Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French Polymath

Color enhanced portrait of Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (July 17, 1698 - July 27, 1759) a French polymath who made contributions to mathematics, physics, biology, metaphysics, astronomy, and geography. In 1736 he made an expedition to Lapland to measure the length of a degree of arc of the meridian to determine the shape of the earth. He proposed a theory of generation (reproduction) in which organic matter possessed a self-organizing intelligence that was comparable to the contemporary chemical concept of affinities. Historians of science point to his work in biology as a significant precursor to the development of the theory of natural selection

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13345656

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47788936

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3000px x 4732px (2.1MB)

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