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The Story of Western Science

Page 33

by Susan Wise Bauer


  body of, see human body

  goal and purpose of, 250

  God-like power of, 199–200

  IQ ranking of, 208–9

  limits of understanding of, 252–56

  natural selection applied to, 172

  origin of, 125, 128, 136

  prehistoric migration of, 142

  projected end of, 136

  in scala natura, 18

  stellar catastrophies and, 154

  superior position of, 179

  two basic factors for, 169

  universe mirrored in, 13

  human body:

  circulation of, 68-69

  and decay, 35

  erroneous model of, 6-7, 65-67

  and inheritance, 189-97

  humors, 6, 9–10

  Hunter, Michael, 88n

  Hutton, James, 103, 115–21, 125–26, 128, 138–39, 157, 161, 166

  Huxley, Julian, 155, 179, 181–84, 200, 236

  Huxley, Thomas H., 175, 181–83

  hybridation, 174–78

  Hydrogéologie (Lamarck), 159

  hydrostatic balance, 89

  hypothesis:

  “feigned,” 101, 109

  fitting facts to, 10

  in scientific method, 58

  use of term, xx

  Iamblichus, 22–23

  ibn Hayyan, Jabir, 84

  ibn Jabir al-Battani, Muhammad, 41

  ibn Qurra, Thabat, 41

  ibn Zakariyya al-Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad, 84

  Ideal, Platonic, xx, 13–15, 32

  change as decay from, 16–20, 25–26

  illustrations, scientific, 91, 93

  immortality, 34

  impact craters, 151, 153

  impact hypothesis, 149–54

  “indefinite, the,” as prime entity, 11

  Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 76, 79

  India, flood in, 124

  Indonesia, 170

  inductive reasoning, 58, 67, 100, 111

  Inertia, Law of, 98

  Infeld, Leopold, 3

  inheritance:

  altruism and, 201-2

  biochemistry in, 185–98, 199

  calculation and prediction in, 200–201

  laws of, 174–78

  mechanism of, 177-78, 180-81, 185, 189-97

  inorganic, 159–60

  Inquisition, Galileo and, 75, 78–79

  In Search of the Big Bang (Gribbin), 248

  insects, 189–93, 200, 202, 204, 205

  attempts to categorize, 165

  fluctuations in, 255

  inheritance and, 189–93, 200

  Insect Societies, The (E. O. Wilson), 205

  intelligence, 208–10

  invertebrates, 19, 159

  invisible college, 82, 88

  IQ tests, 208

  Ireland, Irish, 80, 82, 106, 119, 136, 226

  iridium, 151–52

  irrational numbers, 23–24

  Isaac Newton on Mathematical Certainty and Method (Guicciardini), 98n

  Italy, Italians, 44, 64, 68, 73, 80, 84, 130, 151

  James I, king of England, 56–57, 60

  Jameson, Robert, 127

  Jardin des Plantes, 129

  Jardine, Lisa, 61–62

  Johannsen, Wilhelm, 178, 181

  Johns Hopkins Uiversity, 144

  Joly, John, 136

  Journal and Remarks (The Voyage of the Beagle; Darwin), 168, 170

  Journal of Experimental Medicine, 193

  Jowett, Benjamin, 13, 14–15

  Jupiter, 200

  viewed through telescope, 73–74, 74

  Jurassic Park (film), 256

  Kaku, Michio, 219

  Kalkavage, Peter, 14–15

  Kaufmann, Walter, 226

  Kelvin, William Thompson, Lord, 135, 137–38

  Kepler, Johannes, 75, 77, 81, 97

  Kings College, 194

  kin selection, 205

  Kirshner, Robert, 154

  Kirwan, Richard, 119

  Koran, 41

  K-Pg (cretaceous-Paleogene) extinction, 151n

  Kragh, Helge, 243n

  KT boundary iridium anomoly, 152–53

  K-T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) extinction, 151–53

  Kuhn, Thomas, 49

  Kuttner, Fred, 230n

  Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste, 155, 157–64, 166, 168, 173, 185

