Nullius in verba

The Royal Society of London…

• Had its first ‘learned society’ meeting in 1660
• From 1663 on it would be known as The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge
• Published Newton’s Principia Mathematica and Benjamin Franklin’s kite experiment demonstrating the electrical nature of lightning
• Backed James Cook’s journey to Tahiti, reaching Australia and New Zealand, to track the Transit of Venus
• Published the first report in English of inoculation against disease
• Approved Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine
• Documented the eruption of Krakatoa
• Published Chadwick’s detection of the neutron that would lead to the unleashing of the atom
• The leading scientists of the past four centuries can all be found among the 8,000 Fellows elected to the Society to date. From Newton to Darwin to Einstein and beyond, pioneers and paragons in their fields are elected by their peers
• The Royal Society’s motto ‘Nullius in verba’ is taken to mean ‘take nobody’s word for it’. It is an expression of the determination of Fellows to withstand the domination of authority and to verify all statements by an appeal to facts determined by experiment

In 2006, The Royal Society of London asked Exxon Mobil to make changes to its own public reports to reflect the scientific community’s prevailing views on climate change. The Royal Society alleged that Exxon Mobil was unfairly coloring the debate on climate change by misrepresenting how scientists think about the climate and that Exxon Mobil distributed public misinformation that declared it is difficult to determine the extent to which climate change can be attributed to human actions. According to the Royal Society of London, back in 2006, Exxon Mobil sent $2.9 million to 39 groups in the United States to spread misleading information about climate change.