The Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (formerly known as Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society) is an academic journal published annually by the Royal Society. It publishes obituaries of Fellows of the Royal Society. Biographical Memoirs has been published since 1955; Obituary Notices was published from 1932-1954 including biographies of Arthur Eddington, Ernest Rutherford and Max Planck. Prior to this, obituaries were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. They then developed from being relatively short, traditional obituaries to biographical essays. After 1955, the memoirs include life studies of many widely known scientists including Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi , Alan Turing, Bertrand Russell, Erwin Schrödinger ‎and Claude Shannon

The obituaries are often quite long and detailed. They include portraits provided by the Society's extensive archive and a copy of the original signature in the Royal Society Charter Book which all new Fellows must sign at election. Each memoir includes a full bibliography of work by the subjects. The memoirs are often written by a scientist of the next generation, often one of the subject's own former students, or a close colleague. In most cases the author is also a Fellow.

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London". The Society today acts as a scientific advisor to the British government, receiving a parliamentary grant-in-aid. The Society acts as the UK's Academy of Sciences, and funds research fellowships and scientific start-up companies.

The Society is governed by its Council, which is chaired by the Society's President, according to a set of Statutes and Standing Orders. The members of Council and the President are elected from and by its Fellows, the basic members of the Society, who are themselves elected by existing Fellows. There are currently 1,314 Fellows, allowed to use the postnominal title FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society), with 44 new Fellows appointed each year. There are also Royal Fellows, Honorary Fellows and Foreign Fellows, the last of which are allowed to use their postnominal title ForMemRS (Foreign Member of the Royal Society). The current Royal Society President is Sir Paul Nurse, who took up the position on 30 November 2010.

A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members. In the social sciences, a larger society often evinces stratification and/or dominance patterns in subgroups.

Insofar as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would not otherwise be possible on an individual basis; both individual and social (common) benefits can thus be distinguished, or in many cases found to overlap.

A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within a dominant, larger society. This is sometimes referred to as a subculture, a term used extensively within criminology.

John Bosco (Italian: Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco; 16 August 1815 – 31 January 1888), known as Don Bosco, was an Italian Roman Catholic priest, educator and writer of the 19th century, who put into practice the convictions of his religion, dedicating his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth and employing teaching methods based on love rather than punishment, a method known as the Salesian Preventive System. A follower of the spirituality and philosophy of Francis de Sales, Bosco dedicated his works to him when he founded the Salesians of Don Bosco. Together with Maria Domenica Mazzarello, he founded the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, a religious congregation of nuns dedicated to the care and education of poor girls. In 1876 Bosco founded a movement of laity, the Association of Salesian Cooperators, with the same educational mission to the poor. In 1875 he published the Salesian Bulletin. The Bulletin has remained in continuous publication, and is currently published in 50 different editions and 30 languages.