The Royal Society

Wikipedia

The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660[1] and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence.[2] Although a charitable body, it serves as the Academy of Sciences of the United Kingdom (in which role it receives funding from HM Government). Fellowship, granted for life, is awarded to scientists after their election by existing fellows, and is considered a great honour. Fellows must be citizens or residents of a member of the Commonwealth of Nations or the Republic of Ireland, while the smaller number of Foreign Members are drawn from other countries. The Royal Society is a member organization of the Science Council and the International Council for Science.

[edit] History

The Royal Society was founded in 1660, only a few months after the Restoration of King Charles II, by members of one or two either secretive or informal societies already in existence. The Royal Society enjoyed the confidence and official support of the restored monarchy. The "New" or "Experimental" form of philosophy was generally ill-regarded by the Aristotelian academies, but had been promoted by Sir Francis Bacon in his book The New Atlantis.

Robert Boyle refers to the "Invisible College" as early as 1646. A founding meeting was held at the premises of Gresham College in Bishopsgate on 28 November 1660, immediately after a lecture by Sir Christopher Wren, who was at that time Gresham Professor of Astronomy. The founding group of 12 natural philosophers, including Robert Boyle, John Wilkins and Wren, decided to form a 'Colledge for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning', which would meet weekly to view experiments and discuss science.[1] At a second meeting a week later, Sir Robert Moray, an influential Freemason who had helped organise the public emergence of the group, reported that the King approved of the meetings.

A formal Royal Charter of incorporation passed the Great Seal on 15 July 1662, creating "The Royal Society of London", with Lord Brouncker as the first President, and Robert Hooke was appointed as Curator of Experiments in November 1662. A second Royal Charter was sealed on 23 April 1663, naming the King as Founder and changing the name to "The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge". Her Majesty The Queen is the current patron, and the reigning monarch has always been the patron of the Royal Society since its foundation.[3]

Following the Great Fire of London the society moved to Arundel House, the home of Duke of Norfolk. It moved again in 1710 to Crane Court in the Strand, and a second time in 1780 to Somerset House. In 1857, the Society moved to Burlington House in Piccadilly where it remained until its move to the present location in Carlton House Terrace in 1967.[1]

The motto of the Royal Society, "Nullius in Verba" (Latin: "On the words of no one", or "take nobody's word for it"; the full quote from Horace—Nullius addictus judicare in verba magistri—expands into the gold standard of objectivity: "Not compelled to swear to any master's words." although the Royal Society itself now prefers the translation "Nothing in words",[4]and its former president Robert May favours "Respect the facts"[5]), signifies the Society's commitment to establishing the truth of scientific matters through experiment rather than through citation of authority. Although this seems obvious today, the philosophical basis of the Royal Society differed from previous philosophies such as Scholasticism, which established scientific truth based on deductive logic, concordance with divine providence and the citation of such ancient authorities as Aristotle. In fact, it represented the final triumph of the vision of the friar Roger Bacon, who had fought scholastic authorities in an attempt to establish such a repository of learning in the 1200s.

[edit] Historical philosophy and significance

The Royal Society imagined a network across the globe as a public enterprise, an "Empire of Learning", and strove to remove language barriers within the sciences. The Royal Society was dedicated to the free flow of information and encouraged communication. Boyle, in particular, began the practice of reporting his experiments in great detail so that others could replicate them, unlike previous alchemists. Sir Isaac Newton was a practising alchemist and his assistant, J. T. Desaguliers, a demonstrator for the Royal Society, was a prominent Freemason and Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England. During the eighteenth century, masonic lodges in France became conduits for circulating scientific texts which could not be made available publicly (see John Toland). While the proceedings of the Royal Society reported for instance Chinese alchemists' immortality potions as fact, the Royal Society did actually put the superstitions then current to rigorous testing, for instance placing a spider on a table and sprinkling a circle of salt around it; on the theory that it could not walk across the salt. The spider promptly left the circle, thus disproving that myth.

