Neil deGrasse Tyson hosted another fine episode of Cosmos this evening, one devoted to the discoveries about magnetism and electricity made by Michael Faraday. The backstory of Faraday is extraordinary: a poor boy who dropped out of school to eventually become the leading scientist of his day, whose inventions included the electrical motor and whose insights about electrical and magnetic fields were described in mathematical terms by Maxwell--which explained light as electromagnetic waves, transforming astronomy and opening up the modern world of electronic communication.
One interesting detail: Tyson describes the young Faraday as a devout fundamentalist Christian, whose faith made him a man of charity and modesty. This provides good reassurance that Tyson's agenda is not to promote a 'conflict narrative' for religion and science, as critics suggested after the first episode of Cosmos, with its story of the persecution and martyrdom of the free-thinking Giordano Bruno. Instead, Tyson's agenda is to promote science and freedom of inquiry against dogmatism and superstition.
The episode included a telling detail about Faraday: He initiated a series of lectures on science for children, held every Christmas at the Royal Institute for Science in London. This lecture series continues to this day. Faraday himself had gotten turned on to science by seeing public lectures by Humphrey Davies, who became his mentor. In his way, Tyson continues this tradition, as the host of what is proving to be a fine television series on science.
One more episode of Cosmos to mention: one several weeks ago that highlighted the contributions of women to astronomy. This was charmingly framed by creation myths about the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. One of the critical discoveries by women detailed in the episode was that of Cecilia Payne, who discovered in 1925 that the sun and the stars are made mostly of hydrogen and helium. It took four years for her mentor, the famous astronomer Henry Norris Russell, to realize she was correct. It is wonderful that Tyson is highlighting the contributions of women and other underrepresented groups in science (such as Faraday, who was poor and achieved success in a class-divided society). And it is terrific that he is doing so in such a convincing way (showing women astronomers whose discoveries were of the highest importance). Of course, Tyson's own career, as an African-American astrophysicist, and serving as host for Cosmos, is already a wonderful example for children who might otherwise never know that they can learn and do science.
[On edit, 2014-05-12: Removed the peculiar story about the demonic lesbians; it deserves a separate post.]