Darwin Gets Into Property 2-3

Darwinian Achievements 2

Opening of the new footbridge 3

The Molecule Hunt 4

Award for Cambridge InnoVision 5

The Master Visits China 6

The Fellowship 6

Darwinian Descendants 6

Articles on the Darwin website 6

Major Cancer Research Prize 7

New Edition of Radnóti poetry 8

Recent publications 8

Book & CD Reviews 9-11

Obituaries 10

From the Emails 12

Newsletter ofDarwin CollegeSpring 2004

Inside

Darwin’s new bridge – page 3

Darwin buys The Malting House overlookingthe Mill Pond – page 2.

Fiona Watson Remembered

Fiona Watson (Darwin 1991-92) wastragically killed in the suicide bombing ofthe UN headquarters in Baghdad at theage of just 35 years. Fiona obtained anM.Phil in International Relations andBallistic Studies whilst at Darwin.

Prior to joining the UN, Fiona workedwith the European Commission and for aperiod with the Organisation for Securityand Co-operation in Europe. During hercareer with the UN Fiona had beeninvolved in many of the world’s hot spots,including Bosnia and Kosovo before Iraq.A very gifted and experienced linguist,she worked in a prominent capacity withthe UN for almost four years as a politicalanalyst. At the time of her death she waspolitical affairs officer on the staff of theHead of the UN mission to Iraq, SergioVieira de Mello. Mr de Mello was alsokilled by the bomb attack.

It was clear from the manymoving tributes to Fiona at herfuneral service in Kirkcaldy that shewas an outstanding young woman,with a rare combination of intellectualbrilliance, a warm and sunnypersonality, vitality, compassion andan engaging sense of humour.Family, friends and former colleagueswere strongly represented at theservice, with more than 150 there topay their respects. Mr Hedi Annabi,Assistant Secretary General for theDepartment for PeacekeepingOperations at the UN in New York,represented the Secretary General ofthe UN and spoke movingly of hercontribution and her promisingcareer within the UN.

While Fiona was a high flyer in hercareer and destined for great things,

her drive and energies in this directionwere also well tempered by her closefriendships and her strong connection toher family in Pittenweem. A marvellousambassador for Scotland and a personwho evoked respect and affection inequal measure wherever she went,Fiona will be deeply mourned by all whoknew her.

Fiona’s family and friends have set upThe Fiona Watson Memorial Fund toprovide bursaries for final year studentsat her first university, Heriot-Watt, toenable them to spend a year with the UNor a similar international organisation.Donations can be made online atwww.hw.ac.uk/fionawatsonfund.Donation forms and further tributes toFiona can also be found on Darwin’swebsite (www.dar.cam.ac.uk/alumni).

2

As many Darwinians will recall, aparticular limitation of the College isproviding sufficient accommodation.Normally, we can only hope to providerooms for about half of the 450 or soresident students on the roll, whichmeans that only the first year’saccommodation is now guaranteed. Oneof the main reasons for the limitation isthat there is currently no space for anysubstantial building because our existing‘footprint’ is almost completely full;another, naturally, is the matter of funding.

So, we were very interested, early in2003, to hear that a large residentialproperty just across Newnham Road fromthe College was to be put on the market.The Malting House is situated on thecorner of Newnham Road and MaltingLane, a particularly busy corner. Yet itsoutlook is over the Mill Pond and Sheep’sGreen – a lovely backwater of the Camand a broad meadow where cattle stillgraze. It is also only a short stroll from theCollege Dining Hall and other facilities.

The Malting House was originallyexactly that: a warehouse, Oast house,and small brewery owned, in the 1830s,

by the Beales family – a well-knownCambridge trading dynasty. In 1909, thethen Dean of Trinity College (Dr Stewart)bought the buildings and appointed thesoon-to-be well-known architects, Smith& Brewer, to convert most of theproperties into a wonderful Arts & Craftshouse. Two or three years later theremaining buildings were converted into asmall hall to host musical evenings;Albert Schweitzer give a lecture on Bachthere, and from 1955 it was the rehearsalbase for the Cambridge Schools HolidayOrchestra. Appropriately, during the1920s it was the Malting House School –one of the early ‘children’s community’schools: no fixed curriculum, nodiscipline, and no punishments! Aimed atwhat we today recognise as special-needs pupils, it certainly seemed to workfor, of those who stayed for more than afew terms, four became members of thestaff of the University, one became a

medical consultant, and another an actor.In later years the house reverted to afamily home.

It was clear from quick inspectionthat it offered us another 14 substantialbed-sitting rooms and a new PublicRoom. However, the likely purchasecosts and the estimated conversioncosts were daunting and the equation ofcosts, available funds, and possibleincome was worked and reworked. Inthe end, we agreed that there weremajor advantages in trying to purchasethe house, and that we should disposeof three smaller, outlying properties inEltisley Avenue partially to fund the cost.Nevertheless, the purchase andrefurbishment has still required us tomake sizeable inroads into the College’scapital. The final cost of purchase andconversion will be in the region of £1.5M– a very large sum for the College, butfor an opportunity too good to miss.

