—Nobel Prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek [1]

A proliferation of recent studies, particularly in salmonids, has revealed that fish can exploit Earth’s magnetic field not only as a source of directional information for maintaining consistent headings, but also as a kind of map for determining location at sea and for returning to natal areas. Despite significant advances, much about magnetoreception in fishes remains enigmatic. How fish detect magnetic fields remains unknown… [1]

Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906) was so moved by the beauty of Maxwell’s equations that he blurted out [2]: “War es ein Gott, der diese Zeichen schrieb?” (Was it a god who wrote these signs?) His expression was not original (borrowed from Goethe’s Faust) but the sentiment was spot on as many physicists since have attested to. Frank Wilczek, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics, writing about Maxwell’s equations, said that the situation “takes on a life of its own, with the fields dancing as a pair, each inspiring the other” [2]. Going beyond electromagnetics and looking at the world at large, Wilczek told the German magazine Der Spiegel in an interview that “the world is a piece of art, produced according to a very peculiar style. What I find particularly striking is the outstanding role of symmetry” [2].

James Clerk Maxwell’s Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism was published in 1873. Last year, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of this foundational work, the IEEE Foundation hosted a webinar [2] “James Clerk Maxwell’s Ether: From Wave Optics to the Electromagnetic Theory of Light” by Daniel Jon Mitchell, Senior Historian at the IEEE History Center. The hour-long presentation was recorded and may be viewed at [2] . The website also lists a number of useful resources.