[edit] Reform

In 1821 Humphry Davy became president and marked a shift in membership towards practising scientists, rather than gentlemen and amateurs. The Industrial Revolution and the needs of business had alerted society to the demand for a professional body for leading scientists. However, the Society's royal charter guaranteed the Fellows an unfettered right to elect to Fellowship whoever they chose and regulation of the number of new members and their scientific qualifications became a pressing concern. In 1823, a committee was established to review the statutes of the Society but it was only in 1827 that the question of membership was considered. James South succeeded in establishing a committee to "consider the best means of limiting the members admitted to the Royal Society, as well as to make such Suggestions on that subject as may seem to them conducive to the Welfare of the Society." However, the committee, chaired by William Hyde Wollaston and comprising South, Davies Gilbert, John Herschel, Thomas Young, Charles Babbage, Francis Beaufort and Henry Kater, had little impact when it reported.[6]

A new crisis was precipitated when Davy resigned as president in July 1827. Gilbert canvassed Sir Robert Peel as a new president. Peel had been an important political intermediary in establishing the Royal Medals, but many were appalled at the prospect of a political, rather than scientific, president. In the face of a deadlock, Davies took the presidency for the remainder of the year but was then succeeded by two non-scientists; first the Duke of Sussex, and then the Marquess of Northampton.[6]

In 1846, the Society established a Charters Committee "with a view to obtaining a supplementary Charter from the Crown", and a particular remit to consider the membership issue. When he was elected to the Council that year, William Robert Grove was co-opted to the committee, his experience in both science and law making him particularly qualified. The committee recommended:[6]

• Election of Fellows on one day only each year. There had previously been four elections which made the thorough appraisal of candidates difficult;
• Number of new Fellows limited to fifteen per year; and
• Thorough consideration of scientific qualifications of candidates.

However, the Society sought the opinion of the Attorney General and Solicitor General who held that it would not be lawful to limit the membership under the current charter. It was Grove who resolved the deadlock by proposing that a limited intake of fifteen be proposed by the council to the Fellows for election, effectively limiting the new membership. Grove facilitated the adoption of the new rules against opposition from the amateurs and from some professionals who regretted any weakening of links with the political establishment. During the 1870s, membership of the Society fell to about 500.[6]

[edit] Current activities and significance

• Funding scientific research. This is the largest area of expenditure for the Society, costing around £30 m each year.[7]The flagship scheme is the University Research Fellowship which funds early careers scientists, with approximately 300 in post at any time.[8] Other schemes include the Royal Society Research Professorships to be awarded to world leading scientists based in the UK such as Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys FRS and international schemes to encourage foreign collaboration. The majority of grants are paid from the Society's Parliamentary Grant in Aid although some are funded by private donors such as BP and the Wolfson Foundation.
• Publishing (see later).
• Providing science policy advice to HM Government, and also science and mathematics education policy advice. High profile reports have recently been produced on nanotechnology and the use of non-human primates in research.
• Promoting public interest in and understanding of science. Activities include public lectures, discussion meetings and the annual Summer Science Exhibition (in London and Glasgow).
• An international program to develop and maintain links with scientific bodies, academies and associations overseas.

[edit] Controversy

In September 2008 the Royal Society's Director of Education Michael Reiss suggested that, rather than dismissing creationism without discussing it, teachers should take the time to explain why creationism had no scientific basis.[9] His views were presented in some media reports as lending support to teaching creationism as a valid scientific theory, but both he and the Royal Society later stated that this was a misrepresentation.[10][11] Reiss resigned within days.[12]

[edit] Publishing

The Royal Society started publishing in 1665, very soon after it was founded, and currently publishes seven, high quality peer-reviewed journals covering: biological and physical sciences; history and philosophy of science; and cross-disciplinary research at the interface between the physical and life sciences. The Society's first Secretary, Henry Oldenburg is credited with inventing the process now known as peer review whereby scientific articles were sent to other academics for critical appraisal and fact-checking before publication. He also launched the Society's first journal, now the world's longest running scientific journal, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. The Society's serial publications are;

• Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
• Proceedings of the Royal Society
  • Proceedings of the Royal Society A
  • Proceedings of the Royal Society B
• Biology Letters[13]
• Journal of the Royal Society Interface[14]
• Notes and Records of the Royal Society
• Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, an annual volume of extended obituaries of Fellows of the Royal Society

[edit] Governance

The Society is governed by its Council, which is chaired by its President, according to a set of Statutes and Standing Orders. The members of Council, the President and the other Officers are elected from its Fellowship.

