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Seeing Further

Page 41

by Bill Bryson


  Darwinism:

  digital, 222, 224

  neo-Darwinism, 221–22

  opposition to, 80

  Davies, Nick, Flat Earth News, 409, 414

  Davies, Paul, 75, 470

  Davis, Philip, 344

  Davy, Humphry, 6, 13, 256

  de Beer, Sir Gavin, 187

  Dee Bridge, 303

  Delaval, Edward, 145, 146

  Dempster, W. J., 211

  Descartes, René, 111, 112, 127

  cosmology of, 22, 26, 62, 73

  dualism of, 76

  rationalism of, 113, 115, 118, 119n, 122, 124, 128, 315

  design:

  illusion of, 206, 209

  random chance vs., 205–6, 289–93

  determinism, 97

  Deutsch, David, The Fabric of Reality, 103

  Diamond Light Source, 268–69

  Dicke, Robert, 329

  Dickens, Charles, 407

  Diodorus Siculus, 303

  Dirac, Paul, 328–30, 471

  DNA:

  and biodiversity, 278

  building blocks of, 333

  and genetic code, 265

  and natural selection, 226

  recombinant, 315–16

  structure of, 224, 225, 264–66

  X-rays of, 256

  Dobson, Henry Austin, 457

  Doppler shift, 325

  Dryander, Jonas, 166, 168

  dualism:

  of body and soul, 65, 76–77

  of Christian vs. Greek heritage, 79

  res extensa vs. res cogitans, 76

  Duggan, G. H., 240, 241

  DuPont, 311, 312

  Dutch Elm disease, 293

  E

  Earth:

  age of, 450–52, 485

  cycles of, 394–98, 400–401, 403, 450, 484–85

  energy of, 397–98, 400–401

  environment of, 389–91, 401

  life on, 328, 331

  moon of, 328

  objects on collision courses with, 401–2, 407

  as planet in peril, 391, 393, 400

  roundness of, 386–88, 387, 388

  seen from space, 386–88, 387, 389, 396, 398, 402–3, 402

  ecology, 390

  necessity vs. chance in, 278, 279

  neutral model of, 289

  non-linear interactions in, 290

  “Red Queen” model of, 277

  Eddington, Arthur, 328, 330

  Edens, J., 22

  Edgerton, Samuel, 71

  Edgeworth, Richard, 170

  Edison, Thomas, 9

  Eggborough power station, 439

  Ehret, Georg Dionysius, botanical print by, 194, 195

  Einstein, Albert, 100, 204, 339, 448, 464

  hyperspace theories of, 74, 75

  mass-energy equivalent, 371

  relativity theories of, 74, 337, 373, 453–54, 470, 471

  theory of gravity, 373

  thought experiments of, 453

  on time and space, 452–56, 463, 465

  and unified theory, 472

  Eiseley, Loren, 79, 219

  electricity, and lightning rods, 140–48, 151, 152

  electrodynamics, 153

  Eliade, Mircea, 79

  Ellis, Charles A., 242–43, 242

  Elton, C. S., 415

  embryo research, 317

  Embury, Aymar II, 246, 247

  empiricism, rationalism vs., 111, 113–21, 122–23, 129

  encounter hypothesis, 326–27

  Encyclopaedia Britannica, 180

  Endeavour, 10, 189–92

  end of the world, 406–23

  energy:

  conservation of, 100–101

  “free,” 457

  engineers:

  and architects, 246–49

  construction site visits by, 236–37, 238, 242, 244

  ethical responsibilities of, 317

  genetic, 154–55, 314–17, 479, 483

  group portrait of, 235–36, 236, 237, 238, 249

  in pure vs. applied science, 318–19

  of railway bridges, 230–49

  Enlightenment, 76

  Ent, George, 27

  entropy, 457, 460

  ethics, 479

  Euclid, ideal seen by, 77

  Euclidean geometry, 90, 353

  Euclidean view of space, 71–72, 74

  Evelyn, John, 189, 468

  Everett, Hugh, 102

  evolution:

  blind, 335

  as branching tree, 214

  bridges to understanding of, 219, 221–22, 224, 226

  and Darwin, 204–6, 208–24, 265, 275, 331–32, 449, 451, 461, 484

  and Deep Time, 461

  and DNA structure, 265

  and extinction, 280

  and genetics, 222–23, 226–27, 278–79

  group selection in, 211, 216

  hereditary variation in, 222

  of human intelligence, 336

  and Lamarck, 206, 214

  mutation in, 223, 278

  natural selection, 206, 208, 214–15, 218, 219, 221, 223, 226–27, 276, 278, 335, 449, 461

