45-466: Sir James Hopwood Jeans OM FRS (11 September 1877 – 16 September 1946) was an English physicist , astronomer and mathematician . Born in Ormskirk , Lancashire , the son of William Tulloch Jeans , a parliamentary correspondent and author. Jeans was educated at Merchant Taylors' School , Wilson's Grammar School , Camberwell and Trinity College, Cambridge . As a gifted student, Jeans
90-465: A birthday present for his wife, he wrote the book Science and Music . Jeans died in 1947 with the presence of his wife and Joy Adamson , who suggested to the widow to create a death mask of Jeans. It is now held by the Royal Society . One of Jeans' major discoveries, named Jeans length , is a critical radius of an interstellar cloud in space. It depends on the temperature, and density of
135-746: A brain-cell in a universal mind ." In his 1934 address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Aberdeen as the Association's president, Jeans spoke specifically to the work of Descartes and its relevance to the modern philosophy of science. He argued that, "There is no longer room for the kind of dualism which has haunted philosophy since the days of Descartes." When Daniel Helsing reviewed The Mysterious Universe for Physics Today in 2020, he summarized
180-485: A cloud must attain before being able to collapse. Jeans also helped to discover the Rayleigh–Jeans law , which relates the energy density of black-body radiation to the temperature of the emission source. Jeans is also credited with calculating the rate of atmospheric escape from a planet due to kinetic energy of the gas molecules, a process known as Jeans escape . Jeans espoused a philosophy of science rooted in
225-615: A large number of Whigs, so that from 1727 the university largely returned Whig representatives. At Oxford , the King did not enjoy the same prerogative power, so that the University of Oxford constituency remained Tory, and indeed often Jacobite , in its preferences. The leading 18th-century Whig politician Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle , was Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1748 to 1768 and recommended to
270-740: A neck ribbon (as a necklet ), while women wear theirs on a ribbon bow pinned to the left shoulder, and aides-de-camp may wear the insignia on their aiguillettes . Since 1991, the insignia must be returned upon the recipient's death. number appointment There have been no honorary members of the Order of Merit since the death of the last such member, Nelson Mandela , in December 2013. Secretary and Registrar : Robin Janvrin, Baron Janvrin GCB , GCVO , QSO , PC As
315-440: A professor of applied mathematics. He returned to Cambridge in 1910. He made important contributions in many areas of physics, including quantum theory , the theory of radiation and stellar evolution . His analysis of rotating bodies led him to conclude that Pierre-Simon Laplace 's theory that the solar system formed from a single cloud of gas was incorrect, proposing instead that the planets condensed from material drawn out of
360-576: Is restricted to a maximum of 24 living recipients from the Commonwealth realms, plus honorary members. While all members are awarded the right to use the post-nominal letters OM and wear the badge of the order, the Order of Merit's precedence among other honours differs between countries. In around 1773, George III considered establishing an order of knighthood to be called the "Order of Minerva " with membership restricted to 24 distinguished artists and authors. Knights would be entitled to
405-400: Is that the centers of the nebulae are of the nature 'singular points' at which matter is poured into our universe from some other, and entirely extraneous spatial dimension, so that, to a denizen of our universe, they appear as points at which matter is being continually created." This theory fell out of favour when the 1965 discovery of the cosmic microwave background was widely interpreted as
450-631: The Dominions of the British Empire became independent countries within the empire, equal in status to the UK, the Order of Merit continued as an honour open to all these realms and, in many, became a part of their newly developing national honours systems. The order's statutes were amended in 1935 to include members of the Royal Air Force and, in 1969, the definition of honorary recipients
495-562: The Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia , stated that the Order of Merit was the highest civilian award for merit a Canadian could receive. Some orders of precedence are as follows: Order of wear Cambridge University (UK Parliament constituency) Cambridge University was a university constituency electing two members to the British House of Commons , from 1603 to 1950. This university constituency
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#1732772395724540-529: The Parliament of the United Kingdom . Notes:- 1710s – 1720s – 1730s – 1740s – 1750s – 1760s – 1770s – 1780s – 1790s – 1800s – 1810s – 1820s – 1830s – 1840s – 1850s – 1860s – 1870s – 1880s – 1890s – 1900s – 1910s Walpole's resignation caused a by-election. Raikes was appointed Postmaster General , requiring a by-election. Beresford-Hope's death caused
