At just 29, James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity, magnetism, and light into a single set of four elegant equations, a feat Albert Einstein later called the most profound achievement in physics since Newton. Born in Edinburgh on June 13, 1831, Maxwell demonstrated mathematically that electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light, proving light itself is an electromagnetic wave. His kinetic theory of gases also laid groundwork for thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Maxwell died at 48, yet his equations directly enabled radio, television, radar, Wi-Fi, and every wireless technology in use today. Richard Feynman observed that Maxwell's work will be judged, from a long-range view of history, as the most significant event of the 19th century.