Young, Thomas (1773-1829), was an English physician and physicist who showed that light consists of waves. He discovered the interference of light, an effect caused by two light waves passing through the same space (see Interference ). He proposed a theory of color vision that is an essential part of modern theories. According to Young’s theory, different parts of the human eye are sensitive only to the colors red, green, and blue. The theory was further developed by the German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz and is known as the Young-Helmholtz theory or the trichromatic theory. See Color (History of color studies) .
Young also contributed greatly to the translation of the Rosetta stone. The Rosetta stone, discovered in 1799, is a large stone in which the same text was inscribed (carved) three times. The first inscription is in Egyptian hieroglyphics (picture symbols). The second inscription is in demotic, the popular language of Egypt when the stone was inscribed in about 200 B.C. The third inscription is in Greek. Scholars had been unable to read hieroglyphics for hundreds of years. Young’s work helped the French scholar Jean Francois Champollion translate the hieroglyphic text. See Rosetta stone .
Young was born on June 13, 1773, in Milverton, Somerset, and trained as a physician at Edinburgh University in Scotland, Gottingen University in Germany, and Cambridge University in England. In 1820, he became professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution. Young was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, one of the world’s foremost scientific organizations, at the age of 21. He died in London on May 10, 1829.
