President Of The Royal Society Research Articles

A Collaborative Digitisation and Curatorial Project, Highlighting a Unique Collection and the Latimer Core Data Standard

Sir Joseph Banks is remembered for being a long-standing president of the Royal Society, the unofficial first director of Kew gardens and the pioneering naturalist on Captain James Cook’s great voyage onboard the Endeavour, to observe the transit of Venus and search for an undiscovered southern continent (British Museum (Natural History) 1906). Much of Bank’s life is well documented but his surviving entomology collection has never been accurately catalogued. The Banks Collection at the Natural History Museum (NHM) London is an historic assemblage of insect specimens (Fig. 1, British Museum (Natural History) 1906). It includes specimens collected by Banks and others acquired through a world-wide network of collectors. During his lifetime, Banks shared specimens with his associates and gave many specimens to Dr. William Hunter and Johan Christian Fabricius. After his death, the remaining collection was donated to the Linnean Society and later passed to the British Museum in 1863. The Banks Collection has both historical and cultural value and continues to be a relevant research tool. This is largely because Fabricius, a student of Carl Linnaeus, described many new species from the collection. Consequently, the collection contains many taxonomically important type specimens. The number of specimens in the collection is unknown but estimated to be approximately 4000. The NHM is digitising the collection with the generous support of the Charles Hayward Foundation. The collection is housed in 55 entomological glass-topped drawers, albeit not the original drawers. When conserving historical material, there is an argument to leave everything in its original state, but after much consideration, the curatorial team decided—for the long-term preservation of the collection—the specimens should be rehoused into plastazote®-lined drawers keeping the original layout of the specimens and replacing the current cork-lined drawers as part of the digitisation process. High-resolution images are taken of every specimen with its associated labels. The information on the labels is recorded for each specimen and a barcode added. As of August 2024, 3,300 specimens have been digitised and 30 of the 55 drawers recurated. More than 5000 high-resolution images have been taken (Fig. 2) and 438 labels have been transcribed for almost 1200 specimens. This project is using a new Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) data standard, Latimer Core, designed to support the representation and discovery of natural science collections (Woodburn et al. 2022). Latimer Core is intended to be complimentary to specimen-level standards such as Darwin Core (Darwin Core Task Group 2009), providing a way to structure and share higher-level information about groups of collection objects, from whole-museum collections through thematic and historic collections, to the contents of a single drawer. This is useful for collections with lots of associated data, fragile specimens or when displacement and disassociation of information is a concern. Unlike modern specimens, with data labels containing information on collecting event and associated persons, specimens in the Banks collection have few original labels. It was common practice that labels were temporary data storage and disposed of once the data was published. A replacement label was provided after publication (Fig. 2). The publication provides species description, geographic origin and often the name of the collection containing the specimen. Additional labels were subsequently added by curators and researchers. Many specimens have no data labels (Fig. 3). Unravelling important information about individual specimens, species and groups of specimens in this collection, including taxonomic, type status and origin will be supported by Latimer Core, as it allows a more holistic approach compared to only using specimen-level data. We can better incorporate data derived from various sources such as published data, illustrations and personal correspondence to learn about the individual and groups of specimens, the reverse of the usual workflow. Digitising this collection will improve access through digital records (specimen/drawer images, transcribed labels, publication references) reducing the need for physical examination and risk of damage. Whole-drawer digitisation in addition to specimen-level imaging provides information on the organisation and display of a collection. A collection of this nature demands minimal handling and the best storage and collections management procedures to ensure its survival for future generations. However, its significance commands a continued interest by a wide and varied audience. By digitising this collection, we will improve its physical housing, increase its accessibility without compromising the specimens for the future, and support the publication of a comprehensive catalogue of the collection.

Thinking the Other: From Terra Australis Incognita to Terra Nullius

At the end of the 18th century, when Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society, recommended Botany Bay in Australia as an “advantageous” site to establish a new British penal colony, he did so with the knowledge that the east coast of the country was inhabited by Indigenous Australians, having traveled to the South Continent with Lieutenant James Cook. As a naturalist and imperial botanist on board the Endeavour, Banks’s primary duty had been to identify and classify Australian flora and fauna. Yet, the multiple observations that he made based on his interactions with Aboriginal people also contributed to establish his influence in scientific and political circles at the turn of the 19th century. Banks’s ethnographic accounts recorded in his Endeavour Journal shed light on his mind-set and convictions during his time in Australia as well as his impressions that later played their part in making him the greatest proponent of settlement in New South Wales and motivating the decision to colonize the country. In a time when exploration records significantly shaped the perceptions of the public about human nature and the beliefs and theories of the scientific community on questions of race and otherness, the writings of Joseph Banks offer a window into science and history in the making. As the scientific exploration of distant lands progressively gave way to political and economic interests, the transition from geographical othering to racial othering in the representation of Indigenous Australians turned Terra Australis Incognita into terra nullius.

