William Albert Hugh Rushton FRS (8 December 1901 – 21 June 1980) was professor of

Physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

. His main interest lay in

colour vision Color vision, a feature of visual perception, is an ability to perceive differences between light composed of different frequencies independently of light intensity. Color perception is a part of the larger visual system and is mediated by a co ...

and his

Principle of Univariance The principle of univariance is how one can discriminate between wavelengths through comparison of multiple photoreceptors. The principle states that one and the same visual receptor cell can be excited by different combinations of wavelength and ...

is of seminal importance in the study of

perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous syste ...

Education

Rushton was educated at

Gresham's School Gresham's School is a private school (English fee-charging boarding and day school) in Holt, Norfolk, England, one of the top thirty International Baccalaureate schools in England. The school was founded in 1555 by Sir John Gresham as a f ...

, Holt, and the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. A student at Pembroke College, he later held a fellowship at Emmanuel before obtaining a fellowship at Trinity. He was a keen musician, playing violin and viola, and later bassoon; he also composed a few pieces, and had some instruction from Gustav Holst. In 1930 he married Marjorie Kendrick, an oboist; their house was accordingly called 'Shawms'.

Principle of Univariance

In his lecture "Pigments and signals in colour vision" he stated it thus: ''"The output of a receptor depends upon its quantum catch, but not upon what quanta are caught."'' This means that one and the same visual receptor cell can be excited by different combinations of wavelength and intensity, so that the brain can not know the colour of that point of the retinal picture.

Psychical research

Rushton held an interest in

parapsychology Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, teleportation, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry (paranormal), psychometry) and other paranormal cla ...

. From 1969 to 1971 he was the President of the

Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to condu ...

. He was known for suggesting natural explanations for alleged paranormal phenomena. He revealed how the device of

Ted Serios Theodore Judd Serios (November 27, 1918 – December 30, 2006) was a Chicago bellhop known for his production of " thoughtographs" on Polaroid film. He claimed these were produced using psychic powers. Serios's psychic claims were bolstered by t ...

known as a "gizmo" could have been utilized to produce fraudulent psychic photographs. He suggested that it was light that formed the photographs from a luminous picture placed in front of the

camera lens A camera lens, photographic lens or photographic objective is an optical lens (optics), lens or assembly of lenses (compound lens) used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to Imaging, make images of objects either on photographic film ...

hidden in the gizmo. Rushton successfully replicated the Serios phenomenon by holding a little reflecting prism that contained a microfilm picture against the camera lens.

Honours

*1931 Beit Memorial Fellowship *1948

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

*1968 Foreign Member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

*1969 Honorary

DSc DSC or Dsc may refer to: Education * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dyal Sin ...

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

*1970

Royal Medal The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society. Two are given for "the mo ...

of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

References

External links

*''I Will Plant Me a Tree: an Illustrated History of Gresham's School'' by S.G.G. Benson and Dr Martin Crossley Evans (James & James, London, 2002) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rushton, W. A. H. 1901 births 1980 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge English physiologists Vision scientists Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences British parapsychologists People educated at Gresham's School Royal Medal winners