A bit outside my normal blog topics, but I can’t help but feel it’s an interesting observation and worth commenting on/sharing. If you’ve turned on your TV for any reasonable amount of time in the last few years you’re no doubt familiar with the hit T.V. special LOST which is now in its fourth season. Produced by Damon Lindelof, J. J. Abrams [Also directed the recent hit movie Cloverfield] and Jeffrey Lieber it’s captivated the minds and imaginations of TV goes with interesting and mysterious story lines. J.J. Abrams has shown a fascinating understanding of the human psyche and how our curiosity can be used to captivate us. If you’re curiouse what the driving ideology behind his undertakings (such as LOST/Cloverfield) and why they’ve been so successful I suggest you watch the talk he recently gave on “The Mystery Box” as part of the TED Talks conference in March 2007. You can view it HERE.

Back to my discovery - One of the characters introduced this season is a quirky scientist named Daniel Faraday. Without going into great detail - Daniel Faraday is introduced as a brilliant scientist who seems to specialize in time/electricity and similar endeavors. While the character itself is interesting it was the name - Faraday - for whatever reason that stuck with me. Tonight as I was killing some time and stumbling through web video when I came across this youtube video:

The video has nothing to do with LOST and actually covers High Voltage Cable Inspectors somewhere in the world. These individuals are dropped onto the live power lines wearing special metal suits which allow them to inspect the lines without having to take them out of service. In addition to being amazed at how insane the cable inspectors are two things caught my attention - the name Faraday and the subject of power/electricity. Interest piqued, I decided to do a quick wikipedia on who Michael Faraday was. As it turns out Wikipedia briefly offers this description:

“Michael Faraday, FRS (September 22, 1791 – August 25, 1867) was an English chemist and physicist (or natural philosopher, in the terminology of that time) who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.

Faraday studied the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a DC electric current, and established the basis for the magnetic field concept in physics. He discovered electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis. He established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena.[2][3] His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology, and it was largely due to his efforts that electricity became viable for use in technology.”

Fancy that - the gentleman died in 1867 and has a different first name than the LOST character but i’m pretty sure he must be the inspiration for the Daniel Faraday character and probably significant elements of the storyline tied to him.

This is a fantastic instance of sci-fi inspiring science, then science in turn re-influencing sci-fi. It’s also a pretty cool tribute to the writers behind LOST and their research/interests. In a lot of ways it reminds me of one of my favorite elements in StarTrek: TNG and how the writers would use just enough real science/history to add an intellectually stimulating element which has to this day has left us asking - what if?

What do you think? Coincidence? A waste of time and thought? Downright cool? Post a comment and let me know.

P.S. - I apologize for the websites performance. My host - IPower - has guaranteed me that they are bringing additional MySQL servers online within the week to remedy the issue. It’s been 3 months in the making but hopefully a solution is finally on the horizon.