Darwin Gets Into ‘Property’ – In More Ways Than One!

Woodcut of the Malting House by Rosemary Myers recently donated to Darwinby Peter Jonker research fellow in astronomy on leaving for Harvard.

Architect’s drawing of the link between the diningroom and No 1 Newnham Terrace.

Professor Hugh Mellor (Fellow) has beenelected to an Honorary Fellowship of theAustralian Academy of the Humanities.

Professor Elizabeth Blackburn(1971-75) received the Bristol-MyersSquibb Distinguished Achievement Awardin Cancer Research (see also page 7).

Professor Bernd Fischer(Research Fellow 1977/8) has beenelected Dean of the Medical Faculty of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany.

Professor John Clarke (PhD 1964-68) received an ScD at the Senate

DarwinianAchievements

Another on-going major College buildingproject, now nearing completion, is theconversion and refurbishment of No 1Newnham Terrace. This will provide anadditional public entertaining/diningroom adjacent to, and at the same levelas, the current Dining Hall and seatingaround 24-30 guests. Two fully equippedseminar rooms, capable of beingopened out for use as a single largeplenary room, have been created atground level, while two top-quality guestrooms are being provided on the topfloor. New cloakrooms and lavatorieshave been provided for the public areasby enlarging the basement area.

And finally, another ‘property’ acquisitionin the last six months has been thereplacement for the old Footbridge,always an integral part of all OldDarwinians’ memories of College.Undermined and damaged irreparablyby the 2002 floods, it took almost a yearto gain the approvals and licensesrequired for this project because, in theBritish way of things, the old bridgeturned out to be a ‘Listed Building’!Taking it down and replacing it with anentirely new (though identical) English-oak bridge constituted (to the local

planners) ‘demolition of a ListedBuilding’, and its replacement, a‘redevelopment of the site’!! Finally,however, the new bridge is finished andcertainly very firmly in place as it nowrests on 24-foot foundation piles.

When originally built in 1889, thefootbridge cost Sir George Darwin theprincely sum of £12 and 10 shillings(about $20). The new bridge, built tomeet all ‘Listed’ heritage requirementsand modern engineering and health &safety regulations is costing some£30,000 (c$45,000)! It was extremelydifficult to justify, or even to find, thatlevel of funding from the College’s limitedresources – particularly given thecommitment to the purchase of TheMalting House. Happily, we have beenvery fortunate, and are especiallygrateful, to have most of that cost metby a wonderful donation from Hugh andJulia Fleming: Hugh is one of TheCollege’s emeritus Fellows.

STOP PRESS – Darwin has justpurchased No 49 Newnham Road(Roger’s Florists) adding moreaccommodation close to the college.

Peter Brindle (Bursar)

The magnificent new footbridge toDarwin’s islands was formally openedby Hugh and Julia Fleming at a smallceremony attended by many membersof College. The College is exceptionallygrateful to Hugh and Julia for theirmost generous support of the projectto rebuild the listed bridge (seeBursar’s report for more detail).

Opening of the new footbridge

3

House on 13th December 2003. Webelieve he is the first Old Darwinian tohave achieved this honour.

Professor Sir Geoffrey Lloyd(previous Master) has been awarded an honorary degree by the University of Athens.

Dr Richard Henderson (Fellow) has been elected into an HonoraryFellowship of Corpus Christi College.

Dr Sharon Ashbrook (ResearchFellow) has been awarded a RoyalSociety Dorothy Hodgkin fellowship.

Dr Grant Tapsell (Research Fellow)has been awarded a British AcademyPost-Doctoral Fellowship.

Drs Simon Schaffer and DavidMacKay have been elected toprofessorships at Cambridge.

DARWIN COLLEGE LECTURE SERIES 2004EVIDENCECarlo Ginzburg HISTORICAL EVIDENCE AND ITS AMBIGUITIES 16 January

Karen Armstrong EVIDENCE: A RED HERRING? 23 January

Cherie Booth LEGAL EVIDENCE 30 January

Monica Grady EVIDENCE FOR LIFE IN SPACE 6 February

Peter Lipton EVIDENCE AND EXPLANATION 13 February

Vincent Courtillot EVIDENCE FOR CATASTROPHES 20 February

Phillip Dawid STATISTICAL EVIDENCE 27 February

Brian Greene MATHEMATICAL EVIDENCE 5 March

Fridays at 5.30pm

Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge

4Ancient DNA, the subject of TheMolecule Hunt, has attracted a highprofile, but in scientific terms has had avery bumpy ride. A number of studiesthat have graced the pages of our mosteminent scientific journals, and hit theheadlines of our newspapers, have latercrumbled away, sometimes takingreputations with them. Even as JurassicPark was being filmed, the possibility ofcharting dinosaur genes, if not wholeextinct genomes, was still being seriouslyentertained within the scientificcommunity, but has now been relegated to fiction.

