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 6 June 2026)

In 1828, William Nicol created the first plane polarizing prism by gluing together two pieces of Island spar.

1828

Nicol prism Famous prisms Secondary qualities Commentary

William Nicol optics

Recently

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.