2010 is the 350th anniversary of The Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific academy. In celebration, Royal Mail has today released ten 1st class stamps noting as many thinkers and their achievements.
The Society itself suggested the format: one thinker representing an idea or great progress for each 35 year block since it was founded. The thinkers credited are as follows:
Robert Boyle (the first true chemist who studied gases),
Isaac Newton (world famous physicist whose laws of motion revolutionised science),
Benjamin Franklin (made discoveries about electricity when not founding the United States)
Edward Jenner (pioneered vaccinations with an experiment to combat smallpox)
Charles Babbage (conceived of and created the first computer - or 'Difference Engine')
 Stampss showing great thinkers of the Royal Society |
Alfred Russel Wallace (naturalist who conceived of evolution by natural selection independently of Darwin)
Joseph Lister (pioneered antiseptic surgery)
Ernest Rutherford (proposed the planetary model of the atom)
Dorothy Hodgkin (developed crystallography, revealing the structure of biological molecules)
Sir Nicholas Shackleton (his work is used in understanding Climate Change)
A set of stamps depicting classic rock album images was released last month.
