Welcome to The book of science. Come here each week to find poetry and commentary on another milestone of the history of science.

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This week (starting 22 August 2026)

In 1834, Jean Charles Athanase Peltier created the first solid-state heating and cooling.

1834

Peltier effect Findings Electrical units Solid-state effects Commentary

Jean Charles Athanase Peltier electromagnetism

Recently

1834	Laws of electrolysis History of electrolysis Periodic Commentary	Michael Faraday physics
1834	Cro-Magnons A place in time Myth Commentary	Édouard Lartet, Louis Lartet primatology
1833, 1843	Wheatstone bridge Christie bridge Other bridges Commentary	Samuel Hunter Christie, Charles Wheatstone electromagnetism
1833	‘Scientist’ Coinages ‘Poetist’ Commentary	William Whewell philosophy of science
1831	Faraday wave Good standing Cymatics Commentary	Michael Faraday acoustics
1831	Electric generator Electric generators Regen Commentary	Michael Faraday electromagnetism
1831	Faraday’s law of induction Lines of force Change of flux Commentary	Michael Faraday electromagnetism

Parts of this book

You may jump to some parts of The book of science directly by selecting menu items:

• About, more about this book
• Contents, a table of milestones in the history of science, arranged chronologically
• Elements, tables for the chemical elements
  • Periodic table of the elements
  • Index of elements by year of discovery
  • Index of elements by atomic number
• Scientists, index of scientists, by last name
• Sciences, index of sciences
• Eponymous, index of milestones named after scientists
• Keywords, index of keywords in poems and titles
• Search, where you can search the book by word or phrase

Related works

You may read subsets of The book of science as separate volumes. These generally contain only the last poem on each milestone from the full book:

• Elements of elements of science
• The booklet of science

This web site also includes other works by Tom Sharp and work by other poets.