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Top British scientist leads off Jefferson Lecture Series
3:27 p.m., Oct. 19, 2006--Sir John Meurig Thomas, one of the world's leading scholars who was knighted in 1991 for “services to chemistry and the popularization of science,” presented a lecture on the accomplishments and lives of Benjamin Franklin and Michael Faraday before a full house in UD's Mitchell Hall on Oct. 13. The lecture was the first in the University's new Edward G. Jefferson Lecture Series, established in May to honor the former chairman and chief executive officer of the DuPont Co. and member of the UD Board of Trustees who died in February. The lecture is an annual event that will bring nationally and internationally recognized academics to Delaware to discuss issues of global importance in science, education and policy. “The first in this new lecture series, 'Science and Society,' explores the interplay between science, history and philosophy,” UD Provost Dan Rich said. Thomas' overview of the accomplishments and lives of Benjamin Franklin and Michael Faraday initiates the Jefferson series, he said. Douglas Buttrey, professor of chemical engineering, introduced Thomas, honorary professor of solid-state chemistry in the Department of Materials Science at the University of Cambridge and professor emeritus of chemistry at the Davy Faraday Research Laboratory of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. In his remarks, Thomas recalled having previously visited the UD campus. “I'm seeing a new campus. It's really a transformation from 20 years ago. This must be a charming place for study and research,” he said. Referring to Michael Faraday, the 19th-century English chemist and physicist, as his ideal, Thomas said Faraday greatly admired Franklin. “In the contemporary careers of Franklin and Faraday, there are many similarities,” he said. “Each was one of the most admired men in the Western world and each is associated with the most spectacular and fabled experiments in science.”
“Each man was driven by intrinsic curiosity, each believed in intellectual honesty and in the importance of evidence,” Thomas said. Franklin defined the nature of electricity and discovered the battery, and Faraday found that matter and electricity are inextricably connected, he said. Despite their achievements, Franklin and Faraday had little more than elementary schooling, Thomas said, but they were both able to compensate for that in their later lives, become successful and achieve landmark scientific breakthroughs. Both Franklin and Faraday made wide-ranging inquiries and wrote very well, Thomas said. “Their books were extremely popular. Like Faraday, Franklin wrote with charm and candor,” he said. But, there were differences, he said. “Faraday lacked Franklin's public persona. He was retiring, almost reclusive, he shunned socializing, despite the fact that after discovering electromagnetic induction, his lectures were attended by notables of his day like Charles Darwin,” Thomas said. Scientific inquiry was uppermost in the minds of both men, despite their different personas, he said. Franklin had the daring to send up a kite in order to prove lightning is electricity. After his experiments with lightning revealed the nature of electricity, Franklin went on to invent the lightning rod to protect people and property from harm. In fact, the 325-foot bell tower on Campanile of St. Mark's Church in Venice, Italy, was hit by lightning in 1388, 1417, 1489, 1548, 1565, 1653, 1745 and 1766 until one of Franklin's lightning rods was installed. After that, the tower remained unscathed until its collapse in 1902, Thomas said. Faraday, like Franklin, had very little formal education and was apprenticed to a bookbinder from age 14 until he was 21 when he heard a lecture by renowned chemist and physicist Sir Humphry Davy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Shortly after, Faraday sent the notes he had taken at the lecture to Davy. Davy was so impressed with Faraday that he invited Faraday to become his assistant.
He said Faraday made his greatest discovery, electromagnetic induction, in 1831. Faraday proved that a magnet was surrounded by lines of force and could generate electricity. When physicist James Clerk Maxwell put Faraday's theory into mathematical form, modern field theory was born, Thomas said. Thomas gave a detailed overview of Faraday's career. For more information on Faraday's work, visit [www.rigb.org/rimain/heritage/faradaypage.jsp]. Faraday and Franklin were so accomplished, Thomas said, because both men had unquenchable curiosity and a passion for clarity. They believed there was an answer to all questions that could be found through experimentation. “We can learn lessons from these people,” Thomas said. “Studying the lives and works of great people can help guide us.” The lecture was cosponsored by UD's Office of the Provost, the University Faculty Senate, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering, the University Honors Program and the departments of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Electrical and Computer Engineering, History, Materials Science and Engineering, Philosophy, Physics and Astronomy, and Political Science and International Relations. Article by Barbara Garrison
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