the victorian who discovered greenhouse gases

When I was teaching Victorian literature, I wanted to include a section on John Tyndall, the man who discovered the phenomenon of greenhouse gases that has led to our modern understanding of global warming. At the time, I couldn't find much written about him, but New Scientist offers an informative and readable article.

What a great topic to tie to the Shelleys. He climbed the mountain of one of Percy's most famous poems, Mt. Blanc (photo below), which also features in Frankenstein:

Far, far above, piercing the infinite sky,

Mont Blanc appears,—still, snowy, and serene—

Its subject mountains their unearthly forms

Pile around it, ice and rock; broad vales between

Of frozen floods, unfathomable deeps,

Blue as the overhanging heaven, that spread

And wind among the accumulated steeps;

He doesn't quite represent one of those scientists responsible for ruining the world with their ambitions of discovery, since his studies have helped understand global warming. Besides, he was a sort of everyman extraordinnaire (can I say that?), having many varied interests, including mountain climbing.