ADU travels, expeditions and events

Photo L.G. Underhill		After the Sardinian oil pollution conference in October 2002, I spent a couple of days in Göttingen, visiting my ex-colleague Professor Walter Zucchini, who had been headhunted to lead the Institute of Statistics at the Friedrich Augustus University. Walter had been Professor of Statistics in the Department of Statistical Sciences at UCT until 1993, when he moved to Göttingen. We had written several papers together, of which the most memorable is probably Underhill LG, Zucchini W 1988. A model for avian primary moult. Ibis 130: 358-372. This still holds the record for the most mathematical formulae published in a paper in the ornithological journal Ibis. Sadly, 14 years on, we have still not provided the world with efficient and user-friendly software for doing the horrendous calculations involved in applying this method. Hopefully, we will soon have some code in the high-level language R that will supply this need.
Photo L.G. Underhill		Walter took me to see the graves of some important scientists who had worked in Göttingen. The first of these was Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855), who is credited with the invention the "Normal distribution", sometimes also known as the "Gaussian distribution". This is the familiar bell-shaped distribution which is much-beloved by statisticians. (Actually, the "Normal distribution" was invented nearly a century before Gauss by Abraham de Moivre (1667-1754). But de Moivre published his findings in what today would be known as "grey literature", so it was quickly forgotten!)
Photo L.G. Underhill		Gauss is so famous that he also has a statue. He is (I think!) the one on the left
Photo L.G. Underhill		Buried alongside Gauss is Johann Friedrich Gmelin (1748-1804). Gmelin was in the same business as Linnaeus, setting up the modern system of scientific names which remains in use today. A quick check through the southern African bird list indicates that he was the first to describe and provide the scientific names for about 45 species occurring in this region. The following list is based a quick search through the 1980 Southern African checklist by PA Clancey: Yellownosed Albatross, Southern Giant Petrel, Antarctic Petrel, Blue Petrel, Antarctic Prion, Grey Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater, Pinkbacked Pelican, Reed Cormorant, Greater Frigate Bird, Mute Swan, South African Shelduck, Cape Teal, Redbilled Teal, Hamerkop, Palmnut Vulture, Booted Eagle, Pallid Harrier, Cape Francolin, Wattled Crane, African Rail, Redknobbed Coot, African Jacana, Lesser Golden Plover, Gullbilled Tern, Antarctic Tern, Namaqua Sandgrouse, Cape Parrot, Black Coucal, Speckled Mousebird, Ground Woodpecker, Redcapped Lark, Mascarene Martin, Southern Grey Tit, Capped Wheatear, Chorister Robin, Grassbird, Tawnyflanked Prinia, Lesser Grey Shrike, Southern Boubou, Tropical Boubou, Pied Starling, Golden Bishop, Yellowbacked Widow and Goldenbacked Pytilia. Not a bad list, and an impressive link with the University of Göttingen. My guess is that describing the Hamerkop must have been a highlight for Gmelin. With the benefit of hindsight, we can observe that Gmelin made one gaffe; he thought that the specimen of Chorister Robin on which he based the description of the species was a flycatcher of the genus Musicapa (Dusky Flycatcher and Spotted Flycatcher belong to this genus). He was human
Deutsche Bahn AG		I spent about R2000 on train fares from Amsterdam to Göttingen, then on to Jena and finally back to Amsterdam. With a total of 16 hours in trains, that works out at R125 per hour. So I hope that the Deutsche Bahn AG won't mind seeing the brilliant back cover of their October 2002 magazine Mobil "Ihr persönliches Examplar zum Mitnehmen!" here. For those whose German is weak, the banners of the penguins demonstrating outside the railway station are saying: "Climate protection is species protection", "Less carbon dioxide for more ice", and "Travel more by train and bus"

I am grateful to Professor Walter Zucchini and Laura Zucchini for their superb hospitality in Gottingen, and to Barbara Helm and Dr Matthias Starck for providing with accommodation in Jena. Dr Hans-Ulrich Peter of the Institute of Ecology was an excellent host.

Les Underhill
27 October 2002