Both COVID-19 and climate change have exposed the human society to global, systemic and complex crises that are disrupting all aspects of our life, prompting us to carry out relevant scientific research, take effective actions to mitigate and respond to the disturbances as well as the serious impacts on vulnerable groups. As COVID-19 was wreaking havoc around the globe, greenhouse gas emissions experienced a significant drop, revealing an opportunity for us to fix such intricate system - increasing our resilience to both the pandemic and climate change, which could only be achieved with green recovery measures…
In the article on "Early History of the Hong Kong Observatory" published in the July 2021 issue of the HKLF Newsletter, we introduced the history of the Observatory from the time around the establishment of the Observatory to World War II. We now introduce the history and development of the Observatory since World War II…
Since 1841, Hong Kong became an important port of trade. In order to ensure smooth port operations and safe navigation of ships, there was a need to provide accurate time service…
In the previous issue, we learned that to meet the needs of ocean navigation, the British invented the marine chronometer to help captains accurately ascertain the longitude of the ship to ensure safe navigation. In spite of the high accuracy of the marine chronometers, they needed to be calibrated regularly, and this came to depend on a time service provided by major ports...
Since the early development in the 19th century, shipping has been the lifeblood of Hong Kong’s economy. To ensure smooth port operations and the safe navigation of ships, an accurate time service, meteorological observations and geomagnetic observations had to be provided...
Since ancient time, human’s livelihood is tightly related to weather. Farmer’s harvest depends on weather. As early as in the Shang Dynasty (13th century BC), there were written records of weather observations and weather predictions on oracle bone inscriptions…
Globalisation is a major trend in world development. With the popularisation of the Internet, communication technology has developed rapidly and encouraged spread of knowledge and exchange of ideas. Knowledge and scientific research are also going globalised. From basic scientific research to the development of innovative technology, there are rapid proliferation of cross-region and cross-discipline collaboration...
Prof Sir Fraser Stoddart, the Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry at the Northwestern University, United States of America, visited Hong Kong in November 2019...