What Charles Darwin owed to Joseph Banks

History has remembered Joseph Banks as the explorer-botanist of the first voyage of James Cook. Yet, shortly after his return, he got elected president of the Royal Society and, for over 40years, he then played in Great Britain an eminent role in reorganizing natural sciences and advocating an "economic botany". He actively intervened in acclimatization and varietal selection of plants and animals in Great Britain as in the future English colonies. Thus he built an intellectual environment which will promote the emergence of Charles Darwin's thoughts.

Meet our new President: interview with Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow

I loved science and maths at school, which led to an undergraduate degree in physics. Through a final-year project I was introduced to the biosciences. From undertaking this first research project and getting a publication from it, I was hooked – especially on understanding how the structure of macromolecules was linked to their function.I had a typical academic career but at very different institutions – the Open University, Stanford University and Birkbeck, University of London. I began to take on leadership roles as head of department of crystallography and then deputy head of Birkbeck, so was able to take a wider perspective than just my own area of science. This increased even further when I became (the first woman) to run a research council as I had to liaise between academia and the government. I spent the last 10 years of my full-time career as Vice Chancellor of the University of Kent.During this time, I have always taken on wider roles to support the sector especially at a national level – the Council for Science and Technology, President of Universities UK, President of the Royal Society of Biology or Chair of the British Science Association.On retirement, I have taken on a few non-executive roles including Chair of Public Health England and a non-executive member of NHS England/I board. Currently, I am on the board of the Open University and a trustee of HEPI (the Higher Education Policy Institute).I have spent my career mainly in academia. During that time, I benefitted from learned societies including the Biochemical Society. As I progressed I realized that much of my role was to support others, earlier in their careers, whether within my research group, at the university or at a national level. Taking on this role, I can continue to support the biosciences and hopefully provide opportunities for others to flourish.First, I was very impressed by the inclusive way the strategy was developed under the leadership of Professor Sir Peter Downes. Bringing the Society and Portland Press closer together is especially important at this time of change, as well as aiming to make the Society more inclusive by embedding equality and diversity across all strands.The importance of supporting career development is key to ensuring a thriving and sustainable research community. The need for this community to come together to discuss science and to ensure that research can be published and disseminated widely are also important strands to this strategy.So a lot of thought and debate has gone into this strategy. We now need to put it into action!Like all those who communicate science through publishing journals, we are rightly moving to fully open access publications. This takes time – but I am impressed how forward and positively thinking Portland Press and the Society are about this far from easy to implement topic. So evolving open access will continue to be an opportunity and a challenge.We have rightly embedded EDI across all aspects of the Society’s new strategy. This is an area where I have taken a very active interest starting from the earliest stages of my career as one of the few women studying physics at undergraduate level. I think it will be challenging to bring our ambitions for an inclusive and diverse Society into practice, but one to which I am committed.Finally, supporting colleagues in these difficult and uncertain times especially those early on in their careers – we have seen the importance of molecular and cellular biosciences to society as scientists have contributed to control the COVID pandemic. We need to continue to encourage and support those entering into careers in the sciences.A flourishing and diverse community of scientists.Further evolution of open access publications.Ensuring we also look outward as excellent molecular biosciences is essential for our well-being as a society – as we have seen over the last few years.Finally, I realize I have not said anything about the employees of the Biochemical Society and Portland Press. They are a talented group of people under the leadership of the excellent Kate Baillie. Neither have I mentioned the Council of Trustees and members of the various Boards, Committees and Panels. I have been impressed with their expertise and commitment. I look forward to working with you all.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. 21 April 1926—8 September 2022

