The popularization of science by writers with a knack for making the abstruse (i) is not an exclusively modern calling. Indeed the origins of this specific craft harken back to Voltaire, who, in his?Elements of the Philosophy of Newton, made the (ii) writing of the revered British physicist digestible to a lay audience.
Blank (i)
ordinary
pellucid
unapproachable
Blank (ii)
greatly cherished
practically inscrutable
virtually unknown