In 1834 Michael Faraday wrote a letter to William Whewell of Trinity College, asking for help on a vocabulary to use for the new science of electricity.
It was Whewell who coined the term “scientist” and Faraday asked him to come up with new words to help define electro-magnetism—in short, to create a new lexicon for this revolutionary force.
Whewell was a true polymath. He contributed to physics, mineralogy, geology, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, and—our focus here—the nomenclature of science.
Astrophysicist Michael Clarage, PhD, can relate to the 1830s when even today new cosmological findings are so novel they are difficult to discuss.c
