The British Royal Society, consideredthe oldest active scientific community in the worldand to which figures such as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein belonged, has been awarded the 2011 Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities, as the Jury announced today in Oviedo.
Since its inception,The Royal SocietyIt has combined the role of a research institute with that of a knowledge exchange center for the benefit of humanity. Its origins date back to 1640, to the meetings held in London by the natural philosophers and scientists of the so-called “Invisible College”, but its official constitution took place on November 28, 1660. After a conference by the architect Sir Christopher Wren, it was agreed the foundation of a society for the promotion of? physical-mathematical experimental knowledge ?. Its members, who are elected for life and under criteria of scientific excellence, have since included names such as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. Today the Society has 1,500 members, comprising more than 75 Nobel Laureates and nine Prince of Asturias Awards.
The Royal Societyit fulfills three fundamental objectives: it is the National Academy of Sciences, it is a scientific society and, in addition, a funding body. It has a grant scheme for more than 3,000 British and foreign scientists, designed to enhance the UK’s scientific base and foster collaboration between countries. It organizes conferences, scientific meetings and research projects, and its library, with more than 70,000 titles, houses one of the world’s most important collections of scientific publications from the 17th and 18th centuries. What’s morepublishes eight journals, including Philosophical Transactions , the oldest existing scientific publication.
More than 350 years
The Royal Society has provided scientific advice to policy makers since 1664. The Science Policy Center was established to strengthen the independence of science in the UK and internationally and as a center for debate between science, society and science. politics. Current projects include: the atlas of science and innovation of the Islamic world; the Brain Waves project on the evolution of neuroscience and its social implications; Knowledge, Networks and Global Scientific Collaboration in the 21st Century; People and the planet , about the role of world population in sustainable development; as well as a project for the management of solar energy.
In 2009, the Society commemorated its 350th anniversary by offering access via the Internet to a selection of more than 60 important scientific works published since its founding , with comments by leading contemporary scientists and historians. These works included, among others, the description in 1666 of a blood transfusion, the study published by Newton on light and colors, documents of the explorer James Cook or what were the conditions that in 1752 led Benjamin Franklin to the invention of the lightning rod. The Royal Society awards eleven medals and nine awards, including the Copley Medal, the UK’s most prestigious scientific award, awarded since 1731.
