Coming of Age in the Milky Way (83 page)
Read Coming of Age in the Milky Way Online
Authors: Timothy Ferris
Tags: #Science, #Philosophy, #Space and time, #Cosmology, #Science - History, #Astronomy, #Metaphysics, #History
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NDEX
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Aberration of starlight, 139
Absorption lines, 164
Abstract symmetries, 305–307
Accelerators, 318–326, 333, 336, 340–341, 347
proton-antiproton collider, 324–326
superconducting super collider, 326, 340
Aether, 69, 178–181, 351
Aether drift theory, 188, 192
Africa, 50–54
Age of the Earth, The
(Holmes), 251–252
Age of the universe, 214
Christian scholars’ estimate of, 220–221
Darwinism and, 245–246, 254
scientific age-dating and, 221–229
Aldebaran (bright star), 61, 165
Alexander the Great, 27, 40, 219
Alpha Centauri, 371
parallax of, 139–140
Alpha particles, 250, 256
Alpher, Ralph, 213, 214
American Indians, 22, 48
American Viking project, 370, 371
Analytical geometry, 110
Anaxagoras, 33–34
Andromeda nebula, 146, 158, 166, 167, 172, 175
novae and stars in, 172–173
Animal breeding, 236
n
-237
n
Anthropic principle, 355–356, 394
Antimatter, 308, 322
Antiprotons, 322, 323–324
Antiquarks, 344
Apartness, delusion of, 289
Archimedes, 36–49, 62, 81, 85
Aristarchus of Samos, 35–36, 37–38, 43, 59, 64, 140
Aristotle, 31, 40, 56, 62, 64, 65, 67n, 70, 71, 75, 144
conception of time of, 217, 218, 219
cosmological observations of, 27–28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 69
the earth and, 69
inertia and, 92–94
law of falling bodies and, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94
Assayer, The
(Galileo), 98
Astrolabe, 128
Astronomical units, 124–125, 130, 135–136, 137
mean distances of the planets from the sun (est.), 124
Astronomy, 367
ancients’ use of, 19–25
extragalactic, 154–157
radio, 213–214
terrestrial explorations and, 20–21, 47–49, 52
Astrophysics, 144, 165, 168, 367
Asymmetries, 313
Atomism, 99n, 106
Atoms
Bohr model of, 258
cosmic element abundance curve and, 277
early-universe theory and, 343
principal constituents of, 256
quantum mechanics and, 257
stellar energy and, 256
Avoidance effect in nebulae, 166
Azurara, Gomez Eannes de, 55
Baade, Walter, 171, 173–174
Banks, Walter, 134, 135
Beagle
(Darwin’s ship), 229, 232, 233, 235, 239
Becquerel, Henri, 249, 255
Bellarmine, Cardinal Robert, 97, 98, 100
Bernstein, Jeremy, 264
Beryllium, 276, 278–279
Bessel, Friedrich Wilhelm, 139, 140
Besso, Michele Angelo, 190, 191, 203
Beta decay, 264, 312
Bethe, Hans, 252, 263–264, 278,327
Big bang, 211, 212, 213, 214, 277, 279
fusion of elements in, 272–275, 281
as giant accelerator, 347
inflationary universe hypothesis and, 359
particle physics-cosmology link and, 336–337
Big Dipper, 21, 48
Big galaxy hypothesis, 171, 172
Binary star systems, 81
Black-body curve, 286
Black holes, 204, 348, 361–362, 390
Blue giant stars, 70
Boethius, Ancius, 33, 43–44
Bohr, Niels, 285, 288, 290, 313, 356, 364, 381, 384n, 386
electrons and, 257–258
Born, Max, 285, 290
Bose, Satyendra Nath, 292
Bosons (integer spin particles), 292–293, 352–353
fermions and, 328
Bradley, James, 137–139, 154, 155, 178
n
Brahe, Tycho,
see
Tycho
Bright nebulae, 143–144
Brown dwarf stars, 348
