legacy of, 13–14, 26
role of gods for, 12–13
universe according to, 12–15
Platonic tradition, 24, 41, 229
Playfair, John, 116, 117, 119, 125
Pliny, 107
pluralists, 12
Plutarch, 9
pneuma (air), 66
pneumoccal viruses, 193–94
Poincaré, Henri, 227–28, 253
Politics (Aristotle), 26–27
polysaccharide, 193
population genetics, 200–203
pores, 66–69
postulates, 27
predictability, 253–54
“Predictability: Does the Flap of A Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?” (Lorenz), 255
“Preliminary Discourse” (Cuvier), 103, 115, 124, 126–27
“Preliminary Discourse to a Dissertation on a Solid Body Naturally Contained within a Solid” (Steno), 106–8
“Present Situation in Quantum Mechanics, The” (Schrödinger), 235
pressure, 84, 89, 239
Price, George Robert, 202
Price’s Equation, 202–3
Priestley, Joseph, 226
Princeton University, 151, 247
Principe, Lawrence, 92–93
Principia, see Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica
Principles of Geology, Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth’s Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in Operation (Lyell), 103, 128, 131–33, 134–35, 168
printing press, 44, 50, 78
prisms, 95
Proclus, 27
Project Gutenberg, 93
proteins, 187–88, 194, 196–97
Protestants, 116
protoplasm, 186
Prussia, 157–58
psychology, psychologists, 204–6, 209
evolutionary, 207
Ptolomy, 1, 37, 39–45, 65
orbital scheme of, 39–41, 40, 45, 46–49, 55–56, 74
Ptolemy I, king of Egypt, 27
Pulitzer Prize, 208
punctuated equilibrium, 208
Pythagoras, Pythagoreans, 22–24, 26–27, 81
Pythagorean theorem, 23–24, 23
Pythocles, 33
quadrivium, 42
quantum, quanta, 230, 244, 245
Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness (Rosenblum and Kuttenr), 230n
quantum jumps, 225, 230–35
quantum mechanics, 151, 225, 231, 252
quantum theory, xx, 225–37, 238, 244
Quarterly Review, 129
radiation, 192
blackbody, 230
microwave, 246–47
radioactive dating, 137–39, 141–42, 151, 228–29
radioactivity, 136–39
rational numbers, 22
ratios, 22, 24, 29
Read, Andrew, 203
Realm of the Nebulae, The (Hubble), 213, 238, 241, 250–51
reason:
divine revelation vs., 76
experimental method and, 94–102, 135
senses and, 93
as substitute for observation, 9–10
technological helps in, 91–92
truth gained by, 26, 35, 57–58, 130
recessive characteristics, 175
Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles de quadrupèdes (Cuvier), 123
rectangle, 22
redshift, 239, 241–43
reductionism, disciplinary, 204
Regiomontanus (Johann Muller), 44–45
Reid, Harry Fielding, 144
principle of, 221
Relativity: The Special and General Theory (Einstein), 213, 215, 224
relativity theory, 151, 215–24, 238, 239
Einstein’s railway car analogy for, 221–22, 222
general, 223–24, 238, 242, 243
special, 221–24
religion:
science and, 24, 49–51, 75–79, 80, 82, 109–10, 118–19, 120, 128, 134, 179–80, 183, 209
sociobiological basis for, 207
Rensch, Bernhard, 183
replication, 194, 196
reproduction, as essential to human beings, 169
Republic (Plato), 25
retrogradations (planetary), 38
“Revolutions of the Globe” (Cuvier), see “Preliminary Discourse”
Rheticus, 49, 51
ribonucleic acid (RNA), 196–97
Riccardi, Niccolo, 78
Riemann, Bernhard, 219–20, 223, 224
Rigden, John S., 227n
rivers, erosion by, 130
