The notes of 17th century researcher Robert Hooke were posted on the Internet on Monday, opening an online window into the man who helped drive Britain's scientific revolution and laying bare his professional rivalries with the likes of Sir Isaac Newton.

The notes, lost for centuries before their discovery in 2005, cast new light on developments at Britain's Royal Society, where scientists discussed microscopes, micro-organisms, and planetary motion.

Royal Society scholars called the find "one of those discoveries that historians of science dream of."