1 00:00:06,697 --> 00:00:08,531 Can you see me? 2 00:00:08,565 --> 00:00:10,566 Can you hear me? 3 00:00:10,601 --> 00:00:12,335 How? 4 00:00:12,369 --> 00:00:14,904 I could be thousands of miles away, 5 00:00:14,938 --> 00:00:17,373 and yet, when you turn on whatever device 6 00:00:17,408 --> 00:00:19,542 is bringing my image and voice to you, 7 00:00:19,576 --> 00:00:21,344 I'm there. 8 00:00:21,378 --> 00:00:23,112 Instantaneously. 9 00:00:23,147 --> 00:00:25,348 How is that possible? 10 00:00:25,382 --> 00:00:27,417 To our ancestors, 11 00:00:27,451 --> 00:00:29,352 it would've seemed like sorcery. 12 00:00:29,386 --> 00:00:31,587 For them, speed of communication 13 00:00:31,622 --> 00:00:33,690 was only as fast as the swiftest horse 14 00:00:33,724 --> 00:00:35,792 or sailing ships. 15 00:00:35,826 --> 00:00:39,629 Our messages travel invisibly at the speed of light. 16 00:00:39,663 --> 00:00:42,465 How did we attain such mythic powers? 17 00:00:42,499 --> 00:00:45,468 It all began in the mind of one person. 18 00:00:45,502 --> 00:00:47,804 A child of poverty 19 00:00:47,838 --> 00:00:50,807 of whom nothing was expected. 20 00:00:53,477 --> 00:00:57,447 In fact, if this man had not lived... 21 00:01:01,185 --> 00:01:04,654 the world we know might not exist today. 22 00:02:42,308 --> 00:02:43,808 "The Electric Boy" 23 00:02:48,492 --> 00:02:50,159 Sooner or later, 24 00:02:50,194 --> 00:02:51,995 someone would've likely figured out 25 00:02:52,029 --> 00:02:53,897 some of his discoveries. 26 00:02:53,931 --> 00:02:56,432 But if Michael Faraday had never lived, 27 00:02:56,467 --> 00:02:58,401 we might still be living 28 00:02:58,435 --> 00:03:00,737 as our ancestors did in the 17th century. 29 00:03:00,771 --> 00:03:02,438 Unaware 30 00:03:02,473 --> 00:03:05,842 of armies of invisible servants awaiting our commands. 31 00:03:05,876 --> 00:03:08,778 This is the story of how we learned 32 00:03:08,812 --> 00:03:11,581 to make electrons do our bidding. 33 00:03:11,615 --> 00:03:13,650 In a way, it begins 34 00:03:13,684 --> 00:03:16,586 with the greatest genius who ever lived-- 35 00:03:16,620 --> 00:03:18,621 Isaac Newton. 36 00:03:23,627 --> 00:03:27,463 This is Woolsthorpe, Newton's ancestral home. 37 00:03:27,465 --> 00:03:30,867 He walked these fields, tormented by mystery. 38 00:03:30,869 --> 00:03:33,136 Newton, the man who figured out the formula 39 00:03:33,138 --> 00:03:35,238 for the motions of the planets around the Sun, 40 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:36,906 wanted to know 41 00:03:36,908 --> 00:03:39,542 how does the Sun make the planets act that way 42 00:03:39,544 --> 00:03:41,211 without touching them? 43 00:03:41,213 --> 00:03:43,746 How do all the apples know how to fall? 44 00:03:43,748 --> 00:03:46,749 Another genius was puzzled by another aspect 45 00:03:46,751 --> 00:03:49,319 of the same mystery. 46 00:03:57,528 --> 00:03:58,995 You see, son? 47 00:03:59,029 --> 00:04:01,497 No matter how I turn the compass, 48 00:04:01,532 --> 00:04:05,335 the needle always points the same way. 49 00:04:05,369 --> 00:04:06,703 Except... 50 00:04:12,877 --> 00:04:14,310 But how? 51 00:04:14,345 --> 00:04:16,212 They do not touch. 52 00:04:17,548 --> 00:04:20,550 I didn't hear a "Thank you," Albert. 53 00:04:25,756 --> 00:04:28,024 I can still remember this. 54 00:04:28,058 --> 00:04:30,026 The experience made a deep 55 00:04:30,060 --> 00:04:32,495 and lasting impression on me. 56 00:04:32,530 --> 00:04:35,064 Something deeply hidden 57 00:04:35,099 --> 00:04:38,201 had to be behind things. 58 00:04:38,235 --> 00:04:41,371 Between the lifetimes of Einstein and Newton, 59 00:04:41,405 --> 00:04:43,439 there lived another genius, 60 00:04:43,474 --> 00:04:45,708 one of equal stature. 61 00:04:45,743 --> 00:04:49,045 The man who solved the mystery that stumped Newton, 62 00:04:49,079 --> 00:04:51,181 also laid the foundation 63 00:04:51,215 --> 00:04:53,783 for Einstein's revolutionary insights. 64 00:04:53,817 --> 00:04:56,219 And for the way we live now. 65 00:05:15,239 --> 00:05:18,441 In 1791, in a squalid slum 66 00:05:18,475 --> 00:05:20,543 in the suburbs of London, 67 00:05:20,578 --> 00:05:22,979 Michael Faraday was born. 68 00:05:28,652 --> 00:05:31,654 He showed little promise at school. 69 00:05:35,292 --> 00:05:38,628 Pray tell us a word that begins 70 00:05:38,662 --> 00:05:40,630 with the letter R. 71 00:05:40,664 --> 00:05:42,632 Well? 72 00:05:45,002 --> 00:05:46,803 Wabbit? 73 00:05:46,837 --> 00:05:49,272 The word is "Rabbit." 74 00:05:49,306 --> 00:05:52,809 Once again, and correctly this time. 75 00:05:52,843 --> 00:05:54,844 Wabbit? 76 00:05:54,879 --> 00:05:57,013 Do you mock me? 77 00:05:57,047 --> 00:05:58,915 Have I not told you how 78 00:05:58,949 --> 00:06:00,583 to pronounce the letter R? 79 00:06:00,618 --> 00:06:03,853 Surely you can at least tell us your name? 80 00:06:03,888 --> 00:06:07,524 Michael "Fawaday," ma'am. 81 00:06:07,558 --> 00:06:09,659 Take this ha'penny, 82 00:06:09,693 --> 00:06:11,794 and buy me a cane, 83 00:06:11,829 --> 00:06:13,963 so that I may give your insolent brother 84 00:06:13,998 --> 00:06:15,164 a proper flogging. 85 00:06:30,748 --> 00:06:33,983 History does not record that Michael Faraday 86 00:06:34,018 --> 00:06:36,486 ever attended school again. 