The Molecule Hunt was great fun to write. Not only was the topic ofancient DNA an exciting one, butcircumstances had brought me close to the emergence of its scientific study. I was able to write about a field thatwas rapidly changing the way wethought about archaeology, but not justin terms of the emerging contributionsto knowledge, results that wereimpressive in their own right. I couldalso focus upon the actual process ofdoing the research, and all the humanstrengths and weaknesses it revealed.In fact I felt the only way I could writethis book was as a chronicle of humanendeavour, sometimes brilliant,sometimes fundamentally flawed.

I first got interested in ancient DNAback in the 1980’s, after reading inNature of the detection of a fragment ofDNA sequence from the brain of amummified ancient Egyptian. This isone of the many studies whosecredibility has since been questioned,but fortunately the reputation of itsauthor has remained intact. SvantePääbo went on to play a major role inmany key ancient DNA projects, and todeliver a Darwin Lecture on the topic inour 50th anniversary of DNA lectureseries (see advertisement for publishedvolume, page 5). At the time I read thatpaper, I happened to be sitting on aresearch council committee dealingwith archaeological science, anddecided to press for a major fundingprogramme to look at ancientbiomolecules in general. A couple ofyears later the Ancient BiomoleculeInitiative was underway with two millionpounds to spend under mychairmanship. It was from that positionthat I could watch all the fun of a newfield of science in formation.

A quite remarkable range ofscholars were brought together in this way: we archaeologists foundourselves trying to comprehend thearcane tongues of molecular biologists,geneticists, cancer researchers,organic geochemists, palaeontologists,while they in turn listened in wonder to the strange terminology ofarchaeological cultures. It was a bit like a multicultural frontier town, with alot of languages spoken, no oneentirely sure of everything that wasgoing on, and a certain amount offighting in the streets as individualsstaked their various claims to the newly available territory.

Through the book I interweavediscussions of archaeological problems,and the manner in which ancientbiomolecules may solve them, withsome allusion to the tensions anddebates between the players. I wasn’tentirely sure how far to go down thisroute with individuals who were not onlystill living, but with whom I could well findmyself working, and who moreimportantly might well referee my ownfuture grant proposals. Some of the mainplayers have engaged in incandescentrows to which I barely allude (even whenthe participants themselves haveimmortalised their feelings in print)because it hasn’t been relevant to thegeneral direction of the science.However in some cases it did have animpact, and in those instances I don’tthink my account leaves much doubtabout the tensions, conflicts andsensitive egos that are as much a featureof research as brilliance, clear thinkingand collaboration.

For all that lively interaction, thecontribution to knowledge has beenconsiderable. Perhaps the best knownexample is the genetics of theNeanderthals, but what it has told usabout the origins of agriculture and themovement of peoples has been equallyremarkable. Although DNA is themolecule that makes it to the headlines,the other biomolecules that I discuss inone section, lipids, proteins and so on,are also making an impact, and mayindeed prove to become a moreconspicuous element of routinearchaeology than DNA itself. It seemsthat a very large number of the millionsof pot fragments that dominate thearchaeological record of recent millennia

The MoleculeHuntProfessor Martin Jones(Fellow) describes the thinking behind his latest book.

5

In the Second Term of every academic year since 1986,Darwin College has organised a series of eight publiclectures. Each is built around a single theme, approachedfrom a multi-disciplinary perspective and prepared for ageneral audience by an leading authority in his or hersubject. These lectures have been collected and publishedby Cambridge University Press.

The latest book in the series is ‘DNA’ (edited by TorstenKrude) from the 2003 Darwin Lecture Series (ISBN:0 521 82378 1 price £25.00). The volume on ‘Space’(edited by Francois Penz, Gregory Radick and RobertHowell) will shortly be published.

Books in this series are available to members andalumni of Darwin College at 20% off from either theCambridge bookshop at 1 Trinity Street, Cambridge ordirect by phone +44 (0)1223 326050, fax +44 (0)1223326111 or email to directcustserve@cambridge.org.

www.cambridge.org

retain a fatty signature of the way they were used.

