 Mersenne
was a French priest who played an important role in mathematics. Mersenne
corresponded with numerous mathematicians throughout Europe, passing important
information between them. There were no scientific journals during his time,
so he played the role of a disseminator of valuable information. He frequently
met with Fermat, Roberval, and Pascal. His own work was in generating prime
numbers and extending Galileo's work in acoustics. Mersenne actively defended
Galileo and Descartes against attacks from the church. |