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Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov: The Father of Russian Science
| Article
# : |
17079 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1990 |
2,407 Words |
| Author
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George B. Kauffman
George B. Kauffman is professor of chemistry at California
State University, Fresno. A Guggenheim Fellow, he is a
contributing editor to four journals and the author of
fifteen
books and more than 950 articles on chemistry, the history of
science and technology, and chemical education. |
There are few names in the history of science that have been more strangely passed over than that of Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov. Because his life was spent for the most part beyond the confines of the scientific world of the eighteenth century, his ideas and his influence never made themselves felt outside Russia, but there he is revered as the real founder of Russian science with as just a title as Leibniz in Germany or Frankilin in the United States.
These words of John Desmond Bernal, crystallographer and historian of science, are as true today as when he uttered them 50 years ago. For Lomonosov's name still remains largely unknown, particularly outside the Soviet Union. One of the most widely educated men of his time, Lomonosov was a true Renaissance man who played a crucial role in Russian culture and science. At first great Russian scientist, he made valuable contributions to physics, chemistry, geochemistry, astronomy, cartography, geology, glass making, technology and the organization of science in his backward, isolated homeland. But he was also active in history, languages, poetry, philosophy, literature, art, education, and social reform. Pushkin called him "Russia's first university." The 225th anniversary of Lomonosov's death provides an ideal opportunity to bring to this unjustly neglected scholar the wider recognition that his pioneering contributions so richly deserve.
Early Years
Lomonosov was born on November 8 (Old Style)/ November 19 (New Style), 1711, in Mishaninskaia, a small village on a remote island about 50 miles from the port of Archangel on the fringe of the Arctic Circle - a most unlikely locale for the
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