Episode Details

James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity, magnetism, and light into a single theory with four equations — a feat of intellectual synthesis that Einstein called the most profound in physics since Newton. He proved that light was an electromagnetic wave, predicted radio waves decades before they were detected, and laid the theoretical foundations for everything from television to WiFi. Yet he died at forty-eight and remains far less famous than scientists whose work depends entirely on his.

This episode traces Maxwell from his Scottish childhood through the color photography experiments, the kinetic theory of gases, and the electromagnetic equations that reshaped physics and technology.

• Maxwell's precocious Scottish childhood and his early work on the geometry of ovals
• The first color photograph and the kinetic theory that explained how gases behave
• Maxwell's equations — four formulas that unified electricity, magnetism, and light
• His early death at forty-eight and why Einstein considered him the greatest physicist since Newton