Alfred Russel Wallace, the other guy who came up with the theory of natural selection, was quite the Renaissance man Victorian Era Superscientist. An essay in this week's issue of Nature reports the discovery of a letter from Wallace to William Talbot on a way to improve the mirrors used in telescopes. You can read the letter here. I won't touch on the science, but apparently Wallace mastered optics by the age of 20. Not bad for a guy who also happens to be known as the father of biogeography.
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