Eddington experiment

28 results back to index

Day We Found the Universe by Marcia Bartusiak

Albert Einstein, Albert Michelson, Arthur Eddington, California gold rush, Cepheid variable, Copley Medal, cosmic microwave background, cosmological constant, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Edward Charles Pickering, Fellow of the Royal Society, fudge factor, Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, Harvard Computers: women astronomers, horn antenna, invention of the telescope, Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, Magellanic Cloud, Occam's razor, orbital mechanics / astrodynamics, Pluto: dwarf planet, William of Occam

“Whether the theory ultimately proves to be correct or not, it claims attention as being one of the most beautiful examples of the power of general mathematical reasoning,” he wrote in his account of general relativity, the first book on the subject to appear in English. With Eddington acting as Einstein's translator and champion, the two were often linked in people's minds. An accomplished popularizer of science, Eddington said that Einstein had taken “Newton's plant, which had outgrown its pot, and transplanted it to a more open field.” Eddington was becoming so proficient at explaining relativity that “people seem to forget that I am an astronomer and that relativity is only a side issue,” he lamented after one wearying interview with reporters. Arthur Eddington (AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives) For Eddington to serve as a spokesman for a radical new theory was somewhat out of character for him.

…

Because of various technical problems with the Sobral scope, including a blurring of its images, the British team decided to downplay that instrument's results. Eddington admitted he was unscientifically rooting for Einstein, but his instincts to reject the astrographic telescope results turned out to be good in the end. Campbell headed up another solar-eclipse expedition in 1922, which arrived at similar results and further confirmed Einstein's theory. When asked what he had been expecting, Campbell replied in all seriousness, “I hoped it would not be true.” Relativity's thoroughly new vision of space and time, coupled with its complexity, made even several leading scientists reluctant to accept its predictions.

…

., p. 27. 143 “Einstein's universe contains matter but no motion”: Eddington (1933), p. 46. 143 “does not make sense to me”: Kahn and Kahn (1975), p. 453. 144 “systematically”: De Sitter (1917), p. 28. 145 “it will always remain beyond my grasp”: Smith (1982), p. 173. 145 he had early on suggested a specific test: Einstein (1911). 146 “This should serve for an ample verification”: Dyson (1917), p. 447. 146 “What will it mean … if we get double the Einstein deflection?”: Douglas (1957), p. 40. 146 “We are conscious only of the weird half-light of the landscape”: Eddington (1920), p. 115. 147 “Cottingham, you won't have to go home alone”: Douglas (1957), p. 40. 147 “One thing is certain, and the rest debate”: Ibid., p. 44. 147 These were the results that Eddington and Dyson stressed in their reports: See Dyson, Eddington, and Davidson (1920). 147 “LIGHTS ALL ASKEW IN THE HEAVENS”: New York Times, November 10, 1919, p. 17. 147 Eddington admitted he was unscientifically rooting for Einstein: Eddington (1920), p. 116. 148 “I hoped it would not be true”: Douglas (1957), p. 44. 148 “We met in quick succession Their Eminences”: LOA, Curtis Papers, Curtis to Campbell, May 11, 1921. 148 “He surely looks like the fourth dimension!”

Einstein's Dice and Schrödinger's Cat: How Two Great Minds Battled Quantum Randomness to Create a Unified Theory of Physics by Paul Halpern

Albert Einstein, Albert Michelson, Arthur Eddington, Brownian motion, clockwork universe, cosmological constant, dark matter, double helix, Eddington experiment, Ernest Rutherford, Fellow of the Royal Society, Higgs boson, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, John von Neumann, Large Hadron Collider, lone genius, luminiferous ether, Murray Gell-Mann, New Journalism, orbital mechanics / astrodynamics, quantum entanglement, Richard Feynman, Schrödinger's Cat, seminal paper, The Present Situation in Quantum Mechanics, time dilation

The armistice opened up a grand opportunity for Eddington to help test Einstein’s theory and thus rekindle the trust between scientists of their respective nations. Eddington and Frank Watson Dyson, Astronomer Royal of Britain, realized that an ideal opportunity to measure gravitational light bending would arise on May 29, 1919. On that day, a solar eclipse would occur over part of the Southern Hemisphere just when the Sun was passing in front of the Hyades star cluster, a particularly bright formation. Dyson appointed Eddington to be the organizer of a project to 66 The Crucible of Gravity observe the eclipse, a move that helped save the latter from internment as a conscientious objector.15 In January 1919, to set a baseline for the observation, Eddington carefully measured the unaltered positions of the Hyades stars.

