Robert Hooke

Name: Robert Hooke

Born: July 28, 1635, in Freshwater, Isle of Wight, England

Death: March 3, 1703 (Age: 67)

Computer-related contributions

• English architect, natural philosopher, and polymath.
• Known for Hooke's law and microscopy (applied the word 'cell').
• Built some early Gregorian telescopes.
• Promoted the use of microscopes for scientific exploration.
• Curator of experiments and member of the Royal Society.
• Surveyor to the city of London after the great fire of London.

Significant publications

• Micrographia.
• Collection of Lectures: Physical, Mechanical, Geographical and Astronomical (1679).
• Hevelius, A Description of Helioscopes with other instruments, Mechanical Improvement of Lamps, Remarks about Comets (1677).

Honors and awards

• Allan Chapman has referred to him as "England's Leonardo",
• Robert Gunther's Early Science in Oxford devotes five of its fourteen volumes to Hooke,

Quotes

"The truth is, the Science of Nature has been already too long made only a work of the Brain and the Fancy: It is now high time that it should return to the plainness and soundness of Observations on material and obvious things."