A danger of writing a book on aresearch area that is so young anddynamic is the possibility of it beinghopelessly out of date before it reachesthe shops. I’m pleasantly reassured thatit looks like it will have some endurance,in large part as a result of lodging theresults within an account of the scientificprocess. Of course the sciencecontinues to move fast. The completionof the Human Genome Project wasannounced while the text was in galleyproofs. Since the book was published,further exciting things have happened,for example the first completemitochondrial sequence of an extinctanimal (the Moa). If I were to write it now,I would devote a whole chapter to themarvellous work of Allen Cooper on theecology of the ancient land bridgeacross the Bering Straits. I believe thatnew work on the DNA of diseaseorganisms could be really significant.Now that our major predator of thehistoric period, the bacteriumresponsible for plague, has been fullysequenced, it seems it is remarkablyyoung in evolutionary terms. When ourspecies first travelled across Europe, theplague bacterium’s ancestor was nomore than a mild tummy bug. Perhaps itevolved to something more deadly in thecontext of farming, and thedomestication of plants and animals.That might render the Black Death oneof the first nightmare consequences ofgenetic engineering, but this is purespeculation. In the very last chapter ofthe book, I allude to the possibility thatthe timescales of Jurassic Park (if not theactual dinosaurs) may return to ancientDNA studies, with promising results frombones half a million years old fromBrittany. Since then, DNA of this antiquityhas been successively identified fromwithin particles of soil of around thatdate. Indeed, it could be that ancientfaeces and soil particles could proveideal “time capsules” for ancient DNA,and if that is true, who knows whatlatent forms lie beneath the ground?

Published in the UK as:

HB; Allen Lane. ISBN 0713994231

PB; Penguin Books. ISBN 0140289763

Published in the US as:

HB; Arcade Publishing; ISBN 1559706112

PB; Arcade Publishing; ISBN 1559706791

Two former Darwinians, Dr Ambili Nair (1992-97) and Nittai Madrid (1996-2003), arepart of a new company, Cambridge InnoVision Limited, which was runner-up in theWall Street Journal Europe’s European Innovation Award. Ambili is VP for BusinessDevelopment and Nittai is the Finance Director. The CEO is Martin Weber (Ambili’shusband) and Rangi Robinson is the Multimedia Director. The company will exploitcutting edge computer vision technology that will make the acquisition of 3D modelssignificantly quicker, cheaper and more realistic than currently possible.

(from left to right) Ambili Nair, Nittai Madrid, Martin Weber, Rangi Robinson

Award for CambridgeInnoVision Limited

Andrew Prentice (PhD 1974-77)enjoys one of the perks of beingSecretary to the Darwin CollegeSociety at a mini-reunion with SophieMoore (left of picture, PhD 1996-2000) and Pascale Chavatte-Palmer(PhD 1992-96) during the 2nd WorldCongress on Fetal Origins of AdultDisease in Brighton.

The Fellowship has recently seen anumber of departures and arrivals. Of ourResearch Fellows, Dr George Chenmoved to a Readership in ChemicalEngineering at Nottingham University, DrAndy Bunker took up a Lectureship inAstronomy at Exeter University, and DrHannah Thompson took up aLectureship in French at Royal HollowayNew Bedford College. Dr John Craigreturned to British Columbia. Othersremain in Cambridge. Dr James Leachhas moved to another post-doctoralFellowship in Social Anthropology atKing’s College, Dr Ralf Herbrichcontinues to work for Microsoft. One ofour new Official Fellows, Dr Laura Itzhakiof the MRC Cancer Cell Unit, was herselfa Research Fellow some years back. The

The Fellowshipother, Dr Paul Robertson, is an electricalengineer who provides the College with awelcome link to the Engineering Faculty.

Our new Research Fellows span asplendid range of disciplines. Dr SharonAshbrook, the Charles and KatherineDarwin Research Fellow, is a chemistdeveloping novel NMR techniques inmineralogy. The SchlumbergerInterdisciplinary Research Fellow, DrSelvino de Kort, is an experimentalpsychologist working with birds to studymemory development. Dr AlexandraLianeri, the new Moses and Mary FinleyFellow in Ancient History, is examiningthe way in which the political thought ofClassical Greece has been interpreted inmore recent times. Dr Michael Murphyis a cosmologist using observational

data to question the widely assumedconstancy of the force ofelectromagnetism. An historian, Dr GrantTapsell, is analysing political life in theChurch in Late Stuart England. Dr MarkHughes is working in Material Scienceson the properties of polymer-coatednanotubes. The new Microsoft ResearchFellow Dr John Winn will be developinga variational inference technique tomodel the way we see things. Finally wehave the added bonus of not one buttwo Munby Visiting Fellows: DrAlexandra Gillespie has joined us toassess the collection of a 16th centurybibliophile, and Dr Felicity Henderson ischarting a route through 17th centuryCambridge manuscript miscellanies.

Willy Brown (Master)

6

Karen Wynter (nee Newstead 1991-95)had a baby girl, Elizabeth Jane, born on13 December 2003 in Cape Town. Karenwas a past DCSA President.

Darwinian Descendants

Henry H.L. Chan (MPhil 1999-2000)has sent us a link to his monograph‘Cambridge from an Asian Student’sPerspective’ which combinesaffectionate memories of college foodand dons with a serious socio-politicalanalysis of higher education in the UKespecially Cambridge.

Articles on theDarwin website(www.dar.cam.ac.uk/alumni)

Workplace visit.At the Xining Railway Workshops to discussthe social problems arising from privatisation.