[edit] Fellowship

As with many learned societies, the Society's governance structure is based on its Fellowship. Fellows must be citizens or ordinarily resident of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland, otherwise they may be elected as a Foreign Member. Up to 44 new Fellows are elected each year by ballot of the existing Fellows of the Society based on a shortlist drawn up by Council and its 10 Sectional Committees. The Society's statutes state that candidates for election must have made "a substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science and medical science". The Society's website states that "the main criterion for election as a Fellow is scientific excellence."

There are two additional categories: Royal Fellow of the Royal Society for a member of the Royal family to be admitted, and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society, for "quite exceptional candidates who have given distinguished service to the cause of science and its applications, or who have brought great benefits to science". A maximum of forty-four Fellows, six Foreign Members and one Honorary Fellow may be elected each year.[15]

Foreign Member of the Royal Society is an honorary position within the Royal Society. It is a position at the same rank as a Fellow of the Royal Society to which scientists from outside the Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland may be elected.

Fellows are entitled to use the post-nominal letters FRS. Foreign Members may use the post-nominal letters ForMemRS.

Prior to the creation of the position of Honorary Fellow in 2000, people distinguished in other walks of life would sometimes be elected as Fellows; examples of this are the British Prime Ministers Benjamin Disraeli, Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, and Margaret Thatcher.

[edit] Council and officers

Mace of the Royal Society, granted by King Charles II.

The Fellowship elects twenty-one members of Council, the governing body and trustees of the society. The chair of the council is the President of the Royal Society, currently Lord Rees of Ludlow, who is entitled to use the post-nominal letters PRS. There are four other titled posts, variously referred to as Vice-Presidents, Secretaries and Officers: the Treasurer, the Foreign Secretary, the Physical Secretary and the Biological Secretary. The current holders of these posts are respectively Sir Peter Williams, Professor Lorna Casselton, Professor Sir Martin Taylor, and Professor Dame Jean Thomas.[16][17]

[edit] Permanent staff

The Society's 15 Sections are administered by the permanent staff, led by the Executive Secretary, Stephen Cox CVO. The Executive Secretary is supported by the Senior Managers of the Society, including:

• Mr Ian Cooper, Director of Finance and Operations
• Dr James Wilsdon, Director of Science Policy
• Dr Peter Cotgreave, Director of Communications

[edit] Society honours

The Society bestows twelve medals, eight awards (prizes) and seven prize lectureships variously annually, biennially or triennially, according to the terms of reference for each award. The Society also runs the Royal Society Prizes for Science Books.

Medals and prize lectures are awarded to scientists in honour of the excellence of their science. Only Fellows can make nominations, which are assessed by committees of Fellows which recommends to the Society's Council who should receive them. Nominees need not be Fellows. Medalists and Prize Lecturers receive a struck medal, a scroll, and an honorarium from the Society's private funds. Prize lecturers are required to give a public lecture.[18]

The Prizes often have the word Award in their title, and are open to nomination from all. They have a variety of assessment criteria and selection process. Some, such as the Michael Faraday Prize, require the recipient to give a public lecture, whereas others, such as the Kohn Award, provide funds for the recipient to undertake a project.

A full list of recipients is on the Awards section of the Society's website.

