Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein - Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe
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incompatibility of Einstein’s theories with, 225–27, 229, 265, 269
tomb of, 69
Newtonian physics, 66, 228, 243–44
New York Times, The, 11, 205, 296n
Nicholls, C., 179
Niessl, Gustav von, 56
Nilsson, Lars-Göran, 291n
Nobel Prize, 99, 266, 286n
Chemistry, 7, 110, 129, 134, 286
Economics, 6
Peace, 7
Physics, 110, 111, 181, 235, 239, 251, 254, 264, 283n
Physiology or Medicine, 151, 291n
North British Review, 39–40, 48
Nottingham, University of, 161
Nubian Aquifer, 283n
Nuclear astrophysics, 100–101, 159, 161–62, 171, 173–74, 178, 181, 184
Nuclear physics, 93, 159, 173, 178, 302n
Nucleosynthesis, 162
big bang, 167–69, 219, 232, 237, 294n
stellar, 169–82, 257
Oberhummer, Heinz, 295n
Oedipus complex, 7
Olby, Robert, 292n
Olds, James, 98
“On the Age of the Sun’s Heat” (Kelvin), 70, 74–75
Once and Future King, The (White), 241
“On the Dynamical Theory of Heat” (Kelvin), 279n
“On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” (Einstein), 226
“On the Origin of Life” (Kelvin), 280n
On the Origin of Species (Darwin), 18, 20, 52, 275n
amendments to, 48, 274n
extended geological age world view in, 67, 79–80, 101–2
first edition of, 9, 17, 19
German editions of, 54–55, 54, 55
Jenkin’s criticism of, 39–40, 44, 47, 56
mathematical errors in, 44
natural selection described in, 26–29
and nineteenth-century theory of heredity, 37
“On the Secular Cooling of the Earth” (Kelvin), 69–70
Oort, Jan, 181
Öpik, Ernst, 171
Ordinary Geniuses (Segrè), 235
Oster, Gerald, 287n, 288n
Oxford English Dictionary, 8
Oxford University, 57, 107, 130, 263, 285n, 286n, 297n
New Museum, 81
Paleontology, 74
Paley, William, 273n
Pangenesis, 50–51, 57
Panspermia, 210
Parkinson, Stephen, 279n
Particle physics, 251, 255
Pasadena Conference on the Structure of Proteins, 154
Pasteur, Louis, 103
Patterson, Clair, 283n
Pauli, Wolfgang, 239, 249–50, 294n
Pauling, Ava Helen, 107–8, 142, 291n
Pauling, Linus, 7, 10, 145, 212–13, 269–71
approach and methods of, 126–27
DNA research by, 116, 119–23, 127–28, 129–44, 148–49, 151–55, 286–88nn, 291n
Einstein and, 233
influence on molecular biology of, 114–16
passport trials and tribulations of, 128–29, 289n
protein structure research by, 103–9, 110–14, 127, 285nn
Vitamin C preoccupation of, 215
Pauling, Peter, 119, 134–35, 139, 141, 142, 151–52
Pecker, J.-C., 300n
Penzias, Arno, 210
Perfect Cosmological Principle, 198
Periodic table of elements, 160, 160–61, 163, 293n
Perlmutter, Saul, 253, 254
Perrin, Jean-Baptiste, 161, 162
Perry, John, 85–92, 95, 97–98, 102, 281n, 282n
Perutz, Max, 109–14, 120, 125, 137, 141, 145, 154
Petrosian, Vahe, 301n
Pflanzen-Mischlinge, Die (Focke), 53
Phillips, John, 80
Philo Judaeus, 62
“Phospho-tri-anhydride Formula for the Nucleic Acids” (Ronwin), 119
Phylogenetic tree, 23, 275n
Physical Review, 168
Physics, 7, 16, 67, 120, 241, 260, 261, 271
of accelerating universe, 252, 254
anthropic reasoning in, 260, 261, 263, 264
applied, 85
atomic, 203
of big bang, 210
in calculations of age of Sun and Earth, 72, 75, 79–81, 83, 91, 109
classical, 68–69, 165
Copernican principle in, 32–33
and cosmological constant, 245–46, 249, 257, 364
in DNA research, 154, 155
evolutionary nature of theories in, 269
Newtonian, 74
Nobel Prize in, 110, 111, 181, 235, 239, 251, 254, 264, 283n
nuclear, 93, 159, 173, 178, 302n
philosophy and, 62, 222
simplicity in, 32
symmetry in, 32, 265
see also Astrophysics; Mechanics
Physics World, 83, 281n
Pioneer 10 spacecraft, 221
Pius XII, Pope, 181, 181
Pixley, Ralph, 173
Planck, Max, 270
Plato, 60, 160, 225
Platonic solids, 260
Playfair, John, 76–77, 82
Pocket universes, 261
Poliakoff, Martyn, 161
“Polypeptide Chain Configurations in Crystalline Proteins” (Bragg, Kendrew, and Perutz), 110
Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 180
