Editing Victorian era (section)

===Science===
{{Main|Mathematics, science, technology and engineering of the Victorian era}}
[[File:Faraday Michael Christmas lecture detail.jpg|thumb|left|[[Michael Faraday]] delivering a [[Royal Institution Christmas Lectures|Christmas Lecture at the Royal Institution]] ({{Circa|1855}})]]

The professionalisation of scientific study began in parts of Europe following the [[French Revolution]] but was slow to reach Britain. [[William Whewell]] coined the term 'scientist' in 1833 to refer to those who studied what was generally then known as natural philosophy, but it took a while to catch on. Having been previously dominated by amateurs with a separate income, the [[Royal Society]] admitted only professionals from 1847 onwards.<ref name="Yeo-2011" />  The British biologist [[Thomas Henry Huxley]] indicated in 1852 that it remained difficult to earn a living as a scientist alone.<ref name="Lewis-200732"/> Scientific knowledge and debates such as that about [[Charles Darwin]]'s ''[[On the Origin of Species]]'' (1859), which sought to explain biological evolution by natural selection, gained a high profile in the public consciousness. Simplified (and at times inaccurate) [[popular science]] was increasingly distributed through a variety of publications which caused tension with the professionals.<ref name="Yeo-2011">{{Cite book |last=Yeo |first=Richard R. |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=694–696 |chapter=Science}}</ref> There were significant advances in various fields of research, including [[statistics]],<ref name="Katz-2009a">{{Cite book |last=Katz |first=Victor |title=A History of Mathematics: An Introduction |publisher=Addison-Wesley |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-321-38700-4 |pages=824–830 |chapter=Chapter 23: Probability and Statistics in the Nineteenth Century}}</ref> [[Elasticity (physics)|elasticity]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kline |first=Morris |title=Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1972 |isbn=0-19-506136-5 |location=United States of America |pages=696–7 |chapter=28.7: Systems of Partial Differential Equations}}</ref> [[refrigeration]],<ref name="Lewis-2007-1">{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=Christoper |title=Heat and Thermodynamics: A Historical Perspective |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-313-33332-3 |location=United States of America |chapter=Chapter 7: Black Bodies, Free Energy, and Absolute Zero}}</ref> [[natural history]],<ref name="Lewis-200732"/> [[electromagnetism]],<ref name="Baigrie-2007a">{{Cite book |last=Baigrie |first=Brian |title=Electricity and Magnetism: A Historical Perspective |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-313-33358-3 |location=United States of America |chapter=Chapter 8: Forces and Fields}}</ref> and [[logic]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Katz |first=Victor |title=A History of Mathematics: An Introduction |publisher=Addison-Wesley |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-321-38700-4 |pages=738–9 |chapter=21.3: Symbolic Algebra}}</ref>