To commemorate the Royal Society's 350th anniversary this year, the UK's academy for the sciences has created an online timeline that is the envy of a lot of Internet designers and site creators. Trailblazing, the timeline, was compiled by scientists, science communicators and historians. It provides a useful way to introduce youngsters - and quite a few adults - to the development of science over three-and-a-half centuries.

The 60 articles one can access via the timeline were selected from the Royal Society's archive of 60,000 published between 1665 and 2010. From Boyle's transfusion of blood from one dog to another and the Great Fire of London in 1666, through to attempts to capture lightning, the confirmation of Einstein's theory of relativity, the discovery of DNA and Stephen Hawking's theory on black holes the timeline also captures the concerns of the times.

The final article is a recent paper on geoengineering the climate to combat global warming. Some of the ideas put forward include filtering sunlight by positioning a trillion sunshades in space; launching fleets of robot ships spraying water into the atmosphere; and fertilising carbon-absorbing plankton by dumping tons of iron into the oceans. The timeline is available here: http://trailblazing.royalsociety.org

Speaking of trends of the time, a more accurate take of the pulse of technology in our times has been published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The OECD's annual science, technology and industry scoreboard indicates the directions innovation will be taking in 2010.

The ninth edition of Industry Scoreboard found that patents in renewable energy and air pollution control increased more rapidly than total patents filed under the Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT) over 1996 to 2006.

The US accounted for over 42 percent of pharmaceutical patents in the mid-2000s; China and India together account for only five percent of the total. Patents in the sector have decreased in some countries in recent years; a result says the OECD of, ore stringent criteria on the patenting of genetic inventions.

Nanotechnology, the science of the very small, is one of the rising stars of science but it still only holds one percent of the total patents filed. Surprisingly, Singapore is singled out as the country most specialised in nanotechnology.

International trade in high-technology goods are a growth area for manufacturers. In 2007 high and medium-high-technology manufactures accounted for 23 percent and 39 percent, respectively, of total manufacturing trade.

Globalisation is also a factor in who is involved. The share of OECD countries in total world trade in information and communication technology (ICT) goods and services decreased from 75 percent in 1997 to 52 percent in 2007 with the rapid rise in trade from non-OECD Asian economies.

Internationalisation is occurring in research. On average, about 15 percent of the patents filed by an OECD country in 2004 to 06 under the Patent Co-operation Treaty related to inventions made abroad. In a similar vein, 21.9 percent of scientific articles involved international co-authorship in 2007, which is three times higher than in 1985.

However, with the global economic crisis one of the first expenditures to be cut is on research and development (R&D) and venture capital. That is true of previous recessions. Preliminary data confirms this trend for the first half of 2009, the OECD found. As well, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to the Group of Seven countries decreased by 25 percent in 2008. The UK avoided this trend. FDI inflows to the UK more than doubled in the first quarter of 2009, back to the same level as the previous year.

The OECD's conclusion for the rest who do not invest in innovation?

"As foreign affiliates provide access to new technologies and generate knowledge spillovers for domestic firms, lower inflows of FDI will reduce innovation capabilities in the host country," the report states.

Send any comments to elamin.ahmedgmail.com