A Gift From The Royal Society

In celebration of its 350th anniversary,  The Royal Society (London)  is opening its digital vaults again!

Celebrating three and a half centuries of science in 2010

The dissemination of scientific research has been a core activity for the Royal Society since it was granted a Royal Charter to publish in 1662. Three and a half centuries later, publishing is still a cornerstone of the Society’s work and Philosophical Transactions is officially the world’s longest-running scientific journal.

During the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary year in 2010, we will celebrate our contribution to science publishing by launching several commemorative initiatives, all of which will be completely free to access.

Go to this Royal Society Publishing page and enter your choice of either ‘Leeuwenhoek’, ‘Leeuwenhoeek’, ‘Leewenhoeck’ or ‘Leeuvenhoek’. Try your own variations of the spelling – who knows what you may come up with!

For instance, I did a search of  ‘de Graaf’, an early supporter of Leeuwenhoek, and it revealed the first published letter revealing Leeuwenhoek’s unique skill with the microscope:

A Specimen of Some Observations Made by a Microscope, Contrived by M. Leewenhoeck in Holland, Lately Communicated by Dr. Regnerus de Graaf Phil. Trans. January 1, 1673 8:6037-6038; doi:10.1098/rstl.1673.0017

PDF’s are free to download, but only until the 28th of February, 2010.

England Plundered Holland’s Glory

Lisa Jardine, author of Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland’s Glory, has won McGill University’s Cundill prize:

Going Dutch

Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland’s Glory (Harper), the remarkable story of the relationship between the Dutch Republic and Britain, two of 17th Century Europe’s most important colonial powers, has earned British historian Lisa Jardine the 2009 Cundill International Prize in History at McGill University.

In this wide-ranging book, Jardine masterfully assembles new research in political and social history, together with the histories of art, music, gardening and science, to show how Dutch tolerance, resourcefulness and commercial acumen had effectively conquered Britain long before the Glorious Revolution of 1688 that overthrew King James II of England. Above all, Jardine tests the traditional view that the rise of England as a world power took place at the expense of the Dutch, finding instead that it was a “handing off” of the baton of cultural and intellectual supremacy to a Britain then expanding in international power and influence.

Read the full news story at the McGill Newsroom.

See the short list for the prize, with brief synopses of the books, author bio’s and cover pic’s here.

And read this review in The Guardian.