585-539: The Royal Academy of Arts , advised against the new order, primarily because of its selection process. It was Victoria's son Edward VII who eventually founded the Order of Merit on 26 June 1902 (the date for which his coronation had been originally scheduled ) as a means to acknowledge "exceptionally meritorious service in Our Navy and Our Army, or who may have rendered exceptionally meritorious service towards
630-641: The 1754–1790 period, Namier and Brooke estimated the electorate at about 500. The constituency returned two Members of Parliament . Before 1918 they were elected by plurality-at-large voting , but from 1918 onwards the two members were elected by the Single Transferable Vote method. In the early 18th century, the electors of both English universities were mostly Tories, but the Whig ministers of King George I were able to persuade him to use his royal prerogative to confer Cambridge doctorates on
675-726: The Admiralty Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham and William Pitt exchanged correspondence concerning the possible creation of an order of merit, though nothing came of the idea. Later, Queen Victoria , her courtiers , and politicians alike, thought that a new order, based on the Prussian order Pour le Mérite , would make up for the insufficient recognition offered by the established honours system to achievement outside public service, in fields such as art, music, literature, industry and science. Victoria's husband, Albert, Prince Consort , took an interest in
720-463: The Order of Merit The Order of Merit (French: Ordre du Mérite ) is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms , recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by Edward VII , admission into the order remains the personal gift of its Sovereign—currently Edward VII's great-great-grandson Charles III —and
765-528: The Order of Merit is open to the citizens of 15 countries, each with their own system of orders, decorations, and medals, the order's place of precedence varies from country to country. While, in the United Kingdom, the order's postnominal letters follow those of Knights and Dames Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath , membership in the Order of Merit itself gives members no place in any of the orders of precedence in
810-425: The Order of Merit, members are entitled to use the post-nominal letters OM and are entrusted with the badge of the order. The insignia consists of a badge, which consists of a golden crown from which is suspended a red enamelled cross pattée , itself centred by a disk of blue enamel, surrounded by a laurel wreath . The obverse of the badge's central disk bears the words FOR MERIT in gold lettering, while
855-514: The Order, having been admitted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1968, when he was 47 years old. Robin Eames , Baron Eames represented the order at the coronation of Charles III and Camilla on 6 May 2023. All citizens of the Commonwealth realms are eligible for appointment to the Order of Merit. There may be, however, only 24 living individuals in the order at any given time, not including honorary appointees, and new members are personally selected by
900-502: The Tory ranks, but in 1831 he was defeated. After Palmerston ceased to represent the university he was elected by a territorial constituency. From then until the 1920s, all of the university's members were Tories and/or Conservatives. Even after the introduction of the single transferable vote in 1918, most of the members continued to be elected as Conservatives. This is a list of people who have been elected to represent this university in
945-516: The United Kingdom . However, Stanley Martin says in his book The Order of Merit 1902–2002: One Hundred Years of Matchless Honour , that the Order of Merit is the pinnacle of the British honours system. Similarly, though it was not listed in the Canadian order of precedence for honours, decorations, and medals until December 2010, Christopher McCreery, an expert on Canadian honours and secretary to
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#1732772395724990-564: The advancement of Art, Literature and Science". All modern aspects of the order were established under his direction, including the division for military figures. From the outset, prime ministers attempted to propose candidates or lobbied to influence the monarch's decision on appointments. But, the Royal Household adamantly guarded information about potential names. After 1931, when the Statute of Westminster came into effect and
1035-458: The appearance of this political development, some of the Pittite members, including the younger William Pitt himself, one of the members for the university from 1784 to 1806, described themselves as Whigs. As time passed, the division between the 19th century Tory and Whig parties became clearer. The future Prime Minister, Viscount Palmerston , retained his university seat as a Whig after he left