…

Janssen et al. in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, vol. 7, The Berlin Years: Writings, 1918–1921 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002), doc. 3. 13. Harvey, “How Einstein Discovered Dark Energy.” 14. Ben Almassi, “Trust in Expert Testimony: Eddington’s 1919 Eclipse Expedition and the British Response to General Relativity,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B 40, no. 1 (2009): 57–67. 15. Ibid. 16. “Eclipse Showed Gravity Variation,” New York Times, November 8, 1919, 6. 17. Ibid. 18. “Revolution in Science . . . New Theory of the Universe . . . Newtonian Ideas Overthrown,” Times (London), November 7, 1919, 1. 19.

…

It was forced to cede some of its territory, limit the size of its army, and pay extensive reparations—leading to much resentment and economic depression that would contribute to the rise of the Nazis. During the war, Einstein had little chance to test his hypothesis about the gravitational bending of starlight by the Sun. Finlay-Freundlich’s inability to complete his expedition was a great disappointment to him. Einstein quietly began to correspond with a British astronomer, Arthur Eddington, who was keenly interested in verifying Einstein’s theory. According to several widely reported stories, Eddington was known at the time as one of the few people who truly understood general relativity.14 A Quaker and a pacifist, Eddington, like Einstein, was opposed to the war and in favor of international scientific cooperation.

The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science by Michael Strevens

Albert Einstein, Albert Michelson, anthropic principle, Arthur Eddington, Atul Gawande, coronavirus, COVID-19, dark matter, data science, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Fellow of the Royal Society, fudge factor, germ theory of disease, Great Leap Forward, Gregor Mendel, heat death of the universe, Higgs boson, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), invention of movable type, invention of the telescope, Isaac Newton, Islamic Golden Age, Johannes Kepler, Large Hadron Collider, longitudinal study, Louis Pasteur, military-industrial complex, Murray Gell-Mann, Peace of Westphalia, Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, Steven Pinker, systematic bias, Thales of Miletus, the scientific method, Thomas Bayes, William of Occam

Again, scientists are readily observed following this advice—but again, it is not always feasible. Solar eclipses are rare enough; what made Eddington’s 1919 eclipse rarer still was the sun’s position, at the time of totality, in the center of a field of relatively bright stars. As Eddington pointed out when touting the experiment, this happy alignment “would not occur again for many years.” He might have wanted to go back for another round of stellar photography, but he could not—so he found other ways to press his case against the Brazilian astrographic and in favor of Einstein. Eddington’s course of action was unconstrained not because he disdained the rules of scientific thought but because the complexities and difficulties of empirical investigation—of making precise measurements of small or barely accessible quantities—meant that he had no rule capable of telling him how to interpret his photographic plates.

…

To better understand scientific objectivity and its self-imposed limits, let’s go back to a quintessential case of subjectivity, embarking one last time with Eddington on his expedition to test Einstein’s theory of general relativity by observing the 1919 total eclipse of the sun. THREE TELESCOPES, you will recall, were trained on the eclipse. The instrument on the African island of Príncipe barely saw the sun through the clouds. The two telescopes in Brazil gave conflicting testimony: one, the 4-inch telescope, saw light bent roughly as Einstein predicted, but the other—the Brazilian astrographic telescope—saw the bending predicted by Newtonian physics. Eddington discounted the results from the Brazilian astrographic on the grounds that its photographs were out of focus, while lavishing great care on his own equally obscure Príncipe photographs, teasing a pro-Einstein result out of the murk.

…

CHAPTER 2: HUMAN FRAILTY 42 by a young Karl Popper: As related in the previous chapter, the eclipse experiment and other tests of relativity directly inspired Popper’s idea of falsification. Thus, not only was the experiment in the Popperian mold; it molded Popper himself. 45 “the logic of the situation does not seem entirely clear”: Campbell is quoted on p. 78 of Earman and Glymour, “Relativity and Eclipses,” my principal source on criticisms of the eclipse experiment. A defense of Eddington’s neglect of the Brazilian astrographic plates is mounted by the physicist Daniel Kennefick in “Testing Relativity from the 1919 Eclipse.” Kennefick clearly explains how a “change of scale” would create a systematic error, but he does not address the curious fact that Eddington and his coauthors make no attempt to convince their readers that such a change had occurred, rather than there having been a simple loss of focus that would not create any systematic bias in the astrographic measurements.

