Issac Newton, member and former president of Royal Society.

Although it was not the first such academy, the Royal Society in England was perhaps the first permanent organization dedicated to scientific activity. Its aim was to gather all knowledge about nature, particularly that knowledge which might be useful for the public good.

The Royal Society began as a group of natural philosophers who began meeting in the mid-1640s to discuss the ideas of Francis Bacon. The Society was to meet weekly to witness experiments and discuss what we would now call scientific topics. The first Curator of Experiments was Robert Hooke. It was in 1662 that Moray who first told the King, Charles II, of this venture and secured his approval and encouragement.

The purpose of the Royal Society was Baconian to the core. Its aim was to gather all knowledge about nature, particularly that knowledge which might be useful for the public good. Soon it became clear, however, that the Society's principal function was to serve as a clearing center for research. The Society maintained correspondence and encouraged foreign scholars to submit their discoveries to the Society. In 1665 the Society launched its Philosophical Transactions, the first professional scientific journal. The English example was followed on the continent as well: in 1666 Louis XIV accepted the founding of the French Royal Academy of Sciences and by 1700, similar organizations were established in Naples and Berlin.