12:30 05 April 2011
From sketches on the margins of lecture notes to painstaking illustrations, the sparks of insight that moved scientific understanding forward can take many forms. Flip through these pages from the Royal Society's collection to discover how some of science's great thinkers recorded their moments of inspiration.
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Histology takes root
Equipped with a microscope, the 17th-century Italian scientist Marcello Malpighi meticulously documented the anatomy of plants and animals. Many discoveries carry his name as a result. This detailed study of a bean plant taking root is just one of his many portraits of biological development. His microscope observations helped found the field of histology – the study of tissues through the microscope – paving the way for future work in embryology, anatomy and botany.
(Image: Marcello Malpighi/Royal Society)