You have accessMoreSectionsView PDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Cite this article Longair Malcolm 2022Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. 21 April 1926—8 September 2022Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc.731–2http://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2022.0034SectionYou have accessDedicationHer Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. 21 April 1926—8 September 2022 Malcolm Longair Malcolm Longair Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author Malcolm Longair Malcolm Longair Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author Published:05 October 2022https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2022.0034A TRIBUTEImage copyright: Godfrey Argent Studio.Paying tribute to Her Majesty The Queen, the President of the Royal Society, Sir Adrian Smith said, ‘The Royal Society is deeply saddened by the passing of Her Majesty The Queen. Over her six decades as our Patron, she has seen great scientific progress, with many British scientists contributing to breakthroughs. It was a particular honour for the Society to have Her Majesty participate in our 300th Anniversary celebrations and attend the Convocation of Fellows marking the 350th Anniversary of the Society in 2010. Her contribution will be greatly missed.’Her Majesty The Queen was the Royal Society's Patron for over 60 years, signing the Charter Book in 1957. She participated in the 300th Anniversary celebrations in 1960 at the Albert Hall and in the Convocation of Fellows that marked its 350th Anniversary in 2010 at the Royal Festival Hall. She opened the new premises at Carlton House Terrace in 1967 and launched the scheme of China Royal Fellowships in 1986 to promote scientific exchange.During her lifetime, the face of science and its contributions to society changed out of all recognition. Many of the pioneers of the new sciences were honoured in the New Years and Queen's Birthday Honours lists, these honours regularly being conferred by the Queen herself.Among the Society's most prestigious awards are the Royal Medals, founded by His Majesty King George IV in 1825. Between 1826 and 1964 two medals were awarded each year. In 1965 a third medal, celebrating the applied sciences, was introduced on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen.The Queen's outstanding record of service to all aspects of society was exemplary, setting a model of dignity and humanity which was an inspiration to us all. Next Article VIEW FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD PDF FiguresRelatedReferencesDetails This IssueDecember 2022Volume 73 Article InformationDOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2022.0034Published by:Royal SocietyPrint ISSN:0080-4606Online ISSN:1748-8494History: Published online05/10/2022Published in print01/12/2022 License:© 2022 The Author(s)Published by the Royal Society Citations and impact Subjectsbiographical history

Lord Robert May of Oxford 1936–2020

Robert May was the leading theoretical ecologist of his generation. He started his career as a theoretical physicist and began the transition to ecology soon after completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard. His mathematical analysis of the stability of ecological communities challenged orthodox views and spawned a new research agenda. He demonstrated that many different patterns of population fluctuations, including chaotic behaviour, could arise from simple mathematical models. Together with R. M. Anderson he transformed the mathematical modelling of infectious diseases. All of his work was characterised by his remarkable ability to reduce complex problems to their essential simplicities. His achievements were recognised by the award of numerous major international prizes. May also served as government chief scientific advisor (UK) between 1995 and 2000, and as president of the Royal Society between 2000 and 2005.

Editorial

Editorial

Vocal learning in animals and humans.

Vocal learning in animals and humans.

Two Nobel laureates in conversation: Robert Robinson listens to Dorothy Hodgkin's account of her life scientific

In 1974 the Nobel laureate Sir Robert Robinson OM PRS (1886–1975) was gathering information for the memoirs he was writing. As part of his research, he recorded a conversation with his former student, fellow Nobel laureate Professor Dorothy Hodgkin OM FRS (1910–1994), during which she outlined the key stages of her career. She explained the principles underlying crystallography and described her work on the structure of biological molecules including penicillin and vitamin B 12 —for which she received the Nobel Prize—and on insulin. This paper includes a verbatim transcript of the conversation, which reveals the key figures in Hodgkin's career and the technical breakthroughs which underlay the elucidation of the structure of very large complex molecules. The paper includes a commentary on the value of oral accounts and concludes on the issues raised and not raised during the conversation. Sir Robert was President of the Royal Society between 1945 and 1950 when women were first elected Fellows. Hodgkin was elected in 1947. However, no mention is made of the challenges facing women developing a scientific career in the first half of the twentieth century.

Lord Robert May of Oxford OM. 8 January 1936—28 April 2020

Robert May was the leading theoretical ecologist of his generation. He started his career as a theoretical physicist and began the transition to ecology soon after completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard. His mathematical analysis of the stability of ecological communities challenged orthodox views and spawned a new research agenda. He demonstrated that many different patterns of population fluctuations, including chaotic behaviour, could arise from simple mathematical models. Together with R. M. Anderson, he transformed the mathematical modelling of infectious diseases. All of his work was characterized by his remarkable ability to reduce complex problems to their essential simplicities. His achievements were recognized by the award of numerous major international prizes. May also served as the UK government's chief scientific advisor between 1995 and 2000, and as President of the Royal Society between 2000 and 2005.