  non-random selection, 223

  and origins of life, 331–32

  and race, 216

  series of rules, 277–79

  significance of the idea, 211

  timescale of, 290

  variation in, 278

  and Wallace, 211–19, 221

  exobiology, 470

  explanation:

  mathematical nature of, 122, 128

  observable facts in, 114–15, 119

  rationalist vs. empiricist, 111, 113–21, 122–23, 129

  teleology, 110, 111, 117, 119, 120, 126, 129

  uses of knowledge, 121–29

  extinction, 280, 282, 283, 461, 480–81

  five great extinctions, 289, 480

  F

  Fairbairn, William, 233–34, 233, 235, 236

  Faraday, Michael, 256, 266

  Faulkner, Benjamin, portrait by, 233

  Fermat’s last theorem, 359

  Feynman, Richard, 101, 102, 365

  Filmer, William P., 242, 242

  fingerprinting, 359

  fire, 416

  Fisher, R. A., The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, 223–24

  fisheries management, 291–92, 292

  Florey, Howard, 262

  Folkes, Martin, 12

  Ford, Henry, 311

  Forth Rail Bridge, 239, 239

  fossil fuels, 398

  fossils:

  Archaeopteryx, 186–88, 187, 191, 201

  and evolution, 461

  Mesolimulus, 185, 185

  in museum collections, 187–92, 196, 197, 201

  at Solnhofen, 184–86, 185

  Foster, Norman, 247, 249

  Fourier, Joseph, 355

  Fourier transform, 355

  Fowler, William, 239

  Franklin, Benjamin, 6, 168

  and ballooning, 158–59, 168–69, 171, 176

  Copley Medal awarded to, 141

  and electricity, 5, 141, 147, 153

  and lightning rods, 140–42, 143–44, 145, 147, 150, 153

  Franklin, Rosalind, 256, 264

  Franzoni, Carlo, Clio sculpture by, 446, 447

  free will, 93–94, 97

  French Academy of Sciences, 166

  French Revolution, 154

  Freud, Sigmund, 77, 79

  Fries, Elias, 196

  fuel efficiency, 358

  Fugger family of Augsburg, 302–3

  fundamentalism, 80

  G

  Gaia, 389

  Galá pagos, threats to, 280

  galaxies, expanding, 325–26

  Galen, 109

  Galileo Galilei, 95, 111, 112

  The Assayer, 111, 115–16

  and cosmology, 62, 67, 73

  followers of, 127

  on motion, 127

  opponents of, 114

  rationalism of, 113–14, 115, 117–18, 120, 121, 122–
23, 124, 128

  Galois, é variste, 350, 351

  Galois fields, 346, 351

  galvanism, 153

  Gamble, Dixon, 139, 149, 150, 152

  game of life, 473

  Gardeners’ Chronicle, 209–10

  Gaskell, Elizabeth, 407

  Gateshead Millennium Bridge, 247, 248

  gauge theories, 365

  Gee, Maggie:

  The Burning Book, 411, 414

  The Flood, 411–12, 414, 419

  The Ice People, 411

  Where Are the Snows, 411

  gene pool, 226–27

  gene sequencing, 335

  genetic drift, 289

  genetic engineering, 154–55, 314–17, 479, 483

  genetics:

  and evolution, 222–23, 226–27, 278–79

  Mendelian, 222, 223–24, 279

  molecular, 223

  necessity vs. chance in, 278–79

  population, 223, 278

  Watson/Crick and, 223, 224, 225, 265

  geochemistry, 394

  geography, and biodiversity, 285–86

  Geological Society, 274

  geology, 450–52

  geometry, Euclidean, 90, 353

  geophysicists, 469

  George I, king of England, 89

  George III, king of England, 174

  George Washington Bridge, 244, 246

  Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, 160, 174

  Gibbon, Edward, 12, 135

  Gilbert, Cass, 246

  Gilbert, William, 111, 113, 122, 123, 127

  Giotto di Bondone, 67, 69, 71

  Arena Chapel scenes by, 69

  The Last Judgement, 68, 69

  global warming, see climate change

  Gödel, Kurt, 94, 103–4, 103

  Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 30

  Golden Gate Bridge, 241–43, 242

  Goldilocks enigma, 339

  Goldschmidt, Victor, 394

  Gore, Al, 442

  Gould, Stephen Jay, 219

  GPS (Global Positioning System), 357, 358, 454

  Graham, James, 135, 137

  graph theory, 356

  gravitational “redshift,” 454

  graviton, 371

  gravity:

