section_path: Education/Royal Observatory, Greenwich and learned societies
section_name: Royal Observatory, Greenwich and learned societies
paragraph_text: Royal Observatory, Greenwich and learned societies
  
  Founded in 1675, the Royal Observatory in Greenwich was established to address the problem of calculating longitude for navigational purposes. This pioneering work in solving longitude featured in astronomer royal Nevil Maskelyne 's Nautical Almanac which made the Greenwich meridian the universal reference point, and helped lead to the international adoption of Greenwich as the prime meridian (0° longitude) in 1884.
  
  Important scientific learned societies based in London include the Royal Society —the UK's national academy of sciences and the oldest national scientific institution in the world—founded in 1660, and the Royal Institution, founded in 1799. Since 1825, the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures have presented scientific subjects to a general audience, and speakers have included physicist and inventor Michael Faraday, aerospace engineer Frank Whittle, naturalist David Attenborough and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.