Research and Scholarly Contributions
Salt Chemistry and the Discovery of Oxygen
One of Roos's most significant scholarly contribution is her reframing of the Chemical Revolution through the lens of early modern salt chemistry. In The Salt of the Earth: Natural Philosophy, Medicine, and Chymistry in England, 1650–1750(Brill, 2007), she traced how English natural philosophers and physicians gradually shifted their focus from salts as fundamental principles of matter to acids as active chemical agents. [8]
Her research demonstrated that seventeenth-century figures including William Simpson, Isaac Newton, Bryan Robinson, and Stephen Hales developed theories about atmospheric acids and "saline spirits" as vital principles responsible for respiration, combustion, and material transformation. Roos argued that this intellectual tradition provided the conceptual framework for Antoine Lavoisier's identification of oxygen as the "acidifying principle" (principe acidifiant) in the 1770s–1780s.
This work challenged conventional narratives that treat the Chemical Revolution primarily as a French development centered on the phlogiston debate, instead revealing its roots in earlier English iatrochemistry, Helmontian medicine, and Newtonian natural philosophy. Her analysis showed how the concept of a vital "volatile salt" was gradually modified into an understanding of atmospheric acids, which Lavoisier then identified as oxygen—a term meaning "acid-maker" that reflects this earlier tradition even though the theory of universal acidification was later disproven.
Building on her work on salt chemistry, Roos has explored Isaac Newton's chemical investigations and their influence on eighteenth-century natural philosophy. She analyzed Newton's De Natura Acidorum (1710) and its impact on physicians and chemists who developed theories about acids, fermentation, and atmospheric chemistry. Her research on figures like Bryan Robinson demonstrated how Newtonian ideas about acidic particles and the aether were applied to respiratory physiology and medical practice.
Martin Lister and Natural History
Roos has published extensively on the naturalist and physician Martin Lister (1639–1712), a fellow of the Royal Society. Her work includes the first complete scholarly edition of Lister's correspondence, published in multiple volumes by Brill (2015–2025), for which she received the John C. Thackray Medal from the Society for the History of Natural History.
In Martin Lister and his Remarkable Daughters (Bodleian Library, 2018; Chinese translation 2024), Roos documented how Lister's daughters Anna and Susanna created the scientific illustrations for Historiae Conchyliorum, making them among the first women to use microscopes for scientific illustration. She showed that Lister employed his daughters because he considered professional illustrators insufficiently reliable for scientific precision. This work contributed to the emerging field of women's participation in early modern science. [9] [10] [11]
Her Web of Nature: Martin Lister (1639–1712), the First Arachnologist (Brill, 2011) established Lister's foundational contributions to the study of spiders and other arachnids. [12]
Martin Folkes and the Eighteenth-Century Royal Society
Roos's Martin Folkes (1690–1754): Newtonian, Antiquary, Connoisseur (Oxford University Press, 2021) provided the first comprehensive biography of Newton's successor as president of the Royal Society. The study examined Folkes's contributions to Newtonian science, numismatics, and antiquarianism, illuminating the intellectual culture of the early Georgian Royal Society. [13]
Her edition of Folkes's Grand Tour travel diary, Taking Newton On Tour (Boydell and Brewer with the Hakluyt Society, 2025), reveals how natural philosophical networks operated across Europe in the early eighteenth century. [14]
Other Works
Roos's early book Luminaries in the Natural World: The Sun and Moon in England, 1400–1720 (Peter Lang, 2001) examined changing conceptions of celestial bodies from the late medieval through early modern periods.
She has also written for general audiences, including Goldfish (Reaktion Books, 2019), part of the publisher's Animal series exploring cultural and natural history. The book was the subject of an author interview for National Geographic [15]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was interviewed by National Geographic on historical plague outbreaks and quarantine practices in early modern Venice. [16]
Roos has edited several scholarly volumes on early modern knowledge-making and collecting practices, including Collective Wisdom: Collecting in the Early Modern Academy (2022) and Archival Afterlives: Life, Death, and Knowledge-Making in Early Modern British Scientific and Medical Archives (2018). [17] [18] [19]
Selected Publications
The Correspondence of Dr. Martin Lister: (1639—1712). Volume Two: 1678—1694, Brill, 2025. [20]
Taking Newton On Tour: The Grand Tour Travel Diary Of Martin Folkes (1690–1754). Boydell and Brewer with the Hakluyt Society, October 2025. [21]
Edited with Gideon Manning, Collecting Wisdom of the Early Modern Scholar: Essays in Honor of Mordechai Feingold. Springer, 2023. [22]
Edited with Vera Keller, Collective Wisdom: Collecting in the Early Modern Academy. Brepols, 2022. [23]
Martin Folkes (1690-1754): Newtonian, Antiquary, Connoisseur. Oxford University Press, 2021 [24]
Edited with Vera Keller and Elizabeth Yale, Archival afterlives: life, death, and knowledge-making in early modern British scientific and medical archives. Brill, 2018. [25]
The correspondence of Dr Martin Lister (1639-1712) [Volume one 1662-1677]. Brill, 2015. Winner of the John Thackray Medal, Society of the History of Natural History. [26]
Web of Nature: Martin Lister (1639-1712), the first arachnologist. Brill, 2011. [27]
The salt of the earth: natural philosophy, medicine and chymistry in England, 1650-1750. Brill, 2007. [28]
Luminaries in the natural world: the sun and moon in England, 1400-1720. Peter Lang, 2001. [29]
