History's Most Famous Scientific Articles Online for Free

Galileo's sketches of the moon from the Starry Messenger, 1610. Image Source: Royal Society via BBC.

Some days, I am grateful I am living in the midst of the Technological Revolution. Britain's Royal Society has been publishing scientific papers since 1665 and has now made all its articles from some of history's greatest researchers and thinkers available for free online for the period from 1665 to 1941. The articles come from the Philosophical Transactions, the world's first scientific journal - and the Society has continuously published it ever since. Being able to read this journal at the click of a button is one of the better wonders of our technology. I09 reports:

When it comes to old academic societies, there isn't an organization on Earth that can hold a candle to Britain's Royal Society. Founded all the way back in 1660, The Royal Society has been pumping out peer-reviewed scientific literature since 1665, when the first edition of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society made its debut.

And today, almost 350 years later, The Royal Society has opened up his historical archive of journals to the public, free of charge.

All told, the fully searchable online archive comprises around 60,000 scientific papers. And while complimentary access is limited to those articles published before 1941, don't let that distract you from the incredible collection of publications included in the archive. ... Isaac Newton's first scientific paper ever? That's there.

See a further report on this at the BBC. In honour of the namesake of this blog, here are Newton's other Royal Society publications, or published commentaries or letters relating to him.