University Maintains Scientific Stations All Over The World, From South Africa to Cuba

From Massachusetts to California, from Soledad to South Africa, Harvard scientists maintain their science stations, studying everything from earthquakes to bryophites.

The Soledad station is the Atkins Institution, a branch of the Arnold Arboretum. This station provides opportunity for botanical and zoological research, most of which is carried on in collaboration with the tropical stations of other colleges. Special emphasis is placed on the study of economic plants, with one hundred acres of the Institutions devoted solely to these. This station has had influence on the economic destiny of Cuba, for the study of sugar cane has enabled the Cubans to produce a better grade of sugar cane and to maintain its place at the head of the sugar industry.

In South Africa, the Harvard Observatory maintains the Boyden Station, located near Bolemfontein. This supplements the work of the two Massachusetts stations in the north, and makes complete for the whole sky the various researches of the Observatory.

Among the most interesting of the other Harvard stations is the Seismograph Station near the town of Harvard Earthquakes from all parts of the globe are recorded here on the delicate machinery of the station. Records of the vibrations are sent to all seismograph stations, and, in collaboration with these stations, valuable scientific data is obtained.

Most recent of the science stations is the Observatory at Mount Wilson, California, maintained by the Department of Astronomy. Among the other stations are the Foraminiferal Laboratory in Sharon, the Blue Hill Meterological Observatory, the Marine Biological Laboratory, the Bermuda Biological Station and the Biological Station of Bamo Colorda Island.