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 27 June 2026)

In 1830, Charles Lyell established uniformitarianism in geology, which replaced catastrophism and assumes that effects observable today operating over long periods of time are enough to explain the geologic record.

1830

Principles of geology Uniformitarianism Devolution Commentary

Charles Lyell geology

Recently

1829	Thorium Atomic number 90 Radioactive stuff Commentary	Stockholm—Morten Thrane Esmark, Jöns Jacob Berzelius elements
1829	Non-Euclidean geometry Non-Euclidean house Postulates Commentary	Nicolai Lobachevsky, János Bolyai, Bernhard Riemann geometry
1828	Nicol prism Famous prisms Secondary qualities Commentary	William Nicol optics
1828	Synthesis of urea Enzymes Vital forces Commentary	Friedrich Wöhler chemistry
1827	Ohm’s law The circuit Contiguity Commentary	Georg Ohm electromagnetism
1826	Eggs and embryos Homunculi Commentary	Karl Ernst von Baer embryology
1825	Benzene Benzene names Benzene lamp Cooking with gas Commentary	Michael Faraday chemistry
1825, 1826	Bromine Atomic number 35 Rare dyes Commentary	Heidelberg—Carl Jacob Löwig, Leopold Gmelin, Antoine Jérôme Balard elements

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.