The MasterVisits ChinaThe MasterVisits China

Viewing a new frontier from an old frontier. A windy visit to the Great wall after aconference at which representatives ofACAS and the TUC were invited todiscuss the implications of encroachingcapitalism for a communist trade union movement.

Traditional Tibetan greetingA welcome to the high grasslands of theQinhai plateau by the provincial tradeunion chairwoman.

Workplace visit.At the Xining Railway Workshops to discussthe social problems arising from privatisation.

Traditional Tibetan greetingA welcome to the high grasslands of theQinhai plateau by the provincial tradeunion chairwoman.

Viewing a new frontier from an old frontier. A windy visit to the Great wall after aconference at which representatives ofACAS and the TUC were invited todiscuss the implications of encroachingcapitalism for a communist trade union movement.

7

At a glittering ceremony held beneaththe giant blue whale in the Museum ofNatural History in New York, ElizabethH. Blackburn (PhD, 1971-75) receivedthe Bristol-Myers Squibb Award forDistinguished Achievement in CancerResearch. The award recognises hergroundbreaking discoveries withtelomeres – parts of chromosomes thatcritically affect the life span of cells –and the enzyme telomerase thatregulates them. This work, initiatedduring her time at LMB and Darwin, hasopened up important new avenues forcancer research.

Blackburn’s work began in 1978 withher successful DNA sequencing oftelomeres, years before sophisticatedcloning and DNA sequencingtechnologies were fully developed. Herlaboratory went on to better elucidatethe role of telomeres in protectingchromosomes, which carry theinformation needed to produce all thecells in the body. Additional work byBlackburn and her colleagues in the1980s led to the discovery of a newenzyme, telomerase, which regulates theactivities of telomeres, and without whichcells stop dividing. By elucidating thisinformation about cell life and death, anew understanding has developed abouthow such regulation can go awry incancer cells.

Elizabeth has previously been therecipient of numerous honours includingthe American Cancer Society Medal ofHonor and the General Motors CancerResearch Foundation Alfred P. SloanAward. She was named CaliforniaScientist of the Year in 1999.

Darwin student Raeid Jewad(pictured) was accidentally shot byUS troops whilst visiting hishomeland from which he had beenexiled for 23 years. His injuries werenot life-threatening but have causednerve damage. Ironically he waswearing a USA T-shirt when hit.

News

An international conference on 20thcentury Hungarian literature, entitled“Sándor Márai and hisContemporaries” will be held in theOld Library of Darwin College from 18-20th April 2004. This follows the greatsuccess of Márai’s novel Embers.Anyone interested in this conferenceshould contact George Gömöri. Theconference forms part of TheHungarian Cultural Year in Britain(“Magyar Magic. Hungary in Focus2004 – Cambridge”) that waslaunched in Somerset House, Londonon 3rd November 2003. Events of theCultural Year will take place in tencities in the United Kingdom, includingCambridge, where next March-Aprilconcerts, exhibitions and a week ofHungarian Food (at the Pink Geranium)will be organised by Mari Gömöri.

Between November 8-10 2003 theHungarian Academy of Scienceshosted the World Science Forum, aninternational conference of scientistsand scholars. Cambridge wasrepresented by the University’s formerVice-Chancellor Sir Alec Broers andby George Gömöri, Emeritus Fellow ofDarwin College.

Major CancerResearch Prize for Dr Elizabeth Blackburn

John Clarke (centre) prior to receiving his ScD in December. Also pictured (from left) are Professor Sir Brian Pippard and Lady Pippard, Dr Greta Clarke and The Master.

Recentpublications:

Ian Stevenson, Professor ofPsychiatry at the University ofVirginia and a former Visiting Fellowof Darwin College, sent his new

book, European Cases of theReincarnation Type (McFarland andCo.,Jefferson, NC and London) for theCollege library.

8

Forced March a new, extended selectionof the poems of Hungarian poet MiklósRadnóti has recently been published byEnitharmon Press. Radnóti, a Jewish-born Catholic, wrote some of his mostmoving poems in 1944 in a labour campin Bor, Serbia. As the Germansretreated, he and his fellow inmates wereforce-marched back towards Germanythrough Hungary. On November 9, 1944those who were too weak to continue,including Radnóti, were executed by afiring-squad near the village of Alda inWestern Hungary. A year later, when thebodies were exhumed, Radnóti’s wasidentified by a notebook of handwrittenpoems in his raincoat pockets, includedin this present edition. The poems,translated by Cambridge-based poetClive Wilmer and George Gömöri(Emeritus Fellow of Darwin), are, in thewords of poet/critic Dick Davis ‘an

‘[We are] fortunate in having the marvellous translations of Clive Wilmer and GeorgeGömöri, translations which are very fine poems in English, and which in thecompact intensity of their lines can hit the reader like a stab in the heart’

Peter Gilbert, Jewish Quarterly

‘He is one of the very greatest poets of the twentieth century, and Clive Wilmer’sand George Gömöri’s versions are by far the best that exist in English’

Dick Davis

New Edition of Radnóti poetry

The Critics’ View

extraordinary record of a minddetermined to affirm its civilization in theface of overwhelming odds’.

