'At last – a scintillating biography of Christiaan Huygens . . . Hugh Aldersley-Williams has evocatively illuminated this brilliant polymath who laid the foundations of modern European science.' Dr Patricia Fara, Emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge'Fascinating . . . an impressive piece of scholarship. I learned a lot.'John Gribbin, author of Six Impossible Things and In Search of Schrödinger's CatFilled with incident, discovery, and revelation, Dutch Light is a vivid account of Christiaan Huygens’s remarkable life and career, but it is also nothing less than the story of the birth of modern science as we know it. Europe’s greatest scientist during the latter half of the seventeenth century, Christiaan Huygens was a true polymath. A towering figure in the fields of astronomy, optics, mechanics, and mathematics, many of his innovations in methodology, optics and timekeeping remain in use to this day. Among his many achievements, he developed the theory of light travelling as a wave, invented the mechanism for the pendulum clock, and discovered the rings of Saturn – via a telescope that he had also invented.A man of fashion and culture, Christiaan came from a family of multi-talented individuals whose circle included not only leading figures of Dutch society, but also artists and philosophers such as Rembrandt, Locke and Descartes. The Huygens family and their contemporaries would become key actors in the Dutch Golden Age, a time of unprecedented intellectual expansion within the Netherlands. Set against a backdrop of worldwide religious and political turmoil, this febrile period was defined by danger, luxury and leisure, but also curiosity, purpose, and tremendous possibility.Following in Huygens’s footsteps as he navigates this era while shuttling opportunistically between countries and scientific disciplines, Hugh Aldersey-Williams builds a compelling case to reclaim Huygens from the margins of history and acknowledge him as one of our most important and influential scientific figures.
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams transports us to the Dutch Golden Age – a time of immense scientific and artistic innovation - in this histo-biography of Christiaan Huygens, one of Europe's leading, yet unsung, thinkers.
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This book, soaked like the Dutch Republic itself 'in ink and paint', is enchanting to the point of escapism . . . One of the best things about this absorbing book (and how many 500-page biographies feel too short when you finish them?) is the interest it shows in everyone else.
Les mer
Hugh Aldersey-Williams transports us to the Dutch Golden Age - a time of immense scientific and artistic innovation - in this histo-biography of Christiaan Huygens, one of Europe's leading, yet unsung, thinkers.
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781509893317
Publisert
2020-09-03
Utgiver
Vendor
Picador
Vekt
844 gr
Høyde
245 mm
Bredde
164 mm
Dybde
48 mm
Aldersnivå
00, G, U, P, 01, 05, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
560

Biographical note

Hugh Aldersey-Williams studied natural sciences at Cambridge. He is the author of several books exploring science, design and architecture – including Tide, Periodic Tales, Anatomies, The Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the 21st Century and Dutch Light – and has curated exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Wellcome Collection. He lives in Norfolk with his wife and son.