87 00:06:39,823 --> 00:06:42,825 Faraday took his family's fundamentalist Christian faith 88 00:06:42,860 --> 00:06:44,394 to heart. 89 00:06:44,428 --> 00:06:46,496 It would always remain a source of strength, 90 00:06:46,530 --> 00:06:48,965 comfort and humility for him. 91 00:06:48,999 --> 00:06:52,569 He was sent to work at a bookbindery at the age of 13. 92 00:06:52,603 --> 00:06:55,672 By day, he bound the books, 93 00:06:55,706 --> 00:06:56,840 and by night, 94 00:06:56,874 --> 00:06:59,008 he read them. 95 00:06:59,043 --> 00:07:01,411 It was the beginning of a lifelong fascination 96 00:07:01,445 --> 00:07:04,581 with electricity. 97 00:07:18,128 --> 00:07:20,196 After years of working in the bookbindery, 98 00:07:20,231 --> 00:07:22,498 Faraday, now 21, 99 00:07:22,533 --> 00:07:24,934 yearned to escape to a larger world. 100 00:07:24,969 --> 00:07:26,336 His big break came 101 00:07:26,370 --> 00:07:27,837 when a customer gave him a ticket 102 00:07:27,872 --> 00:07:30,740 to a sensational new kind of entertainment-- 103 00:07:30,774 --> 00:07:33,877 science for the public. 104 00:07:38,582 --> 00:07:40,783 And it started right here 105 00:07:40,818 --> 00:07:43,086 at London's Royal Institution. 106 00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:45,054 Humphry Davy was not only 107 00:07:45,089 --> 00:07:47,524 one of the leading scientists of his day, 108 00:07:47,558 --> 00:07:49,926 he discovered several the chemical elements, 109 00:07:49,960 --> 00:07:52,028 including calcium and sodium. 110 00:07:52,062 --> 00:07:54,364 He was also a consummate showman. 111 00:07:54,398 --> 00:07:57,734 And primitive demonstrations of electricity 112 00:07:57,768 --> 00:07:59,903 never failed as a crowd pleaser. 113 00:07:59,937 --> 00:08:01,804 May we have 114 00:08:01,839 --> 00:08:04,474 the lights lowered, please? 115 00:08:06,076 --> 00:08:08,211 I am about to unleash the might 116 00:08:08,245 --> 00:08:10,813 of the 2,000 massive chemical batteries 117 00:08:10,848 --> 00:08:15,251 stored in the cellar beneath our feet. 118 00:08:17,988 --> 00:08:22,058 And now, behold the power of the mysterious force 119 00:08:22,092 --> 00:08:26,829 of electrical fluid to illuminate our future. 120 00:08:44,148 --> 00:08:49,118 Faraday was too busy taking notes to applaud. 121 00:08:52,523 --> 00:08:55,859 Faraday created a transcript of Davy's lecture. 122 00:08:55,893 --> 00:08:58,194 Using the skills he had learned as an apprentice, 123 00:08:58,229 --> 00:09:01,598 he bound them into this book. 124 00:09:01,632 --> 00:09:05,268 Perhaps such a gift would bring him to the attention 125 00:09:05,302 --> 00:09:07,303 of the great man. 126 00:09:15,746 --> 00:09:18,181 Maybe this gesture could be his means of escape 127 00:09:18,215 --> 00:09:20,550 to a much larger universe. 128 00:09:27,992 --> 00:09:29,659 Good day, sir. 129 00:09:29,693 --> 00:09:32,662 I wish you to deliver this parcel to Sir Humphry. 130 00:09:40,371 --> 00:09:42,171 It was a long shot, anyway. 131 00:09:42,206 --> 00:09:45,174 But Faraday hoped something would come of it. 132 00:09:45,209 --> 00:09:47,710 And it did. 133 00:09:49,914 --> 00:09:53,449 Uh, the experiment is ready for you now, sir. 134 00:09:59,456 --> 00:10:02,358 Ampere tells me that poor Dulong lost an eye 135 00:10:02,393 --> 00:10:04,928 and three fingers working with this. 136 00:10:10,701 --> 00:10:12,035 My eyes! 137 00:10:12,069 --> 00:10:13,303 My eyes! 138 00:10:23,268 --> 00:10:26,104 When a chemical experiment blew up in the face 139 00:10:26,138 --> 00:10:28,906 of the world-renowned scientist Humphry Davy, 140 00:10:28,941 --> 00:10:31,075 he remembered Michael Faraday, 141 00:10:31,110 --> 00:10:33,277 the lad who had gone through such lengths 142 00:10:33,312 --> 00:10:37,582 to copy down and bind the transcript of his lecture. 143 00:10:37,616 --> 00:10:39,917 You have a first-rate memory, young man. 144 00:10:39,952 --> 00:10:42,587 And I shall have temporary need of a secretary. 145 00:10:42,621 --> 00:10:46,457 Sir, I dream of a life in service to science. 146 00:10:46,492 --> 00:10:49,227 I would advise you to stick to the bookbinding. 147 00:10:49,261 --> 00:10:51,763 Science is a harsh mistress. 148 00:10:51,797 --> 00:10:54,599 Surely, a person of your station and modest means 149 00:10:54,633 --> 00:10:55,933 must have a trade. 150 00:10:55,968 --> 00:10:58,269 Trade is vicious and selfish. 151 00:10:58,304 --> 00:11:01,939 Men of science are amiable and morally superior. 152 00:11:01,974 --> 00:11:04,809 I take it I'm the first man of science 153 00:11:04,843 --> 00:11:06,177 you've ever met. 154 00:11:09,481 --> 00:11:12,684 Faraday made himself indispensable to Davy. 155 00:11:12,718 --> 00:11:15,119 The temporary job became a permanent one, 156 00:11:15,154 --> 00:11:17,922 and the Royal Institution became his lifelong home. 157 00:11:17,956 --> 00:11:21,492 By day, he assisted Davy in the lab, 158 00:11:21,527 --> 00:11:24,762 at day's end, he climbed the stairs 159 00:11:24,797 --> 00:11:26,364 to the little apartment 160 00:11:26,398 --> 00:11:29,400 where his beloved bride Sarah was waiting. 161 00:11:36,075 --> 00:11:39,644 Humphry Davy and the chemist William Wollaston 162 00:11:39,678 --> 00:11:42,547 were experimenting with a mysterious phenomenon, 163 00:11:42,581 --> 00:11:47,185 one with potentially far-reaching implications. 