Who is nicholas steno

This combination of events meant that his works seems to have been largelly set aside for over a century, thereby escaping severe criticism. Steno also provided the foundations for crystallography. He noticed that different quartz crystals had different appearances, but every quartz crystal had the same angles between corresponding faces.

Steno's Catholicism meant that he had to reconcile his geologic observations with a Biblical history of 6, years. He was able to do this by believing that most of the rocks were formed in the flood recorded in the book of Genesis. In the Apenninne Mountains near Florence, he saw that the lower levels of rocks had no fossils while the upper ones were filled with fossils. Steno believed that the difference between the levels was the flood - the fossils recorded in the upper levels were placed there during the flood.

While this is not an accepted view today, it does mark the first recorded attempt by a scientist to distinguish between different time periods based on geologic evidence. For Steno, all publications had to be approved by Catholic censors. During that time, Steno lost interest and never went back to scientific research.

The publication of his work only happened because it was arranged by Vincenzo Viviani. Ironically, while Steno spent the last twenty years of his life performing charitable work with the Catholic church, what he is best remembered for is the work he did in his three years as a geologist.

Aber, J. History of geology --Steno. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. Three years after they caught the shark, Steno concluded that all rocks must have once been fluid and then solidified around and on top of fossils, veins of metal — or even older layers of rock.

Since new rock keeps burying and sealing off old rock, then there must be horizontal layers, or strata, throughout the earth. This idea helped explain a fundamental part of geology: the deeper you dig, the older the stone. This allows modern geologists to make conclusions about the past, based on the depth of the rocks they study. The breakthrough is essential to the study of ancient human societies, dinosaurs, and historical climate change.

It also explains Wednesday's Google doodle. The colorful layers in each letter signify Steno's strata. But there's another lesson in Steno's work: Never feel constrained by your current job or previous accomplishments.

Who would have thought that the son of a Danish goldsmith could make major contributions to multiple, diverse fields? Curiosity has an interesting way of leading people to great, unexpected things. For more on how science and technology intersect daily life, follow Chris on Twitter venturenaut. Already a subscriber?

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And we can prove it. Your subscription to The Christian Science Monitor has expired. You can renew your subscription or continue to use the site without a subscription. He learned German from friends and acquaintances of his parents. He learned Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic at school.

Later he acquired Dutch, French, Italian and English. It is as if these fortunate persons had been present when this magnificent organ was created. In Steno travelled via Pisa and Rome to Florence. There he attracted the attention of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand II , who appointed Steno to a hospital post that left him time for his research. When around , fishermen caught a shark near Livorno , Duke Ferdinand ordered its head to be sent to Steno , who dissected it and published the findings one year later.

For instance, already Robert Hooke and John Ray argued that fossils were the remains of living organisms. These principles were applied and extended in by Jean-Baptiste L. Nicolas Steno stated that a solid object will cause any solids that form around it later to conform to its own shape.

It means that layers of rock are arranged in a time sequence, with the oldest on the bottom and the youngest on the top, unless later processes disturb this arrangement. Steno studied the cliffs and hills of Italy to find the answer.

He proposed that all rocks and minerals were originally fluid. Floating on the surface of the planet long ago, they gradually settled out of the ocean and created horizontal layers, with new layers forming on top of older ones. Molten rock sometimes intruded into the layers, reaching the top and spreading out into a new layer of its own. As the rocks formed, they could trap animal remains, converting them into fossils and preserving them deep within their layers.

Those horizontal layers represent a time sequence with the oldest layers on the bottom and the youngest on top, unless later processes disturbed this arrangement.