16. Michael Faraday
Science fiction would not be the genre that it is today without the incomparable contributions of the British scientist Michael Faraday. Among other things, Faraday coils, based on his technology, have been used by science fiction writers to activate time travel. Faraday was born into an impoverished family that could not afford to educate him, but he attended science lectures in London as often as he could. He apprenticed with a leading scientist and, as a chemist, was the first to liquify some gases. He also showed that electricity and magnetism are different forms of the same force.