Newton, Isaac 18, 19, 23, 186, 188, 210, 236, 263
Newtonian physics 75–6, 78–80, 95
Newton’s law of motion 18, 186, 188, 210, 314–15
Nilsson, Daniel 45, 46
Noah 158
Nobel Prize 11–12
numbers
definition 178
quantum 196
transfinite 178
O
Occam’s razor 189
Odysseus 220, 221, 229
officer-training 321–2
Olum, Ken 103
Oppenheimer, Robert 96
Origin of Species (Darwin) 44, 145–55, 235, 319
conclusion 325–6
originality 246–7, 248–52
origins 145–51
structure 151–2
Owen, Fanny 119
P
Paley, William 23–6, 38–40, 41–2, 44, 46, 117, 235, 249
argument from design 34–6, 39–40, 126–7, 160
influence on Darwin 119–20, 152, 153
Pans narrans 323
Papin, Dennis 243
paradoxes
Arrow 67, 68, 83
cumulative audience 63
‘grandfather’ 63, 64, 107–8, 223–4
Moving Rows 67
twin 98–9, 102
parallel worlds (multiverse) 56–60, 106–7, 184–5, 187–95
four levels of 189–95
parasites 217, 273–4
parochials 216
particles 76–81
past 77, 93–4, 104, 212, 214, 229
see also future; history; present; time travel
Pelger, Suzanne 45, 46
Penrose, Roger 107
petunias 275, 276–7
phlogiston 298
phocomelia 266–7, 271–2
photons 77, 78
physics 183–8, 192
Newtonian 75–6, 78–80, 95
quantum 75, 81–4, 100, 105–7, 184–9, 191, 195–201, 303
pi 182
pigeons 155, 156
Pius XII, Pope 22
Planck length 106, 184, 197–8
plankton 217
Platonia 80–4
pogroms 318
Poincaré, Henri 76, 236
point singularities 96, 97, 100
Poland 318
Polchinski, Joseph 195
politics 299
polydnaviruses 273–4
Polypan multinarrans 323–4
population growth, exponential 127–8, 147–8, 159
position 83
present 77, 81, 212
see also future; past; time travel
pressure cookers 243
principle of least action 186–7
privatives 297–8
probability 82–4, 194
probability mists 81, 83
projective geometry 174
proteins 275–9
heat shock 267–8, 270
proviruses 274
pseudoscientific movements 15–16
Q
Quakers 311, 318
qualitative theories 19
quantitative theories 19
quantum foam 106, 191
quantum gravity 105
quantum mechanics 75, 81–4, 100, 105–7, 184–9, 191
parallel worlds 106–7, 184–5, 187–95
superimposition of states 106
time travel 105–7
unification with relativity theory 105, 195–201, 303
quantum numbers 196
Quantum Platonia 81–2
quasars 79
quasi-sciences 291
R
radiation 270–1
radiuses, Schwarszschild 96
Ramsay, Marmaduke 120
reification 184–5
relativity theory 75–81
general 18, 75–6, 78, 93–6, 98–102, 104
special 75–6, 236
unification with quantum mechanics 105, 195–201, 303
religion 15–17, 22, 49, 291–2, 293, 299–302
beliefs 298–303
Buddhism 302
and evolution 11–13, 291–2
faith 50–1
fundamentalism 11–13, 156–7, 291–2, 299
heterogeneous societies 318
Hinduism 94
Islam 291–2
see also Christianity
resources, linear growth 127–8, 147–8, 159
retina 40
retroviruses 278–80
revolutions, scientific 236–8, 251–2
ribonucleic acid (RNA) 276–9
ring singularities 101
Rivault, Florence 241
RNA interference 277, 279
rocket technology 314–16
Roman Catholicism 15
Royal Geological Society 125
Royal Society 243–4, 311
Ruse, Michael 17
Russia 313, 317, 318, 319
S
St Jago island, Cape Verde Islands 123, 140, 142
Savery, Thomas 243–4, 246
Schrödinger, Erwin 298
Schwarszschild, Karl 95–6
Schwarszschild radius 96
science 14–23, 228
beliefs of 302, 302–3
facts 289–90
research 14–16
theories 18–20, 289–92
unanswerable questions of 50–1
university study of 320
Science of Discworld, The 228, 296, 297, 314–15
Science of Discworld II, The 213, 214, 215, 228, 289, 314–15, 323
science fiction 294–5
scientific revolutions 236–8, 251–2
secularism 22, 323
Selfish Gene, The (Dawkins) 266, 275
sergeants 321–2, 324
sets 178–80, 181, 183
sex 144
Shelley, Mary 71
shema 300
Silverberg, Robert 63, 64
singularities
point 96, 97, 100