  land bridges, 142, 144

  Laplace, Pierre-Simon, 216–18, 253–54

  Laplace’s Demon, 253–54, 256

  Lateral Continuity, Steno’s Principle of, 107–8

  Latham, Ronald E., 36

  Latin language, 36, 43

  latitude, 105

  Lavoisier, Antoine, 226

  Lawson, Robert W., 224

  Leaning Tower of Pisa, 71, 72, 97

  Leavitt, Henrietta, 240

  Lehrbuch der Zoologie, 180

  Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 98n, 109

  Lemaître, Georges, 243–45

  Lemoine, Paul, 181

  lenses, 73, 81, 89, 177

  Leucippus, 11

  Levene, Phoebus, 188, 193

  levers, 29

  liberal arts, science eclipsed by, 42–43

  life:

  attempts to define and categorize, 159–60, 164–66, 192

  goal and purpose of, 250

  process of change in, 159–63; see also evolution

  secret of, 185–98

  study of, see biology

  Life, 199

  life sciences, xviii, 155–211

  light:

  properties of, 218, 221, 231

  speed of, 221–23, 222, 241n, 248

  theories of, 91, 95–96, 223, 226

  see also redshift

  Lightfoot, John, 106

  “light matter,” 38, 46

  light waves, 218, 231

  light-years, 30, 241

  Limagne plain, 130

  Linnean Society of London, 171

  Linneaus, Carolus, 159, 165–66

  Linton, Christopher, 40

  Lippershey, Hans, 73

  Littell, F. B., 145

  liver function, 65–67

  Lloyd, William, 109

  London, England, 60, 82, 88, 129, 171

  Long Island “phage group,” 194

  longitude, 105, 145

  Longrigg, James, 9n

  Lord of the Rings, The (Tolkien), 154

  Lorenz, Edward, 254

  Lucretius, 1, 32, 34–35, 37, 61

  reading sources for, 36

  lung function, 66–67

  Luria, Salvador Edward, 194

  Lyell, Charles, xx, 103, 128–33, 134–36, 138, 141, 150, 153

  in Darwinism, 168–69, 171, 173

  lymphoid cells, 188

  M31 (star), 240–41

  Maculano, Cardinal Vincenzo, 78–79

  magnetism, 220, 221

  Maillet, Benoît de, 109–10

  Malpighi, Marcello, 68

  Malthus, Thomas, 169, 170

  mammoths, 120–21

  mantle, of earth, 146–47

  Maor, Eli, 218n

  maps, 105

  Marsden, Ernst, 228–29

  Maryland, University of, 247

  mastodons, 121

  materialism, 34–35

  mathematics, mathematicians, 89, 111, 116, 183, 200, 215, 216, 218, 220, 243, 253, 254

  ancient, 4, 37

  Archimedean, 27–31, 37

  broad scope of, 70–71

  in butterfly effect, 253–56

  of change, 97–99

  early calculations of universe through, 21–31, 32, 38–41, 47, 49, 50, 76

  in evolution theory, 200–201

  and mysticism, 23, 26

  and philosophy, 25–26

  rediscovered manuals of, 43

  as serving purposes of science, 31, 224, 227, 230–31, 234, 236

  Matthaei, J. Heinrich, 197

  Matthews, Drummond, 147

  May, Robert, 255

  Mayr, Ernst, 166, 183,
200, 236

  McClung, Clarence, 189

  Measuring the Universe (Ferguson), 241n

  mechanics:

  mathematics in, 26

  quantum, 151, 225, 231, 252

  Medici, Ferdinando II de’, 107

  medicine:

  alchemy and, 85

  anatomy in, 63–69

  Bacon’s low opinion of, 68

  education in, 70

  Hippocratic, 5, 10, 63

  Mediterranean Sea, 109

  “meme,” origin of term, 210

  Mémoires sur les espèces d’éléphants vivants et fossiles (Cuvier), 120

  Mendel, Gregor, 155, 174–78, 189, 199

  Mendel’s Principles of Heredity (Bateson), 178

  mercury, 84–85, 94

  Mercury, perihelion of, 223, 238

  metallurgy, 84–85, 117

  metaphysics, 14, 249–50

  Metaphysics (Aristotle), 5

  meteorology, meteorologists, 89, 144, 153, 176

  Meteorology (Aristotle), 84–85

  Michel, Helen, 152

  Michelson, Albert, 222

  microbiology, 203

  Micrographia (Hooke), 53, 80, 91–93, 94–96, 186

  microscopes:

