All changes in nature are such that inasmuch is taken from one object in so much is added to

another.

MIKHAIL LOMONOSOV

Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov was the first

Russian scientist-naturalist of universal

importance. He was a poet who laid the foundation of modern Russian

literary language, an artist, an historian and an advocate of

development of domestic education, science and economy. In 1748 he

founded the first Russian chemical laboratory at the Academy of

Sciences. On his initiative the Moscow University was founded in 1755.

MIKHAIL VASILYEVICH LOMONOSOV

Lomonosov was born in the village of Denisovka (later renamed Lomonosovo in his honor) in Archangelgorod Governorate. His father, Vasily Dorofeyevich Lomonosov, was a prosperous peasant fisherman turned ship owner, who amassed a small fortune transporting goods from Arkhangelsk to Pustozyorsk, Solovki, Kola, and Lapland.[1] Lomonosov's mother was Vasily's first wife, a deacon's daughter, Elena Ivanovna Sivkova.

BIOGRAPHY

In 1730, at nineteen, Lomonosov went to Moscow on foot, because he was determined to study.[6] Not long after arriving, Lomonosov obtained admission into the Slavic Greek Latin Academy by falsely claiming to be a priest's son.[7] That initial falsehood would nearly get him expelled from the academy a few years later when discovered.[8]

In 1736, Lomonosov was awarded a scholarship to Saint Petersburg State University.[10] He plunged into his studies and was rewarded with a two-year grant to study abroad at the University of Marburg, in Germany

EDUCATION IN MOSCOW

Seventeen years prior to analogous results by Lavoisier, Lomonosov experimentally proved the law of conservation of matter by showing that lead plates in a sealed vessel without access to air do not change their weight after heating (1756); based on the results of the first quantitative experimental studies of electricity in 1744-1756–which were quite dangerous as his colleague Georg Richmann was killed by ball lightning and Lomonosov himself “miraculously survived”–he proposed an original theory of atmospheric electricity that went beyond Franklin’s, and explained with it lightning and the polar lights. Looking for a way to send meteorological instruments and electrometers aloft, he designed and built the first working helicopter model (1754).

PHYSICIST

During the transit of Venus on May 26, 1761 Lomonosov discovered the atmosphere of Venus by observing a bright aureole around the planet at the ingress and egress, and gave a detailed optical explanation of the effect by refraction. Thirty years before Herschel, in 1762, he invented and built a practical reflector telescope of a new type with the primary mirror tilted by 4 degrees so he could view the formed image directly in a side eyepiece; later that same year he invented a siderostat mechanism which allowed tracking of the stars by tilting a flat mirror in front rather than the entire 40-foot telescope.

PHYSICIST

• As a geographer, Lomonosov got close to the theory of continental drift, theoretically predicted the existence of Antarctica and invented sea tools which made writing and calculating directions and distances easier;

• Lomonosov was proud to restore the ancient art of mosaics;

• He wrote more than 20 solemn ceremonial odes, notably the “Evening Meditation on God’s Grandeur”;

• In 1755, he reformed the Russian literary language by combining Old Church Slavonic with the vernacular; ´

PHYSICIST

1. Who was the first Russian scientist-naturalist of universal importance?

2. Where Lomonosov was born?3. When he invented and built a practical

reflector telescope?4. Who was his father?

QUESTIONS

The scientific discoveries of Lomonosov enriched many branches of knowledge. Among his amazing heritage are the following discoveries and ideas:• He regarded heat as a form of motion;

• He suggested the wave theory of light;

• He contributed to the formulation of the kinetic theory of gases;

• He stated the idea of conservation of matter in the following words:

“All changes in nature are such that inasmuch is taken from one object

Insomuch is added to another.

• In 1748, Lomonosov created a mechanical explanation of gravitation;

• Lomonosov was the first person to record the freezing of Mercury;

• He was also the first to hypothesize the existence of an atmosphere on Venus based on his observation of the transit of Venus of 1761;

• In 1760, he explained the formation of icebergs;

CONCLUSIONUNIVERSAL SCIENTIST

conservation of matter - сохранениe материи

lead plates - свинцовые пластины

sealed vessel - герметичном сосуде

“miraculously survived” - чудом выжил

atmospheric electricity - атмосферного электричества

lightning – молнии

polar lights - северное сияние

bright aureole - яркий ореолingress and egress - вход и выходin a side eyepiece - в боковой окуляр

VOCABULARY