Posted by Emma Davidson on 11 May 2012
Thus is entitled probably my favourite archival item ever – a little booklet of poems written mainly by John Maynard Smith FRS. According to the title page, this was “presented to Professor J.B.S. Haldane on Guy Fawkes Day, 1952”, and it has just been re-discovered by a visiting student archivist amongst a collection of correspondence. Continue reading “Cautionary tales for aspiring species, or the bad beast’s book of blunders”
Posted by Fiona Keates on 8 May 2012
As the newest member of the library team, I must admit that I was a little nervous about writing my first blog post. The Society has such interesting and varied collections I wasn’t sure where to start, so if anyone has any suggestions for my next post, I’m all ears… Continue reading “For the people”
Posted by Emma Davidson on 3 May 2012
I recently received an enquiry about whether the Royal Society publishes obituaries of deceased Fellows and, if so, when this practice began. The first part of the question was easy to answer, as I am moderately familiar with the Society’s current series of obituaries, the Biographical Memoirs, but I realised I had no idea when they started. One of the lovely things about my job is that I am expected to pursue this sort of thing, so I dived into the records with relish. Continue reading “Obituaries through the ages”
Posted by Emma Davidson on 26 April 2012
Pretty much anything to do with space is a cause for excitement around here, so you can imagine how pleased I was when one of my colleagues pointed out that today is the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Ariel 1 satellite. This is especially exciting as the Royal Society is the proud owner of an engineering model of the satellite, which was also known as UK1.
Posted by Keith Moore on
Sometimes the history which catches my eye can accumulate around related topics and at the moment I’m having a run of doggie anecdotes. There are classic scientific studies by Royal Society Fellows in this area – probably we’ve all heard of the behavioural work of Konrad Lorenz or the conditioning of Pavlov’s dogs. But beyond the serious stuff there’s a world of unconventional mutts who just happened to know some scientists (and vice versa).
Posted by Joanna Hopkins on 20 April 2012
We are excited to announce the launch of our brand new online picture library containing digital images of paintings, photographs, drawings and prints held in our collections. Browse our special themed galleries or dive straight into the advanced search and explore by subject, date and more!
Continue reading “Introducing the Royal Society Picture Library!”
Posted by Emma Davidson on 17 April 2012
Now that Easter is over, I thought that looking into some real eggs would make a nice change from garishly-wrapped ovoid confectionary. Fortunately the Royal Society’s archives are a treasure trove of historical images so it didn’t take me long to unearth some fascinating examples. Continue reading “Eggs”
Posted by Rupert Baker on 11 April 2012
At the risk of becoming typecast as ‘that Royal Society librarian who always blogs about expeditions going horribly wrong’, here’s another pear-shaped and lurid tale I found while digitising images for our forthcoming online picture library.
Posted by Katherine Ford on 4 April 2012
Science daring matchless deeds put on a fairer guise :
The steamship and the railway-train, the swift electric wire,
To narrow space, and shorten time, and bring the nations nigher —
Came forth from her unwearied toil, her insight keen and vast ;
And secrets of philosophy to household uses past.[1] Continue reading “The observers observed: Walter White and the Royal Society”
Posted by Dr Barry Denholm on 28 March 2012
Monday lunchtime is time for lab meeting. We gather, and over sandwiches present our latest results, discuss new ideas and establish plans for what we’ll do over the coming weeks. These meetings usually take place in a windowless room in the basement of our department. Occasionally we feel the need to escape, therefore early one winter’s morning we boarded a train to London for a lab meeting with a difference – to meet with the man who started it all, 17th Century philosopher, physicist, anatomist and physician to Pope Innocent XII, Signor Marcello Malpighi. Continue reading “A lab meeting with a difference”
About this blog
The Repository provides updates about the Royal Society's work on bringing the history of science to life.
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