The Royal Society, the renowned British scientific society that turns 350 years old next year, is starting its birthday celebrations a little early. The Society launched an interactive timeline called “Trailblazing,” which showcases online the original texts of 60 of its most significant papers.

The papers include Benjamin Franklin’s account of flying a kite in a rainstorm and discovering electricity; Isaac Newton’s 1672 theory of light and color; a 1763 account of the use of willow bark to treat fever, which led to the development of aspirin; a comet discovery by Caroline Herschel, who was the first paid female scientist; an 1826 paper on altitudinal changes in the Earth’s atmosphere; an 1890 article proving that fingerprints are unique; James Watson and Francis Crick’s 1954 discovery of the structure of DNA; a theory of continental drift from 1965, Barbara McClintock’s discovery of jumping genes from 1992, and an early writing on black holes by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose.

Filed under: K-12 Education News, Web Resources

Tags: Aerospace, Engineering in History, Timeline, Web Resources