‘On November 30th 1660 a dozen men gathered to hear the young Christopher Wren give a lecture on astronomy. In the discussion that followed they decided to form a society for the study of the new and still controversial Experimental Philosophy. Two years later Charles II made it his Royal Society and in the 350 years since it was founded, its Fellows have given us gravity, evolution, the electron, the double helix, the internet and a large part of the modern world. In 2010 we celebrate 350 years of scientific brilliance and fearless doubt.’

– The Royal Society, 350th anniversary celebrations

With the birth of the Royal Society came the birth of modern science – or so many say. As so eloquently put by The Economist earlier this year, ‘the ancient Babylonians had developed complex mathematical techniques to record the stars, the Greeks systemised the organisation of knowledge based on logic, Islamic scholars wrote astronomical and medical texts and Chinese inventors recorded recipes for gunpowder but none of these became self-sustaining in the way that science is today.’

The oldest scientific academy in existence, the Royal Society and the many men and women who have passed through its doors are responsible for what we understand as science today – the process of acquiring knowledge based on applying the scientific method and the body of knowledge gained through such research. Through this, the society and its vocational offspring, science, revolutionised the way people think about – even process – the world.

I had hoped to attend some of the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary celebrations in London – and many more things besides – but a little thing called a volcano (we’ll leave the naming at that) got in my way. But let’s not get bogged down by my holiday woes. Why, might you ask, would a tribute to the birth of science lure a marketer to the British Museum in the first place?

Well, as a marketer who once practised medicine, my CV is perhaps one of the best viewing platforms from which to appreciate the achievements of science. As a young medical scientist, I observed the ability of experimental science to make sense of the world’s mysteries, from why hot air rises to why what goes up must come down – albeit at a more sophisticated level than I’ve just articulated. Later, as a clinician, I would observe the life-changing (often life-saving) advancements delivered by scientific research, from new drugs with novel mechanisms of action to new-fangled procedures and devices that would revolutionise the way we treat disease. And now, even later still, as a marketer, I continue to observe how the application of science can satisfy human needs in a wholly different sense, via some of the most marketable products in the world – the Apple Mac (and every i-variant that followed), Windows XP, Intel’s Core Duo Processor and Toyota’s Prius, just to name a few.

From jet airliners to drugs to iPods, science continually endows society with ways to sustain itself (and arguably to consume). Surely, then, science will also endow us with the solutions to the current and emerging global crises brought about by overconsumption?

But what of the Royal Society’s own prediction for the future? According to its President, Lord Rees: ‘The sun formed 4.5 billion years ago, but it’s got 6 billion more before the fuel runs out. Any creatures witnessing the sun’s demise 6 billion years hence, here on Earth or beyond, won’t be human – they’ll be as different from us as we are from bacteria.’ So if science is our seer, life will go on. We just don’t know yet what form it will take. Anyone else want to make a prediction of royal proportions?

Those interested in reading more about the history of the Royal Society can do so by getting their hands on a copy of Seeing Further: The Story of Science and the Royal Society, edited by Bill Bryson, HarperPress.

Candice O’Sullivan is Head of Strategy at WellmarkPerspexa, a business-to-business communications agency specialising in complex brands and their audiences (we’d argue that it’s the perfect mix of science and magic!).

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