On a damp night in November 1660, a dozen men gathered at Gresham College in London to hear the young - and not yet famous Christopher Wren give a lecture on astronomy. When he had finished, the small audience, inspired by the philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon, decided to form an association to assist and promote the accumulation of useful knowledge. The Society - as it was called at first - met weekly to witness experiments and discuss scientific matters. By 1662 it had secured a Royal Charter from King Charles II and became the Royal Society.

Since then, fellows of the Royal Society have created whole new branches of science, split the atom, discovered hydrogen, the double helix and the electron. They have invented the World Wide Web, developed profound theories on evolution, gravity and motion, and furthered our understanding of everything from stock market analysis and astrophysics to electricity and biodiversity. They have tested the very limits of knowledge itself.

In Seeing Further, introduced and edited by Bill Bryson, some of today's most distinguished writers offer reflections on the immense achievements - and disputations - of science since the foundation of the Royal Society. Chapters include James Gleick on the Royal Society's days of 'exuberant inquiry'; Steve Jones on biodiversity; Richard Dawkiris on Darwin; Neal Stephenson on metaphysics and the epic feud between Newton and Leibniz; Richard Fortey on the importance of scientific collections; Richard Holmes on heroic early ballooners: Margaret Atwood on mad scientists, and many more. The book ends with its eye on the future as the Royal Society's current President, Martin Rees, outlines his vision for science over the next fifty vears.

Seeing Further is a lively, learned celebration of the many Big Ideas pioneered bv the Royal Society, of its long legacy of expanding our horizons and of science itself. The book is lavishly illustrated from the Society's rich archive.