Science in Sweden: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 1739–1989

Frängsmyr, Tore, ed., 1989, viii + 291pp., Illus.   Although closely associated with the Nobel prizes for physics and chemistry (and the special prize for economics), establishment of the royal Swedish Academy of Sciences considerably predates Nobel's magnificent donation. In 1739 Carl Linnaeus and five other men decided to establish an academy similar to those which existed elsewhere in Europe. These men were both scientists and politicians and they shared the vision of science as the key to Sweden's future glory and prosperity. From its inception until the 1780s, the academy was the center of the country's flourishing scientific activity. Among its leading members were many scientists of international repute including, besides Linnaeus, the astronomers Anders Celsius, and Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, the chemists Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Torben Bergman, and J.G. Wallerius, as well as the physicists Samuel Klingenstierna and Johan Carl Wilcke. During his tenure as a permanent secretary (181