Bruno, Giordano, 86, 369–370
Buffon, Georges, 225, 246, 247
Bunsen, Robert, 164, 165
Burbidge, Geoffrey and Margaret, 276, 277, 278
Caccini, Thommaso, 96–97
Calculus, the, 106, 108–110
Californium-254, 276
Cannon, Annie Jump, 258–259
Carbon cycle for stellar nuclear fusion, 263, 264, 265, 272, 276, 278, 279
Carbon-14, 251
Cartan, Elie-Joseph, 311–312
Cartography, 127, 130
Cassini, Giovanni, 130, 134, 153
Catastrophism, 224–225, 227, 228, 229
Causation doctrine (origin of the universe), 350–351
Celestial harmony, Pythagorean doctrine of, 75–77
Cepheid variable stars, 169, 170, 172, 173, 208, 274, 390
CERN accelerator, 319, 320–321, 322, 325–326, 336, 347, 352–353
Chamberlin, Thomas Chrowder, 255, 256
Chemical elements,
see
Elements
China (ancient), 19, 52–54
Marco Polo’s travels to, 47, 49–50, 54
Christian cosmology, 220–229
Chronometry, 127, 129–130
Cicero, 40, 62
Clausius, Rudolf, 246
COBE satellite, 390–391
Cockroft, John, 319n
Cockroft-Walton generator, 319
Columbus, Christopher, 22, 47, 49, 54–59
Coma cluster, 174
Comets, 69–70
Tycho and, 70–73
Compound apochromatic lenses, 152
Constantine, Emperor, 65n, 220
Cook, Captain James, 134–135, 140, 280
Copernicus, Nicolaus, 20, 35, 59, 61–68, 98, 145
Galileo and, 88, 89, 90
mean distances of planets from the sun as measured by, 124
solar system and, 65–66, 123, 124
Copper, 279
Coral atolls, Darwin’s theory of origin of, 232–233, 234, 239, 253
Cosmic background radiation, 212
n
, 213–214, 390–391
Cosmic element abundance curve, 277, 278
Cosmic neutrinos, 344
Cosmogony, 211, 212, 349–366
inflationary universe hypothesis, 345, 356–360, 362
prescientific creation myths, 349–350
quantum genesis hypothesis, 351, 362–365
vacuum genesis hypothesis, 351–356, 361, 362
Cosmological constant, 205–206, 208
Coulomb barrier, 260, 262–263, 274, 352
penetration by protons of, 262, 264–265
quantum indeterminacy and, 288
Council of Nicaea (
A.D
. 325), 220
Creation estimated date of, 220–221
myths of, 349–350
Curie, Marie, 253n
Curie, Pierre, 252–253
Curtis, Heber, 167, 171–172
Cyclical time, 217–220
Da Gama, Vasco, 52, 54
Dark Ages, 44–45
Dark energy, 389–393
Dark matter, 347–348, 391–393
Dark nebulae, 144, 158
Darwin, Charles, 67, 68, 116, 225–226, 229, 231–253
Darwin, Erasmus, 235
Darwin, Robert, 233–234
Darwinism, 231–246, 254, 367, 368, 369
Darwinism (cont.)
nuclear fusion and, 248, 252–254
religious and scientific opposition to, 240–241, 244–245
Davy, Sir Humphry, 185, 186
Delusion of apartness, 289
Descartes, Rene, 106, 113, 370
De Sitter, Willem, 209
n
, 210, 211
Deuterium, 343
Dialogue … Concerning the Two Chief
World Systems, Ptolemaic and
Copernican
(Galileo), 98–99
Dialogues Concerning Two New
Sciences
(Galileo), 91, 100–101
Dicke, Robert, 213, 356, 357
Dirac, Paul, 182, 302, 308
Dixon, Jeremiah, 132–133
DNA macromolecules, 339
Doppler, Christian Johann, 207
Doppler shifts, astronomical use of, 207
Double stars, 168
“Down” quarks, 296, 312
Dwarf stars, 175, 259, 260, 348
lifetime of, 266–271
Dynamo, principle of, 188–189
Early-universe theories, 341–348
Earth age of catastrophism vs.
uniformitarianism, 225–229
nuclear fusion and, 248, 252–254
scientific age-dating, 221–229
thermodynamics and, 246–248, 254
ancient Greeks’ conception of, 26
n