“With names like Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Stephen Hawking among its list of fellows, there’s really no other scientific institution with a history as illustrious as London’s Royal Society. In the mid-1600s, when the group was granted its royal charter, the founding members chose for their motto a Latin phrase: Nullius in verba. It’s a verse from the Roman poet Horace and it means “Upon the words of no one.” What this motto signified was that the new science was to be based on careful and reproducible experiments. Hearsay would no longer substitute for firsthand evidence. And the words “Trust me, I’m an expert” could no longer suffice as scientific proof.”