[edit] Awards

• Armourers & Brasiers’ Prize
• Kohn Award
• Michael Faraday Prize
• Microsoft Award (started in 2006)
• Mullard Award
• Royal Society GlaxoSmithKline Prize and Lecture
• Royal Society Pfizer Award
• Rosalind Franklin Award

[edit] Medals

• Buchanan Medal for achievements in medicine
• Copley Medal for work in any field of science
• Darwin Medal for work in the broad area of biology in which Charles Darwin worked
• Davy Medal for work in any branch of chemistry
• Gabor Medal for work in biology, especially in genetic engineering and molecular biology
• Hughes Medal for work in the physical sciences, particularly electricity and magnetism
• Leverhulme Medal for work in pure or applied chemistry or engineering
• Royal Medal for the two most important contributions to the advancement of Natural Knowledge
• Rumford Medal for work in the fields of heat or light
• Sylvester Medal for the encouragement of mathematical research

[edit] Prize lectures

• Bakerian lecture
• Francis Crick Lecture
• Croonian Lecture
• Ferrier Lecture
• Leeuwenhoek Lecture
• Clifford Paterson lecture
• Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar lecture
• Details of Royal Society prize lectures

[edit] Selected bibliography

• Micrographia by Robert Hooke
• Philosophical Transactions—the world's oldest continually published scientific journal
• Sylva by John Evelyn

The coat-of-arms of the Royal Society as a stained-glass window. The motto is Nullius in verba.

[edit] Timeline

• 1640s — informal meetings
• 28 November 1660 — Royal Society founded at Gresham College
• 1661 — name first appears in print, and library presented with its first book
• 1662 — first Royal Charter gives permission to publish
• 1663 — second Royal Charter
• 1665 — first issue of Philosophical Transactions
• 1666 — Fire of London causes move to Arundel House until 1673, then returns to Gresham College[19]
• 1669 — third Royal Charter; original proposal would have made Chelsea College the permanent home of the Society, but the site became Chelsea Hospital instead
• 1710 — acquires its own home in Crane Court
• 1780 — moves to premises at Somerset House provided by the Crown[20]
• 1847 — changed election criteria so that future Fellows would be elected solely on the merit of their scientific work
• 1850 — Parliamentary Grant-in-aid commences, of £1,000, to assist scientists in their research and to buy equipment.
• 1857 — moved to Burlington House in Piccadilly
• 1967 — moved to present location on Carlton House Terrace

[edit] See also

• Academy of Medical Sciences
• British Academy
• British Association for the Advancement of Science
• Fellows of the Royal Society
• Gentleman scientist
• History of science
• Learned societies
• List of British professional bodies
• List of Fellows of the Royal Society
• List of Royal Societies
• Royal Institution
• Royal Society of Arts
• Science Abstracts
• The Royal Society Range, a mountain range in Antarctica named after the Society

[edit] In fiction

The early Royal Society is satirised in Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels when the eponymous protagonist visits the flying island of Laputa.

Professor Henry Higgins is revealed to be a member of the Society in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion.

The early days of the Royal Society also form the backdrop for the events of Neal Stephenson's Baroque cycle of novels—Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World.

The founding members of the Royal Society (such as Robert Boyle) are used as secondary characters in the historical mystery novel An Instance of the Fingerpost, published in 1997 by English writer and art historian Iain Pears. Purposes of the organisation and membership are discussed in parts of the novel, and a days proceedings forms an integral part of the story.

Both Stephen Maturin and Jack Aubrey (main characters in Patrick O'Brian's series of popular novels) are members of the Royal Society.

In Terry Pratchett's 2008 novel Nation, Daphne and her father attend Royal Society lectures, and Mau requests that his nation become a member of the Society.

[edit] Bibliography

• Purver, Margery; Bowen, E. J. (1960). The Beginning of the Royal Society. Oxford: Clarendon Press. OCLC 9381245. 
• Gleick, James (2004). Isaac Newton. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 1400032954. OCLC 55696750. 
• Sir Harold Hartley (ed.) (1960). The Royal Society: Its Origins and Founders. London: Royal Society. OCLC 813245. 
• Rousseau, George (1981). The Letters and Private Papers of Sir John Hill, 17141775. New York: AMS Press. ISBN 0404614728. OCLC 8111658. 
• Sprat, Thomas; Abraham Cowley (2003) [1667]. The history of the RoyalSociety of London for the improving of natural knowledge. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0766128679. OCLC 63174140. 
• Lomas, Robert (2002). Freemasonry and the Birth of Modern Science. Gloucester, Mass.: Fair Winds Press. ISBN 1592330118. OCLC 52158257. 
• "Homes of the Royal Society". The Royal Society. http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=1059. 

