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Nicolaus Steno: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As Niels Stensen • Niels Steensen
Born January 11, 1638 • Copenhagen • Denmark
Died December 5, 1686 (aged 48) • Schwerin • Germany
Notable Works “The Prodromus of Nicolaus Steno’s Dissertation Concerning a Solid Body Enclosed by Process of Nature Within a Solid”
Subjects Of Study Stensen’s duct • crystal • geochronology

Photos

Steno, Nicolaus
Diagram explaining Steno's four laws of stratigraphy in geology, with labeled illustrations for the law of superposition, original horizontality, cross-cutting relationships, and lateral continuity, showing how rock layers form and are altered.
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William Lonsdale
British geologist
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Gerhard, Baron De Geer
Swedish geologist
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Giovanni Arduino
Italian geologist
Caspar Bartholin, detail of a lithograph by Baerentzen after a contemporary portrait by an unknown artist, 1615
Caspar Berthelsen Bartholin
Danish physician and theologian
Bartholin, Thomas
Thomas Bartholin
Danish anatomist and mathematician
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William Maclure
American geologist
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Amos Eaton
American botanist, geologist, and lawyer
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François-Emile Matthes
American geologist
Self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci drawn in red chalk, showing an elderly man with long hair and a flowing beard, with a serious, contemplative expression.
Leonardo da Vinci
Italian artist, engineer, and scientist
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
British naturalist
Alexander von Humboldt
Alexander von Humboldt
German explorer and naturalist
William Harvey
William Harvey
English physician
Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg
Swedish philosopher
Charles Lyell
Charles Lyell
Scottish geologist
Galen of Pergamum
Galen
Greek physician
Powell, John Wesley
John Wesley Powell
American explorer, geologist, and ethnologist
Georgius Agricola.
Georgius Agricola
German scholar and scientist
Sarpi, detail of a portrait (the black spot on his face covers the scar from an unsuccessful attempt on his life in 1607); in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Eng.
Paolo Sarpi
Italian theologian
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René Laënnec
French physician
James Hutton
James Hutton
Scottish geologist

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