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 21 February 2026)

In 1819, Augustin-Jean Fresnel and François Arago teased out the properties of polarized light and explained how light waves vibrate.

1819

Wave optics Fresnel lens The principles Commentary

Augustin-Jean Fresnel, François Arago optics

Recently

1818	Aethrioscope Radiative effect Clear Commentary	John Leslie thermometry
1817	Selenium Atomic number 34 Stuff with colors Commentary	Stockholm—Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Johan Gottlieb Gahn elements
1817	Cadmium Atomic number 48 Itai-itai disease Commentary	Göttingen—Karl Samuel Leberecht Hermann, Friedrich Stromeyer, Johann Christoff Heinrich Roloff elements
1817, 1821	Lithium Atomic number 3 Lithia waters Commentary	Stockholm, London—Johan August Arfwedson, William Thomas Brande elements
1817	Germ layers Gastrulation of the blastulation Embryogenesis Commentary	Heinz Christian Pander embryology
1817	Kater’s pendulum Little g Local variation Commentary	Christiaan Huygens, Gaspard de Prony, Henry Kater kinematics
1816	Stirling engine Heat engine, heat pump In the real world Commentary	Robert Stirling thermodynamics
1816	Electrical telegraph Other electrical telegraphs Marital telegraph Commentary	Francis Ronalds electromagnetism
1815	Prout’s hypothesis Proton, neutron Hypothesis Commentary	William Prout physics
1815	Fossil sequences Peculiarities of the strata Hidden sediments Commentary	William Smith stratigraphy

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.