  force of, 61, 72, 329, 368, 371

  Newton on, 72, 344, 347, 348, 363, 373, 450, 463, 470

  and space-time, 454, 455

  Gray, Asa, 213, 216

  Gray, John, Black Mass, 407

  Great Exhibition (1851), 237

  Greatorex, Ralph, 21, 22

  Great Stove, design of, 237

  Greece, ancient, 69, 446

  Green, Charles, 181

  Green, Michael, 366

  greenhouse gas emissions, 428, 429, 433–34, 437, 441

  Gresham College, 18, 21, 109, 111, 113, 122

  Grosseteste, Robert, 298

  group theory, 473

  Grove, Sir William, 9

  H

  Häberlein, Karl, 201

  haemoglobin, 263–66, 264, 271

  Haggard, Rider, She, 55

  Haldane, J.B.S., 223, 332

  Halley, Edmond, 9

  Hao Wang, 104

  Hardy, G. H., 476

  Harrington, Ralph, “The Neuroses of the Railway,” 407

  Hartlib, Samuel, 300

  Harvey, William, 111, 112, 113, 122, 127

  Haskin, Byron, 42

  Hastings, Warren, 12

  Hawaiian crow, 282, 283

  Hawking, Stephen, 318, 460

  Haynes, John, engraving by, 200

  heat, flow of, 355

  heaven:

