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The 60 most memorable scientific papers
David Heath
Wednesday, 02 December 2009 02:49
Philosophical Transactions has been in publication since 1665, making it the oldest continuously published scientific journal.
During the mid 1640s, the "Invisible College" began meeting to discuss science and philosophy. This evolved to become the Royal Society, officially founded 350 years ago on November 28th, 1660.
Current President of The Royal Society, Lord Rees said "The scientific papers on Trailblazing [the special website hosting the papers] represent a ceaseless quest by scientists over the centuries, many of them Fellows of the Royal Society, to test and build on our knowledge of humankind and the universe."
The earliest among the 60 papers is the 1666 piece "The transfusion of blood from one dog to another," along with commentary on early experiments that were done amongst men and between animals and men. Needless to say, without an understanding of blood groups, these were generally unsuccessful and led to the banning of blood transfusion by Act of Parliament.
Later articles include Isaac Newton's 1671 "New Theory about Light and Colors," James Cook's account of how he avoided scurvy on his long voyages and the 1849 article "On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat," by James Prescott Joule, which laid the foundation for modern themodymanics.
From 1896, we see Galton's "The Patterns in Thumb and Finger Marks," which gave us the first insights into the uniqueness of fingerprints.
In 1763, we see "An Essay on Chance," and many years later, in 1922, there is the follow-up "On the Mathematical Foundations of Theoretical Statistics."
The most recent, and highly topical, article is from 2008; "A geophysiologist's thoughts on geoengineering," which deals with climate change from a global self-regulating system approach.
Overall, this is a fascinating insight into a long history of scientific endeavour. I heartily recommend all readers spend some time on the site.
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