The Royal Society

When my students do presentations on mathematicians in courses that involve the history of mathematics, there are certain places that come up frequently.  It is important to me on this trip to visit those places that come up most often so that I can share my experience with my students to make these places seem more real - rather than just a name or something that may as well be on the moon!  One of the these places is the Royal Society of London, which I visited today.

Sometimes they give public lectures here at the Royal Society, and I'd been watching their site for a number of months now to see if I could take in such a lecture while here, but nothing came up.  At the very least I wanted to walk past the building and take pictures.  It is located just off The Mall - just down from Buckingham Palace - across from St. James' Park but facing away from the park.  The address is 6-9 Carlton House Terrace.

Behind the Royal Society - looking down The Mall toward Buckingham Palace

I almost just took pictures and kept going, but after having been to the Royal College of Physicians earlier in the week and having seen the exhibit on John Dee there, I decided to walk in and just ask if they had an exhibit or anything.  I introduced myself as being on sabbatical relating to mathematics and wondering if they had any sort of exhibit.  Sure enough, there is an exhibit on Micrographia, which isn't math, but was as good an excuse as any to get through the doors!

It was actually quite interesting, and it involves the work of Robert Hooke - he of the long-standing feud with Newton (which you can read a little bit more about in my post on Newton), so there's at least a tangential math connection.  Also displayed was a bound copy of Newton's letters to the Royal Society outlining the main results of his study of optics, particularly with regard to light and color.

Hooke's illustrations of crystals of frozen fluids - later included in his "Micrographia"

The sketches below are by Anton van Leeuwenhoek - considered the first microbiologist and the Father of Microbiology.  The second image is a close-up of his signature.

Now some Newton items - though I don't know why the computer won't let me flip the following image.  Anyway, it is his collection of letters to the Royal Society outlining his optical work, and the following photograph is of wood from his famous apple tree shaped into a prism.

The origins of the Royal Society are in the 1660s.  The first "learned society" meeting took place following a lecture at Gresham College by Christopher Wren.   The group soon received royal approval from King Charles II and from 1663 was known as "The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge."

The Royal Society's motto is "Nullius in verba," or "take nobody's word for it."  It is an expression of determination to withstand the domination of authority and to verify all statements by an appeal to facts determined by experiment.  The first issue of "Philosophical Transactions" was published in 1665; this established the important concepts of scientific priority and peer review, and it is now the oldest continuously-published science journal in the world.  Among other things, the society published Newton's Principia Mathematica,  Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment, the first report in English of inoculation against disease, and they approved Babbage's Difference Engine.*

Sir Isaac Newton served as president of the Royal Society from 1703 to 1727.  Other presidents have included Sir Christopher Wren, Samuel Pepys, Sir Humphry Davy, Thomas Henry Huxley, The Lord Lister, and Sir Ernest Rutherford.

More recently the society awarded Peter Higgs the Copley Medal - its oldest and most prestigious award.

Do you recognize the pattern in the door handles?

The Royal Society arose out of informal meetings at Gresham College - the same Gresham College that has been giving free public lectures in London for more than 400 years, one of which I was able to attend earlier this week at the Museum of London to hear Gresham Professor of Geometry Raymond Flood present a wonderful lecture on mathematicians Alan Turing and John von Neumann.  (I couldn't believe how packed the hall was for this mid-day, mid-week math lecture!  I was lucky to find a seat!)

* Information from https://royalsociety.org/about-us/history/