Celebrating 350 years of the Royal Society

Abstract

Open AccessMoreSectionsView PDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Cite this article Rees Martin 2010Celebrating 350 years of the Royal SocietyPhil. Trans. R. Soc. A.368909http://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2009.0267SectionOpen AccessPrefaceCelebrating 350 years of the Royal Society Martin Rees Martin Rees Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author Martin Rees Martin Rees Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author Published:13 March 2010https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2009.0267Back in the 1660s, the Royal Society’s founders met regularly to discuss scientific ideas and perform experiments; the outcomes of their experiments and discussions were recorded in the Society’s Transactions. The world of science has been utterly transformed since that era. Nonetheless, these activities, pioneered by the Society, remain the accepted procedures whereby scientific ideas are criticized, refined and codified into publications that become part of ‘public knowledge’.The papers in this special anniversary issue of the Philosophical Transactions address themes that, in some cases, could not have been conceived even 50 years ago. But their range reflects, nonetheless, a continuity and concordance with the Society’s earliest years. The ‘ingenious and curious gentlemen’ who established the Royal Society enjoyed speculation. But they were also intensely practical and engaged with the problems of their time: the rebuilding of London after the great fire, improvements to timekeeping, navigation and so forth. The papers here cover topics ranging from the remote parts of the Universe to literally down-to-earth issues of energy and material science.Right from the start, the Society was networked internationally. That is, of course, even more the case today; and worldwide expertise is reflected in the distinguished authorship of the papers in this special issue. This special issue is a most welcome contribution to the range of activities and events whereby the Royal Society is marking its 350 years of support for science and scientists, and highlighting the importance of science in meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century.FootnotesOne contribution of 17 to a Theme Issue ‘Personal perspectives in the physical sciences for the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary’.© 2010 The Royal SocietyThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Next Article VIEW FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD PDF FiguresRelatedReferencesDetails This Issue13 March 2010Volume 368Issue 1914Theme Issue 'Personal perspectives in the physical sciences for the Royal Society's 350th anniversary' compiled and edited by Michael Pepper Article InformationDOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2009.0267PubMed:20123738Published by:Royal SocietyPrint ISSN:1364-503XOnline ISSN:1471-2962History: Published online13/03/2010Published in print13/03/2010 License:© 2010 The Royal SocietyThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Citations and impact Subjectsatmospheric chemistrymathematical physics