ONE wet evening in November 1660, a small group of scholarly gentlemen founded a society “to assist and promote the accumulation of useful knowledge”. This lavish volume reflects on the 350 years of intellectual adventures that ensued, from the problems that concerned the Royal Society’s early members, such as lightning rods and ballooning, to those that exercise its fellows today.
As well as big-name writers there are unexpected gems, notably Margaret Wertheim’s discussion of how cosmology leaves no room for a concept of self, and Oliver Morton’s plea for us to stop seeing Earth as a fragile blue drop and…
