Though one of the most brilliant minds in history, the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens enjoyed relatively little fame during his lifetime. This was chiefly due to chronological factors, for Huygens worked during the period directly after the death of Galileo and just before the ascent of Isaac Newton (1642-1727), both towering figures of science. If not for the proximity of these two geniuses, Huygens would have certainly been considered the greatest scientist of the seventeenth century. Though his work was unregarded for many years after his death, he is today held as one of the chief contributors to the modern sciences of mechanics, physics, and astronomy.

Huygens was born in The Hague, Netherlands, in 1629. The environment in which he was raised was ideal for the nurturing of young minds: his father, Constantijn Huygens, was a diplomat and poet who understood the need for classical training, and he planned...