Leaders of Science

Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestly
This entry is part [part not set] of 3 in the series Age of Reason and Enlightenment

Joseph Priestley radical dissenter and champion for the open and inquiring mind. Joseph Priestly was quite possibly one of the most important thinkers of the Enlightenment. His direct and open inquiry into both religious beliefs and ideas was also directed at science, politics and society. Who was Joseph Priestley? He was born on the 13th…

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Matthew Boulton

Matthew Boulton

Matthew Boulton could be described as the father of the Industrial Revolution but his name is less well known than that of his partner James Watt. Matthew Boulton was born in Birmingham in 1728, the same year as Captain James Cook and into an age of enlightenment, reason and industrial revolution. His early years were…

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Laura Bassi Scientist

Laura Bassi

Laura Bassi was born in Bologna in 1711, the same year as St Paul’s Cathedral in London was completed. Laura Maria Caterina Bassi was a brilliant and erudite young woman, born into a heady atmosphere of early 18th century Bologna, a melting pot of ideas and fusion of like minded scholars, caught in the bosom…

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Foretelling The Future. The Science of Hooke and Higgs

Hooke and Hggs Boson Collision of Particles

Robert Hooke’s memorial tablet in St Paul’s Cathedral, calls Hooke ‘One of the most ingenious men who ever lived’, Hooke had the ability to creatively question science, to prompt debate and hopefully to make others think about future developments, even hundreds of years after his death. Peter Higgs never thought that his theories and predictions would be realized in his lifetime, just like Hooke and other great scientists his work has paved the way for others to think creatively and the result has been the discovery of the Higg’s Boson.

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