Warfare and the launch of medical reform in Britain, 1793–1811

AbstractUntil the beginning of the nineteenth century, registering and regulating the training of any medical practitioners in Britain had rarely been attempted, unlike in many other European countries. During the Revolutionary War with France, fevers swept through British armies, leading to numerous fatalities and crushing military defeats, especially in the disastrous expedition to St Domingo. The problem, as forcibly advocated by Robert Jackson, the leading expert on military fevers, seemed to be poor medical care due to both lack of compulsory medical training and the unsuitability of whatever training was available for army medical practitioners. With the simultaneous rapid advance of French military and civilian medical training and the threat of a French invasion, regulating British medical training and excluding the unqualified became a military necessity, and suddenly medical reform was receiving widespread attention. Emphasising the benefits to the Britain’s fighting ability, the reform effort, led by Edward Harrison, a very provincial Lincolnshire physician, under the patronage of Sir Joseph Banks, the President of the Royal Society, gained the support of leading politicians, including three Prime Ministers. For a short time, comprehensive medical reform seemed inevitable: but the opposition of the medical corporations, especially the London College of Physicians, could not be circumvented, and although Harrison persisted in his efforts for 6 years, no legislation was achieved. Nevertheless, within months, the Association of Apothecaries continued the process by pressing for a more limited reform, culminating in the 1815 Apothecaries Act. The long march towards the full regulation of doctors in Britain was started by the perceived military needs of the country during the war with France.

‘Chaos naturae et artis’: imitation, innovation, and improvisation in the library of Sir Hans Sloane. Part 2

This article explores the library practices of the physician, President of the Royal Society, and omnivorous collector Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753). It situates his approach within the wider context of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century English book collecting and library documentation, and draws attention to the importance of Gabriel Naudé's Advis pour dresser une bibliothèque for English library owners. Part 1 of this article addressed how Sloane and his peers engaged with Naudé's advice regarding the repurposing of bibliographic materials. Part 2 proceeds to consider how these same individuals responded to Naudé's more controversial views on the order of books and the purpose of libraries. It concludes that collectors refrained from comprehensively following Naudé's advice not only because of practical concerns, but also because they were primarily interested in making their collections easy to use and manage. However, it is this ethos, rather than any faithful obedience to Naudé's advice, which demonstrates how Naudé's reprioritisation of the library in terms of its use had permeated the English collector's outlook.

A year of the COVID-19 Pandemic – Preparing for What's Next (Vol. 24, No. 12, Full Issue)

For the month of December 2020, APBN features article contribution from variety of writers. In the Features we take a dive into how COVID-19 vaccines could be shipped worldwide in an article by Kawal Preet, President of Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (AMEA) region for FedEx. For the Columns section, explore the transformations in telehealth and telemedicine in the Asia Pacific region. Also, writers from ACT Genomics discuss how liquid biopsy could provide potential in replacing tissue biopsy in genomic alteration profiling. For this month in the Spotlights, are highlights from the recent APACMed Virtual Forum 2020 on how technology is changing the landscape of healthcare. Finally, Professor Nadey Hakim, a general surgeon and currently the vice president of the Royal Society of Medicine weighs in on the recent release of data on the study for Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19.

‘Chaos naturae et artis’: imitation, innovation, and improvisation in the library of Sir Hans Sloane. Part 1

This article explores the library catalogues of the physician, President of the Royal Society, and omnivorous collector Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753). It draws attention to how Sloane organised and catalogued his books, and situates his approach within the wider context of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century English book collecting and library documentation. It highlights the importance of Gabriel Naudé’s Advis pour dresser une bibliothèque and the wider genre of works on library management for English collectors, and uncovers the library practices shared by Sloane and his peers. The article concludes that Sloane adhered to many common conventions of library building, many of which were communicated through literature addressing library organisation and bibliography. However, he balanced the desire for the ideal type library with the practical demands of book ownership, mediating best practice with pragmatic solutions.

Obituary: Doug Rawlings

Past President of the Royal Society of South Africa (RSSAf) and one of South Africa's leading microbiologists, Professor Douglas (Doug) E. Rawlings passed away on 2 May 2020, at the age of 68, afte...

