French physicist whose most important investigations involved polarized light and optical rotation, which he suggested was caused by an asymmetry in the aqueous molecules. This view was verified by Pasteur. With Arago, Biot studied the optical refraction of gases. Biot also showed that the change in polarization found in light passing through materials was a rotation, and demonstrated that many liquid organic solutions exhibited this optical activity. In a textbook, he affirmed the importance of precise mathematical experimentation and measurement, which he presented as the paradigm of physics. Biot is also known for his ascent in a balloon loaded with scientific equipment which he undertook with Gay-Lussac. With Savart in 1820, he showed that the magnetic force due to a current could be given by a mathematical formula, the so-called Biot-Savart law.

Arago, Gay-Lussac, Pasteur, Savart

Additional biographies: MacTutor (St. Andrews)