The Universe Within (30 page)

qubits (quantum bits), 221–23, 233, 238, 268n8

 

radiation, cosmic microwave: detection of, 128–30, 131, 133, 214; as predicted by Gamow's team, 127–28; satellite mapping of, 151–52; satellite measurement of, 130–32; spectrum of, 128, 131–32

radioactivity, 58, 70, 81, 91, 126, 172

radio waves, 33, 47, 78, 111, 209

Raphael:
The School of Athens
, 51–52, 56;
The Transfiguration
, 242–43

Reich, Henry, 252

Reiss, Adam, 137

relativity, Einstein's theories of.
See
theory of general relativity; theory of special relativity

Riemann, Bernhard, 118

Renaissance Italy, science/mathematics in, 16–17, 55, 73–74, 100–1, 205, 253; art and, 16, 17, 51–52, 56; cosmology and, 18, 20–21, 25, 28–29, 100–1, 205.
See also
Galileo

Roger, Gérard, 90

Roman Catholic Church, 21, 31, 100

Rosen, Nathan.
See
Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen critique of quantum theory

Royal Institution (London), 36–37, 42, 251

Royal Society (London): Davy's lecture at, 240–41

Royal Society of Edinburgh, 34

Rubens, Heinrich, 64

Rubin, Vera, 134

Rutherford, Ernest, 70–71, 126

 

Sagan, Carl:
Contact
(novel), 156–57;
Cosmos
(television series), 157

Salam, Abdus, 172, 174, 188

satellites:
COBE
, 130–36; Echo 1, 128, 129; Planck, 151–52, 205, 236, 237; Telstar, 128–29

Saturn, 36

Scherk, Joël, 193

Schmidt, Brian, 137

Schrödinger, Erwin, 57, 58; wave equation of, 57, 76–77, 168–71, 186; wavefunction of, 76–77, 83, 92–93, 168–71, 183–84.
See also
wavefunction

Schwarz, John, 193

Schwinger, Julian, 92, 183

science: and church, 13, 21, 100, 159; education in, 5, 156–67, 203, 211–12, 255; and future of world, 202–57; gentleman hobbyists and, 33; and need for connection with society/humanity, 9–15, 49–50, 99–100, 205, 245–57; public outreach by, 37, 251–52; Shelley's cautionary tales of, 37, 239–46; and treatment of Jewish scholars, 59–60, 178, 180, 199.
See also
education, scientific

Scientific American
(magazine), 184

scientific method, 20, 253

Scott, Sir Walter, 213

Scottish Enlightenment, 11, 31–33, 97, 211, 213, 253–54; legacy of, 33–35

semiconductors, 215–17, 218, 234

Serengeti, 7

Shaw, George Bernard, 118–19

Shelley, Mary, 240;
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
, 37, 240–42, 245;
The Last Man
, 242–46

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 240, 242, 243, 244

Shockley, William, 215–17

Shor, Peter, 220, 222, 224

Silverstein, Eva, 152

singularity, at moment of big bang, 95, 122–25, 127, 139, 142–50, 200, 207–9, 256; cyclic universe theory and, 149–52; Einstein and, 97, 122–23; Friedmann's work on, 122–23, 127; Hartle–Hawking proposal on, 97, 142–45, 146, 149; Lemaître's work on, 123–25, 127, 143; M-theory and, 146–49; string theory and, 148, 191–95, 208

smartphones, 167, 203, 217, 223, 225–26, 237

Smith, Adam, 31

Smoot, George, 133–34, 135

Snow, C. P., 10

social media, 203, 204, 230

Socrates, 52

Solvay Conference.
See
Fifth Solvay International Conference on Electrons and Photons

South Africa:
AIMS
centre in, 160–67; apartheid in, 1–3, 21–22, 157–58, 160; and Square Kilometre Array, 166–67

South African Mathematical Society, 163

“spacetime,” 113, 124, 151, 177, 195, 210; Hartle–Hawking proposal and, 144, 149, 153; and theory of general relativity, 117–18, 120, 172, 184, 190; and theory of special relativity, 94, 113

special relativity.
See
theory of special relativity

spin, of electron, 59, 169, 175–76, 182, 191, 233–34; Bell's Theorem of, 83–91, 233–34

Square Kilometre Array (
SKA
), 166–67

St. Andrews, University of, 31

Stanford University, 152, 235

Steinhardt, Paul, 106, 146

Stevenson, Robert, 32

Störmer, Horst, 234

string theory, 180, 191–95, 196; and big bang singularity, 148, 191–95, 208; discovery/development of, 192–93; and M-theory, 148, 193–94; and “multiverse,” 194–95, 208; problems of, 194–95, 207–8