  in cyberfiction, 80

  location of, 72–73

  Heckingham House of Industry, Norwich, 133–35, 137, 138

  destruction of, 153

  lightning rods at, 134, 138–40, 144, 148, 149, 150, 152–53

  lightning strike at, 133–34, 150

  Heisenberg, Werner, 471

  Herschel, William, 135, 137, 172, 325

  Hill, John, 137

  Himba tribe, 81

  HMS Beagle, 9, 275, 276, 280, 281

  Hobbs, Thomas, 315

  Hodgkin, Dorothy Crowfoot, 252–53, 260–63, 262, 269–71, 270

  Insulin, Chemistry and Biochemistry, 269, 270–71

  Hodgkinson, Eaton, 234, 236

  Holdren, John, 431

  Hooke, Robert, 10, 26, 28, 468

  and Newton, 33–34, 35

  Hooker, Sir Joseph, 213

  Hoover Dam, 398, 399

  Horvitz, Robert, 267

  Houghton, John, 435–36

  house-sparrow, collapse of, 293

  Housman, A. E., 465

  Hubble, Edwin, 325, 338

  Hubble Space Telescope, 326, 336, 337

  Huffman coding, 356

  Hughes, Thomas, Tom Brown’s School Days, 51–52

  Human Genome Project, 271, 316–17, 474

  Hume, David, 204–5, 206

  Husserl, Edmund, 104

  Hutton, James, 396

  Huxley, T. H., 13, 134, 210, 223

  Huygens, Christiaan, 5, 468

  Huysum, Jacob van, botanical prints by, 194, 195

  Hyatt, John and Isaiah, 311

  hyperspace theories, 74–76

  hypothesis, 128

  I

  IBM, Deep Blue, 477, 478

  ice ages, 289–90, 401

  immortality, quest for, 55

  Imperato, Ferdinand, 34

  Industrial Revolution, 303

  Ingold, Tim, “Globes and Spheres,” 389–90, 394

  insulin, genetic engineering of, 316

  insulin molecule, 269, 270–71

  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 428, 434, 435–36, 437–41

  International Union for the Conservation of Nature, 281, 283, 286

  Internet, 356, 359, 475, 475

  Iraq, invasion of, 407

  island biodiversity, 277–78, 289

  J

  Jammer, Max, 71

  Jankvist, Uffe, 344

  Jardin Botanique, Paris, 195

  Jeffries, John, 160, 175–76, 179

  Jenkin, Fleeming, 222, 223, 224

  Jervas, Charles, portraits by, 40, 88

  Johnson, Louise, 266, 268

  Joseph, Sir Keith, 270

  Journal, Le, 162, 163

  K

  Kant, Immanuel, 129, 142, 449

  Critique of Pure Reason, 94

  and Leibniz, 94, 104

  Kapteyn, Jacobus, 325

  Kasparov, Garry, 477

  Kelly, William, 306

  Kelvin, William Thomson, Lord, 222, 451

  Kendrew, John, 264, 265, 266, 268

  Kepler, Johannes, 62, 111, 112, 127

  rationalism of, 113, 115

  on solar system, 375, 376, 376

  Kerseboom, Johann, portrait by, 23

  Kevlar, 313

  Kew Gardens, 191–92, 195, 275

  Klug, Aaron, 267

  Kneller, Sir Godfrey, portraits by, 79, 199

  knowledge:

  diffusion of, 198

  as end in itself, 122

  future, 469–74

  as power, 297, 314, 317

  pure, 319

  purpose of, 121–29

  Knowles, Tim, artwork by, 392, 393

  Köhler, Georges, 267

  Kuhn, Thomas, 435

  Kunzig, Robert, Fixing Climate, 421–22

  L

  Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste, 206, 214

  Laplacian determinism, 93

  Large Hadron Collider, 318

  Le Corbusier, 246

  Leeuwenhock, Antoni van, 6, 7

  drawings by, 8, 10

  letter about duckweed from, 7

  microscopes of, 7, 8

  Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 85–105, 87

  and background-independent theories, 99–100

  on “best of all possible worlds,” 102

  and binary arithmetic, 97

  and calculus, 86, 89, 105, 34
8, 359

  Characteristica Universalis, 97

  on compossibility, 101–2

  on conservation of energy, 100–101

  and Continuum, 91

  death of, 86, 89, 91, 94

  and Gödel, 94, 103–4

  on Identity of Indiscernibles, 90–91, 98–99

  Leibniz-Clarke correspondence, 86, 89–90, 93, 97

  and metaphysics, 85–86, 90–91, 105

  Monadology, 90, 91–94, 96, 97–99, 102, 104

  on motion, 100–101

  and Newton, 85, 89–94, 100–102, 105

  on pre-established harmony, 100, 102

  Principle of Sufficient Reason, 90

  Production Rule of, 93, 97–98

  and rationalism, 117, 119n

  and Royal Society, 85

  and Russell, 90, 92, 95–96

  Theodicy, 90

  Lessing, Doris, Mara and Dann, 423

  Lewis, David, Plurality of Worlds, 102

  Lewis, Jerry, 51

  Lewis, Peter, 238

  Liebermann, Max, portrait by, 464

  life:

  complexity of, 330–31

  elements needed for, 333–34, 339

  engineering, 314–17

  game of, 473

  habitability window for, 330

  human life expectancy, 478

  intelligent, 335–36, 470

  living in the present, 415

  made in laboratories, 333

  origins of, 278, 315–17, 331–32, 335–36

  other forms of, 278, 315–17, 470

  on other planets, 328–31, 334

  “primordial soup” theory of, 331–32

  structure of, 253

  lightning rods:

  and electricity, 140–48, 151, 152

  experiments on, 145–47, 146, 152

  at Heckingham, 134, 138–40, 144, 148, 149, 150, 152–53

  idiomatic use of term, 155

  invention of, 142

  and Promethian science, 142–43, 148–54

  Lily House, Chatsworth, 237

  Linnaeus, Carolus:

  on the fixity of species, 195, 196

  floral clock of, 193

  Systema Naturæ, 192–93

  systematic plantings of, 193, 195

  Linnean Society of London, 193, 213, 216, 221, 274

  Littleton, Sir Edward, 172

  Locke, John, 5, 78, 89, 111, 112, 118

  and science of mind, 77, 79–80

  logic, 115

  and computers, 350, 351

  and mathematics, 350, 371

  logical positivism, 94

  London Millennium Bridge, 247–48

  Long, James, 28–29

  Long, Richard, 393

  Lonsdale, Kathleen Yardley, 256–57, 258, 262

  loop quantum gravity, 100, 105

  Lovelock, James, 389, 403, 415, 421

  Lowell, Percival, 330

  Lubbock, John, 14, 15

  diary entry of, 15

  Lucas, John, group portrait by, 235–36, 236, 237, 238, 249

  Lunardi, Vincenzo, 160, 172, 173–74, 178

  Lunar Society, 163

 

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