small children or mature adults. An article about Charles Bell and proprioception reveals him to be rather jealous of competitors. And the obituaries inevitably make me think about my own lifetime, which began a few months before Germany invaded Poland in 1939. I might add that the advertisements in Physiology News are not the Scientific Editor’s responsibility.

My own involvement with The Society goes back to 1963, when I and Robert Walker demonstrated snail brain neurophysiology during a meeting at the University of Southampton. I gave my first oral communication to The Society 5 years later, at the Charing Cross meeting in January 1968, 50 years ago. This event was not mentioned in the meeting’s minutes, reproduced in this issue. I remember being consoled afterwards by the late Alison Brading and Anne Warner. The Society dinner was held in the House of Lords, but I was not invited. I had already given two demonstrations so was then qualified to apply for membership, and was indeed elected in 1969. The same year I was appointed as a lecturer in the University of Bristol in the Department of Physiology. The department was chaired by Arthur Buller, who was very supportive in setting up my lab. I still use two Prior micromanipulators he gave me.

After my election in 1969, I began to take an interest in the politics of The Society. Each year before the AGM, then always held at UCL in March, members were sent a list of the committee members who were available for re-election, with suggested nominations for the upcoming vacancies. The numbers nominated were equal to the number of vacancies. A note stated that any five ordinary members could also nominate a candidate. No such nomination had occurred in living memory, so there was never a real election. In 1974, convinced that Ordinary Members ought to exercise a meaningful vote, I persuaded four colleagues to join me in nominating Tim Biscoe. This was in spite of considerable misgivings by Arthur Buller and Andrew Huxley. Tim was duly elected, and has had a distinguished career since. But I now wonder if my desire to make AGMs more interesting did not set in train a series of changes that led to The Society’s slow decline in its support for members of The Society rather than the science. The committee stopped choosing nominees for its own vacancies, allowing more and more involvement of troublemakers who had little experience of administration or time to spend managing The Society’s activities. In 1981, Arthur asked me to organise the next Physiological Society meeting in Bristol, and I enjoyed arranging the dinner in the ballroom of the Grand Hotel. At the next Bristol meeting in 1985, I hired a train to take members to a dinner in the pump rooms in Bath. I was the local organiser for several more meetings later.

As this is my last opportunity, I would like to thank four people who played crucial roles early in my career; my PhD supervisor Gerald Kerkut, the PI’s for my two postdoc posts Victor Wilson and EJ Harris, and the man who invited me to Bristol, Tony Ridge. Finally, I welcome the choice of my successor, Keith Siew. He has been a member of the editorial board for several years, so is much better prepared than I was three years ago. I am sure he will do a great job, and hope he enjoys the numerous discussions he will have to undertake.