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James Clerk Maxwell

150 years ago this month a young James Clerk Maxwell wrote down the equations that, by bringing together the physics of electricity and magnetism, laid the foundations for modern physics. Four pieces in this week's Nature explore how Maxwell's insight emerged from grappling with the problems of telegraphy and discuss its legacies, from telecommunications and microelectronics to metamaterials and unification.

Image credit: Bettmann/CORBIS

Editorial

  • A bold unifying leap

    How James Clerk Maxwell made a difference 150 years ago.

    Nature  v471 , n7338 ( )

Feature

  • Unification + 150

    In 1861, James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity, magnetism and light. Experiments under way today could inch physicists closer to combining everything else.

    Nature  v471 , n7338 ( )

Comments

  • The laird of physics

    James Clerk Maxwell's 1861 work on electromagnetism, which unified scientific fields, was driven as much by technology as by abstract theorizing, argues Simon Schaffer.

    Nature  v471 , n7338 ( )

  • To invisibility and beyond

    Combining Maxwell's equations with Einstein's general relativity promises perfect images and cloaking devices, explains Ulf Leonhardt.

    Nature  v471 , n7338 ( )

Podcast

  • Podcast

    Maxwell's legacy.

    ( )

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