THE JANITOR WHO CHANGED THE WORLD OF SCIENCE

THE JANITOR WHO CHANGED 

THE WORLD OF SCIENCE

671,648 views

Sep 29, 2021

Simon Clark

363K subscribers

Mostly forgotten by history, James Croll is a fairy tale in the history of science. See if you'll also fall in love with the Earth's deep history with CuriosityStream: https://www.curiositystream.com/simon...

Since discovering the story of James Croll while researching Firmament, I knew I had to make a video about him and his remarkable life story. From his job as a janitor at a university he changed the world of science with his remarkable theory of orbital variations that became known as Milankovitch cycles. I hope that this video teaches you a few things. First that sometimes there are remarkable individuals in the history who go against the broad factors that determine progress. Second, that science communication, increasingly popular in the nineteenth century, has a very real impact on the development of science and scientists, popularising education beyond an elite core. Third, that the history of science is full of also-rans, second to the punches, and men and women who didn't quite forge the final link in understanding. Their stories are important too!

Pre-order my book! https://geni.us/firmament

Full talk on James Croll: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKF8n...

REFERENCES

(1) Adapted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milanko...

(2) https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2948/mi...

(3) https://websites.pmc.ucsc.edu/~pkoch/...

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Music by Epidemic Sound: http://epidemicsound.com

Some stock footage courtesy of Getty.

Everyone has heard of Milankovic cycles or Milankovitch cycles, but few have heard of the remarkable janitor who originally came up with the idea that orbital variations force the Earth's climate. The real life Good Will Hunting, James Croll, came up with the maths that became Milankovitch cycles while a janitor. This interesting video is about the history of science and history of climate change, similar to videos by crash course, scishow, veritasium, and smarter every day.

 

Huge thanks to my supporters on Patreon: Rapssack, Kevin O'Connor, Timo Kerremans, Thines Ganeshamoorthy, Jerry Moore, Sam Harvey (the ever lasting student), Ashley Wilkins, Michael Parmenter, Samuel Baumgartner, Dan Sherman, ST0RMW1NG 1, Adrian Sand, Morten Engsvang, Josh Schiager, Farsight101, Liam Margetts, K.L, poundedjam, Felix Freiberger, Chris Field, Robert Connell, Jaime Stark, Kolbrandr, , Sebastain Graf, Dan Nelson, Shane O'Brien, Alex, Fujia Li, Harry Eakins, Cody VanZandt, Jesper Koed, Jonathan Craske, Albrecht Striffler, Jon Sjöberg, Igor Francetic, Jack Troup, SexyCaveman , James Munro, Oskar Hellström, Sean Richards, Kedar , Omar Miranda, Alastair Fortune, bitreign33 , Mat Allen, Anne Smith, Rafaela Corrêa Pereira, Colin J. Brown, Princess Andromeda, Aron Kári Ágústsson, Leighton Mackenzie, BenDent, Thusto , Andy Hartley, Lachlan Woods, Tim Boxall, Dan Hanvey, Simon Donkers, Kodzo , James Bridges, Liam , Andrea De Mezzo, Wendover Productions, Kendra Johnson.

 

Grateful thanks to

Simon Clark

and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible.