section_path: Life/Career/Sweden
section_name: Sweden
paragraph_text: Sweden
  
  By 1649, Descartes had become one of Europe's most famous philosophers and scientists. That year, Queen Christina of Sweden invited him to her court to organize a new scientific academy and tutor her in his ideas about love. Descartes accepted, and moved to the Swedish Empire in the middle of winter. Christina was interested in and stimulated Descartes to publish The Passions of the Soul.
  
  He was a guest at the house of Pierre Chanut, living on Västerlånggatan, less than 500 meters from Castle Tre Kronor in Stockholm. There, Chanut and Descartes made observations with a Torricellian mercury barometer. Challenging Blaise Pascal, Descartes took the first set of barometric readings in Stockholm to see if atmospheric pressure could be used in forecasting the weather.