The statue of Miklós Radnóti on thefront cover of Forced March is the workof Imre Varga, Hungarian sculptor, whothis year won the Mason Silver Medal ofthe British Portrait Sculptors Society. Itrepresents the poet resting against afence during the fateful march and isrecognised in Hungary as one of Varga’sbest artistic achievements.

Forced March had its first launch,with readings by the translators in ClareHall, Cambridge on October 28, 2003,followed by one in Oriel College, Oxfordin November, while the London launchtook place on December 1st in theNew End Theatre, Hampstead. Thebook is available from most booksellersor from Enitharmon Press, London,priced £8.95.

In a Restless HourMiklós Radnóti

Windswept heights in the sunshine were my dwelling.Oh homeland, now in a valley you have imprisonedThe broken son you clothe in shadow,No heavenly play of sunlight here to soothe me.

Crags above me, glorious sky in the distance,I must live in the depths with speechless boulders.Must I be dumb too? What would move meNow to poetry? Death? Who is it asks me,

Who calls me to a reckoning for my lifeOr for this poem here, which remains a fragment?Know this: nobody will mourn youOr bury you, nor will the valley cradle

Or the wind scatter you. Yet the high cliff-side –If not today then tomorrow – will echo, singing,What I’ve to speak, which sons and daughtersWill understand, the more as they grow in stature.

10 January 1939

Translated by Clive Wilmer and George Gömöri

Miklós Radnóti 1940

Book ReviewBethany Bettany

By Fred D’Aguiar

This novel is the haunting and evocativestory of a child’s search for her ownidentity. Bethany Bettany lives with herdead father’s family in a rambling housein the town of Boundary in Guyana, acountry increasingly troubled by war.Constantly punished for her absentmother’s sins, Bethany lives a miserableand tortured childhood. But the memoryof her father and the hope of finding hermother inspire her to solve the mysteriesof her existence. Is her mother reallyresponsible for her father’s death? Andwhy does her surname mean so muchto every stranger she meets? Bethany’sunending curiosity and cunning providethe reader with a series of clues whichadd up to a powerful and moving storyof personal and political revolution.D’Aguiar’s clever manipulation ofdifferent voices tells Bethany’s story frommany angles: as well as empathisingwith Bethany herself, the reader is alsoasked to understand the often troublingactions of those around her. Nothing isstraightforward in this novel as thedifferences between right and wrong,good and evil are constantly underminedby D’Aguiar’s provocative narrative. Themessage of this compelling tale seemsto be that conflict can never be resolvedwithout pain or suffering, but that thissame pain can also be the way togreater personal and political freedom.

Hannah Thompson (Research Fellow)

Fred D’Aguiar was the Judith E. Wilson Fellow inDarwin in 1989-90.(London: Chatto & Windus, 2003) ISBN0701173823 HB £15.99

9

CD ReviewSelected songs for cynical scientists,

by Ron Laskey (yes, that Ron Laskey)

This is a highly dangerous product, andnot just for scientists. (What is it withthese scientists that they think they arethe only people to be scooped, stuck ontrains or in airports, or be subject toconference nightmares?) It presents athreat to any academic likely to findthemselves in the vicinity of a lectureroom, a laboratory, a conference, acommittee meeting, a learned journal, arailway station, an airport, or a bicycle.Most of us, therefore, are at risk formost of our waking hours. That said thedanger itself is not of the highest order,at least to those who do not object toattracting strange looks frombystanders. The victim will be prone toassume a silly grin, do a little dance andhum happily, even under the mostadverse circumstances.

This, notwithstanding expectationsthat might be raised by the title, is notTom Lehrer: just as funny but muchgentler and more self-deprecating, and,it must be said, Laskey has anincomparably better voice. The echoesare rather of Flanders and Swann, and ofthe folk singers of the 1960s thuscombining, for those of us who spentmuch of them sitting in smoky barns,nostalgia with targets less distressingthan Vietnam, but more mundanelyfrustrating in day to day life: rail services,air services, and bureaucraticincompetence in general, and all this in aspirit not of bitterness but of hilarity.

While fourteen of the sixteen tracksbring wit and merriment to theexasperations of the day, the remaining

two are different in character. ‘Songs ofinnocence and truth’ is an elegy for thesixties, with their passionate andromantic protests, and the last is abreathtaking (literally) rendition of ‘TheBarley Mow’. As for ‘The joys of singing’:it is indeed a painful tale, but, howeverdelightful this CD is, the world shouldprobably be grateful that it propelled Roninto being a scientist.