“sum over histories” (Feynman), 92–93, 169–70, 171, 179, 183–84, 196; Dirac's role in, 92, 183–84

Supernova Cosmology Project, 137

supernovae, 103, 127, 137, 200

superunification, 157, 167, 199–200

symmetry: between forces and matter particles, 185–86; Noether's theorem and, 176–78; of space and time, 47

 

Tait, Peter Guthrie, 34–35, 213; and
Treatise on Natural Philosophy
, 35

Tanzania, 7; author's childhood/education in, 2, 22, 97–98

TED
(Technology, Entertainment, and Design) Conferences, 164, 165

Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, 227–30;
The Phenomenon of Man
, 228–30

telephone, 33, 212, 215; Bell's invention of, 35, 213.
See also
cellphones; smartphones

telescopes, 5, 20, 47, 235; Hubble, 119; of Planck satellite, 205

telescopes, radio, 119, 156; and detection of background radiation, 129–30; in South Africa, 166–67

Telford, Thomas, 213

Teller, Edward, 126

Telstar (satellite), 128–29

“Telstar” (song), 129

Thales, 53

Theodorus, 55

theoria
(theory), 100

theory of general relativity (Einstein's equation/theory of gravitation), 116–22, 165, 193, 195; Born on, 119; and concept of curved space, 118–19, 147; and concept of expanding universe, 121–25, 133, 179; and cosmological term, 120–21, 122, 136–39; in formula for all known physics, 172, 174, 189–90, 196, 199

theory of special relativity (Einstein), 47, 94, 110–13, 138; and Lorentz transformation/contraction, 112–13, 138–39; and mass-energy equivalence, 113–16; Maxwell and, 47, 101–2, 110–11, 112; and space travel, 138–39

thermal equilibrium, 65–68, 94

Thomson, Joseph John (J. J.), 212

Thomson, William.
See
Kelvin, Lord (William Thomson)

Tomonaga, Sin-Itiro, 92, 183

transistor(s), 92, 129, 195; development of, 215–17, 218, 235; and Moore's law, 217

Trinity College (Cambridge), 24, 35, 223.
See also
Cambridge University

The Truman Show
(film), 83

Tsui, Dan, 234

Turner, Michael, 106

 

“ultraviolet catastrophe,” 68–69, 71, 196, 210, 256

uncertainty principle (Heisenberg), 57, 77–78, 109, 217–19

universities: Jewish scholars and, 59–60, 178, 199; medieval, 9–10; of Scottish Enlightenment, 32, 34; women and, 178–81.
See also
education, scientific;
specific universities by location

Uraniborg (Danish observatory), 25

U.S. Space Objects Registry, 129

vacuum energy, 136–38; dominance of, 95, 138, 154–55, 207; and Einstein's cosmological term, 136–37; and Higgs potential energy/Higgs boson, 175, 190, 255–56; string theory and, 208; theory of inflation and, 140, 144, 146–47, 170, 179

vacuum tubes, 212–13, 215

velocity: of electrons/particles, 76, 77–78, 82, 218; of light, 45; Newton's laws and, 26–29, 30, 57

Veltman, Martinus, 172

Veneziano, Gabriele, 192

“The Very Early Universe” (Cambridge workshop), 106, 136

Vilenkin, Alexander, 142, 143

Volta, Alessandro, 241

von Klitzing, Klaus, 234

von Neumann, John, 10

Voyager
space probe, 36

 

Watt, James, 32, 213

wave equation (Schrödinger), 57, 76–77, 168–71, 186

wavefunction (
Ψ
) (Schrödinger): and Hamilton's action principle, 92–93, 169–70, 171, 183–84; and number
i
, 168; as “pilot wave,” 83; and probability, 76–77, 93, 168–71

wave-particle duality, 78–80

wave theories.
See
electromagnetic waves; electromagnetism; wavefunction

Weinberg, Steven: and electroweak theory, 172, 174, 188;
The First Three Minutes
, 247–48

Weyl, Hermann, 178, 180

Wheeler, John Archibald, 96, 117, 185

Wikipedia, 203

Wilczek, Frank, 106, 172, 188

Wilkinson, David, 131, 132, 133

Wilson, Robert, 128, 129–30, 131, 133

Wollstonecraft, Mary, 240;
A Vindication of the Rights of Women
, 240

World Wide Web, 5.
See also
internet

Wren Library (Trinity College, Cambridge), 223

 

X-rays, 47, 111, 119, 195

 

Yang, Chen-Ning, 172; and Yang–Mills theory, 172, 174

Yukawa, Hideki, 173

 

Zeno, 153

Zu Chongzhi, 18

Zwicky, Fritz, 134

 

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Margaret Visser

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