He was the first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords, rising to fame after developing the Kelvin scale of absolute temperature measurement. William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, determined the correct value of absolute zero to be -273.15 degrees Celsius. It doesn’t get much cooler than that!

Except it does, because Lord Kelvin didn’t stop there. He also invented the first ship’s compass that was free of the magnetic influence of any iron on the ship and invented a mechanism that predicted the tide. This was essential in predicting variations in sea level at any port.

His death in 1907 was sad, but it was fairly on brand, as he passed away after catching a chill.