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Culture, history and society

Culture, history and society

Thomas Young: prolific polymath and unassuming genius

14 Nov 2023

To mark the 250th anniversary of Thomas Young’s birth, Martin Rees, the UK’s Astronomer Royal, highlights the wide-ranging expertise and discoveries of the maverick British scientist

Painting of a man holding callipers up to his own eye
Polymath Thomas Young performed many physics and physiology experiments, including measuring his own eyeballs to help him explain astigmatism. (Courtesy: New York Public Library/Science Photo Library)
A version of this article was first published as the foreword to the second edition of Andrew Robins

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Martin Rees is a British cosmologist and astrophysicist. He is the 15th Astronomer Royal, and was master of Trinity College, Cambridge, from 2004 to 2012 and president of the Royal Society between 2005 and 2010

 
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