1 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:12,560 People of science. Take one. 2 00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:22,440 Julia, who have you chosen as your person of science? Michael Faraday. 3 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:26,720 My research all my life has been to do with polymers, long molecules, 4 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:30,080 and why they have the sort of behaviour they have. 5 00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:32,840 I gave a lecture at the Royal Institution 6 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:35,400 and the people in charge there said did I know 7 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:39,080 that one of the very first Royal Institution discourses 8 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:41,560 that Faraday gave was about India rubber. 9 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:44,400 It fascinated me that somebody as great as Faraday 10 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:47,880 had also been curious about something like polymer molecules, 11 00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:49,360 rubber molecules. 12 00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:51,560 To me, it just resonated absolutely. 13 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:55,600 So this is a new material. When was that discourse? 1826. 14 00:00:55,600 --> 00:01:00,280 He actually says it's elastic, it's flexible, it's impermeable. 15 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:02,640 And actually those are the properties 16 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:04,920 that we look for in modern-day plastic. 17 00:01:04,920 --> 00:01:06,920 So there he was all that time ago 18 00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:10,080 already picking up the key properties of these materials. 19 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:14,160 I was going to ask you to describe his legacy but it's almost... 20 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:16,000 It's all around us. 21 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:18,320 We are surrounded by electric light. 22 00:01:18,320 --> 00:01:20,600 We've got cameras. We've got fans. 23 00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:22,560 None of them would be possible 24 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:25,640 unless he had discovered how to first generate electricity, 25 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:30,440 how to transmit it along cables and how to store it in condensers. 26 00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:33,000 All of those things Faraday had a finger in. 27 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:37,680 He came to science through an unusual route, didn't he? 28 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:39,920 He wasn't the son of rich parents 29 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:42,840 who went to Cambridge or something like that. 30 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:45,160 He didn't do that, did he? No. 31 00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:48,800 He was actually apprenticed to a bookmaker, 32 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:51,080 a bookbinder when he was 14. 33 00:01:51,080 --> 00:01:53,440 So he had very little formal education. 34 00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:55,520 But he was effectively in a library, 35 00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:58,120 which was wonderful for somebody who was curious. 36 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:01,080 And he read everything he could lay his hands on. 37 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:04,920 And then when Humphry Davy started giving the lecture series, 38 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:09,200 Faraday went along to those lectures and became fascinated by them. 39 00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:12,120 He wrote to Humphry Davy and asked for a job 40 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:15,000 and once he was a scientist in position 41 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,200 he was given a lot of freedom to do experimental work. 42 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:21,200 Certainly, he was recognised and he was elected 43 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:24,200 to be a Fellow of the Royal Society when he was very young. 44 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:29,600 We've got some of the Royal Society artefacts here. 45 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:34,480 I like this photograph because he's obviously explaining something 46 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:38,120 and one can imagine him standing there in the lecture. 47 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:40,840 And that's the elections certificate 48 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:43,920 for Michael Faraday into the Royal Society. 49 00:02:43,920 --> 00:02:46,160 1823 yes, there it is. That's it. 50 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:50,360 So he was 32-years-old. A very young fellow of the Royal Society. 51 00:02:52,040 --> 00:02:55,880 When you lecture in the evening discourses at the Royal Institution, 52 00:02:55,880 --> 00:02:58,440 you're in the lecture theatre where Faraday worked. 53 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:01,400 And not only can you go and sit where Faraday lectured, 54 00:03:01,400 --> 00:03:04,360 but you can also visit the laboratories. 55 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:06,640 It's absolutely wonderful to stand there 56 00:03:06,640 --> 00:03:09,200 and think, Faraday stood here and here am I 57 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:11,440 and I'm trying to do what he did, 58 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:13,600 which is communicate as best I can 59 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:16,040 to people who don't have any specialist knowledge 60 00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:18,600 why it's exciting, why it's interesting. 61 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:21,560 Do you think that's an important part of his scientific legacy? 62 00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:24,400 Public engagement, as we call it today, his lectures. 63 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:26,360 I think it's hugely important. 64 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:29,240 I and many other people were influenced in the idea 65 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:32,240 that communicating science was a terrific thing. 66 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:35,040 We've been trying to recapture that in the current climate 67 00:03:35,040 --> 00:03:37,520 with schools and lectures and so forth 68 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:40,880 and we've never quite managed to do it as well as he did. 69 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:46,440 Why do you think Faraday is such an important and relevant figure today? 70 00:03:46,440 --> 00:03:50,440 Everybody knows somewhere in their understanding 71 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:53,320 that curiosity is what makes us human. 72 00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:56,120 Learning more about why we're here, what we do here, 73 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:58,440 why things around us work as they do. 74 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:01,520 And Faraday had the curiosity and he had the determination 75 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:03,440 to understand the answers. 76 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:06,040 He didn't always know where it was going to leave him, 77 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:09,360 but he strongly believed there were important applications coming along 78 00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:11,560 and they were going to change things. 79 00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:14,040 How they changed the world is phenomenal.