The Royal Society celebrates its 350th anniversay this year and in tonight's essay we hear how this week's Enlightenment figure, Robert Hooke was instrumental in its early success. Dr. Felicity Henderson, manager of the RS History of Science events looks through the archives to examine the exploits of the founder members and the Curator of Experiments, Robert Hooke. Their goal was straightforward: they wanted to collect as much information as possible about absolutely everthing (except 'God and the soul', which they decided to avoid from the outset). The Royal Society's motto, 'Nullius in Verba' loosely translates as 'take no-one's word for it'. Felicity sheds light on some of Hooke and his early fellows groundbreaking experiments in their quest to know everything.

Producer: Sarah Taylor

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