The Last Man Who Knew Everything Thomas Young, the Anonymous Polymath Who Proved Newton Wrong, Explained How We See, Cured the Sick, and Deciphered the Rosetta Stone, Among Other Feats of Genius (Revised Edition)

• Main Author: Robinson, Andrew (auth)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Open Book Publishers 2023
• Subjects: Biography: general; Diaries, letters & journals; Biography: science, technology & medicine; Egyptian archaeology / Egyptology; Thomas Young;physicist;physician;decipher;Egyptologist;Rosetta Stone;biography
• Online Access: OAPEN Library: download the publication; OAPEN Library: description of the publication

Summary

No one has given the polymath Thomas Young (1773-1829) the all-round examination he so richly deserves-until now. Celebrated biographer Andrew Robinson portrays a man who solved mystery after mystery in the face of ridicule and rejection, and never sought fame. As a physicist, Young challenged the theories of Isaac Newton and proved that light is a wave. As a physician, he showed how the eye focuses and proposed the three-colour theory of vision, only confirmed a century and a half later. As an Egyptologist, he made crucial contributions to deciphering the Rosetta Stone. It is hard to grasp how much Young knew. This biography is the fascinating story of a driven yet modest hero who cared less about what others thought of him than for the joys of an unbridled pursuit of knowledge-with a new foreword by Martin Rees and a new postscript discussing polymathy in the two centuries since the time of Young. It returns this neglected genius to his proper position in the pantheon of great scientific thinkers.

Physical Description

1 electronic resource (296 p.)

ISBN

OBP.0344
9781805110187
9781805110194
9781805110217
9781805110224
9781805110231
9781805110248

Access

Open Access