“It’s the most wonderful story”

An update to the previously noted extraordinary discovery of the manuscript of Robert Hooke’s notes and draft minutes from the Royal Society’s early years, 1661-1682.  The G’s NewsBlog was at the auction, and an article in today’s paper provides more details of how, with the assistance of the Wellcome Trust, the Royal Society struck a £1million-ish deal to return the manuscript to its archive.

As the manuscript consultant from Bonham’s auction house, quoted in the article, put it -

“Even a non-scientist must be moved to read in Hooke’s own handwriting of how he peered at bacteria through a microscope for practically the first time in history, or how he debated with Isaac Newton about the nature of gravity and the movement of the planets.”

Pete Baker @ 12:30 PM