How culture is made
It’s November 28, 1660. Europe is in the early stages of transforming from the Middle Ages into something new. At a small university in London, an astronomy professor holds weekly lectures on “Natural Knowledge,” a Middle Age term describing facts that only God would know — how planets move, how human bodies work, things like that.
After the lecture a dozen people gather, as they usually do. That particular night the group decides it's time to start a club devoted to “improving Natural Knowledge.” Its purpose would be to establish facts through experiments rather than the whims of authority. They give their group, soon to be called the Royal Society, a motto that translates to: “Take nobody’s word for it.”
The group begins funding nascent research projects, publishing their findings in some of the first scientific journals. Within a few years the group invents peer review; helps establish the scientific method; supports the invention of the microscope and publishes the first images created by one (a viral sensation); publishes Isaac Newton's Principia, one of the most important texts in scientific history; publishes Benjamin Franklin’s kite experiment; and initiates countless other world-changing breakthroughs.
What is now known as the Age of Enlightenment was partially a direct result of this group's iterative work, week-by-week, across years, decades, and now centuries. The Royal Society began with a purpose of improving natural knowledge, and nearly 500 years later, that purpose has been fulfilled. The acceptance of science in the modern world can be traced back to their work.
