Michael Faraday

Rating:
Summary: Covers all the aspects of a premier scientist
Review: Michael Faraday is generally unappreciated as a scientist, he was clearly one of the greatest of all experimental scientists. In this book, we learn the many facets of this outstanding scientist, from his popular lectures to his deep-seated religious beliefs. He was an active member of a very small religious sect called the Sandemanians, a group whose numbers have never exceeded 1000. Religion was always present in his science, his firm belief in the conservation of energy was based on the thought that God would not waste anything. Often criticized for the lack of mathematical rigor in his publications, he nevertheless made fundamental contributions to the understanding of electricity, magnetism and chemistry.
However, the most significant aspect of the book is how it takes us back to an era when scientists openly explained their results to the public. Faraday regularly delivered lectures to a public that was very interested in what he would say, and in many ways this is something that the scientific community has lost. Common wisdom is that the public is generally uninterested in scientific matters, but that is not true. If the reasons for the research are explained in a sensible manner, then the public will support it financially.
A short, yet thorough book, it is ideal for a supplemental text in a history of science course. His scientific advances are explained using non-technical language with almost no mathematics.