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oapen-20.500.12657-631952024-03-28T08:18:53Z The Last Man Who Knew Everything Robinson, Andrew Rees, Martin Thomas Young;physicist;physician;decipher;Egyptologist;Rosetta Stone;biography thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DNB Biography: general thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DND Diaries, letters and journals thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DNB Biography: general::DNBT Biography: science, technology and medicine thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NK Archaeology::NKD Archaeology by period / region thema EDItEUR::1 Place qualifiers::1Q Other geographical groupings: Oceans and seas, historical, political etc::1QB Historical states, empires, territories and regions::1QBA Ancient World::1QBAE Ancient Egypt 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. 2023-06-05T08:29:25Z 2023-06-05T08:29:25Z 2023 book 9781805110187 9781805110194 9781805110217 9781805110224 9781805110231 9781805110248 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/63195 eng application/pdf Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International 9781805110200.pdf https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/OBP.0344 Open Book Publishers 10.11647/OBP.0344 10.11647/OBP.0344 23117811-c361-47b4-8b76-2c9b160c9a8b 9781805110187 9781805110194 9781805110217 9781805110224 9781805110231 9781805110248 ScholarLed 296 Cambridge open access
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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.
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