Pre-Raphaelitism, science and the arts in 'The Germ'

This article demonstrates for the first time how dense the references to science are within the Pre-Raphaelite periodical 'The Germ' (1850). By reading the essays from this magazine together, as they were first published, it is possible to see how thoroughly the Pre-Raphaelites theorised their artistic project in terms of a particular mid-Victorian ideal of science. At the same time, the magazine became a forum in which the question of how far the arts ought to take account of science could be debated. In this debate, the competing visions of Pre-Raphaelitism discussed in Holman Hunt’s later accounts of the movement can be seen emerging at a very early stage in its history.

Genomic evidence for the Pleistocene and recent population history of Native Americans

How and when the Americas were populated remains contentious. Using ancient and modern genome-wide data, we found that the ancestors of all present-day Native Americans, including Athabascans and Amerindians, entered the Americas as a single migration wave from Siberia no earlier than 23 thousand years ago (ka) and after no more than an 8000-year isolation period in Beringia. After their arrival to the Americas, ancestral Native Americans diversified into two basal genetic branches around 13 ka, one that is now dispersed across North and South America and the other restricted to North America. Subsequent gene flow resulted in some Native Americans sharing ancestry with present-day East Asians (including Siberians) and, more distantly, Australo-Melanesians. Putative “Paleoamerican” relict populations, including the historical Mexican Pericúes and South American Fuego-Patagonians, are not directly related to modern Australo-Melanesians as suggested by the Paleoamerican Model.

Type specimens of G.E. Post in Beirut and The Natural History Museum, London

The Flora of Syria, Palestine and Sinai, a pioneer Flora of the region, was published in 1896 by George Edward Post (1838–1909). Lesser known are his series of Diagnoses plantarum novarum orientalium, published in the Journal of the Linnean Society Botany, and 10 papers, Plantae Postianae, which appeared in Swiss journals from 1890 to 1900. A greatly expanded second edition of the Flora was prepared by John Edward Dinsmore and published in Beirut in 1932 and 1933. Post's plant collection is part of the Post Herbarium (BEI), with about 63 000 specimens, that has been well maintained, despite civil war and inadequate staffing. This work involves the identification of around 150 types in BEI and BM, and improvement of the accessibility of the specimens. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 159, 315–321.