Lifelong Accomplishments
-Thomas Young is born 1792 -Young decided on a career in medicine. 1793 -Presented a paper before the Royal Society in which he attributed the accommodation of the eye to its muscular structure 1794 -Elected to membership of the Royal Society -After completing his medical studies at Edinburgh and Göttingen, he returned to London to practice but continued his scholarly studies at Emmanuel College, Cambridge -His uncle died, making him financially independent, allowing him to pursue his real interests 1798 -Some investigations on sound and light formed the starting point for his theory of interference 1799 -Began his medical practice in London -While attending medical school, he discovered how the lens of the human eye changes shape to focus on objects at different distances 1800 -Published his experiments on Sound and Light in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 1801 -Discovered the cause of astigmatism -Young and Helmholtz initiated the three color theory of perception. That the eye constructed its sense of color using only three receptors, red, green and blue -Appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution -Appointed Professor of Physics at Cambridge University -Presented a detailed account of his theory of interference in the Bakerian Lecture On the Theory of Light and Colors 1802 -He was appointed foreign secretary to the Royal Society, which he held to the end of his life -He resigned his position as a professor at the Royal Institution, because he felt that it was affecting his medical career -Received the MB degree from Cambridge 1803 -He announced his demonstration of the interference of light -Made other significant contributions to physical optics in the areas of double refraction and dispersion. 1807 -Received degree of MD from Cambridge 1814 -On one of Napoleon's expedition, he began studying the texts of Rosetta Stone, later contributing to the deciphering of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing -Retired from medical practice to devote full-time work to his scientific studies, which he continued for the remaining years of his life 1817 -Proposed that light waves were transverse (vibrating at right angles to the direction of travel), rather than longitudinal (vibrating in the direction of travel). 1829 -Thomas Young dies |
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