164 00:11:47,419 --> 00:11:49,754 This is the identical setup to Orsted's. 165 00:11:49,788 --> 00:11:53,858 Now close the circuit, Davy, and watch closely. 166 00:11:56,528 --> 00:12:00,364 What could be driving the needle away from the wire? 167 00:12:00,399 --> 00:12:02,767 Damned if I know. 168 00:12:02,801 --> 00:12:04,502 But it's as if the electric current 169 00:12:04,536 --> 00:12:07,038 makes the wire behave like some kind of magnet. 170 00:12:07,072 --> 00:12:10,408 Electricity must have something to do with magnetism. 171 00:12:10,442 --> 00:12:15,513 Now if we could only get it to turn continuously, 172 00:12:15,547 --> 00:12:17,615 imagine what might be accomplished 173 00:12:17,649 --> 00:12:21,485 if we could put these forces to work. 174 00:12:22,988 --> 00:12:25,456 After you've tidied up, Faraday, 175 00:12:25,490 --> 00:12:26,791 you might see what you can make of it. 176 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:30,728 Davy may have been having a bit of fun 177 00:12:30,762 --> 00:12:32,697 at the expense of his young assistant, 178 00:12:32,731 --> 00:12:35,066 but Faraday was on fire. 179 00:12:35,100 --> 00:12:38,069 Up to now, electricity had been nothing more 180 00:12:38,103 --> 00:12:40,271 than an entertaining novelty toy. 181 00:12:40,305 --> 00:12:42,974 It could make a light flash for an instant 182 00:12:43,008 --> 00:12:45,243 or turn a compass needle briefly, 183 00:12:45,277 --> 00:12:48,212 but it had no practical application. 184 00:12:48,247 --> 00:12:52,383 Faraday immediately set about designing the experiment, 185 00:12:52,417 --> 00:12:56,287 devoting every moment of his spare time to the problem. 186 00:12:56,321 --> 00:12:58,489 If Faraday succeeded, 187 00:12:58,524 --> 00:13:01,893 he would be putting an infinitely large, invisible, 188 00:13:01,927 --> 00:13:05,396 and as-yet-undiscovered army of electrons 189 00:13:05,430 --> 00:13:09,000 at the command of human whim. 190 00:13:09,034 --> 00:13:12,570 How does a revolution begin? 191 00:13:12,604 --> 00:13:15,773 Sometimes it doesn't take much. 192 00:13:15,807 --> 00:13:19,076 A piece of metal, a bowl of mercury, 193 00:13:19,111 --> 00:13:21,312 a bit of cork. 194 00:13:24,016 --> 00:13:25,983 Sarah dear, send your little brother down. 195 00:13:26,018 --> 00:13:27,985 I'm about to try something knew, 196 00:13:28,020 --> 00:13:30,421 and I want him to see it. 197 00:13:30,455 --> 00:13:33,558 Why don't you do the honors, Georgie. 198 00:13:37,029 --> 00:13:39,263 There she goes. 199 00:13:39,298 --> 00:13:41,265 There she goes! 200 00:13:48,140 --> 00:13:51,843 This was the first motor 201 00:13:51,877 --> 00:13:56,380 converting electric current into continuous mechanical motion. 202 00:13:56,415 --> 00:13:58,716 Looks pretty feeble, right? 203 00:13:58,750 --> 00:14:00,985 But that turning spindle 204 00:14:01,019 --> 00:14:03,821 is the beginning of a revolution, 205 00:14:03,856 --> 00:14:06,290 one that dwarfs all the shots fired 206 00:14:06,325 --> 00:14:08,359 and bombs ever detonated 207 00:14:08,393 --> 00:14:13,464 in the sheer magnitude of its effect on our civilization. 208 00:14:13,499 --> 00:14:16,834 Try to imagine all the businesses, 209 00:14:16,869 --> 00:14:18,836 industries, technologies, 210 00:14:18,871 --> 00:14:21,205 transformations of the way we live 211 00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:24,242 that have their beginnings in that ecstatic moment 212 00:14:24,276 --> 00:14:27,378 in Michael Faraday's laboratory. 213 00:14:27,412 --> 00:14:29,981 News of Faraday's invention spread quickly, 214 00:14:30,015 --> 00:14:34,919 and suddenly, Davy's assistant was the toast of London. 215 00:14:34,953 --> 00:14:37,255 Davy didn't take it well. 216 00:14:37,289 --> 00:14:40,758 He had, after all, discovered all those elements. 217 00:14:42,761 --> 00:14:46,264 Now people were saying that his greatest discovery 218 00:14:46,298 --> 00:14:49,033 was Michael Faraday. 219 00:14:49,067 --> 00:14:51,269 Davy made sure that Faraday 220 00:14:51,303 --> 00:14:55,706 wouldn't be making any more headlines anytime soon. 221 00:14:57,776 --> 00:14:59,710 You sent for me, sir? 222 00:14:59,745 --> 00:15:01,946 I have a new challenge for you. 223 00:15:03,415 --> 00:15:05,449 I want you to take over our efforts 224 00:15:05,484 --> 00:15:08,319 to improve the quality of British optical glass. 225 00:15:09,621 --> 00:15:10,955 Those damned Bavarians 226 00:15:10,989 --> 00:15:12,690 are running circles around us. 227 00:15:12,724 --> 00:15:13,758 Glass? 228 00:15:13,792 --> 00:15:15,426 With all due respect, sir, 229 00:15:15,460 --> 00:15:18,029 I know nothing at all of glass-making. 230 00:15:18,063 --> 00:15:20,231 Then you will learn, Faraday. 231 00:15:20,265 --> 00:15:22,967 We all know what a quick study you are. 232 00:15:23,001 --> 00:15:26,304 Just analyze the chemical composition of their glass 233 00:15:26,338 --> 00:15:29,307 and work backwards to see how they made it. 234 00:15:29,341 --> 00:15:31,242 It shouldn't take you long. 235 00:15:37,783 --> 00:15:40,585 But Faraday struggled for four years 236 00:15:40,619 --> 00:15:42,119 without any success. 237 00:15:58,303 --> 00:16:01,138 This is even worse than the last batch. 