Michael Faraday

We've briefly discussed Michael Faraday in the 4.02 thread, when Daniel Faraday dropped out of the sky. I just read Michael Faraday's Wikipedia biography, which was quite interesting. Here are some snippets:

He established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena.

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(We discussed this briefly already.)

Faraday was the first to report what later came to be called metallic nanoparticles. In 1847 he discovered that the optical properties of gold colloids differed from those of the corresponding bulk metal. This was probably the first reported observation of the effects of quantum size, and might be considered to be the birth of nanoscience.

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People have previously theorized that the smoke monster is made from metallic nanoparticles.

This relation was mathematically modelled by Faraday's law, which subsequently became one of the four Maxwell equations.

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Maxwell, eh?

In 1845, he discovered the phenomenon that he named diamagnetism, and what is now called the Faraday effect: The plane of polarization of linearly polarized light propagated through a material medium can be rotated by the application of an external magnetic field aligned in the propagation direction. He wrote in his notebook, "I have at last succeeded in illuminating a magnetic curve or line of force and in magnetising a ray of light". This established that magnetic force and light were related.

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Just more of the above light/magnetism.

Faraday was an excellent experimentalist who conveyed his ideas in clear and simple language. However, his mathematical abilities did not extend as far as trigonometry or any but the simplest algebra. It was James Clerk Maxwell who took the work of Faraday, and others, and consolidated it with a set of equations that lie at the base of all modern theories of electromagnetic phenomena.

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Maxwell again

Faraday also weighed in, negatively, on the public's fascination with table-turning, mesmerism, and seances, chastising both the public and the nation's educational system.

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He didn't seem to like or respect the paranormal, apparently.

Faraday gave a successful series of lectures on the chemistry and physics of flames at the Royal Institution, entitled The Chemical History of a Candle.

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Candles and flames seem to be a reoccuring theme for Lost.

Faraday's picture was printed on British £20 banknotes from 1991 until 2001.

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As mentioned in the 4.03 thread, these can be seen in Ben's hidden closet.

Faraday also seemed to reject honors.

During his lifetime, Faraday rejected a knighthood and twice refused to become President of the Royal Society.

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He turned down burial in Westminster Abbey, but he has a memorial plaque there, near Isaac Newton's tomb.

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(There was another example, but I lost it.)


An interesting quote:
"Nothing is too wonderful to be true if it be consistent with the laws of nature, and in such things as these, experiment is the best test of such consistency."