In 1802-03, the Enlightenment polymath Thomas Young, professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution, gave a course of lectures that is perhaps the most far-ranging ever given. More than a century later, the journal Nature called them “the greatest and most original of all general lecture courses”. In 1973, on Young’s bicentenary, the Science Museum noted that Young “probably had a wider range of creative learning than any other Englishman in history”.

A professional physician at St George’s Hospital, London, Young is celebrated for his work in physics, physiology, linguistics and Egyptology. In physics, he showed that light is a wave, contra Newton’s corpuscular theory, with his double-slit experiment; and discovered Young’s modulus to describe the ratio of stress to strain in materials. In physiology, he explained how the eye focuses and the nature of astigmatism, and proposed the correct explanation of colour vision. In linguistics and Egyptology, he coined the term Indo-European and began the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone, later taken up by Jean-Francois Champollion in his decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Young was also deeply involved in astronomy through his work as secretary of the Board of Longitude and superintendent of the Nautical Almanac.

Young’s polymathy is both fascinating and disturbing for us in an age of specialisation. Is such an unbridled pursuit of knowledge possible today—and if it is, is it a good idea?

Andrew Robinson holds degrees from Oxford University and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He has worked in book publishing, television and journalism, most recently as literary editor of The Times Higher Education Supplement from 1994-2006. He is currently a visiting fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge. He is the author of more than fifteen books in the areas of science/history of science, language, and Indian culture. These include the biographies Einstein: A Hundred Years of Relativity, The Man Who Deciphered Linear B: The Story of Michael Ventris, and Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye. His most recent book is a biography of Thomas Young, The last man who knew everything, described by Sir Patrick Moore as “the best biography I have read for many years”. His next book, The story of measurement, will be published by Thames and Hudson in the autumn of 2007.

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