The Royal Society releases historic papers online on 350th anniversary

London, Nov 30 : The Royal Society, one of the world's oldest scientific institutions is commemorating its 350th year by putting 60 of its most memorable research papers online.

Founded in London in 1660, the Royal Society is making public manuscripts by figures like Sir Isaac Newton.

The Trailblazing website also features Benjamin Franklin''s account of his infamous kite-flying experiment.

Society president Lord Rees said the papers documented some of the most "thrilling moments" in science history.

The papers published on the Trailblazing website were first printed in the society''s journal—'Philosophical Transactions'.

All the papers were chosen from 60,000 printed since the journal''s foundation in 1665.

Among the highlights are a gruesome account of a 17th Century blood transfusion and the article in which Sir Isaac showed that white light is a mixture of other colours.

The collection also includes Franklin''s account of his ill-advised attempt in 1752 to show that lightning was a form of electricity by flying a kite in a storm, and a 1970 paper on black holes co-written by Professor Stephen Hawking.

There is also an entertaining paper about a study of the nine-year-old Mozart in London in 1770 to determine whether he really was a child prodigy.

"The scientific papers on Trailblazing 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 BBC quoted Lord Rees as saying.

"Individually, they represent those thrilling moments when science allows us to understand better and to see further," he added.

--ANI