1080-598: The book Physics and Philosophy (1943) where he explores the different views on reality from two different perspectives: science and philosophy. On his religious views, Jeans was an agnostic Freemason . Jeans married twice, first to the American poet Charlotte Tiffany Mitchell in 1907, who died, and then to the Austrian organist and harpsichordist Suzanne Hock (better known as Susi Jeans ) in 1935. Susi and Jeans had three children: George, Christopher, and Catherine. As
1125-503: The by then long-widowed Queen a draft constitution for an Order of Merit in Science and Art, consisting of one grade split into two branches of knighthood: the Order of Scientific Merit, for Knights of Merit in Science, with the post-nominal letters KMS , and the Order of Artistic Merit, for Knights of Merit in Art, with the post-nominal letters KMA . However, Frederic Leighton , President of
1170-414: The cloud, and the mass of the particles composing the cloud. A cloud that is smaller than its Jeans length will not have sufficient gravity to overcome the repulsive gas pressure forces and condense to form a star, whereas a cloud that is larger than its Jeans length will collapse. Jeans came up with another version of this equation, called Jeans mass or Jeans instability , that solves for the critical mass
1215-541: The electors suitable candidates to represent them in Parliament. This practice continued under his successor, another Whig Duke and Prime Minister, Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton , Chancellor of the university from 1768 to 1811. However, Grafton was less influential as a politician than Newcastle had been and also less attentive towards the university, and as a result some of his nominations came in for criticism, notably that of his friend Richard Croftes . Croftes
1260-414: The last person so honoured. Honorary members form another group, to which there is no numerical limit, though such appointments are rare; individuals from countries in the Commonwealth of Nations that are not headed by King Charles are therefore considered foreigners, and thus are granted only honorary admissions, such as Nelson Mandela (South Africa) and Mother Teresa (India). Upon admission into
1305-475: The matter; it was recorded in his diary that he met Sir Robert Peel on 16 January 1844 to discuss the "idea of institution of a civil Order of Merit" and, three days later, he conferred with the Queen on the subject. Though nothing came of the idea at the time, the concept did not wither and, more than 40 years later, on 5 January 1888, Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury submitted to
1350-420: The metaphysical doctrine of idealism and opposed to materialism in his speaking engagements and books. His popular science publications first advanced these ideas in 1929's The Universe Around Us when he likened "discussing the creation of the universe in terms of time and space," to, "trying to discover the artist and the action of painting, by going to the edge of the canvas." But he turned to this idea as
1395-568: The most famous private coach of the period ... At the end of his first year, [Jeans] told Walker that he had quarrelled with Webb, his coach. Walker accordingly took Jeans himself, and the result was a triumph: ... Jeans was bracketed second wrangler with J. F. Cameron ... [and] R.W.H.T. Hudson was Senior Wrangler and G. H. Hardy fourth wrangler. Jeans was elected Fellow of Trinity College in October 1901, and taught at Cambridge, but went to Princeton University in 1904 as
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1440-504: The new order grew so heated that George ultimately dropped the idea, though he briefly reconsidered it in 1789; on 6 February of that year, he revised the design of the order, with the breast star to have sixteen points, the motto to be the Latin for "Learning improves character" and with membership to include distinguished scientists. Following the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, First Lord of
1485-659: The philosophical conclusions of the book, "Jeans argues that we must give up science’s long-cherished materialistic and mechanical worldview, which posits that nature operates like a machine and consists solely of material particles interacting with each other." His evaluation of Jeans contrasted these philosophical views with modern science communicators such as Neil deGrasse Tyson and Sean Carroll who he suggested, "would likely take issue with Jeans’s idealism." The Astronmical Horizon https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000NIS57O?ref=myi_title_dp- The Philip Maurice Deneke Lecture 1944 - Published Oxford University Press 1945 Member of
1530-494: The post-nominal letters KM , and would wear a silver nine-pointed breast star with the image of Minerva at its centre, along with a "straw-coloured" sash worn across the chest from the right shoulder. The motto of the Order would be "Omnia posthabita scientiae" (in Latin , 'Everything comes after science'). Once the King's proposal was made public, however, arguments within intellectual circles over who would be most deserving of
