Cool Science

William Gilbert doesn't get enough credit. Pick up a copy of 'De Magnete' (pub. 1600) for pennies on the dollar and you'll see why. In the late 1500's, he ran around his house with wires and with small magnets called lodestones and he figured out incredible things about magnets. He coined the term "poles". He was one of the first (maybe the first?) to recognize that there was a connection between electricity and magnetism. He was doing rational, experimental science way before anybody else.

While some in his time believed that you should secretly sneak a magnet under your spouse's pillow and see if they sleep well or not as a test of their marital fidelity, Gilbert knew that this was total garbage and instead figured out real things about magnetism. He would float them in water and see that they aligned with the Earth's magnetic field. He actually figured out that the Earth was a gigantic magnet by playing with miniature scale models. He understood and established that the south end of a magnet pointed north and vice versa. He figured out a ton of fundamentals that we take for granted and he did it at a time that was ruled by superstition, legend, and myth.

I reflect on this a lot and try to figure out what lessons to learn from his work - he was way ahead of his time and his work had an impact for 100-200 years after him. Imagine the clarity and objectivity and, most important, creativity. He had some weakly magnetic rocks and a bathtub and yet he designed elegant experiments that put magnetism on firm ground for the first time in recorded history. BTW, here's a nice review.

And in his spare time he was the Queen's physician. De Magnete. Da Man!