238 00:16:02,474 --> 00:16:04,475 No matter how hard he tried, 239 00:16:04,510 --> 00:16:07,812 Faraday could not figure out what Joseph Fraunhofer 240 00:16:07,846 --> 00:16:10,114 had discovered years before. 241 00:16:10,148 --> 00:16:14,118 What Faraday failed to grasp was that casting 242 00:16:14,153 --> 00:16:16,921 perfect optical glass for telescopes was a craft 243 00:16:16,955 --> 00:16:19,090 as well as a science, and the masters 244 00:16:19,124 --> 00:16:21,993 in Bavaria kept their secrets under lock and key. 245 00:16:28,967 --> 00:16:32,470 Faraday never did learn their secret. 246 00:16:32,504 --> 00:16:34,939 He kept a single glass brick 247 00:16:34,973 --> 00:16:38,476 as a souvenir of this failure. 248 00:16:38,510 --> 00:16:43,214 Years later, it would change the course of his life... 249 00:16:43,248 --> 00:16:45,416 and ours. 250 00:17:06,012 --> 00:17:09,347 Davy's death finally brought an end to this fruitless project, 251 00:17:09,382 --> 00:17:12,317 and Faraday, the boy from the slums, 252 00:17:12,351 --> 00:17:14,886 succeeded him as Director of the Laboratory. 253 00:17:14,921 --> 00:17:18,557 Faraday used his new authority to do something unprecedented-- 254 00:17:18,591 --> 00:17:21,326 a series of annual Christmas lectures on science 255 00:17:21,360 --> 00:17:24,596 for the young... beginning in 1825 256 00:17:24,630 --> 00:17:27,232 and continuing to this day. 257 00:17:58,731 --> 00:18:01,266 At one of the first Christmas lectures, 258 00:18:01,300 --> 00:18:03,435 Faraday enchanted his audience 259 00:18:03,469 --> 00:18:07,372 with displays of the new powers that were at his disposal. 260 00:18:07,406 --> 00:18:11,076 Suppose I want to fire a portion of gunpowder. 261 00:18:11,110 --> 00:18:12,878 I can readily do it with the power 262 00:18:12,912 --> 00:18:14,379 of electricity. 263 00:18:18,451 --> 00:18:22,153 If I receive electricity through this conducting wire, 264 00:18:22,188 --> 00:18:24,489 I can then give it to anything I touch. 265 00:18:24,524 --> 00:18:28,727 But I must stand on these insulating glass legs 266 00:18:28,761 --> 00:18:31,997 to prevent the electricity from going away into the floor. 267 00:18:35,167 --> 00:18:37,602 Now I am electrified! 268 00:18:37,637 --> 00:18:39,304 Whoa! 269 00:18:43,943 --> 00:18:46,678 Do you think I could light this gas jet 270 00:18:46,712 --> 00:18:48,947 just by touching it with my finger? 271 00:18:48,981 --> 00:18:50,115 No, don't do it! No! 272 00:18:50,149 --> 00:18:52,651 No! Don't! 273 00:18:54,620 --> 00:18:57,789 Now, mind you, don't try this at home. 274 00:19:02,328 --> 00:19:05,363 And now, my children, you have seen for yourselves 275 00:19:05,398 --> 00:19:07,933 how this invisible force of electricity 276 00:19:07,967 --> 00:19:10,368 can be made to serve new purposes 277 00:19:10,403 --> 00:19:13,972 utterly unattainable by the powers we have now. 278 00:19:23,916 --> 00:19:26,952 The invention of a motor that could work continuously, 279 00:19:26,986 --> 00:19:29,154 eliminating countless human hours of drudgery, 280 00:19:29,188 --> 00:19:32,123 would be more than enough to make you a fortune 281 00:19:32,158 --> 00:19:34,125 and land you in the history books. 282 00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:36,728 But that's not how Michael Faraday saw it. 283 00:19:36,762 --> 00:19:39,898 He had absolutely no interest in patenting his ideas 284 00:19:39,932 --> 00:19:41,900 or personally profiting from them. 285 00:19:41,934 --> 00:19:43,902 And as for the history books, 286 00:19:43,936 --> 00:19:46,137 he had only written the first sentence 287 00:19:46,172 --> 00:19:48,907 of an entry that would be many pages long. 288 00:19:48,941 --> 00:19:54,045 Mr. Anderson, may I ask you to dim the lights, please? 289 00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:57,182 Gentlemen, I am about to induce a current of electricity 290 00:19:57,216 --> 00:19:59,251 merely by moving a magnet. 291 00:19:59,285 --> 00:20:00,819 Please observe what happens 292 00:20:00,853 --> 00:20:03,388 in the gap between the wires when I do so. 293 00:20:10,530 --> 00:20:13,899 Do you see how the current only flows when the magnet is moving? 294 00:20:15,301 --> 00:20:16,835 This is the conversion 295 00:20:16,869 --> 00:20:18,970 of motion into electricity. 296 00:20:29,382 --> 00:20:31,449 This was the first generator. 297 00:20:31,484 --> 00:20:34,786 From here, electricity would become available on demand. 298 00:20:34,820 --> 00:20:37,289 Faraday was continuing to change the world 299 00:20:37,323 --> 00:20:39,391 and the way people lived, 300 00:20:39,425 --> 00:20:41,459 and then, suddenly, 301 00:20:41,494 --> 00:20:44,829 an illness attacked his incomparable mind. 302 00:20:50,336 --> 00:20:52,370 My dear Schoenbein, 303 00:20:52,405 --> 00:20:55,807 I would be very grateful to have your opinion regarding... 304 00:21:00,413 --> 00:21:02,781 Regarding... 305 00:21:04,584 --> 00:21:07,419 Dear Schoenbein... Regarding... 306 00:21:17,163 --> 00:21:20,665 My dear husband, whatever is the matter? 307 00:21:20,700 --> 00:21:23,401 I began a letter to Schoenbein 308 00:21:23,436 --> 00:21:26,338 and could not remember what I meant to say. 309 00:21:26,372 --> 00:21:28,573 This is no cause for alarm. 