One of the preeminent scientists of the seventeenth century, Robert Hooke is perhaps best remembered for the wide variety of fields to which he contributed, including physics, astronomy, microscopy, biology, and architecture, among others. Although Hooke introduced many concepts previously unimagined or unexamined, his ability to formulate these ideas usually did not match his intuition, and the credit for many scientific breakthroughs inspired by Hooke's ideas is often given to such scientists as Isaac Newton and Christiaan Huygens, who brought the work to its fruition. Still, Hooke remains an important pioneer of science.

Born on Britain's Isle of Wight, Hooke was a sickly child. As a youth, his perpetual ill health made it impossible for him to attend classes regularly, and he was unable to enter the ministry as his father, a minister, had wished. Instead, Hooke was allowed to pursue his interest in mechanics, which he first...