Thomas Young: Not Only Diffracted Rays … [Historical Corner]

This paper is dedicated to the life and to the research of Thomas Young. In particular, Section 2 presents a brief description of his life, with the purpose of bringing into evidence the wide spectrum of his interdisciplinary cultural background. Section 3 presents Young´s contribution to the development of optics, the field in which he contributed to the success of the undulatory theory of light, against the corpuscular theory. In Section 4, some of T. Young´s contributions to other fields are described. Indeed, several important discoveries or contributions in very different areas are linked to the name of T. Young, so that he can be considered one of the latest universal scientists. Finally, in Section 5 a complete list of T. Young´s works is reported.