RNA (ribonucleic acid), 196–97
Rockefeller Institute, 188, 193
rocks:
and the age of the earth, 106
in Channeled Scablands, 149–51
dating of, 138
fossils in, see fossils, fossilization
iridium in, 151
sedimentary, 123, 129
and Steno’s principles, 107-8
Roentgen, Wilhelm, 136, 192
Roman Empire, 34, 42, 64, 107
Rome, Italy, 79, 89
Rosenblum, Bruce, 230n
Rostand, Jean, 181
Royal Botanical Gardens, 171
Royal College of Science, 137
Royal College of Surgeons, 63
Royal Horticultural Society of England, 177
Royal Horticultural Society of London, 178
Royal Society of Edinburgh, 117–19
Royal Society of London, 120
dedicatory epistle of, 60–61
founding of, 60, 88
Hooke as curator of experiments at, 87–91, 94–96
Newton’s conflict with, 94–96, 99–100
Rudwick, Martin J. S., 126
“Rules for the Study of Natural Philosophy” (Newton), 99–102
Russia, 157, 180, 182, 190, 243, 246
Rutherford, Ernest, 137–39, 192, 228–30
atomic model of, 229–30, 229, 231
sal ammoniac, 115
salt, 85, 157
sand, symbolic meaning of, 31
“Sand-Reckoner” (Archimedes), 1, 21, 27, 29, 31, 48
Sanger, Frederick, 197
Sarton, George, 17–18
Saturn, 47
“saving the phenomena,” 38, 49, 76, 231
scala naturae (Scale of Nature), 18–19
Sceptical Chymist, The (Boyle), 53, 80, 86–87, 92–93
Scheideck, Greenland, 146
Scheiner, Christoph, 81
Schindewolf, Otto, 180
Schleiden, Jakob, 186
Schrödinger, Erwin, 213, 225, 232–37, 252
Schrödinger’s cat, 235–37
Schuchert, Charles, 144
Schultz, Max, 186
Schumacher, Heinrich, 218
Schwann, Theodor, 186
Sciama, Dennis, 247
science:
ascendancy of, 56
beginnings, 1–52
current, 17, 154, 184, 209
divine vs. natural factors in, 3–7, 9, 12–14, 27
eclipse and rebuilding of interest in, 41–45
history of, xvii–xviii, xx, 18, 252–54
limits of, 252–56
obstacles to progress in, 24
origins of, xviii
in popular culture, 154, 181, 256
specialization of, xix
Science, 152
science fiction, 154, 181, 256
Science of Life, The (Huxley), 182
scientific method, xviii, 53–102
demonstration in, 63–69
earliest articulation of, 55–62
use of technological helps in, 80–93
see also experimental method
scientific texts:
ancient, 3–8
as obscure and inaccessible to lay readers, xix, 13–15, 93, 99, 119, 125, 180, 236, 250–51
preserved by Arabs, 43
as readable and accessible to lay readers, xix, 14–15, 20, 36
, 45, 51, 99–100, 114, 154, 172–73, 182–84, 203, 208, 224, 230n, 241n, 245, 246n, 248, 250–51, 252, 255–56
seminal, vii–viii, xviii–xx, 256
as summaries and studies rather than originals, 11, 22–23, 32, 34, 42–44
see also specific writings
Scopes trial, 180
Scotland, Scots, 115, 128, 129, 157
sea urchins, 177–78
Selfish Gene, The (Dawkins), xix, 155, 199, 203, 210
senses:
divine revelation vs., 76
enjoyment of, 34
extended by technology, 80–93, 94, 146
limitations of, 224
reason and, 93
universe perceived through, 13–14, 26
serpents, 5–6
Seven Years’ War, 157n
sex:
biological impulse as basis for, 207, 209
chromosomes in determination of, 189, 202
as essential human drive, 169
in inheritance, 174–75
sex-linked characteristics, 190–91
Sextus Empiricus, 11
Shapley, Harlow, 240–41
shark’s teeth, 107
ship shaker, 29
Shropshire, England, 166
Siberia, 120–21
Sicily, 130
Sidereal Messenger, The (Galileo), 74, 76
Silberstein, L., 237