E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis

Albert Einstein, Arthur Eddington, Berlin Wall, British Empire, dark matter, Eddington experiment, Ernest Rutherford, Erwin Freundlich, Fellow of the Royal Society, Henri Poincaré, Isaac Newton, John von Neumann, Kickstarter, Mercator projection, Nelson Mandela, pre–internet, Richard Feynman, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, Stephen Hawking, Thorstein Veblen, time dilation

On May 29 of each year the sun is positioned in front of an exceptionally dense group of bright stars—the Hyades cluster. That wouldn’t usually help anyone, for without a solar eclipse occurring on that particular 209 till the end of time date, there would be no chance to see how that rich field of stars gets their light bent around the sun. The glare from the daytime sun would overwhelm that small effect. But in 1919 there was going to be an eclipse, precisely on May 29. As Eddington innocently noted: “Attention was called to this remarkable opportunity by the Astronomer Royal [Frank Dyson] in March 1917; and preparations were begun. . . .” What Eddington neglected to mention was that he would have been thrown into prison if he didn’t go.

…

., 119, 120, 131, 133, 161, 215 British in atomic bomb program, 151 attack on heavy water plant in Norway, 136–41 British intelligence, 134, 153 Brun, Jacques de, 58 Burlington House, 213, 215 Byrnes, Jimmy, 161–62 c (symbol), viii, 52, 79 bridge connecting energy and mass, 69 for celeritas, 37–54 squaring, 54 c2, 69, 77, 99, 112–13, 166, 183, 194 bridge connecting energy and mass, 111 C-14, 194 Calculus, 84 Cambridge, 175, 176, 197 Cambridge Solar Physics Observatory, 175, 181 Cancer, 76 Candide (Voltaire), 64 Carbon, 109, 184, 188, 189, 190–91 unstable varieties of, 193–94 Carbon dating, 194 Casimir, Hendrik, 135 Cassini, Jean–Dominique, 39–43, 44 Cavity magnetron, 131 Celeritas, 37–54 Centimeters, 53 CERN, 52 Chadwick, James, ix, 96–97, 127, 157 Chain reaction, 159, 165, 166, 167 Chalk River, British research group at, 150, 187 Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan (Chandra), x, 197–201, 198f, 209, 213 Chaos theory, 78 Chemical energy, 19, 20, 26 Circle, 15, 16, 45 Cirey, scientific research at, 60–62, 64, 65, 66 Cleveland, Grover, 119 Cold War, 192 Collisions, energy lost in, 62–63, 64 Computers, 178–79 Concentration camps, 129, 135, 139 Conservation laws, 20, 53–54, 61 Conservation of energy, 20, 21–22, 35, 53, 67 Conservation of mass, 35, 53, 61 Conversion factors, 52, 53, 54, 69 Crouch, Henry, 215–16 Crystalline model, 84 index Curie, Marie, 75–76, 80, 92, 124 Cyclotron, 153 Cygnus the Swan, 200 Czechoslovakia, 124, 129 D Day, 152 Danton, 34 Darwin, Charles, 20, 174 Davy, Sir Humphry, 12–13, 14, 14 f and Faraday, 13, 14, 17–18, 46 Degenhart, Joseph, 5 Delivery weapons, advanced, 152 Denmark, 40, 43 Descartes, René, 58 Deuterium, 126 Dickens, Charles, 18 Dirac, Paul, 186 Domenico, Giovanni see Cassini, JeanDominique Döpel, Robert, 127, 128 du Châtelet (soldier), 59 du Châtelet, Emilie, x, 58–62, 60f, 63, 64–67 death of, 66–67 Dyson, Frank, 210, 211, 214 E (symbol), viii, 37, 52 for energy, 11–22 E=mc2, 123, 199, 204, 206 “adulthood,” ix–x, 115–69 ancestors of, viii, 9–69 applications of, 173, 174–75, 191–94 applied to explain fires of sun, 182–83, 195 in atomic bomb explosion, 165, 166, 169, 218 in atomic reaction, 128 and atoms, 95, 96, 98–99 biography of, vii–x birth of, viii, 8 coming of age, ix in creation of Earth, 185, 190, 191 effects of, 106 Einstein and, 73–92 in end of world, 197, 