John Tyndall: The Physicist Who Proved the Greenhouse Effect – with Paul Hurley

John Tyndall worked on diamagnetism, explained why the sky is blue and discovered the mechanism for the greenhouse effect. He also gave hundreds of public lectures at the Ri, and was an avid mountaineer and poet. And all this before his beloved wife accidentally killed him.
Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/CVzTGs-usUE

2020 marks 200 years since the birth of the scientist John Tyndall, who led the Royal Institution’s research following the death of Faraday. The scientific enquiries and new discoveries of John Tyndall cover an incredible diversity, ranging from: magnetism and the bending of light, to heat absorption in gases and global warming, all the way through to bacterial spores and the motion of glaciers. On top of this dizzying array of experimental studies, he was an exceptional communicator of science to the general public.

John Tyndall also gives his name to the Tyndall National Institute at University College Cork in Ireland, where Paul Hurley works as a research scientist. In this talk he will cover some examples of Tyndall’s 19th Century scientific achievements and how they relate to our current information and communication age, and to critical environmental concerns of the 21st Century.

Paul Hurley received his PhD (1990) and B.Eng. (1985, 1st class honors) in Electronic Engineering at the University of Liverpool. Paul is a currently Senior Research Scientist and Head of the Nanoelectronic Materials and Devices Group at the Tyndall National Institute at University College Cork.

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