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Electricity & Inventors

Show Audio
Highlights:
Developing Electricity
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Thomas Edison
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Einstein's Ideas
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Date:

04-20-05

Host:

George Noory

Guests:

David Bodanis, Tom Biscardi

Science writer David Bodanis(1) made his debut on the show, sharing stories about the development of electricity and the virtuoso scientists who plumbed its secrets. In the early 1800s, he said, Michael Faraday figured out how to harness electricity that could eventually power motors and generators. Later an American inventor named Joseph Henry developed a telegraph system that was then stolen by Samuel Morse, he detailed.
Thomas Edison, who grew up fairly deaf from childhood, was hired by corporations in his early career, to copy or devise alternate patents created by other inventors, said Bodanis. At the time someone said of Edison, "that young man has a vacuum where his conscience should be." He also revealed that Alexander Graham Bell was inspired to create the telephone as a way to win over the family of a girl he was trying to court.
The final frontier for electricity, speculated Bodanis, will be for it to move into applications inside the human body.He also shared tidbits from the life of Einstein, whom he said had a goofy sense of humor, and came up with his most creative ideas during his early years.

1. http://www.davidbodanis.com

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Bumper Music

Bumper music from Wednesday April 20, 2005

1. Bring on the Night
Police
2. Desert Moon
Dennis De Young
3. Inca Dance
Cusco
4. Livin' Thing
E.L.O.
5. Midnight Express (The Chase)
Giorgio Moroder
6. Midnight Express (The Chase)
Giorgio Moroder
7. Shadows in Silence
Enigma
8. She Blinded Me With Science
Thomas Dolby
9. #41
Dave Matthews Band
10. When You Come Back to Me
World Party
11. Who Can it Be Now?
Men at Work
12. Your Wildest Dreams
Moody Blues
13. Electric Relaxation
A Tribe Called Quest
14. Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)
Jimi Hendrix
15. Electrical Storm
U2
16. Electric Avenue
Eddy Grant
17. Shock the Monkey
Peter Gabriel
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