BIOT, JEAN BAPTISTE (1774-1862), French physicist, was born in Paris on April 21, 1774. In i800 he became professor of physics at the College de France, through the influence of Laplace, from whom he had sought and obtained the favour of reading the proof sheets of the Mecanique celeste. In 1804 he accompanied Gay Lussac on the first balloon ascent undertaken for scientific purposes. In 18o6 he was associated with F. J. D. Arago, with whom he had already carried out investigations on the refractive properties of different gases, in the measurement of an arc of the meridian in Spain, and in subsequent years he was engaged in various other geodetic determinations. He died in Paris on Feb. 3, 186 2. He was especially interested in questions relating to the polarization of light, and his observations in this field, which gained him the Rumford medal of the Royal Society in 1840, laid the foundations of the polarimetric analysis of sugar.
His very numerous published works include: Analyse de la mecani que celeste de M. Laplace (18m); Traite analytique des courbes et des surfaces du second degre (1802) ; Recherches sur l'integration des equations diferentielles partielles et sur les vibrations des surfaces (1803) ; Traite de physique (1816) ; Recueil d'observations geodesiques, astronomiques et physiques executees en Espagne et Ecosse, with Arago (1821) ; Memoire sur la vraie constitution de l'atmosphere terrestre (1841) ; Recherches sur plusieurs points de l'astronomie egyptienne (1823) ; Recherches sur l'ancienne astronomie chinoise (1840) ; Etudes sur l'astronomie indienne et sur l'astronomie chinoise (1862) .
His Son, EDOUARD CONSTANT BIOT (1803-1850), after amassing a competence from railway engineering, turned to the study of Chinese subjects, and published Causes de l'abolition de l'escla vage ancien en occident ; Dictionnaire des noms anciens et modernes des villes et des arrondissements compris dans l'em pire chinois (1842) ; Essai sur l'/iistoire de l'instruction publique en Chine et de la corporation des lettres (1847) ; Memoire sur les colonies militaires et agricoles des chinois (185o).