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Royal Society website
  • List of Fellows of the Royal Society
  • Citations arranged by year of election
• The Royal Society Publishing website
  • Synthetic Biology The Royal Society's synthetic biology blog
  • Digital Journal Archive
• The Royal Society of London (a brief history)
• Scholarly Societies Project: Royal Society of London
• Three lectures presented at the Royal Society by Harry Kroto (Faraday Lecture), Paul Hoffman (Paul Erdos), Paul Davies (Blackholes, Worm Holes and Time Travel). Freeview video from the Vega Science Trust
• A visualization of the Royal Society's publications from 1665 to 2005
• "Nullius in Verba" Lord Rees Replies

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Annotations

• N Clement on Thu 28 Apr 2005, 11:56pm. Flag this

  “The Royal Society of London is claimed to be the oldest learned society still in existence. It was founded in 1660.”
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Society

  This is an exciting introduction to a body of some influence in the years to come. Charles II was a supporter and interested party for some time, before eventually losing interest.

• N Nix on Fri 29 Apr 2005, 12:25am. Flagged

  Early history of the Royal Society:

  The history of science since 1660 is closely intertwined with the story of the Royal Society.
  
  The origins of the Royal Society lie in an “invisible college” of natural philosophers who began meeting in the mid-1640s to discuss the ideas of Francis Bacon. Its official foundation date is 28 November 1660, when 12 of them met at Gresham College after a lecture by Christopher Wren, the Gresham Professor of Astronomy, and decided to found

• N dirk on Thu 14 Jul 2005, 11:52pm. Flag this

  Robert Hooke

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/discovery/revolutions/hooke_robert_beavon_01.shtml

• N Jenny Doughty on Fri 26 Aug 2005, 02:06pm. Flagged

  A wonderful link here, about some musical experiments conducted by the Royal Society. I shall also post this in the ‘music’ section, as our man Pepys is mentioned in that context in this link. I’ll also paste the article in case the link disappears.

  http://theowljournal.com/article.php?issue=7&number=1&type=print&comments=1

  Mr Birchensha’s Ear
  by Benjamin Wardhaugh

  It is the afternoon of Wednesday, 10th August, 1664. We

• N JWB on Sun 8 Apr 2007, 03:14pm. Flag this

  
  Dr. John Wallis:
  The Origin of The Royal Society, 1645-1662

  http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1662royalsociety.html

• N Pedro on Sat 24 May 2008, 03:08pm. Flag this

  The Royal Society

  Anyone interested in a discussion about the beginnings of the RS check the BBC site below from the programme In Our Time and listen to the archive.

  One of the contributors is Lisa Jardine the writer of The Curious Life of Robert Hooke.

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20060323.shtml

  
  

• N Terry Foreman on Thu 23 Apr 2009, 08:51pm. Flag this

  “For many years, the Royal Society maintained a museum which, at one time, contained “the stones taken out of Lord Belcarre’s heart [ donated 11 April 1666 ] in a silver box,”… “a petrified fish [ 13 June 1666], the skin of an antelope which died in St. James’ Park [ 25 July 1666 ], a petrified foetus [ 28 Nov 1666 ]” and “a bottle full of stag’s tears [ 22 Aug 1666].” The trustees of Gresham college assigned the long gallery as a home for these and other “rarities”; but, when the society, in 1781, migrated to Somerset house, the entire collection was handed over to the British Museum. The charter of the last named is dated 1753, and its beginnings were the library of Sir Robert Cotton, which the nation had purchased in 1700, and the collections of Sir Hans Sloane, which were now purchased with the proceeds of a lottery, set on foot for this purpose. The collections of this “General Repository,” as the act of 1753 called the museum, were kept together until the middle of the nineteenth century, when, after long delay, the natural history objects were transferred to South Kensington and housed in a building which, in all respects, was worthy of the Board of Works of the time.” http://www.bartleby.com/224/0831.html

References in the diary

1662

Apr: 28

1663

May: 20

1665

Jan: 9
Feb: 15

1666

Feb: 14