1711-1787

Croatian polymath who made significant contributions to the instrumental sciences of astronomy, optics, and geodesy as well as the theoretical disciplines of mathematics, mechanics, and natural philosophy. Boscovich attacked atomism, proposing instead that the universe was a plenum of thickening and thinning force concentrated in point-centers. Aggregation of point-centers accounted for all observable properties of matter. Boscovich's ideas were developed by Michael Faraday into the field concept, which has been an influential formative principle in physics.