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Royal Society Opens Free Online Archive

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the mr.-newton-meet-mr.-boyle dept.

greenechidna writes "The Register reports that the Royal Society has put its archives online. From the article: 'One of the world's most important historical records will be made available online for the first time today. All the Royal Society's journals are free for two months and include stone-cold scientific classics going back to 1665 and the foundations of modern inquiry.'" You can set up your own account at the Royal Society; if you follow the link in the Reg article, you get logged in to some random account.

2 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. DNA by neonprimetime · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you're bored at work, read this.

    Watson and Crick's discovery of DNA (1954) - requires no introduction really

  2. What fun! Now I can take another look... by dpbsmith · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One of the pleasures of graduate school was access to a very good research library. The university I was at had the Transactions of the Royal Society back to volume 1, number 1. (When I commented positively on this to a librarian, meaning I was delighted by this, she missed my point and tut-tutted, say, "Yes, I know, it's just terrible, but they won't approve the budget for expanding the Rare Books room...)

    It was fascinating to open volumes at random at publication intervals of about fifty years and see the evolution of the scientific writing style. Before 1800, it was lively and enthusiastic and communicated a sense of excitement and joy. Around the mid-1800s a transformation took place and it acquired the stodgy, distanced, passive-voice writing style that persists to this day.

    --

    "How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!