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Minutes from another era of science

Ian Sample

17th century manuscript charting birth of modern science found

London: A long-lost 17th century manuscript charting the birth of modern science has been found gathering dust in a cupboard in a house in southern England. Filled with crabby italics and acerbic asides, the 520 or so yellowing and stained pages are the handwritten minutes of the U.K. Royal Society (of eminent scientists) as recorded by the brilliant scientist Robert Hooke, one of the society's original fellows and curator of experiments.

The notes describe in detail some of the most astounding and outlandish scientific thinking from meetings of the society between 1661 to 1682. There is the very earliest work with microscopes, confirming the first sightings of sperm and micro-organisms.

There is correspondence with Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Christopher Wren over the nature of gravity, with the latter's proposal to fire bullets into the air to see where they might drop.

And there is a page that lays to rest the question of who designed the watch that would eventually lead to the first measurements of longitude. © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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