Royal Society inauguration

I want to make a start on this post, even though I know I won't finish it in one session, so expect to see me adding to it as the day goes by. And possibly tomorrow, too.

Last week, Jenny, along with 44 others, was inaugurated into the Royal Society, which is the most prestigious scientific society in the UK. It was formed in 1660, chartered by Charles II, and early members included people like Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke (invented the microscope), Christopher Wren (designed many new buildings for the rebuilding work after the fire of London in 1666), and more recently, Joseph Banks (botanist explorer), Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking, David Attenborough.

Wednesday and Thursday were taken up with the new fellows each giving a brief talk about their work. On Thursday I went down to London to join in the fun, along with all the other spouses, at a dinner in Burlington House, the home of the RS. It was excellent, and I could tell what a wonderful time I'd had by the state of my head the following morning.

On Friday morning the new fellows heard talks by several of the officers of the society, then there was lunch, followed by the actual inauguration, during which the new fellows sign the same charter book that all previous fellows have signed. The pages are vellum, the pen is a quill, and of course, every few years they have to add more pages, but everyone's signature is there, including Newton and Darwin. Sadly, I didn't get a photograph of any famous signatures, though I did photograph Jenny's page. Jenny's X is in the middle of the middle column of the left-hand page.

If I'm going to name-drop, at lunch on Friday, I sat next to a lady called Cheryl Holdren, wife of John Holdren, who is one of Barak Obama's science advisers. Sadly, I didn't realise who they were until later, but we did talk briefly about the appalling rise of creationism in the USA and the UK. She wasn't aware that we have the same problem here, albeit on a smaller scale.

Incredibly, I completely failed to take a picture of Jenny herself, so will have to wait until Angela Milner (colleague and long-term friend, as well as BMNH dinosaur expert) sends me copies of the ones she took. (Now sorted, as you'll have noticed!)

So I had the morning free, and went to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, which was just up the road. It was the expected mixture of the brilliant and the rubbish, but it was definitely worth the visit. Photography is strictly forbidden, so I took a few, apologising profusely each time I was caught, the way you do.

The village scene in the middle is by my cousin, Michael Johnson, who is a trained artist, and you can see from the red dot that it has been sold. Good for him!