310 00:21:28,608 --> 00:21:30,442 You work too hard. 311 00:21:30,476 --> 00:21:32,611 - You're exhausted. - No. 312 00:21:32,645 --> 00:21:33,912 Sarah, this is different. 313 00:21:33,946 --> 00:21:35,914 Horribly different. 314 00:21:35,948 --> 00:21:39,451 It's the third time my memory has failed me in as many days. 315 00:21:39,485 --> 00:21:41,586 I fear I'm losing my mind. 316 00:21:41,621 --> 00:21:43,889 And what would I be without that? 317 00:21:45,558 --> 00:21:50,161 Why, my darling husband, of course. 318 00:21:51,964 --> 00:21:53,932 When Faraday was 49, 319 00:21:53,966 --> 00:21:56,935 he began to battle severe memory loss and depression. 320 00:21:56,969 --> 00:21:59,471 His work came to a standstill. 321 00:21:59,505 --> 00:22:01,840 And although he never fully recovered, 322 00:22:01,874 --> 00:22:05,210 his greatest achievements still lay ahead. 323 00:22:18,604 --> 00:22:20,938 Faraday 324 00:22:20,973 --> 00:22:22,573 had immersed himself so deeply 325 00:22:22,608 --> 00:22:24,742 in electrical and magnetic experiments 326 00:22:24,777 --> 00:22:27,478 that he came to visualize the space around a magnet 327 00:22:27,513 --> 00:22:31,182 as filled with invisible lines of force. 328 00:22:31,216 --> 00:22:34,619 A magnet was not simply the magnetized bar of iron 329 00:22:34,653 --> 00:22:36,020 that you could see. 330 00:22:36,055 --> 00:22:38,856 It was also the unseen something 331 00:22:38,891 --> 00:22:41,426 in the space around the bar. 332 00:22:41,460 --> 00:22:43,928 And that something he called a field. 333 00:22:43,962 --> 00:22:47,332 A magnetic field. 334 00:22:47,366 --> 00:22:50,034 Faraday believed in the unity of nature. 335 00:22:50,069 --> 00:22:52,437 Having demonstrated the connections 336 00:22:52,471 --> 00:22:56,207 between electricity and magnetism, he wondered, 337 00:22:56,241 --> 00:23:00,945 were these two forces also connected to a third-- light? 338 00:23:00,979 --> 00:23:03,214 If he could only show a connection 339 00:23:03,248 --> 00:23:06,017 among these three invisible phenomena, 340 00:23:06,051 --> 00:23:08,553 one of nature's most intimate secrets 341 00:23:08,587 --> 00:23:10,488 would at last be revealed. 342 00:23:10,522 --> 00:23:12,523 So, what did he do? 343 00:23:12,558 --> 00:23:14,359 He designed an experiment. 344 00:23:14,393 --> 00:23:17,395 Faraday knew that light can travel as a wave. 345 00:23:17,429 --> 00:23:20,465 Waves of light vibrate randomly in all directions. 346 00:23:20,499 --> 00:23:24,068 But there's a way to isolate a single wave of light. 347 00:23:24,103 --> 00:23:27,071 It's called polarization. 348 00:23:27,106 --> 00:23:28,806 When light bounces off a reflective surface, 349 00:23:28,841 --> 00:23:30,241 like a mirror, 350 00:23:30,275 --> 00:23:32,810 it becomes polarized. 351 00:23:32,845 --> 00:23:34,679 Faraday wanted to see 352 00:23:34,713 --> 00:23:37,815 if that single ray of light could be manipulated 353 00:23:37,850 --> 00:23:39,851 by the invisible magnetic field. 354 00:23:39,885 --> 00:23:42,387 The eyepiece contained a crystal 355 00:23:42,421 --> 00:23:45,356 that acted as a kind of picket fence for light. 356 00:23:45,391 --> 00:23:47,358 Light could only pass through it 357 00:23:47,393 --> 00:23:49,827 if it was somehow moved by the magnet. 358 00:23:49,862 --> 00:23:52,030 He placed a lantern before a mirror, 359 00:23:52,064 --> 00:23:55,233 one that he would only see through the eyepiece 360 00:23:55,267 --> 00:23:58,870 if its reflection could pass through the picket fence. 361 00:23:58,904 --> 00:24:02,106 If this is hard to understand, don't feel bad. 362 00:24:02,141 --> 00:24:04,042 Scientists could not explain this phenomenon 363 00:24:04,076 --> 00:24:05,743 for another 100 years. 364 00:24:05,778 --> 00:24:08,780 Faraday knew that magnetism had no effect 365 00:24:08,814 --> 00:24:11,749 on light that was moving through air. 366 00:24:11,784 --> 00:24:14,018 But what about when it was moving through other materials? 367 00:24:14,053 --> 00:24:16,387 So what kind of material could he use 368 00:24:16,422 --> 00:24:19,023 to help the magnet move the light? 369 00:24:19,058 --> 00:24:21,125 He tried hundreds of different 370 00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:23,161 transparent chemicals and objects... 371 00:24:24,930 --> 00:24:27,899 but saw nothing through the eyepiece. 372 00:24:27,933 --> 00:24:30,535 The light was not twisted by the magnet. 373 00:24:30,569 --> 00:24:33,404 He tried crystals of calcite, 374 00:24:33,439 --> 00:24:35,440 sodium carbonate, 375 00:24:35,474 --> 00:24:37,308 calcium sulfate, 376 00:24:37,343 --> 00:24:39,944 and still, he saw nothing. 377 00:24:39,978 --> 00:24:41,713 He tried acids. 378 00:24:41,747 --> 00:24:42,780 Sulfuric acid, 379 00:24:42,815 --> 00:24:44,615 muriatic acid, 380 00:24:44,650 --> 00:24:46,651 carbonic acid. 381 00:24:46,685 --> 00:24:48,119 He tried gasses... 382 00:24:48,153 --> 00:24:51,055 oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen... 383 00:24:51,090 --> 00:24:52,724 with no success. 