Christiaan Huygens
1629–1695 · Dutch · Scientific Revolution
Known for: Invented the pendulum clock, discovered Saturn's rings and Titan, developed wave theory of light
Christiaan Huygens was the greatest scientist between Galileo and Newton—a brilliant mathematician, physicist, and astronomer who ground his own telescope lenses and discovered that Saturn's mysterious 'ears' were actually rings. He also discovered Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and invented the pendulum clock, transforming timekeeping forever.
He proposed that light travels as waves, directly opposing Newton's particle theory. It took 200 years for the wave theory to be vindicated—by Young and then definitively by Maxwell. Huygens was right all along.
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