This is probably the most important development in making the true, raw, history of science as we know it accessible to those of us who pursue it as a hobby. The Proceedings of THE Royal Society are coming on-line, and they are even free, so far. I can’t think of a more significant event. This is the evolution of science and scientific thinking. When I was in Scotland at the Royal Observatory, it was the first time I was in a room with the full collection, and it was all I could do to not call in sick, for a month and stay and read. And, now, here it is, on-line for reading in front of my own fireplace. Visit:
http://trailblazing.royalsociety.org/
This website provides a collection of the curator’s 350 most important articles, integrated with a nice timeline and other graphics, it makes browsing the best of series painless and encourages you to venture into fields you wouldn’t otherwise take the time to research.
This was announced earlier this last week and caught by Frank Moreno, ORA staff member, who is always on the lookout for things interesting. The announcement is made at, among other places I expect, a BBC website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8385560.stm
Speaking of reading, and on-line, I’m finally in the market for an e-reader. The candidates appear to currently be the Sony e-book, the Amazon Kindle, and the soon to be Barnes and Noble Nook. Of these, only the Sony appears to be configured for open access. Does anyone out there have any experiences I should know about before making my holiday purchase?
The Arizona optics book collection, over 100 volumes of original optics books published pre-1920 are now at the book scanners, (KIRTAS in Victor, NY) and will soon be coming on-line on the Optical Research Associates website, courtesy of ORA and the University of Arizona. These are books I collected in the ‘90s, while on a mission to find a copy of Coddington (and will include Coddington’s book). Most of them, I never read, in detail, and some, like Dennis Taylor’s 1908 book on optical design, are true classics of the field. Hence, the need for an e-book reader. For those with an e-book reader, these books will be available, electronically, for download for, I believe, $2, (note the lack of zeros in that number). For those not ready to go electronically, a hard copy of your very own (in softcover) will be printed on-demand for $20, and a nicely bound hard cover, with gold ink label even (I think), for $50.
This new marketplace is going to make reading fun again. More as it comes to be.
