Civic Science Lecture: "Romantic Science"

Time: 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Place: Chemical Heritage Foundation, 315 Chestnut Street

Open to the public; fee. Register online by March 2.

Information: Nancy Vonada, 215-873-8226, nvonada@chemheritage.org

In The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes chronicles the riveting breakthroughs that launched the Romantic Age of Science. From Humphry Davy’s near-suicidal gas experiments to William Herschel’s discovery of Uranus, Holmes deftly captures the thrill of scientific exploration at the turn of the 19th century—and shows its impact on Romantic writers like Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats.

Richard Holmes is the author of Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer; Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage; Shelley: The Pursuit (for which he received the Somerset Maugham Prize); Coleridge: Early Visions; and Coleridge: Darker Reflections (a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice and a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist). Holmes writes and reviews regularly for various journals and newspapers, including the New York Review of Books. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the British Academy. He received an honorary Litt.D. from the University of East Anglia, where he was appointed professor of biographical studies in 2001.

CHF’s Civic Science Lectures explore chemistry as a cultural endeavor and encourage public discussion of science.