#OnThisDay in 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 1 probe on its journey to study the outer solar system. After 42 years of operation, the probe is still transmitting data, and at over 13.9 billion miles from Earth, is the most distant man-made object from work. #SpaceExploration 

We are happy to announce the shortlist for the 2020 Royal Society Young People's Book Prize! From the microbes in your gut, through the poetic language of code to the wonders of space and beyond, find out more about this year's selections. #YoungSciBooks 

Born #OnThisDay  in 1632 was Antonie van Leeuwenhoek FRS, pioneering microbiologist and microscopist. His interest in lens making led to his discovery of microbial life, and he was one of the first to experiment with microbes, or 'animalcules' as he called them. #HistoryOfScience 

Join us on Thursday as @harrietbulkeley , @mtadie , Pete Smith and Jim Skea explore the 'new normal' after #COVID19  and the opportunity for a green recovery after the pandemic. Find out more. #YouAndThePlanet 

Join us online on November 12 for the 2020 Michael Faraday Prize Lecture with Professor David Spiegelhalter@d_spiegel , in discussion with @TimHarford  about communicating statistics in the time of #COVID19 , and how to understand risk. Find out more:

Born #OnThisDay  in 1642 was one of the greatest and most infuential scientific minds in history, Sir Isaac Newton PRS.

Join economist Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta & Nobel-prize winning biologist Sir Venki Ramakrishnan tomorrow at 2pm on our YouTube channel as they discuss the #DasguptaReview  on the economics of biodiversity. You can submit your questions in advance here:

Yuri Gagarin, the Russian cosmonaut and the first person to journey to space, was born #onthisday  in 1934. He piloted the Vostok 1 mission in 1961 and spent one hour and 48 minutes in space.

New research in @RSocPublishing  #BiologyLetters  reveals that 19th century sperm whales made cultural changes to their behaviour to avoid the harpoons of whalers. The study has implications for the way modern whales cope with changes caused by humans.

Born #OnThisDay  in 1921 was Mary Jackson, @NASA 's first black female engineer. She developed expertise working with wind tunnels and analysing data on aircraft flight experiments, and eventually became an equal opportunity specialist to help women & minorities. #WomenInSTEM