Who was the greatest scientist alive during the period between Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton? It was Dutch polymath Christiaan Huygens who made huge contributions to astronomy, optics, and mechanics. His improvement of lenses for telescopes and invention of pendulum clocks, discovery of the first satellite and the ring around Saturn, and his wave theory of light are just a few of his accomplishments. After his death, however, his greatness was unjustly eclipsed by Newton. Although this is mainly a biography of Huygens, it tries […]