Online Archive Launched By Royal Society, Marks 350th Anniversary

The society was basically formed by the members as a place to gather, discuss and spread the scientific knowledge, one role it still fulfills today.

The members of the society dedicated their time to understand through observation the scientific work of famous names such as: Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking.

The father of DNA fingerprinting, Alec Jeffrey’s (a current member of the society) called the contribution of these important scientific papers “amazing journey over the past 350 years”.

A little about the founder of the society
Today Sir Christopher Wren is remembered for the architectural wonder of Cathedral St Paul.

In 1667, Wren, then professor of astronomy, gave a lecture in a seminar to the intellectuals of Gresham College in the City of London. There he talked about the new scientific spectacles—the microscope and telescope.

He said, "Imagine how much the ancient laborious Enquirers would envy us."

On Nov. 28, 1660, three-years later, he again gave one of his famous lectures in Gresham College. And this time he and, 11 men, who assembled after his lecture for “mutual converse” decided on establishing a “college for the promoting of physio-mathematico experimental learning.” That was the birth of the Royal Society.

Works include
In the archive of the Royal Society one can find diverse range of papers such as Robert Boyle’s discussions on blood transfusions to the problem of black holes in the space by Stephen Hawking.

Lord Rees of Ludlow, the current president of the Royal Society said, "There's a charming thing from the records when the child Mozart came to London and a group of scientists met him and tried to form a view of whether he really was a genius or some kind of fraud."

Though he emphasized that the Society is not all about past but present also. It will be hosting a nine-day long science and arts fest at the South Bank in London next summer, in addition to public lectures, discussions and debates.

"In these old papers, everything was hand written before going to the printers, and you see more directly the personality of the scientist than you would do with a modern paper, and of course they wrote their papers in a more personal, anecdotal style."

Some of the discoveries in 350 years
In 1666, Physicist Robert Boyle provided one of the first blood transfusion accounts, between two dogs. Human transfusions were banned due to the adverse reactions afterwards, which were explained more than 200 years later after understanding different blood groups.

In 1672, Isaac Newton provided the study on how a shaft of light passes through a glass prism and later breaks into colors of the spectrum.
He also explained the nature of white light and used the knowledge derived from his findings in building better telescopes made from mirrors than lenses.

In 1677, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, mastered in the field of microscopy by providing his observation of “little animals” in the rainwater, teeth and on the surface of pepper.

In 1727, William Cheselden, one of the finest surgeons of his time, restored the vision of a 14-year old boy, who had been blind since birth.

In 1752, Benjamin Franklin with the help of a kite showed that the lightning bolts in the storm are electrical discharges that can be collected and channeled.

In 1770, when the 8-year-old Mozart came to London, the Royal Society could not believe that he is indeed a musical genius and could not resist testing him.

The one of the recent discoveries contributed by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose in 1970, demonstrated implications in Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, which predicts black holes in the space---those regions where even light cannot pass through because of the strong gravitational pull.