384 00:24:52,758 --> 00:24:55,326 The magnetic field induced 385 00:24:55,361 --> 00:24:57,662 in these substances could not twist the light 386 00:24:57,696 --> 00:24:59,163 from his lamp back into view. 387 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:02,433 Damn! 388 00:25:08,540 --> 00:25:12,343 In desperation, he decided to try... 389 00:25:12,378 --> 00:25:14,345 the glass brick, 390 00:25:14,380 --> 00:25:17,615 the souvenir 391 00:25:17,649 --> 00:25:20,518 of his years of bondage to Davy. 392 00:25:33,732 --> 00:25:35,166 It did the trick. 393 00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:36,968 The force of the magnet 394 00:25:37,002 --> 00:25:38,703 twisted the light 395 00:25:38,737 --> 00:25:41,306 so that it could pass through the crystal. 396 00:25:41,340 --> 00:25:43,675 So, what's the big deal? 397 00:25:43,709 --> 00:25:45,943 Faraday had demonstrated the existence 398 00:25:45,978 --> 00:25:48,579 of the physical reality that surrounds us, 399 00:25:48,581 --> 00:25:51,349 but which no one had ever been able to detect. 400 00:25:51,383 --> 00:25:53,384 It was as dramatic a breakthrough 401 00:25:53,419 --> 00:25:56,154 as seeing the cosmos for the very first time 402 00:25:56,188 --> 00:25:57,555 through a telescope. 403 00:25:57,589 --> 00:26:01,225 By showing that an electromagnetic force 404 00:26:01,260 --> 00:26:03,061 could manipulate light, 405 00:26:03,095 --> 00:26:06,497 Faraday had discovered a deeper unity of nature. 406 00:26:06,532 --> 00:26:09,067 He had opened a door for Einstein 407 00:26:09,101 --> 00:26:11,669 and all the physicists who came after him 408 00:26:11,704 --> 00:26:13,471 to glimpse the interplay 409 00:26:13,505 --> 00:26:16,708 of hidden, primal forces in the universe. 410 00:26:16,742 --> 00:26:19,811 Even as he approached the summit of his genius, 411 00:26:19,845 --> 00:26:21,979 he was plagued by depression 412 00:26:22,014 --> 00:26:23,681 and doubts about his ability 413 00:26:23,716 --> 00:26:26,017 to retain even the simplest thoughts. 414 00:26:26,051 --> 00:26:30,054 My dear friend, I find a difficulty in answering 415 00:26:30,089 --> 00:26:33,024 or even acknowledging properly a scientific letter, 416 00:26:33,058 --> 00:26:36,194 for I cannot now hold it at once in my mind. 417 00:26:36,228 --> 00:26:39,464 The memory of the parts fail me. 418 00:26:42,234 --> 00:26:44,669 P.S. You will be sorry to see 419 00:26:44,703 --> 00:26:46,571 the tone of this short note, 420 00:26:46,605 --> 00:26:50,441 but my dearest husband is not quite so well as usual, 421 00:26:50,476 --> 00:26:53,011 but I hope he will improve. 422 00:26:53,045 --> 00:26:56,047 Yours very truly, S. Faraday. 423 00:26:58,150 --> 00:27:01,552 As a young man, Faraday had risen from poverty, 424 00:27:01,587 --> 00:27:04,022 in one of the most class-conscious societies 425 00:27:04,056 --> 00:27:06,391 the world has ever known, 426 00:27:06,425 --> 00:27:10,294 to become the most celebrated scientist of his time. 427 00:27:10,329 --> 00:27:13,898 By age 40, he had invented the electric motor, 428 00:27:13,932 --> 00:27:16,601 the transformer, the generator, 429 00:27:16,635 --> 00:27:19,637 machines that would change everything about the home, 430 00:27:19,672 --> 00:27:22,073 the farm, the factory. 431 00:27:22,107 --> 00:27:25,743 Now, at 60, decades after the fertile periods 432 00:27:25,778 --> 00:27:27,979 of the greatest physicists, 433 00:27:28,013 --> 00:27:30,782 plagued by memory loss and melancholy, 434 00:27:30,816 --> 00:27:33,885 he fearlessly probed deeper 435 00:27:33,919 --> 00:27:37,322 into the mysterious invisible forces. 436 00:27:54,926 --> 00:27:58,962 The world thought that Michael Faraday was a has-been. 437 00:27:58,997 --> 00:28:00,898 Despite his depression, 438 00:28:00,932 --> 00:28:04,234 he remained as passionately curious as ever. 439 00:28:04,269 --> 00:28:05,803 Having discovered the unity 440 00:28:05,837 --> 00:28:08,305 of electricity, magnetism and light, 441 00:28:08,339 --> 00:28:10,140 Faraday needed to know 442 00:28:10,175 --> 00:28:13,944 how this trinity of natural forces work together. 443 00:28:19,317 --> 00:28:21,618 ♪ this is the way the ladies walk... ♪ 444 00:28:21,653 --> 00:28:23,220 This was nothing new. 445 00:28:23,254 --> 00:28:24,822 Children had been playing with magnets 446 00:28:24,856 --> 00:28:26,790 and iron filings for centuries. 447 00:28:26,825 --> 00:28:30,394 Everyone had always assumed that this lovely pattern 448 00:28:30,428 --> 00:28:33,413 was just something that iron did. 449 00:28:33,848 --> 00:28:37,000 Faraday knew that electric current turns a wire into a magnet, 450 00:28:37,134 --> 00:28:39,469 so he expected to find related patterns 451 00:28:39,503 --> 00:28:42,906 in iron filings around a wire carrying electricity. 452 00:28:45,109 --> 00:28:47,110 But where others saw merely lovely shapes, 453 00:28:47,144 --> 00:28:50,814 Faraday saw something profound. 454 00:28:50,848 --> 00:28:55,285 The patterns were not simply a quirk of iron filings; 455 00:28:55,319 --> 00:28:58,288 they existed in the space around a magnet 456 00:28:58,322 --> 00:28:59,856 or an electric current, 457 00:28:59,890 --> 00:29:02,425 even in the absence of iron filings. 458 00:29:02,460 --> 00:29:05,161 The patterns were the traces, the footprints 459 00:29:05,196 --> 00:29:07,297 of invisible fields of force, 460 00:29:07,331 --> 00:29:11,968 that reached out into the space around anything magnetic. 