1575-418: The primary subject of his best-selling 1930 book, The Mysterious Universe , where he asserted that a picture of the universe as a "non-mechanical reality" was emerging from the science of the day. The Universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter... we ought rather hail it as the creator and governor of
1620-461: The realm of matter. In a 1931 interview published in The Observer , Jeans was asked if he believed that life was an accident or if it was, "part of some great scheme." He said that he favored, "the idealistic theory that consciousness is fundamental, and that the material universe is derivative from consciousness," going on to suggest that, "each individual consciousness ought to be compared to
1665-447: The reigning monarch of the realms, currently Charles III , with the assistance of his private secretaries; the order has thus been described as "quite possibly, the most prestigious honour one can receive on planet Earth." Within the limited membership is a designated military division, with its own unique insignia; though it has not been abolished, it is currently unpopulated, Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma having been
1710-414: The reverse bears the royal cypher of the reigning monarch in gold. The insignia for the military grouping is distinguished by a pair of crossed swords behind the central disk. The ribbon of the Order of Merit is divided into two stripes of red and blue. The neck ribbon is 50mm in width, while the ribbon bar width is the standard British 32mm size for military or civilian wear. Men wear their badges on
1755-627: The revolutionary scientific discoveries of his day, especially in relativity and physical cosmology . In 1939, the Journal of the British Astronomical Association reported that Jeans was going to stand as a candidate for parliament for the Cambridge University constituency . The election, expected to take place in 1939 or 1940, did not take place until 1945, and without his involvement. He also wrote
1800-452: The sun by a hypothetical catastrophic near-collision with a passing star. This theory is not accepted today. Jeans, along with Arthur Eddington , is a founder of British cosmology . In 1928, Jeans was the first to conjecture a steady state cosmology based on a hypothesized continuous creation of matter in the universe. In his book Astronomy and Cosmogony (1928) he stated: "The type of conjecture which presents itself, somewhat insistently,
1845-666: The tell-tale signature of the Big Bang . His scientific reputation is grounded in the monographs The Dynamical Theory of Gases (1904), Theoretical Mechanics (1906), and Mathematical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism (1908). After retiring in 1929, he wrote a number of books for the lay public, including The Stars in Their Courses (1931), The Universe Around Us , Through Space and Time (1934), The New Background of Science (1933), and The Mysterious Universe . These books made Jeans fairly well known as an expositor of
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1890-679: Was counselled to take an aggressive approach to the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos competition: Early in the Michaelmas term of 1896, Walker sent for Jeans and Hardy and advised them to take Part I of the Mathematical Tripos in two years. He told them that he could not guarantee that they would come out higher than fifteenth in the list of wranglers , but he understood that they would never regret it. They accepted his advice, and went to R. R. Webb ,
1935-523: Was created by a Royal Charter of 1603. It was abolished in 1950 by the Representation of the People Act 1948 . The constituency was not a geographical area. Its electorate consisted of the graduates of the University of Cambridge . Before 1918 the franchise was restricted to male graduates with a Doctorate or Master of Arts degree. Sedgwick records that there were 377 electors in 1727. For
1980-429: Was expanded to include members of the Commonwealth of Nations that are not realms. The order has always been open to women, Florence Nightingale being the first woman to receive the honour, in 1907. Several individuals have refused admission into the Order of Merit, including Rudyard Kipling , A. E. Housman , and George Bernard Shaw . Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh , remains the youngest person ever inducted into
2025-688: Was far from typical of a university member of parliament: he was neither the son of a peer, like the Hon. John Townshend, the Marquess of Granby, and Grafton's own son the Earl of Euston, nor a distinguished lawyer-politician, such as William de Grey, James Mansfield, and Sir Vicary Gibbs , nor a prominent political figure like William Pitt the Younger and Lord Henry Petty . In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Pittite and Tory candidates began to be elected. At
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