Popper, Karl, 33, 184, 201, 262, 263
Population genetics, 66
Positron-emission tomography (PET) scans, 98
Presidential Medal of Merit, 129
Princess Bride, The (film), 271–72
Princeton University, 210, 233, 300n
Institute for Advanced Study, 235
Principia (Newton), 64, 246
Principles of Geology (Lyell), 66, 70, 274n
“Proposed Structure of the Nucleic Acids, A” (Pauling and Corey), 132–33
Prout, William, 161
Psychoanalysis, 7
Quantum mechanics, 24, 159, 163, 165, 173, 244, 249–53, 256, 263–64, 268, 270, 294nn
Quarks, 255
Quasars, 209–10, 214, 247, 301n
Queen Mary (ship), 130
Radioactivity, 69, 92–95, 98, 100, 102, 131, 283n
Radio astronomy, 203–7
Ramsay, Andrew, 75
Randall, John, 121, 123, 124, 144, 287–88nn
Rasputin, Grigory, 243
Rauscher, Prince-Bishop, 56
Rayleigh, Lord, 283n
Redshifts, 222, 262
Reductionism, 24, 25, 241, 275n
Rees, Martin, 214–16, 219
Reiner, Rob, 271
“Relativistic Cosmology” (Robertson), 183
Relativity (Einstein), 239
Relativity, Einstein’s theory of, see General relativity; Special relativity
Renaissance, 36
Repulsion, 231, 259
cosmic, 221–23, 232, 239
electrostatic, 161, 165, 173
gravitational, 248
strength of, see Cosmological constant
Reynolds, Osborne, 282n
Rich, Alex, 130, 139–40, 152
Richter, Frank, 95
Riess, Adam, 253, 254
RNA (ribonucleic acid), 102, 117, 292n
Robertson, Howard Percy, 183
Robinson, Robert, 129
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, 285n
Romanes, George, 53–54
Ronwin, Edward, 119, 127, 287n
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 233
Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), 170, 183, 192–96, 198, 202, 203, 206, 209
Monthly Notices of, 192, 193, 195, 196
Royal College of Science, 281n
Royal Institution, 94
Royal Irish Academy, 279n
Proceedings of, 171
Royal Society of Edinburgh, 69
Royal Society of London, 128, 129, 207
Proceedings of, 109
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 176
Rüppell’s Griffon, 273n
; Russell, Bertrand, 157, 264, 270
Russia, invasions of, 7
Rutherford, Ernest, 93–95, 281n
Ryle, Martin, 203–8
Sagan, Carl, 158
Salisbury, Robert Cecil, Third Marquis of, 85, 282n
Salpeter, Edwin, 171–72, 176, 294n, 301n
Schmidt, Brian, 253, 254
Schneerson, Menachem Mendel, 97
Schomaker, Verner, 119, 133, 154
Schrödinger, Erwin, 281n
Schulz, Kathryn, 298n
Scientific American, 232
Scientific method, 262
Sclater, Andrew, 52–53
Seeds, William, 124
Seeger, Raymond, 235
Seeliger, Hugo von, 301n
Segrè, Gino, 235
Selection bias, 258–59
Serengeti plains, 28
Shakeshaft, John, 206
Shakespeare, William, 37, 140, 178–79
Shaw, George Bernard, 84
Shipley, Ruth B., 128–29
Silberstein, Ludwik, 162
Simplicity, 10, 24, 267
mathematical, 239–41
of X-ray crystallography, 110
Sky & Telescope magazine, 158
Slipher, Vesto, 191, 192, 222
Smart, William Marshall, 193–98, 194–95
Société Scientifique de Bruxelles, 193
Soddy, Frederick, 93–94, 283n
Solomon, P., 179
Solvay Conference, 152
Soviet Union, 190
Space Telescope Science Institute, 253
Space-time, 189, 221–23, 248–49, 206n
stretching of, in expanding universe, 252, 261, 262
warped, 222, 223, 225–29
Spassky, Boris, 5
Special relativity, 220, 225–26, 264
Speciation, 18, 22–23
Species
dogma of immutability of, 16
extinct, 20, 22, 31
interbreeding between, 22–23
Spencer, Herbert, 29
Spinoza, Baruch de, 62
Staphylococcus aureus, 31–32
Methicillin-resistant (MRSA), 32
State Department, US, Passport Division, 128–29
Statistical mechanics, 169
Steady state theory, 183, 184, 198–219, 200, 247, 295n
age of Earth in, 67, 70, 83
big bang versus, 183, 199–202, 205–7, 210–19
continuous creation of matter in, 199–200, 244–45
cosmological principle and, 198–99
evolution in, 201–3
Hoyle’s refusal to abandon, 211–19
inspiration for, 186–87, 198
radio astronomy and challenges to, 203–10
uniformitarian assumption of, 76
Stokes, Alexander, 150
String theory, 261, 268
“Structure of Proteins, The” (Pauling, Corey, and Branson), 112
