Great science and great investments have one thing at their core: innovation. The best scientists and the best investors have a wealth of things in common: they’re creative thinkers, problem solvers, analytical researchers and have a vision of what the future could look like.
As someone who has spent his entire career immersed in the world of finance, I recognise these characteristics in the many talented colleagues I have worked alongside. And in Michael Faraday, the nineteenth century scientist I have come to appreciate through Aberdeen Investments’ support for the Royal Institution CHRISTMAS LECTURES®, I most certainly recognise the same.
Faraday is lauded as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, experimental scientists of all time. Driven by curiosity, his life’s work in the field of electro-magnetism led to the world-shaping invention of the electric motor and electric generator, and the recognition of a scientific theory – ‘Lines of force’ – with the standing to be spoken of in the same breath as Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
These were no mere accidents. Faraday’s meticulous scientific notes, 10 volumes of which are inscribed on the Unesco Memory of the World reveal a process of questioning, testing, and refining. Or to put it another way, a process of creative thinking, analysis and problem-solving.
And Faraday was also a scientist with a vision. His introduction of the CHRISTMAS LECTURES® in 1825 was, I like to think, born of his vision for the power and potential of education. He may not have foreseen that his Lectures would still be being given today, some two centuries later; nor that they would be enjoyed by millions of people in the UK and around the world through the power and reach of broadcast and digital communications.
Yet he would recognise today’s CHRISTMAS LECTURES® as his Lectures. They remain steadfastly educational: engaging, demonstration-based and above all accessible, not just to young people but to whole families, people of all ages and all backgrounds.
Without science, I believe that the investment universe would be a much less exciting place. Without investment, many of the world’s great scientific ideas would never become a reality. But without education, we couldn’t make the very best of our future; and that is why I believe Faraday’s brainchild of the CHRISTMAS LECTURES was so truly visionary.
It's also why, at Aberdeen Investments, we are delighted to partner with The Royal Institution to inspire current and future generations of scientists and innovators, through this year’s Lectures with Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock.
At Aberdeen we are passionate about supporting the sciences – whether that’s through our investments in areas such as healthcare, biotech and green energy, or through our corporate partnerships. The latter ranges from our partnership with the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, The Alan Turing Institute, to collect and monitor biodiversity data to our joint project with the University of Edinburgh, the Centre for Investing Innovation (CII), to harness the power of AI for investment research.
In this special 200th anniversary year of the CHRISTMAS LECTURES® Dame Maggie will be taking us on an extraordinary journey to the out reaches of the Universe where space becomes ‘interstellar’ to answer the question: ‘Is there life beyond Earth?’ Are the exoplanets space scientists have discovered through the transformative power of space telescopes such as the James Webb so-called ‘Goldilocks’ planets; in the habitable zone around their star, not to hot, not too cold, but just right?
We’ll all need to watch to find out the answer. But with somewhere between 100 and 400 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone, and estimates of trillions of galaxies in the observable universe, as a numbers man, I’m going to say it’s surely a numbers game.
Xavier Meyer is CEO of Aberdeen Investments, supporting partner to the 2025 CHRISTMAS LECTURES® from the Royal Institution.