1711-1765

Russian polymath and giant of eighteenth-century science. Lomonosov reputedly experimentally demonstrated mass conservation prior to Antoine Lavoisier, proposed a kinetic theory of heat earlier than Count Rumford, developed a wave theory of light before Thomas Young, and formulated a kinetic theory of gases similar to Daniel Bernoulli's. He was first to record mercury freezing and observe Venus's atmosphere (1761). Lomonosov also produced a grammar that reformed and systematized Russian language and produced the first work on Russian history.