As a boy growing up in Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic), Jan Purkinje showed great promise. His father, an estate manager who encouraged his son's interests, died when Purkinje was six years old. At the age of ten, Purkinje, an only child, was admitted to a Piarist monastery near the Austrian border. (Such monasteries had been established in 1597 to educate the poor.) Purkinje became a choirboy and outstanding student at the monastery, quietly studying for the priesthood. Just before he was to be ordained a priest, however, Purkinje decided to take up the study of philosophy at Prague University. While there, he became interested in medicine. His research and tutoring during this time strengthened his physics background.

In 1818, Purkinje presented his graduate thesis, which described a visual phenomena now known as the Purkinje effect. He stated that, as the intensity of light decreases, different colored objects...