Google dedicates doodle to Scottish science writer Mary Somerville – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Mary Somerville was a Scottish science writer whose experimental physics paper was read by the Royal Society of London, the UK’s National Science Academy on this day in 1826.


It was the first paper by a female author to be published in the prestigious Philosophical Transactions, the world’s oldest science publication, which is still active today.

In 1831, she published an essay, “The Mechanism of the Heavens”. The essay revolutionalised the understanding of our Solar System.

It became the foundations of her breakthrough book, The Connection of the Physical Sciences (1834) — a best-selling books for thw 19th century.

“In Connection, Somerville revealed the underlying links between the different disciplines of physical science, on which a reviewer of the book first coined the word “scientist” to describe this multidisciplinary approach. The book also provided clue to astronomer John Couch paving the way for the discovery of planet Neptune.

When John Stuart Mill, the philosopher and economist, organised a massive petition to Parliament to give women the right to vote, he had Somerville put her signature first on the petition.

She is featured on the obverse of the Royal Bank of Scotland polymer £10 note launched in 2017