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 11 January 2025)

In 1783, Josiah Wedgwood invented the first practical means of measuring high temperatures in a kiln.

1783

Wedgwood scale The scale Workable degrees Commentary

Josiah Wedgwood thermometry

Recently

1782	Tellurium Atomic number 52 Earth miners Commentary	Transylvania—Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein, Martin Heinrich Klaproth elements
1781, 1783	Tungsten Atomic number 74 Hard stuff Commentary	Uppsala, Bergara—Torbern Bergman, Juan José Elhuyar, Fausto Elhuyar elements
1781	Discovery of Uranus Telescopes Hidden Commentary	William Herschel astronomy
1780	Mysorean rockets Fathul Mujahidin The impermanence of war Commentary	Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan manufacturing
1778, 1781	Molybdenum Atomic number 42 Light and strong Commentary	Uppsala—Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Peter Jacob Hjelm elements
1778, 1845	Diamagnetism Levitation No energy expended Commentary	Sebald Justinus Brugmans, Michael Faraday electromagnetism
1774, 1810	Chlorine The meaning of oxygen Pale green Offenses Commentary	Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Humphry Davy 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.