Sir Aaron Klug OM. 11 August 1926—20 November 2018

Aaron Klug made outstanding contributions to the development of structural molecular biology. An early interest in viruses, stemming from work with Rosalind Franklin, prompted him to think deeply about extracting the information contained in electron micrographs. As a result, he proposed a method for making three-dimensional maps of biological specimens from the projected images given by micrographs. For this development and its application to complex molecular assemblies, he was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The recent revolution in biological structure determination, whereby atomic structures can now be determined from micrographs of frozen hydrated specimens, derives from this initial breakthrough. With colleagues, Aaron applied X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy to determine the structures and thereby understand the functions of many biological assemblies, including viruses, transfer RNA, chromatin and zinc fingers. He also made important forays into the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Aaron was director of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge from 1986 to 1996 and President of the Royal Society from 1995 to 2000.

Remembering Dr Sloane: Masculinity and the Making of an Eighteenth‐Century Physician

AbstractBy the 1720s Sir Hans Sloane was at the centre of London's eighteenth‐century medical and scientific world; he was a royal physician, President of the Royal Society and President of the Royal College of Physicians. This article examines Sloane's use of self‐fashioning early in his career, which was key to his later successes. Sloane's career‐building offers an opportunity to consider the role of gender in men's medical and scientific activities. This article argues that Sloane used existing concepts of ideal manhood – self‐management, independence and polite sociability – to establish his medical practice and scientific networks.

The young Joseph Banks: naturalist explorer and scientist, 1766–1772

ABSTRACT As a young man Joseph Banks (1743–1820), a wealthy landowner, decided to devote his life to natural history. He became one of the best-known naturalist explorers of the eighteenth century. During his twenties, from 1766 to 1772, he went on three voyages of exploration: to Labrador and Newfoundland in 1766, on the Endeavour circumnavigation with James Cook in 1768–71 and, finally, in 1772, he led the first British scientific expedition to Iceland. It was these expeditions, undertaken as a young man, which shaped his life. From them he gained fame, becoming one of the country’s most powerful and leading naturalists. This article also discusses the question of whether he was a scientist? He certainly believed himself to be one and according to the standards of the eighteenth century he was one, and people must be judged by the standard of their age. In the modern sense of the word, without a university degree and with negligible publications in his lifetime, he was not one. His eventual strength lay in his influential position as President of the Royal Society, a friend of George III and a privy councillor, allowing him to organise new voyages of discovery and send botanists on missions to collect the world’s flora.

Joseph Banks and William Hunter: where the Royal Society meets the Royal Academy

ABSTRACT During the second half of the eighteenth century London emerged as the centre of a growing scientific community, motivated and stimulated by an expanding empire. Within this closely connected metropolitan network, the figures of Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820) and Dr William Hunter (1718–1783) exemplify the model of gentlemanly naturalist, each dynamically engaged in the pursuit of their interrelated interests in human and comparative anatomy, zoology and botany. Sir Joseph Banks's mansion at Soho Squre was a short stroll from William Hunter's Anatomy School at 16 Great Windmill Street and these homes of the President of the Royal Society and first Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy of Arts, respectively, acted as centres to the periphery, combining the accummulated knowledge of both institutions behind the domestic façade of their private homes. Both individuals commissioned a number of artists, combining the visual skills of the artist with the authentic expertise of the anatomist and naturalist. This paper describes these complementary approaches of Sir Joseph Banks and William Hunter, suggesting that while they each shared similar goals for the production of natural knowledge, these may have been motivated by quite different ideas on the purpose of their public roles.

About this title - Aspects of the Life and Works of Archibald Geikie

Sir Archibald Geikie (1835–1924) was one of the most distinguished and influential geologists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was Director-General of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, President of the Geological Society of London, President of the British Association, Trustee of the British Museum and President of the Royal Society. He was also an accomplished writer, a masterful lecturer and a talented artist who published over 200 scientific papers, books and articles. The papers in this volume examine aspects of Geikie's life and works, including his family history, his personal and professional relationships, his art, and his contributions as a field geologist and administrator. Together, they provide a deeper understanding of his life, his career and his contribution to the development of Geology as a scientific discipline. Much of the research is based on primary sources, including previously unpublished manuscripts, donated in part by members of the family to the Haslemere Educational Museum, UK.