  advancements in, 81, 177, 233

  introduction of, 68

  observation and evidence from, 89–91, 107, 146, 186

  microwave radiation, 246–47

  midocean ridges and trenches, 146–47

  Miescher, Friedrich, 188, 193

  military arts, 70, 115

  Milky Way galaxy, 30, 73, 240–41

  “Mind & Matter” (Schrödinger), 237

  minerology, minerologists, 115, 117, 123, 128, 129

  Mismeasure of Man, The (Gould), 155, 199, 208–9, 211, 255

  mitosis, 177

  molecules, 233

  in biochemical research, 196, 203

  genes as, 192

  motion of, 227n

  mollusks, 121

  Moment of Creation, The (Trefil), 248

  monists, 10–12

  moon, 39, 44, 100–101, 105, 152

  expeditions to, 151

  viewed through telescope, 73, 75

  Moore, Walter, 236

  Morgan, Thomas Hunt, 189–92, 200

  Morley, Edward, 222

  morphogenesis, 181

  motion:

  Einstein on, 221

  in four-dimensional universe, 220

  principle of, 17

  as relative vs. absolute, 215

  Motion, Laws of, 98–99

  Motte, Andrew, 102

  Moufet, Thomas, 165

  Mount Wilson Observatory, 240, 243

  Muller, Hermann, 192

  Muller, Johann (Regiomontanus), 44–45

  muscovite, 91

  music, 23, 94

  Muslims, see Arab science

  myriad (M), 30

  Nägeli, Karl Wilhelm von, 176–77

  Napier, Macvey, 61

  Naples, Italy, 130

  Napoleon I, emperor of the French, 217

  National Book Critics Circle Award, 209

  National Institute of Sciences and Arts, 120, 123

  National Museum of Natural History, Paris, 120, 123, 181

  natural history, 159–60, 164, 171

  synthesis of sciences in, 179–84

  three areas of, 159

  Natural History, 208

  Natural History: General and Particular (Buffon), 103, 105, 111–14

  natural philosophy, 56–58, 60–61, 82, 85, 88–93, 115, 117, 129, 168

  geology and, 106, 108

  Newton’s Rules for, 99–100, 215

  natural selection:

  and Charles Darwin, 167-72

  evolving theory of, 164–73

  inheritance in, 174–78, 203

  objections to, 179–81

  nature, technological distortion of, 80–93

  Nature, 182, 196, 220, 244

  Nature of the Universe, The (Hoyle), 213, 238, 245–47, 251

  nebulae, 73, 238–42

  neo-Darwinist reductionism, 199–211

  nerves, 72–73

  Netherlands, 73, 112, 151, 177

  New Experiments Physico-Mechanical: Touching the Weight of the Air and Its Effects (Boyle), 83

  New Scientist, 250

  Newton, Isaac, 53, 94–102, 131, 252–53, 256

  in contention with Royal Society, 94–95, 99–100

  cosmos as viewed by, 215–17, 220

  in determination of age of earth, 108–9, 112, 141–42

  Laws of Motion of, 98–99, 252–53

  reading sources for, 101–2

  theory of gravity of, 97–102, 216–17, 252

  New York, N.Y., 188, 193

  New York Review of Books, 206

  New York Times Magazine, 255

  Nile floods, 4

  Nirenberg, Marshall, 197

  Noah, 135

  Nobel Prize, 11, 151, 196, 225, 227, 232, 237, 248

  nodes, 234

  nonlinear equations, 255

  Norse mythology, 250

  Norway, dating of rock layer in, 138

  nova stella, 55

  Novum organum (Bacon), 53, 55, 58–62, 59, 82

  nucleic acids, 194, 196–97

  nuclein, 188, 193

  nucleus:

  of atoms, 228–29, 233

  of cells, 186–88

  numerals, 21–23

  Greek, 30–31

  observation:

  through demonstration, 63–69

  in development of new theories, 91–92, 108, 111–12, 238, 245

  erroneous conclusions from, 37–38, 49, 66–67

  as key to past and future, 118–19

  limitations of, 49, 51, 55, 67, 121, 224, 226

  as path to knowledge, 17–19, 21, 26, 61, 65, 72, 82, 131, 152

  reason vs., 9–10, 26, 91

  as three-dimensional, 218

  occhialino, 81

  oceans:

  age of, 136

  early earth covered by, 109, 117–18, 123

  interchange of land and, 141–42

  life in, 121, 123, 200

  sonar mapping of floor of, 146

  Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human (Bacon), 56–57, 68

  Old Testament, 106, 112, 116, 118, 124, 128, 135, 137, 180

  On Airs, Waters and Places (Hippocrates), 7–8

  oncom, 192

  “one gene, one enzyme” hypothesis, 193

  On Floating Bodies (Archimedes), 28

  On Human Nature (E. O. Wilson), 155, 199, 207–8, 211

  “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” (Einstein), 221

  “On the Motion of Small Particles . . .” (Einstein), 227

  On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals (Harvey), 69

  On the Nature of Things (Lucretius), 1, 32

  On the Origin of Species (Darwin), 155, 164, 170–73, 174, 179, 181

  On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (Copernicus), 49–52, 55, 76