461 00:29:15,473 --> 00:29:18,408 The compass needle that people wondered at 462 00:29:18,443 --> 00:29:21,144 for a thousand years was not reacting 463 00:29:21,179 --> 00:29:23,780 to some far away magnetic North Pole. 464 00:29:23,815 --> 00:29:26,316 It was detecting a continuous force field 465 00:29:26,351 --> 00:29:29,019 that stretched all the way there. 466 00:29:31,289 --> 00:29:34,725 Earth itself is a giant magnet. 467 00:29:34,759 --> 00:29:36,260 And like any other magnet, 468 00:29:36,294 --> 00:29:38,762 its lines of force extend far out 469 00:29:38,796 --> 00:29:41,265 into the space surrounding it. 470 00:29:41,299 --> 00:29:44,401 They're everywhere, all around us. 471 00:29:44,435 --> 00:29:46,169 They've always been. 472 00:29:46,204 --> 00:29:48,939 But nobody had ever noticed them before. 473 00:29:48,973 --> 00:29:51,842 Nobody human, that is. 474 00:29:55,146 --> 00:29:58,115 Birds are the last living descendants of the dinosaurs. 475 00:30:00,518 --> 00:30:02,653 Pigeons and other birds are remarkably good 476 00:30:02,687 --> 00:30:04,588 at finding their way around. 477 00:30:04,622 --> 00:30:07,958 They can migrate thousands of miles without getting lost. 478 00:30:07,992 --> 00:30:12,029 How? Partly by recognizing familiar landmarks-- 479 00:30:12,063 --> 00:30:14,431 rivers, mountains, stars. 480 00:30:14,465 --> 00:30:16,133 Even certain smells can serve 481 00:30:16,167 --> 00:30:19,303 as signposts for migrating birds. 482 00:30:19,337 --> 00:30:21,872 But birds also have an inner compass. 483 00:30:21,906 --> 00:30:25,108 They can actually sense the Earth's magnetic field. 484 00:30:25,143 --> 00:30:28,879 Their brains process magnetic data in much the same way 485 00:30:28,913 --> 00:30:31,481 ours process visual data. 486 00:30:31,516 --> 00:30:33,850 By sensing the direction of the field, 487 00:30:33,885 --> 00:30:35,953 birds can tell north from south. 488 00:30:35,987 --> 00:30:38,989 That's one way North American birds know which way to go 489 00:30:39,023 --> 00:30:40,724 when they head south for the winter. 490 00:30:40,758 --> 00:30:43,060 The field is stronger near the poles 491 00:30:43,094 --> 00:30:44,895 than it is at the equator, 492 00:30:44,929 --> 00:30:48,498 a fact that birds use to figure out their latitude. 493 00:30:48,533 --> 00:30:51,168 There are also small irregularities in the field, 494 00:30:51,202 --> 00:30:52,636 locations where the field 495 00:30:52,670 --> 00:30:55,072 is a little weaker or stronger. 496 00:30:55,106 --> 00:30:57,507 Just like a distinctive mountain or river, 497 00:30:57,542 --> 00:31:01,545 these magnetic anomalies can serve as landmarks. 498 00:31:11,356 --> 00:31:14,424 For thousands of years, humans have used carrier pigeons 499 00:31:14,459 --> 00:31:17,327 to send messages to distant locations. 500 00:31:17,362 --> 00:31:19,496 It was a crucial method of communication 501 00:31:19,530 --> 00:31:21,365 as recently as World War II. 502 00:31:21,399 --> 00:31:23,066 When you think about it, we've been using 503 00:31:23,101 --> 00:31:26,103 magnetic fields to communicate for a long time. 504 00:31:26,137 --> 00:31:28,972 We just didn't know it. 505 00:31:37,148 --> 00:31:39,783 So why does our planet have a magnetic field at all? 506 00:31:39,817 --> 00:31:41,551 What causes it? 507 00:31:41,586 --> 00:31:44,788 The answer lies deep inside the Earth. 508 00:31:44,822 --> 00:31:47,958 Liquid iron, circulating around the solid part of the core 509 00:31:47,992 --> 00:31:49,459 as Earth rotates, 510 00:31:49,494 --> 00:31:53,230 acts like a wire carrying an electric current. 511 00:31:53,264 --> 00:31:55,065 And as Faraday showed us, 512 00:31:55,099 --> 00:31:57,634 electric currents produce magnetic fields. 513 00:31:57,669 --> 00:31:59,236 And that's a good thing. 514 00:31:59,270 --> 00:32:01,638 Our magnetic field protects us from the onslaught 515 00:32:01,673 --> 00:32:05,742 of cosmic rays, which would be very damaging to our biosphere. 516 00:32:05,777 --> 00:32:09,079 Cosmic rays can rip through DNA. 517 00:32:09,113 --> 00:32:11,481 Without our magnetic field, the rate of mutation 518 00:32:11,516 --> 00:32:13,650 in living organisms would be much higher. 519 00:32:13,685 --> 00:32:17,821 Fortunately, most of this cosmic shrapnel gets trapped 520 00:32:17,855 --> 00:32:20,591 in the Van Allen belts, donut-shaped zones 521 00:32:20,625 --> 00:32:25,462 of charged particles corralled by our magnetic shield. 522 00:32:33,171 --> 00:32:36,573 Knowing that the Earth itself is like a giant bar magnet 523 00:32:36,608 --> 00:32:39,643 explains one of the most beautiful sights in the sky, 524 00:32:39,677 --> 00:32:41,678 the aurora. 525 00:32:43,881 --> 00:32:46,450 Charged particles from the Sun, the solar wind, 526 00:32:46,484 --> 00:32:49,286 are constantly bombarding the Earth. 527 00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:52,823 You can think of the solar wind as a kind of electric current. 528 00:32:52,857 --> 00:32:54,925 Our planet's magnetic field 529 00:32:54,959 --> 00:32:57,594 channels that current towards the North and South Poles. 530 00:32:57,629 --> 00:32:59,429 When it hits our atmosphere, 531 00:32:59,464 --> 00:33:01,265 the oxygen and nitrogen molecules 532 00:33:01,299 --> 00:33:06,003 in the air glow like giant fluorescent lightbulbs. 