Heath Robinson

Heath Robinson device W. Heath Robinson (1872-1944) was an English humorous artist. A Heath Robinson device is the English term for a complex instrument that looks as if it had been designed by a committee. A Heath Robinson device usually works well but may be held together by chewing gum and string. In the context of state-of-the art flow cytometry, this term requires no further explanation. See also Rube Goldberg device. 

Rube Goldberg device Reuben Lucius Goldberg (1883-1970) was an American humorous artist. A Rube Goldberg device is the American synonym for a Heath Robinson (see above) device. Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Robinson may or may not have known each other, but surely would have enjoyed each other s company. 

Insofar as beauty is derived from that which surrounds us, the mechanical bond cannot be ignored. It is applied and admired in society, art, and nature alike, and its beauty is held as both an ancient and modem sentiment. The development of modem tools and machinery, many of which we consider beautiful today (think of a sporty car or a delicate Rube Goldberg or Heath Robinson machine) could not have been accomplished without the mechanical bond. Likewise, interlocked rings can be found in thousands of works of art dating through antiquity. Perhaps most surprising to the casual reader will be the predominance of mesoscopic mechanical interlockings in Nature, even within the cells of our own bodies. 

Robinson, Heath M., Ozokerite in Central Utah, U.S. Geol. Surv. Bull. 

Harrison, G.B., Heath, D.D., Dempster, R.P., Gauci, C., Newton, S.E., Cameron, W.G., Robinson, C.M., Lawrence, S.B., Lightowlers, M.W. and Rickard, M.D. (1996) Identification and cDNA cloning of two novel low molecular weight host-protective antigens from Taenia ovis oncospheres. International journal for Parasitology 26, 1 95-204. 

Ever since the discovery, by Ledbetter and Porter,88 of microtubules below the surface of the plasma membrane, suggestions have been made that these structures play some role in microfibril orientation. The suggestion arose because of two observations that (I) the orientation of microtubules has very frequently, but not always, been observed to be parallel to the orientation of the microfibrils most recently synthesized, and (2) agents, such as colchicine, that disrupt microtubules interfere with the orientation, but not the synthesis, of cellulose microfibrils. The literature pertaining to these studies has been well reviewed by Robinson,4 Schnepf and coworkers,89 Hepler and Palevitz,90 and Heath.91 In sum, the present evidence seems to favor some role for microtubules in orientation in some cases, such as the studies on guard cells by Palevitz and Hepler,92 and a series of papers on Oocystis by Robinson and coworkers,84,93-95 the case for micro-... 

Preiss, J., Robinson, N., Spilatro, S., and McNamara, K. 1985. Starch Synthesis and Its Regulation. In Regulation of Carbon Partitioning in Photosynthetic Tissue (R. L. Heath and J. Preiss, eds.), pp. 1-26. American Society of Plant Physiologists, Rockville, MD. 

Henry F. Holtzclaw, Jr, William R. Robinson, and Jerone D. Odom, General Chemistry, 9th ed., p. 545, Heath, Lexington, MA, 1991. 

Robinson, R.C., Grey, L.M., Staunton, D., Vankelecom, H., Vernallis, A.B., Moreau, J.-F., Stuart, D.I., Heath, J.K, and Jones, E.Y. (1994) The crystal structure and biological function of leukemia inhibitory factor implications for receptor binding. Cell 77 1101-1116. 

Nebergall, W., Holtzclaw, H., Robinson, W. (1968a). College chemistry (6th ed.). Lexington, MA Heath. 

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