Professor Stephen Salter, MBE, FRSE
The Edinburgh Reporter is sad to hear that Professor Stephen Salter, MBE, FRSE, has died.
Salter who was emeritus professor of the University of Edinburgh fought all his life to develop new ways of dealing with climate change.
He has four inventions in the National Museum of Scotland, notably the Salter’s Duck which is a rotor from an experimental model of a wave machine, and three objects all on loan from the National Mining Museum Scotland – a balsa wood duck model made in 1974, a wide tank duck model and a duck-type wave maker paddle.
His influence at the University of Edinburgh led to the wave tank being built there.
More recently he turned his masterful mind to dealing with the effects of climate change with marine cloud brightening. He was frustrated by the lack of support to make his idea come true, but kept working on the project which involves building unmanned ships powered by Flettner rotors to ‘patrol’ the oceans spraying sea water into the air above the sea surface.
The result would be to make the clouds whiter and so more reflective, sending the sun’s energy back to space. This will have the effect of cooling the earth or sea beneath, and might lead to complete reversal of the melting polar ice caps and other aspects of global warming.
Stephen said during our 2019 interview: “The end result would be that we would be going back to the climate that we had in pre-industrial times. We could moderate hurricanes making them less aggressive, save the coral in the Barrier Reef, stop sea levels rising and stop losing the Arctic ice. That is probably the most important thing to do in the short term because if we lose the ice we warm up the seabed and we warm up the permafrost around the Arctic. That releases methane which is a very much nastier greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. We could get a very unpleasant positive feedback where warmer seas make more methane and more methane makes warmer seas. That could be very dangerous indeed.”
Even more recently Stephen bought and set up a workshop where young engineers could literally get their hands dirty creating things which was something he felt was lacking from their education. He no longer had access to his workshop at King’s Buildings where he had taught so many students over a long career.
Professor Salter was one half of an outstanding academic duo with his late wife Professor Margaret Donaldson who died during the pandemic, and who wrote the text book, Children’s Minds, which is a seminal work in her chosen field of developmental psychology.
She made history as the first married woman professor, and theirs was a long marriage of 47 years, peppered by sparky conversations and discussion on a wide range of subjects, with each supporting the other to the hilt.
Cyclists public meeting
On Thursday evening Spokes the cycling campaign group are holding a public meeting about Edinburgh’s Future Streets and the place of cycling.
The speakers will include Cllr Scott Arthur, Transport Convener, who will talk about the Future Streets policy, journalist Laura Laker who writes about cycling, transport and environmental matters, and there will be a Q&A chaired by Ewen Maclean who organises Blackford Safe Routes. There is a possibility that the event may be livestreamed on YouTube.
The event will be held at Augustine United Church 41 George IV Bridge EH1 1EL at 7.30 until 9.30pm. Doors open at 6.45 pm for coffee. Questions fror the speakers may be emailed to spokes@spokes.org.uk
The hashtag will be #SpokesMtg
If you plan to go then you might have a bit of homework to do first of all to keep up with what will undoubtedly be a lively discussion.
Read Spokes outline of what may be discussed here.
Pianodrome is Pianosharing
On Saturday 2 March there will be a Pianosharing session at The Pianodrome Warehouse at 28 West Harbour Road Granton EH5 1PN.
The monthly session is a chance for anyone to perform a piece even if it is not performance ready.It is a good way of meeting other pianists and get a chance to play on the performance grand.
The session begins at 4pm and all experience levels are welcome.
Edinburgh Science Festival – Shaping the Future
Edinburgh Science Festival begins on 30 March and runs during the Easter school holidays until 14 April.
The 35th anniversary event will return to the City Art Centre where there will be five floors of science to choose from for all ages and tickets are on sale now.
In addition the Festival will include events, talk, workshops and exhibitions taking place at the National Museum of Scotland, Dynamic Earth, The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh Zoo, Summerhall, Bayes Centre and many others, with new additions of Panmure House, Mary’s King Close and The Biscuit Factory.
Our February issue
Our March issue will be available very soon. We are excitedly waiting for the papers to arrive in the capital.
The February edition has more on Stephen Rafferty’s exclusive story about Chief Constable Jo Farrell revealed in our centre spread and our new columnist Liam Rudden will entertain you with news of all the theatre you must see.
We are pleased with this month’s issue, and really pleased to be nominated for an award for our newspaper which will be announced in March. And if you wish to buy a copy and have it delivered to your home or business then please subscribe here.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