Elisabeth Leedham-Green (Fellow)

Selected songs for cynical scientists, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press(ISBN 0–87969–685–0). £13 plus 65p postage,from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Europe,73 Lime Walk, Headington, Oxford OX3 7AD

Former fellow, Patricia Fara’s bookon Newton was featured in our lastissue. Her latest offering tells thestory of Carl Linnaeus and JosephBanks and is published by Iconbooks at £9.99. ISBN 1-84046-488-7

10

Obituaries

Lord Rayne

Lord Rayne is a familiar figure to everymember of Darwin, because of themagnificent portrait of him by GrahamSutherland that dominates the DiningHall. Fewer will know that the reason it isthere is because it was the generosity ofLord Rayne, through the RayneFoundation, that made the building of theHall and of the rest of the original collegebuilding possible. Some of you will haveencountered Lord Rayne when he hasbeen at Foundation Day Dinners, whichhe attended every year until these lastfew years when he was too ill to do so.

Max Rayne was born in London in1918 to a family of poor immigrant Jewsfrom Poland. He served in the RAFduring the 1939-45 War and after thewar returned briefly to the family tailoringbusiness, but he saw possibilities inproperty development at which heshowed prodigious gifts that made him agreat fortune. He believed that themoney he made should be used for thepublic good and his beneficiaries werevery varied. The Sutherland was part ofhis deep love of art, which led to both asplendid personal collection, but also togenerous support of the National Gallery.He was also a generous supporter of thetheatre, opera, ballet and architecture, aswell as many other activities, notably

hospitals, including St Thomas’ and theBurns Unit at East Grinstead. He gavefreely of his time on committees and wasa long-serving Chairman of the Board ofthe National Theatre. He was also agovernor of the Royal Ballet School andplayed an important role in RADA, theYehudi Menuhin School and anextraordinary number of other artisticand charitable ventures. Inacknowledgement of his generosity bothof his time and money, he was raised tothe peerage in 1976. He died October10, 2003 aged 85. We at Darwin haveevery reason to be grateful for hisinterest in and generosity to the College,and we regret his passing.

Sir Arnold Burgen (Former Master)

Professor Jack Jacobs

Readers will be saddened to learn of the death on 13th December 2003 of ProfessorJack Jacobs, Emeritus Professor of Geophysics at the University and a Fellow of theCollege. Professor Jacobs was Vice-Master of Darwin between 1978 and 1983 andretained an active interest long after his retirement and move to Aberystwyth.

ApologyIn our last issue Mark Krupnick’sname was misspelled in hisobituary, and parts of EricHomberger’s obituary in TheGuardian were used beforepermission had been received.We offer our profound apologiesfor these errors. We have beenasked to publicise a fund set upin Mark’s memory, Donationsmay be sent to: Mark KrupnickMemorial Library Fund, 55 E.Washington Ave, Suite 1219,Chicago, IL 60602.

Lord Rayne’s portrait by Graham Sutherland

Lady Ruth Young

Older members will be saddened to hear of the death on 20 September 2003 of LadyYoung, widow of the first Master of the College, Professor Sir Frank Young. In our earlyyears she was a frequent and vivid presence, nearly always dining with Frank, andorganising lunch parties in College. As well as making a great contribution toestablishing Darwin's reputation as a happy place, she had a flurry of medical degreesand was a renowned practitioner in psychiatry in Cambridge.

‘Rowing toLatitude’By Jill Fredston

Humpback whales have learnt a neattrick to concentrate their prey. Theyswim in a deep circle releasing a fineveil of bubbles. This sixty-foot widesilver column frightens the fishtowards the centre. The whale opensits cavernous mouth beneath themand rockets upward emergingthrough the surface like an escalatorexploding from its shaft.

Now imagine that you know thisfact, that you are canoeing throughthe Gulf of Alaska separated from theicy water beneath you by a fewmillimetres of fibreglass, and that yousuddenly notice a perfect circle ofbubbles all around you!

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As part of the Cambridge Core TrafficScheme Silver Street has beenredesigned. In peak periods risingbollards restrict flow to authorisedvehicles such as taxis. At other timesthere is a tidal flow system which onlyallows one-way traffic. The changeshave required a proliferation of uglystreet furniture and have causedunending confusion in their early days.However, there is certainly less noise andwalking through the canyon of SilverStreet is much safer.

Doug was 13 years her senior and musthave exuded a taste of independencethat Jill yearned. ‘He looked the part ofan avalanche expert, with a solid torso,eyes squeezed into a perpetual squint,and a huge beard that gave him the auraof a mountain sage.’ Before too long herealised that this Dartmouth andCambridge-educated New Yorker hadsomething special and years later theyquietly married.

As these excerpts indicate Rowing toLatitude is, at one level, a highly personalautobiography, but its main attraction is asa travelogue of their astonishing annualquest to row yet further around theirbeloved Arctic. It is for this that it has beenacclaimed by fellow travel writers and wasa clear winner of the 2002 NationalOutdoor Book Award. To taste more ofthis remarkable book you must buy yourown copy, but I will leave you with somemore of Jill’s memories of Cambridge.

