Embo

Coordinates: 57°54′N 3°59′W / 57.90°N 3.98°W / 57.90; -3.98

Embo (Scottish Gaelic: Earabol) is a village in the Highland Council Area in Scotland and the former/postal county of Sutherland, about 2 miles NNE of Dornoch.

On 16 July 1988, Embo declared itself independent from the rest of the United Kingdom for one day. This was done to raise funds to convert the unused primary school in the village into a community centre.

The village issued its own currency, called the Cuddie. The rate of exchange was 2 cuddies to the pound. Cuddies were accepted in the local public house - Grannies Heilan' Hame, in exchange for a measure of Clynelish Malt Whisky. The owners of the distillery, in nearby Brora, sponsored the bid for independence by issuing a commemorative label on 50 cases of Clynelish Malt Whisky - "The Spirit of Free Embo"

Bronze Age remains were excavated to the south of the village in 1956, other burials having previously been discovered in the area.

Nancy Dorian's research of the local East Sutherland Gaelic dialect showed that in 1964, over 100 of the village's total population of fewer than 300 still actively spoke Gaelic, and that many more had a "smattering" or were perfect passive bilinguals. This percentage even briefly increased during the 1970s with "returners" to the village. Until the end of the 1970s at least, Embo was a bilingual Gaelic and English speaking community. Brora and Golspie had much smaller percentages of Gaelic speakers at that time.

European Molecular Biology Organization

The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional organization of life scientists in Europe. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It organizes courses, workshops and conferences, publishes four scientific journals and supports individual scientists and projects. The organization was founded in 1964 and is a founding member of the Initiative for Science in Europe. The current EMBO Director is Maria Leptin, a developmental biologist at the University of Cologne, Germany.

History

The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) was officially launched in July 1964 after a group of European biologists had discussed the idea earlier at a meeting Ravello. In that meeting, the initial goals of EMBO were set, which consisted of creating a central European laboratory for life sciences and increase scientific interactions between researchers in Europe. At the Ravello meeting, Max Perutz was elected as the first EMBO Chairman and John Kendrew as Secretary General.