The Last Man who Knew Everything

<p>No one has given the polymath Thomas Young (1773-1829) the all-round examination he so richly deserves-until now. Celebrated biographer Andrew Robinson portrays a man who solved mystery after mystery in the face of ridicule and rejection and never sought fame.</p><p><br></p><p>As a physicist Young challenged the theories of Isaac Newton and proved that light is a wave. As a physician he showed how the eye focuses and proposed the three-colour theory of vision only confirmed a century and a half later. As an Egyptologist he made crucial contributions to deciphering the Rosetta Stone. It is hard to grasp how much Young knew.</p><p><br></p><p>This biography is the fascinating story of a driven yet modest hero who cared less about what others thought of him than for the joys of an unbridled pursuit of knowledge-with a new foreword by Martin Rees and a new postscript discussing polymathy in the two centuries since the time of Young. It returns this neglected genius to his proper position in the pantheon of great scientific thinkers.</p>