silting, 142
silver, 85
Silverthorn, Michael, 61–62
“Simple Mathematical Models with Very Complicated Dynamics” (May), 255
Simplicius of Cilicia, 11
Simpson, George Gaylord, 183
singularity, 243–50, 252
Sirius, 4, 218
Sixtus IV, Pope, 64
Smellie, William, 113, 114
social sciences, biological impulse as basis for, 204–6
sociobiology, debate over, 205–10
Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (E. O. Wilson), 203, 205–7, 209
Sociobiology Study Group, 206
sociology, 204, 205
Socrates, 9, 12n
Soddy, Frederick, 137–38
sodium, 136
solar system:
beginning and end of, 135
controversy over, 76-79, 81
first proposed, 29, 47-51
function of, 215–17
as metaphor for atom, 228–29, 231
sonar technology, 146
soul, 41
in afterlife, 64
as mortal, 34–35, 64
sound waves, 218
South America, 142, 167, 170
space:
beginning of, 244
curvature of, 220, 223, 225, 239, 243
Einstein on, 221–23
as relative vs. absolute, 215–16
subatomic, 233
see also cosmos; universe
space program, 151
space-time, 215, 223, 225, 239, 243
Spain, 43, 157, 190
species:
attempts to define and classify, 164–70
extinction of, 120–24, 152, 153
as mutable, 168, 170, 171, 174–78
spectacles, 73
Spedding, James, 61–62
Spencer, Herbert, 172
spheres, curvature of, 218–19
Sprat, Thomas, 88
stadia, 30
standing wave, 234
Stanford University, 192
starlight:
bending of, 223–24, 226–27, 238
wavelength changes in, 239
stars:
catastrophes in, 154
discovery of new, 55
measurement of distance to, 241
motion of, 51, 218, 239
science of, 106
viewed through telescope, 73, 218, 239–40
stasis, 217–18
stations (planetary), 38
steady-state theory, 131, 246–48
stem cells, xviii
Steno, Nicholas, 106–8, 120
Steno’s Principles, 107–8
Stevens, Nettie, 189
Stoney, George, 226
strata:
in determining age of earth, 108, 122
in formation of earth, 117–18
fossils in, 122
in Paris, 123–24
subatomic theory, 226–35
submarines, 146
Suess, Eduard, 141
sulfur, 84–86
Sullivan, Woodruff, 247
sun:
age of, 136
as center of universe, see heliocentric model
energy and, 135
flares, 154
origin of, 217
redshift in light from, 239
starlight bent by, 223–24, 226–27, 238
supernovas, 55, 154
Superposition, Steno’s Principle of, 107–8
“survival of the fittest”:
origin of phrase, 172
as preservation of DNA, 200–203
see also natural selection
Sutton, Walter, 178
Sweden, Swedish, 187
sweet peas, 174–77
Switzerland, Swiss, 116, 188
Symposium (Xenophon), 4
synthesis, the modern 179–84
Syracuse, Sicily, 27
Systema naturae (Linneaus), 159, 165–66
Systematics and the Origin of Species, from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist (Mayr), 183
Système des animaux sans vertèbres (Lamarck), 159
System of the World, The (Laplace), 217
systolic action, 66
Tahiti, 167
Taliaferro, R. Catesby, 45
Tannstetter, Georg, 44–45
Tatum, Edward, 192–93
taxonomy, 19, 166, 184
technology:
advancements in, 80–93, 94, 177, 180, 186, 218, 233, 240, 248, 254
evolved through war, 148–49
truths revealed through, 90–92
see also specific inventions
teleology, 18
telescopes:
advancements in, 73, 81, 94, 218, 240
observation and evidence from, 73–78, 81, 91, 97, 243
Tempo and Mode in Evolution (Simpson), 183
tetractys, 23
Teutoburg Forest, 158
Thales, 4–6, 10, 11, 32