  “On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type” (Wallace), 171

  “On the Tides” (Galileo), 77

  ontology, 181

  orbits:

  of earth, 29–30, 47–49, 77

  of electrons, 228–29, 231

  elliptical, 97–98

  planetary, 38–41, 47, 96, 100–101, 223

  see also geocentric model; heliocentric model

  Oreskes, Naomi, 142

  organic, 159

  Organon (Aristotle), 58

  Original Horizontality, Steno’s Principle of, 107–8

  “Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory, The” (Planck), 213, 225

  reading sources for, 237

  Origin of Continents and Oceans, The (Wegener), 103, 141, 145

  reading sources for, 148

  orthogenesis, 180

  Osiander, Andrew, 50

  Osiris, 4

 
Otto, John, 190–91

  Ottoman empire, 43

  Oxford University, 82, 88, 128, 129, 181, 203

  Padua, University of, 64–65, 70–71, 73, 75

  Pagel, Heinz, 248

  paleontology, paleontologists, 144, 153, 184

  Pangea, 143–44, 143

  pangene, 185

  Paracelsus, three principles of, 85–86

  Paris, France, 115, 120, 129, 136, 181

  drift of, 145

  Faculty of Theology in, 113

  rock strata in, 123–24, 126

  Paris Basin, 123–24, 126

  Pasachoff, Jay, 241

  Pascal, Blaise, 87

  Paul III, Pope, 50–51

  Paul V, Pope, 76

  Pauling, Linus, 195–96

  Pausanius, 5

  Payen, Anselme, 187, 192

  Pearl, Raymond, 179

  pendulums, 89

  Perfect Symmetry (Pagel), 248

  permanence theory, 142

  Perrin, Jean, 227–28

  Persia, ancient, 4, 84

  Persoz, Jean-François, 187, 192

  petrified wood, 90, 186

  Peurbach, Georges, 44–45

  phenotypes, 189–93

  pheromones, 204

  Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (Newton), 53, 94, 96–98, 101–2, 181, 215–16

  Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, 115, 117

  Philosophie zoologique (Lamarck), 155, 157, 160, 162, 163, 164, 166, 169

  philosophy, philosophers, 205, 234

  ancient, 10–15, 16–20, 25–27, 34

  Galileo dismissed by, 75

  medieval, 18, 23

  natural, see natural philosophy

  pre-Socratic, 12n

  science vs., 215–16

  secular, 32–34

  and truth, 25-26

  phlegm, 6

  photons, 231

  phusis (nature), 10, 12

  Physical and Moral Letters on the Mountains and on the History of the Earth and Man (Deluc), 116–17

  Physical Treatises (Pascal), 87

  physics, physicists, 14, 70, 81–85, 88, 89, 105, 106, 117, 131, 135, 137, 142, 151, 153, 186, 191, 204

  advanced theories of, 215–24, 225–51

  Aristotelian, 37, 55–62, 70–79, 105

  chaos theory in, 255

  Newtonian, 215–17, 220, 252–53, 256

  quantum, xx, 225–37, 238

  rediscovered manuals of, 43

  Physics (Aristotle), 1, 16, 17, 19–20, 65

  Pillars of Hercules, 58

  Pisa, University of, 70–73

  Placher, William C., 76n

  Planck, Max, 213, 225, 227, 230–31, 235, 237

  Planck’s Constant, 230

  Planck spectrum, 256

  planetarium, 29

  planets:

  gravity’s effect on, 216–17

  orbits of, 38–41, 96, 100–101, 223

  origin of, 217

  viewed through telescope, 73–76

  see also geocentric model; heliocentric model

  plants:

  attempts to categorize, 159, 165

  in scala natura, 18

  plate tectonics, 147

  Plato, xviii, 1, 5, 9, 22, 162

  change as decay for, 16–19, 25

  Ideal of, see Ideal, Platonic

 

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