author
Mary Somerville
1780–1872
A self-taught Scottish mathematician and science writer, she helped make some of the most difficult ideas in astronomy and physics understandable to a wider public. Her books were widely read in the 19th century, and her life became a lasting symbol of women’s place in science.
6 Audiobooks
On Molecular and Microscopic Science, Volume 2 (of 2)
by Mary Somerville
On Molecular and Microscopic Science, Volume 1 (of 2)
by Mary Somerville
Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville
by Mary Somerville
On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences
by Mary Somerville
Physical Geography
by Mary Somerville
A Preliminary Dissertation on the Mechanisms of the Heavens
by Mary Somerville
About the author
Born in 1780, Mary Somerville grew up in Scotland and educated herself in mathematics and the sciences at a time when women were rarely encouraged to study either. Her talent and persistence led her into the scientific world through writing, calculation, and wide-ranging intellectual curiosity.
She became especially well known for Mechanism of the Heavens, her influential English exposition of Pierre-Simon Laplace’s celestial mechanics, and for later books including On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences and Physical Geography. These works helped connect different branches of knowledge for general readers and students, and they established her as one of the best-known scientific authors of her era.
In 1835, she and Caroline Herschel were named the first female Honorary Members of the Royal Astronomical Society. Somerville spent much of her later life in Italy and continued writing into old age, leaving behind a legacy as a brilliant popularizer of science and a pioneer for women in intellectual life.