533 00:33:27,258 --> 00:33:28,825 When Faraday pursued 534 00:33:28,860 --> 00:33:31,228 his last and most profound discovery, 535 00:33:31,262 --> 00:33:33,230 the poverty of his childhood stymied him 536 00:33:33,264 --> 00:33:34,998 as it never had before. 537 00:33:35,033 --> 00:33:36,733 He needed help 538 00:33:36,768 --> 00:33:39,936 and found it in one who had come from another world. 539 00:33:54,628 --> 00:33:56,762 Michael Faraday had solved the mystery 540 00:33:56,796 --> 00:33:58,931 that baffled Isaac Newton. 541 00:34:16,594 --> 00:34:20,330 This was how the Sun told the planets how to move 542 00:34:20,364 --> 00:34:22,632 without touching them. 543 00:34:22,666 --> 00:34:24,834 The Sun does touch the planets 544 00:34:24,869 --> 00:34:26,669 with its gravitational field, 545 00:34:27,004 --> 00:34:29,305 and Earth's gravitational field 546 00:34:29,340 --> 00:34:32,709 tells the apples how to fall. 547 00:34:40,651 --> 00:34:44,987 All this is a dream. 548 00:34:46,257 --> 00:34:49,059 Unfortunately, that was the prevailing view 549 00:34:49,093 --> 00:34:50,660 among his fellow scientists. 550 00:34:50,695 --> 00:34:52,929 Faraday was dreaming. 551 00:34:52,964 --> 00:34:54,564 They admired his inventiveness 552 00:34:54,598 --> 00:34:56,633 and his genius for experimentation, 553 00:34:56,667 --> 00:34:59,469 but they regarded his invisible "lines of force" 554 00:34:59,503 --> 00:35:02,939 and his ideas about light and gravity as hand-waving, 555 00:35:02,974 --> 00:35:06,276 meaning there was nothing solid to back it up. 556 00:35:06,310 --> 00:35:09,479 Some openly ridiculed his theories. 557 00:35:09,513 --> 00:35:11,815 They needed to see his ideas expressed 558 00:35:11,849 --> 00:35:14,284 in the language of modern physics, 559 00:35:14,318 --> 00:35:15,986 precise equations. 560 00:35:16,020 --> 00:35:17,454 This was the one area 561 00:35:17,488 --> 00:35:19,122 where Faraday's childhood poverty 562 00:35:19,156 --> 00:35:20,490 and lack of formal education 563 00:35:20,524 --> 00:35:24,094 actually held him back. 564 00:35:24,128 --> 00:35:26,796 He couldn't do the math. 565 00:35:26,831 --> 00:35:31,368 Faraday had finally hit a wall that he could not overcome. 566 00:35:31,402 --> 00:35:33,970 And then, the greatest theoretical physicist 567 00:35:34,005 --> 00:35:36,806 of the 19th century came along. 568 00:35:36,841 --> 00:35:40,977 James Clerk Maxwell was born into a world of wealth 569 00:35:41,012 --> 00:35:42,612 and privilege, 570 00:35:42,647 --> 00:35:46,983 an only child of doting middle-aged parents. 571 00:35:51,656 --> 00:35:54,824 By his early 20s, he had made a name for himself 572 00:35:54,859 --> 00:35:56,559 as a mathematician. 573 00:35:56,594 --> 00:35:58,962 While other scientists had come to think of Faraday 574 00:35:58,996 --> 00:36:01,398 as old-fashioned; a great figure of the past 575 00:36:01,432 --> 00:36:04,234 but no part of the future of physics, 576 00:36:04,268 --> 00:36:07,704 James Clerk Maxwell knew better. 577 00:36:07,738 --> 00:36:09,706 He began by reading everything 578 00:36:09,740 --> 00:36:12,309 Faraday had written on electricity. 579 00:36:12,343 --> 00:36:15,312 He became convinced that Faraday's fields of force 580 00:36:15,346 --> 00:36:17,814 were real, and he set out to give them 581 00:36:17,848 --> 00:36:20,784 a precise mathematical formulation. 582 00:37:06,897 --> 00:37:09,699 An equation in physics is just a shorthand description 583 00:37:09,734 --> 00:37:13,203 of something that can be represented in space and time. 584 00:37:13,237 --> 00:37:16,640 For instance, the equation that describes the arc of a pendulum 585 00:37:16,674 --> 00:37:21,478 shows that it can never swing higher than its initial height. 586 00:37:36,827 --> 00:37:39,963 When Maxwell translated Faraday's experimental 587 00:37:39,997 --> 00:37:44,067 observation on electromagnetic fields into equations, 588 00:37:44,101 --> 00:37:47,003 he discovered an asymmetry. 589 00:37:48,272 --> 00:37:50,240 See that bottom one? 590 00:37:50,274 --> 00:37:52,809 It cries out for something else. 591 00:37:52,843 --> 00:37:54,811 Great mathematician that he was, 592 00:37:54,845 --> 00:37:58,281 Maxwell added a single term to balance it. 593 00:37:58,316 --> 00:38:01,951 This tweaking of the equation changed Faraday's static field 594 00:38:01,986 --> 00:38:05,822 into waves that spread outward at the speed of light. 595 00:38:05,856 --> 00:38:09,159 It wasn't long before we found a way to turn those waves... 596 00:38:10,861 --> 00:38:13,330 into couriers 597 00:38:13,364 --> 00:38:15,732 for our messages. 598 00:38:17,234 --> 00:38:19,135 Can you see me? 599 00:38:19,170 --> 00:38:21,538 Can you hear me? 600 00:38:21,572 --> 00:38:24,474 This is how. 601 00:38:29,347 --> 00:38:32,882 This technology has transformed human civilization 602 00:38:32,917 --> 00:38:35,018 from a patchwork of cities, 603 00:38:35,052 --> 00:38:37,020 towns and villages 604 00:38:37,054 --> 00:38:41,057 into an intercommunicating organism... 605 00:38:50,334 --> 00:38:53,403 linking us at light speed... 606 00:38:59,410 --> 00:39:01,344 to each other... 607 00:39:09,921 --> 00:39:12,689 and to the cosmos. 608 00:39:45,255 --> 00:39:48,491 Nothing is too wonderful to be true, 609 00:39:48,525 --> 00:39:52,337 if it be consistent with the laws of nature.