‘I enjoyed the more than century oldBritish rowing traditions, especially thepleasing barbarism of some of the races.The object of one series was to catchthe boat that started ahead of us andliterally to “bump” it. Our women’s fourwas good. We dodged dead cowsfloating in the narrow river channel andmanaged to beat the less select men’seights.’ Armed with her trophy oar, shesome years later managed to persuadeDoug that rowing was more efficient thanpaddling and now they both face thestern – and hence can see the whalesthat just missed them.

Andrew Prentice

Rowing to Latitude is published by North Point

Press and available in hardcover from Amazon.

ISBN 0-374-28180-7

‘… the whale burst from the waterexactly where our boats had been astroke or two before, right through theripple marks left by our blades. In thetime I took to blink, the whale’s headreversed direction, arcing downward. Itpunctured the water less than two boatlengths behind me and half that distancefrom Doug.’

Doug Fesler was Alaska’s reigningavalanche expert when he reluctantly tookon Jill Fredston as a research assistant in1982 soon after she had finished hermaster’s degree at Darwin and the ScottPolar Institute. Now co-directors of theAlaska Mountain Safety Centre their book‘Snow Sense’ has become one of theseminal manuals on the prediction andavoidance of avalanches.

Avalanches are their winter work. Inthe summer they search for nature, forabsolute freedom and wilderness, and indoing so have rowed an estimated22,000 miles through the Arctic. Thougheach journey takes its toll of their bodiesthey appear to have no intention ofstopping and when done with the Arctichave plans to tackle Tierra del Fuegoand the challenges of the south.

‘Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Alongthe Arctic’s Edge’ lyrically describesthese journeys with an engaging mixtureof grit and realism tempered by passionand romance. Jill and Doug are clearly atough couple but have poetry at theircore. Jill was frustrated by Cambridge.She left England ‘…anxious to tradeconfined waters for open spaces, and toleave manicured greens, black academicgowns, prescribed manners andovercooked brussels sprouts behind.’

Tidal flow hits Silver Street

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Editors:

George Gömöri

Richard Jebb

Andrew Prentice

The editors especially welcomeshort articles, pictures, artwork andnews from our overseas alumni.Correspondence to:darwinian@dar.cam.ac.uk

Designed and printed by Cambridge Printing, the printingbusiness of Cambridge University Press.www.cambridge.org/promotional

Photo credits:

Thanks to Phil Waterson for thepictures of The Malting House andLord Rayne’s portrait.

News of Erik Diaz Bustos, Chile:Dr Erik Diaz Bustos (PhD 1988-1990) returned to his native Chile with the skills helearnt in Cambridge in whole-body indirect calorimetry and stable isotope tracermethods. He now heads the Laboratorio de Metabolismo Energetico at INTA,Universidad de Chile in Santiago. In keeping with his professional interests in obesity,energy balance and healthy body weight, Erik maintains a high level of fitness withregular half-marathons and as much time as possible mountaineering in his belovedAndes. The picture shows him with his sons, Erik (Jr) and Andy, on their latest “cumbre”in which they reached the top of El Plomo (5700m). Aconcagua is the goal for 2004.

George Okello Abungu (PhD 1985-1990) writes from Kenya:In the political chaos in the run-up to last year’s general election, the then Presidentterminated my contract as Director General of the national Museums (allegedly forbeing too close to the opposition … now the ruling party!). I am now working freelance,in addition to continuing my various committee roles which include: Chairman of theGoverning Council of the Kenya Cultural Centre; President of the International StandingConference on Illicit Antiquities (the Cambridge Resolution); commissioner on the KenyaCommission for Higher Education; Chairman of the International Council of MuseumsCommittee on Finances and Resources; as well as miscellaneous work with theUNESCO World Heritage Centre etc.

From the Emails

Mrs Frances HeepsretiresMany alumni will have had cause to begrateful to Frances Heeps who hasretired after 20 years at Darwin.Frances started as DomesticSupervisor and then masterminded theAccommodations Office. We areextremely grateful for the calm way inwhich she coped each year with thenightmare of new arrivals when thequestion of just who will arrive seemsalways to be in the lap of the gods.Thank you, Frances, and enjoy yourwell-earned retirement.

DCS Calendar 20046th March Former Fellow’s Buffet

Lunch12th March Darwin Society Dinner14th May Darwin Society Dinner4th June Guest Night and Former

Fellow’s Reunion18th June Darwin Event/Ball9th July Old Darwinians’ Garden

Party (invitation enclosed)

Further details of OD events obtainable from DCS secretary<andrew.prentice@lshtm.ac.uk> and ofFormer Fellows’ events from the Master’ssecretary <jmg39@cam.ac.uk>. Updateson the summer event can be found on thecollege website <www.dar.cam.ac.uk>.