Michael Faraday

About Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday (1791–1867) stands as a towering figure in the history of science, ranking #322 by the MIT Pantheon project for his profound global influence. A self-taught experimental physicist and chemist, his seminal work laid the foundation for modern electromagnetism and electrochemistry. Key contributions include the discovery of electromagnetic induction—the principle behind the electric generator and transformer—and concepts such as the magnetic field, which revolutionized physics far beyond his contemporaries.

Faraday's historical importance translates to an Attention Gap of approximately 1x, suggesting his 647K annualized Wikipedia views in 2025 are in rough alignment with his historical standing. This relative parity is striking when compared to some figures ranked lower in influence yet achieving significantly higher modern attention. For instance, Stanley Kubrick (#957) garnered 2.3M views, and John Lennon (#591) captured 4.0M views, indicating a notable divergence in contemporary internet focus compared to this foundational scientist.

Despite his foundational importance, Faraday’s online interest is showing signs of decay; his 2025 view count has dropped by 30.9% year-over-year, and his quarterly momentum from Q1 to Q3 decreased by 5%. This suggests that while currently receiving attention proportionate to his historical rank, the long-term trajectory of public interest online appears to be declining.