{"id":662555,"date":"2026-06-28T10:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T10:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/662555\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T10:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T10:03:08","slug":"alex-mcbratney-the-boy-from-whithorn-among-the-scientific-elite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/662555\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex McBratney: The boy from Whithorn among the scientific elite"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The scientist grew up in Dumfries and Galloway, on a farm called Claymoddie near Whithorn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We lived among rolling fields, 18th Century woodlands, stone dykes, the shore, and big skies, with views stretching all the way to the Isle of Man on clear days,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Life revolved around the farm, the seasons, and the landscape.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;There were ploughing matches, potato planting, gathering stones from fields, exploring woods, fishing, listening to Radio Caroline, and Saturday trips into town for freshly baked rolls.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">McBratney did not realise it at the time, but growing up on a farm would lead to a lifelong fascination.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Soil was simply part of everyday life,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I knew every field by name, understood that some parts of the farm grew crops better than others, and learned early that the land was endlessly variable and full of surprises.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The adults talked constantly about weather, drainage, crops, and livestock, so the connection between people and land seemed completely natural.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The scientist grew up in Dumfries and Galloway, on a farm called Claymoddie near Whithorn. &#8220;We lived among&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-662555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-gb","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}