Nicolas Steno's 374th Birthday

Nicolas Steno's 374th Birthday .You may have noticed that the Google logo resembles the sort of 3d cross-sectional diagram you last saw in your school geography book.

That’s because Google is celebrating the 374th birthday of Nicolas Steno.

Steno was a Danish scientist specialising in anatomy and geology.

He is thought to be the originator of geology and stratigraphy and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987.

Steno was also something of a theologist, having being brought up a Lutheran he later converted to Catholicism as he considered this branch of Christianity to better facilitate his curiosity in the natural world.

He was eventually ordained as a priest in Florence.

Several things have been named after Steno:

    The Steno museum in Arhus, Denmark
    Craters on Mars and the Moon
    The Steno Diabetes Centre ion Gentofte, Denmark
    The Istituto Niels Stensen in Florence


He died in 1684 in Germany, , dressed like a poor man and living four days a week on bread and beer. He wanted to go back to Florence but before he could do this he became severely ill, his belly swelling considerably.

He was buried in Florence in the Basilica of San Lorenzo close to his protectors, the De Medici family.

In 1953 his grave was found and exhumed – Steno was paraded through the streets of Florence and then reburied.
Nicolas Steno's 374th Birthday