Hertz a lot

Google users will note that it is Heinrich Hertz' birtthday today. His proof of the nature of electromagnetic waves (perpendicular waveforms of contant velocity through a single medium) forms the basis of our profession. The fact that light changes when passing through different media is the underlying reasoning behind refraction. He died at the decidedly young age of 36, suffering Wegener's granulomatosis, a multisystem inflammatory disease linked with, among many things, uveitis and scleritis.