News from the Royal Society's Library and Archives

As the library has a role in preserving the Institute's history as well as providing up-to-the-minute science information, we're always looking for web resources to use - this one came to light as a result of a Google search for something entirely different, the joy of serendipity.

The Royal Society's Library and Archives have a rather nice News page, where each month they highlight items from their collections including:

• Archive of the month - August entry: the creation of a science time capsule for 2057
• Fellow of the month - August entry: James Chadwick FRS (linked to the 75th anniversary celebrations of his discovery of neutrons)
• Picture of the month - Drawing of an Australian Cuttlefish by Sir Frederick McCoy FRS
• Book of the month - Lucretius "De rerum natura" looking at his early atomic theory of matter

You can see what has been covered in the past by browsing the New Archive. In the news archive I found two entries on archives which are related to NIMR: The Henry Dale Papers and the Sir John Henry Gaddum Papers . The entries are quite short, but do sometimes include search tips the Society's catalogues.

Molecular biology archives

The National Library of Medicine, a constituent institute of the National Institutes of Health, announces the release of an extensive selection from the papers of Sol Spiegelman (1914-1983), a pioneering molecular biologist whose discoveries helped reveal the mechanisms of gene action and laid the foundations of recombinant DNA technology, on the Profiles in Science website.

In a separate development, the notebooks used by Fred Sanger, Britain's most decorated scientist, to record experiments that won him two Nobel prizes have been saved for the nation, reports the Observer on 5th August . The Wellcome Trust has stepped in to take possession of the books in which Sanger noted down the progress of research that led to his winning a chemistry Nobel prize in 1958 and a second in 1980, a chemistry double that has never been matched. 'Sanger was the father of genome sequencing,' said Clare Matterson of the Wellcome Trust. 'With his notebooks, we now have a clear record of his influences and thought processes. It would have been tragic if these notebooks had ended up outside Britain.'

Today's work is tomorrow's history

A letter in Nature from Sydney Brenner and Richard Roberts, urges scientists to take an interest in future history. Referring to recent advances in molecular biology, they say

Where are the original notes, and the patent and manuscript drafts that accompanied these stupendous advances? Nowadays, these are recorded in ephemeral electronic media that are far too easily lost with the push of a button or the failure of a hard drive. Yet historians need all forms of data about the workings of scientists so that they can document the development of today's innovations and inspire future generations to pursue similar lofty goals inscience.