Strutt, Robert John, 283n
Subatomic world, theory for, see Quantum mechanics
Sudoku puzzles, 99
Sun, age of, Kelvin’s calculation of, 70, 74, 81, 87, 89, 99–101, 109, 164
Sunday Telegraph, 212
Supernova Cosmology Project, 253
Supernovae, 16, 176, 177, 211, 253–54, 309n
Supersymmetry, 263
Swamping, 39–41, 47
Symbiosis, 14
Symmetry, 24, 265
bilateral, 51
of DNA, 139, 145–46, 300n
of general relativity, 256
in quantum mechanics, 173
undiscovered, for hoped-for cancellation of cosmological concept, 255–56
Szekeres, P., 301n
Szostak, Jack, 291n
Tait, Peter Guthrie, 82–83, 87–89, 282n
Taxonomy, 21
Taylor, A. J. P., 7
Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, 20
Teller, Edward, 129
Telliamed (de Maillet), 63
Tempest, The (Shakespeare, 37
Theophilus of Antioch, 61, 278n
Theory of Relativity (Pauli), 239
Thermodynamics, 70–71, 80, 279n
Thomson, James, 85
Thomson, Joseph John “J. J.,” 283n
Thomson, William, see Kelvin, Lord
Third Programme, The (radio show), 157
Todd, Alexander, 132, 134
Tolman, Richard C., 243
Tree of life, 22, 23, 24
Truman, Harry S., 129
Tschermak-Seysenegg, Erich von, 53
Tufts University, 26
Tunneling, 165
Turkevich, Anthony, 294n
Tversky, Amos, 270
Ulysses (Joyce), 271
Uniformitarianism, 21, 66, 76, 78, 82, 274n
Universe, evolution of, 10, 18, 156
see also Big bang; Expanding universe; Steady state universe
University College, London, 204
Untersuchungen zur Bestimmung des Werthes von Species und Varietät (Hoffmann), 53
Urey, Harold, 129
Ussher, James, 60, 61, 278n
Van den Bergh, Sidney, 192
Vanity Fair Album, 67–68
Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, The (Darwin), 50
Vatican, 56–57
Observatory, 180
Ventral tegmental area (VTA), 98
Victoria, Queen of England, 269
Wagoner, P., 179
Wald, Abraham, 259
Wallace, Alfred Russel, 27, 29, 47, 48, 51, 52, 275n, 277n
Watchmaker analogy, 217
Waterston, John James, 100
Watson, James, 115, 131, 154, 155, 284n
discovery of structure of DNA by Crick and, 103, 120–28, 134–37, 139–42, 144–53, 287n, 288n, 292n
and Pauling’s alpha-helix model of protein structures, 103–4
Wave theory, 287n
Weber, Robert, 90, 282n
Wegener, Alfred, 91
Weigle, Jean, 103–4
Weinbaum, Sidney, 109
Weinberg, Steven, 251, 257, 300n
Weizsäcker, Carl Friedrich von, 100–101, 166
Wenzel, William, 173
Weyl, Hermann, 230
Whaling, Ward, 173, 174
Wheeler, John Archibald, 229
White, T. H., 241
Wickramasinghe, Chandra, 214
Wilberforce, Samuel, 81, 281n
Wilde, Oscar, 6
Wilkins, Maurice, 120, 121–25, 137–37, 139, 141, 144, 147, 148, 150, 152, 154, 287n, 288n, 290n
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), 254
Williams, Robley, 132
Wilson, Edmund Beecher, 117
Wilson, Herbert, 150, 154
Wilson, Robert, 210
Wilson, William E., 92
Wilson, Woodrow, 9
Witkowski, Jan, 124
Woods, M., 179
World War I, 158
World War II, 7, 128, 130, 159, 169, 182, 203, 233, 235, 259
Wright, Sewall, 58
X-ray crystallography, 105–15, 120–29, 126, 132, 133, 138–40, 150–52, 285n
Ylem, 167, 175–76
Zeldovich, Yakov, 251
Zero-point energy, 250, 251, 255
Ziegler, Anna, 151
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Livio, Mario.
Brilliant blunders : from Darwin to Einstein—colossal mistakes by great scientists that changed our understanding of life and the universe / Mario Livio. — First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
p. cm.
Summary: “Drawing on the lives of five great scientists—Charles Darwin, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Linus Pauling, Fred Hoyle and Albert Einstein—scientist/author Mario Livio shows how even the greatest scientists made major mistakes and how science built on these errors to achieve breakthroughs, especially into the evolution of life and the universe.” — Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Errors, Scientific. I. Title.
Q172.5.E77L58 2013
500—dc23 2012037732
ISBN 978-1-4391-9236-8
ISBN 978-1-4391-9238-2 (ebook)