ring 101
Sirens 220, 229
Skinner, B.F. 290
Snyder, Hartland 96
social class 319
middle classes 311, 313, 320
working classes 316–17
social heterogeneity 317–19, 323–5
Somerset, Edward (Marquis of Worcester) 242
space
and time 62, 66–7, 72–3, 83
see also spacetime
space elevator 314–16
space travel 314–16
space-bolas 314–16
spacetime 76–80
asymptotically flat 80, 93–5, 97–8
and black holes 97
metric of 79–80, 94
Minkowski’s 76, 77–8, 80, 93–5
and quantum foam 191
as ten dimensional 105
species
changeability of 152–6, 158–60, 247–51
extelligent 252
transmutation 124, 127, 144, 145, 152, 247–8
Spence, William 117
Spencer, Herbert 251, 319, 322
sphere, volume of 172–3
Spinoza, Baruch 302
stars
gravitational lensing 79–80
origins of 14–15
see also black holes
steam engine time 236–7, 243–4, 246
steam technology 238–47
Stokes, Pringle 120–1, 142
Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein) 295
string theory 50, 105, 195–201
sum, never-ending 173
sum-over-histories technique 185, 187
Sun
eclipses 79
escape velocity 95
Schwarszschild radius 96
superimposition of states 106
superluminal highways 103
Supreme Being (deist) 301–2
survival of the fittest 251
T
Taoism 302
t
echnomancy 55
tectonic plates 36–7, 126
Tegmark, Max 189, 190–5
Telford, Thomas 314
Tenniel, Sir John 297
Tennyson, Alfred 148
terrorism 299, 300, 301
thalidomide 266–7, 271–2
theists 299–301
authoritarian 299–300
theories 18–20, 289–92
Theory of Everything 105, 195
theory of mind 220
Thermodynamics, Second Law of 298
Thompson, Francis 218
Thorne, Kip 99, 104
Three Musketeers, The (Dumas) 213, 226–7
Thuggee worshippers 301
Thurston, Robert 236–7, 239
time 61–84
Deep Time 118, 156–7, 158, 160, 247
as fourth dimension 72–5, 76
as illusion 80–3
paradoxes of 63–8, 83, 98–9, 102, 106–8, 173, 223–4
and relativity theory 75–9
and space 62, 66–7, 72–3, 83
see also spacetime
time capsules 82–3, 84
time dilation 78, 96, 98
time loops 63–4, 215
Time Machine, The (Wells) 70–2, 103–4, 109, 227
time travel 62–5, 70–2, 75, 80, 93–109, 210–11, 214–19, 221, 227–9
quantum theory of 105–7
using bent light 104–5
using wormholes 98, 99–100, 103–4, 107–8
timelike curves 77, 93, 99
closed (CTCs) 93, 94–5, 97, 99, 104, 105–6, 213
tortoises, giant 124
transfinite numbers 178
twin paradox 98–9, 102
U
Unitarians 128–9
United States, Bible Belt 11–12, 13, 21, 49
universals 216
universe
argument from design 12–13, 16–17, 34–6, 39–40, 47–9, 126–7, 160
Big Bang theory 183–4, 190, 222
clockwork 23
as finite 183–4, 190, 193
infinity of 169, 183, 190–5
multiple 56–60
our ability to understand 325
quantum explanations 81–2
universities
‘ancient’ 320
red-brick 320, 321
uranium 38
Ussher, James 21, 118, 156–7
V
vacuum energy 197–200
variation 156, 160, 265, 268
Victoria, Queen 28
Victorian achievements 311–13, 316–21
viruses 273–4, 278–80
Voltaire 300, 323
von Däniken, Erich 16
W
Wallace, Alfred Russel 146–9, 150, 211, 248–9, 251, 260, 318–19, 322
warp drives 102–3
wasps, parasitic 273–4
watch analogy 23–5, 34–5, 47, 152, 160
Watson, Hewett 151
Watt, James 238–9, 244–7
Weber, Bruce 46
Wedgwood, Josiah 90–1, 121, 247
Weinbaum, Stanley 294–5
Wells, Herbert George 70–2, 73, 74, 105, 109, 163–4, 227, 319, 322
Wheeler, John Archibald 96
white holes 97–8, 99
catflap effect 100
magnetic 100–1
Wigner, Eugene 195
women in society 317
working classes 316–17
world views 299, 324–5
world-lines 77, 78, 81, 82, 93
‘worlds of if’ 212–13, 218
wormholes 98, 99–100, 103–4, 107–8
worms 5, 41
Y
Young, Matt 17
Yurtsever, Ulvi 99
Z
Zeno of Elea 66, 67–8, 83, 173
zircon 36, 37–9
Zoological Society 126
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