mathematical laws of, 21–22
“Thales’s Leap,” 5
Theatrum insectorum (Moufet), 165
theology, 106, 108, 112, 117, 120, 134, 179–80
theory:
first known, 4–5
technological advancements in development of, 91–92
untestable and unprovable, 11, 21, 35, 50–51, 55, 67, 101, 108, 145, 162, 194, 197, 226, 227, 228, 241, 245–46
use of term, xx
see also specific theories
Theory of the Earth (Hutton), 103, 115, 119, 125–26, 132
thermal contraction theory, 141–42, 144
Thermodynamics, Second Law of, 135–36, 139
thinning universe, 244
Thomas Aquinas, Saint, 75
Thomson, Joseph, 226, 228–29
thorium, 136
Three Copernican Treatises, 51
tides, 77–78, 129
Timaeus (Plato), 1, 9, 12–15, 18
reading sources for, 14–15
time:
as absolute, 215–16
beginning of, 244
“deep,” 113, 118–19, 125, 126, 137
as measured by earth years, 110, 118, 135
as relative, 221–23, 225, 243
subatomic, 233
in theoretical prediction, 253–54
Time Machine, The (Wells), 181
Tocqueville, Alexis de, 180
To Infinity and Beyond: A Cultural History of the Infinite (Maor), 218n
Toledo, Arabic
library at, 43
Toomer, G. J., 45
topography, 105
Tower of London, 60
Treatise on Celestial Mechanics (Laplace), 217
Trefil, James, 248
T. Rex and the Crater of Doom (Alvarez), xix, 103, 149, 153–54, 255–56
trivium, 42
Tudge, Colin, 196–97
Twain, Mark, 183
Twenty Questions game, 166
Two New Sciences (Galileo), 79
uncertainty principle, 233
uniformitarianism (uniformity principle), 118–21, 125, 134–36, 138–40, 150, 166, 169, 208
applied to living things, 161
vs. catastrophism, 161
dismissal of, 152–53
embracing of, 128–33, 152
resurgence of, 141–48
as term, 132
universal gravitation, 217–18
universe:
beginning point of, 243, 249–50
Big Bang theory of, xviii, xix, 245–48, 256
continuous creation model of, 245
divine creator of, 12–13, 16, 18, 216–17
erroneous model of, 37, 48-49
expansion of, 242–49
experimental method applied to, 94–102
farther reaches of, 217
first big-picture accounts of, 9–15
first mathematical measurement of, 21–31
five types of matter composing, 37–38
as four-dimensional, 219–20, 225
geocentric, see geocentric model
heliocentric, see heliocentric model
as inexplicable, 243–44
origin theories of, 10–12, 37–38, 106, 238–51
as quantifiable and comprehensible, 31
size of, 239
speculation on the end of, 35, 238, 249
as static, 215, 217, 239, 240
thinning, 244
see also cosmos
Unmoved Mover, 18
unpredictability, 255–56
uranium salts, 136
urea, 187
use and disuse, principle of, 160, 169
Ussher, James, 106, 109, 112, 125, 157, 166
vacuum, 83, 222, 226
Van Hise, Charles, 106
variation, through inheritance, 174–78, 180
Venice, Italy, 73
Venus, 74, 78, 239
vertebrates, 19
Vesalius, Andreas, 64–65
Vienna, University of, 44
Vine, F. J., 147
viruses, 193–94
Vitruvius, 28
Viviani, Vincenzo, 72
vivisection, 67
void, 32–36
volcanoes, 142, 154
Voyage of the Beagle, The (Journal and Remarks; Darwin), 168, 170
Vries, Hugo de, 177
Waldeyer, Wilhelm, 177
Wallace, Alfred Russel, 132, 170–71
Wallis, Charles Glenn, 52
War of the Worlds, The (Wells), 181
Washington, D.C., 145, 149
Washington, George, 157
watch mechanism, as analogy, 3
water:
acid and, 188n
in composition of universe, 5
displacement of, 28
in healing, 6–7, 9
movement of, 111