Scientific papers for the historically-minded, or vice versa

The Royal Society has been publishing scientific papers for almost 350 years, which is a long freaking time.  To be more specific, they started publishing in 1665.

To celebrate next year’s big birthday, the Royal Society has launched Trailblazing, an interactive site that includes 60 of the more than 60,000 papers they have published.  And these aren’t just any papers — these are truly inspired.

Some examples are:

• In 1666, the same year as the Great Fire of London, Boyle described the first transfusion of blood.  Although his paper described a transfusion between two dogs, it inspired attempts at a transfusion between a sheep and a human.  The whole idea was eventually outlawed and it was about 200 years later before it was finally understood and refined.
• The famous experiment of Ben Franklin’s whereby he flew a kite in an electrical storm took place in 1752.  His discoveries led him to invent lightning conductors for tall buildings, saving many from destruction by fire.
• In 1891, Galton provided a proof that fingerprints were unique and developed a system of classification that is still used by Scotland Yard today.

The best part of this site is that you can download the original articles in PDF format.  Thus, if you are into science, history, the history of science or scientific history, I can’t recommend this site enough.

“Yeah, that article about atomic particles in the most recent Nature was alright, but I prefer Paul Dirac’s ‘Spinning Electrons’ article from 1928.”