9 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
American inventor and entrepreneur — founder of Polaroid Corporation — inventor of the Polaroid instant camera and polarizing film — one of Steve Jobs's primary inspirations for combining technology with liberal arts.
English mathematician and physicist — who invented calculus (simultaneously with Leibniz), formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, demonstrated that white light is composed of a spectrum, and built the first practical reflecting telescope — Warden/Master of the Royal Mint in his later career.
Robert Wood's 1905 foundational textbook on physical optics — which established the modern experimental basis for the science of light — and which reflected Wood's lifetime of extraordinary experimental optical physics work.
American optical technology company co-founded by Edwin Land that dominated instant photography from 1948 until digital photography made its core business obsolete — a canonical case study in how an innovation monopoly can fail to adapt to a technological paradigm shift.
American experimental physicist at Johns Hopkins who made fundamental contributions to physical optics — discovering Wood's anomalies, pioneering ultraviolet and infrared photography — while being known as one of science's great characters, a man who turned scientific investigation into performance art.
English friar and philosopher — who argued for empirical observation and experimentation in natural philosophy centuries before Francis Bacon — made contributions to optics, calendar reform, and the theory of lenses — sometimes called the first scientist.
A three-volume work by Hermann von Helmholtz (1856–1867) that systematically analyzed the physiology and psychology of human visual perception.
Carl Zeiss's Jena-founded German optical instruments company — producer of microscopes, telescopes, camera lenses, and medical optics — one of the most respected precision optics manufacturers in history.
Dutch draper and self-taught scientist who, using handmade microscopes of unprecedented power, became the first person to observe bacteria, protozoa, and the microscopic world — founding the science of microbiology.