The man who flattened the earth : Maupertuis and the sciences in the enlightenment / Mary Terrall.

Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, [2002], ©2002.

ix, 408 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references (p. 371-392) and index.

Portrait of a man of science -- From Saint-Malo to Paris -- Mathematics and mechanics in the Paris Academy of Sciences -- The expedition to Lapland -- The polemical aftermath of the Lapland expedition -- Beyond Newton and on to Berlin -- Toward a science of living things -- The Berlin Academy of Sciences -- Teleology, cosmology, and least action -- Heredity and materialism -- The final years.