page_title: Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan
section_title: Key publications
hierarchical_section_title: Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan / Key publications
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Lettre de m. de Mairan secretaire perpetuel de l'Academie royale des Sciences, &amp;c. a madame. Sur la question des forces vives, en réponse aux objections qu'elle lui fait sur ce sujet dans ses Institutions de physique. - A Paris&#160;: chez Charles-Antoine Jombert, libraire du roi pour l'artillerie &amp; le génie, rue S. Jacques, à l'image Notre-Dame, 1741. - [2], 52 p.&#160;; 12º .
context_page_description: Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan was a French geophysicist, astronomer and most notably, chronobiologist, was born in the town of Béziers on 26 November 1678. De Mairan lost his father, François d'Ortous, at age four and his mother twelve years later at age sixteen.
  Over the course of his life, de Mairan was elected into numerous scientific societies and made key discoveries in a variety of fields including ancient texts and astronomy. His observations and experiments also inspired the beginning of what is now known as the study of biological circadian rhythms. At the age of 92, de Mairan died of pneumonia in Paris on 20 February 1771.
context_section_description: Beyond astronomical and circadian observations, de Mairan actively worked in several other fields of physics including "heat, light, sound, motion, the shape of the Earth, and the aurora".
  The following is an abbreviated list of publications (with their English translations) organised by Dr. Robert A. Hatch at the University of Florida:
  Dissertation sur les variations du barometre (Bordeaux, 1715) (Essays on barometric variations)
  Dissertation sur la glace (Bordeaux, 1716) (Essay on the ice)
  Dissertation sur la cause de la lumiere des phosphores et des noctiluques (Bordeaux, 1717) (Dissertation on the cause of light phosphates and noctilucence or nightly light)
  Dissertation sur l'estimation et la mesure des forces motrices des corps (1728) (Essay on the estimation of the measures of forces on the body)
  Lettre de m. de Mairan a Madame. Sur la question des forces vives (1741) (Letter to Mme Chatelet on the Question of Living Forces), one side of a public debate with Émilie du Châtelet on forces vives.
  He also published mathematical works.
  Traité physique et historique de l'aurore boréale, (1733) (Physical and historical Treaty of the aurora borealis)
caption: Sur la question des forces vives, 1741
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