202–3 energy promised by, 100, 110–11, 112–13, 125, 130, 141 extends through universe, ix, 173, 174–75, 183, 187 in implosion, 189 in plutonium explosion, 150 in race to build atomic bomb, 133, 141, 154 E=mc1, 65 E=mv2, 65 Earth, 80, 174, 183, 206 creating, 184–94 end of, 196–97, 201–2 hydrogen atoms, 182 material substances interconnected on, 27, 35 movement of, 41–42 Eclipse, 207, 208, 209 expeditions, 208, 209–12 Eddington, Arthur, 176–77, 181, 187, 200, 201, 209–14, 211f Egyptian symbols, 24 327 index Ehrenfest, 212 Einstein, Albert, 3–8, 6f, 15, 36, 37, 91f, 103, 108, 119f, 120, 121, 139, 159, 173, 200, 219f accomplishment of, 85, 204–19 and atomic bomb, 130, 217, 218 career, 5–6, 7, 90 celebrity status, 214–15, 216–17 children, of, 90 disavowing, 123 and eclipse expedition, 212 equation, viii, ix, 26, 44, 53, 73–92, 110, 112, 137, 183, 194, 203 equation confirmed, 213, 217 letters to Roosevelt, 117–19, 123, 129, 130, 204, 217 light waves, 48–49, 51 mc2 in, 69 on Meitner, 100 papers, 4, 7–8, 198 patent office job, 3–5, 6–7, 48, 78, 85, 87, 90, 174, 205 physics articles published, 6 powers of, fading, 218–19 reasons for success of, 85–89 as student, 5, 21, 22, 48, 178 theory of, confirmed, 213–14, 215, 217 theory of relativity, 7–8 Einstein, Hans Albert, 74 Einstein, Hermann, 4 Einstein, Maja, 6, 87, 218 Einstein, Mileva, 4, 5–6, 89–90, 91f Einstein family, 86, 87, 88, 159 Eisenhower, Dwight D., 152, 161 Electric engine, 16 Electricity, 12, 45 in atoms, 95 of light wave, 49 and magnetism, 13, 15–16, 19, 47, 50 in nucleus, 109, 110, 111, 112 of protons, 165 Electricity-generating stations, 192 Electromagnetic event area around, filled with “field,” 45 Electrons, 95, 97, 164 Elements, 184, 187, 188, 191 created by stars, 189 E=mc2 in creation of, 185 visual signals, 174 unstable, 190 Energy, 11–22 amount of, fixed, 19–20, 22, 54 c2 bridge linking mass with, 111 concept of, 17, 18–21, 22, 27, 30 different kinds of, linked, 17, 19, 20, 22 du Châtelet’s work on, 62–66 index and/as mass, 35–36, 37, 52–54, 69, 74–76, 81–82, 91–92, 108, 110, 112, 165, 166, 182, 183, 198–99, 203, 213 measurement of, 68 as mv2, 62, 64, 65, 67, 68 promised by E=mc2, 92 promised by E=mc2, allowed to emerge, 100, 110–11, 112–13, 125, 128, 130, 141 properties of light and, 51–52, 54 released in atomic bomb explosion, 167–68 sources of, 22, 26 space/time curved around, 205–7 types change but total amount remains same, 19–20, 36 Energy conservation, 20, 21–22, 35, 53, 67 Energy force, 20, 21 Energy of a moving object equation representing, 55 Engineers Germany, 132–33 = sign, viii, 23–26, 55, 69, 111, 182 Equations, 26 see also Einstein, equation Exit signs, 193 Explosions, mathematics of, 188 Faraday, Michael, x, 54, 67, 73, 178 energy concept, 11–22, 12f, 27, 30, 35 magnetic force lines, 190 and Maxwell, 45–47, 48 FBI, 130–31, 160 Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, 21 Fermi, Enrico, 97–98, 99, 103, 125, 126, 157–58 Feynman, Richard, 147–48, 150 Fission, 112 Force lines, invisible, 47, 190 France, 55–56, 57, 66, 192 National Assembly, 33 taxation, 32–33 Franck, James, 102 Franklin, Benjamin, 32 French Revolution, 31, 33, 53 French scientists, 31 Freundlich, Erwin, 207–9, 211 Frictional heat energy, 19 Friedrich, Caspar David, 159 Frisch, Robert, 107–8, 109–12, 119–20, 152, 182 Frost, Robert, 196 Galaxies, 201–2 Galileo, 38, 39, 44, 47 Geiger, Hans, 94, 96, 152 Geiger counter, ix, 94, 152, 194 General Farm, 28, 32, 35 General relativity, 205, 207–8 Geometry of world, 67–68 Germany, 104, 117–33 329 index Germany (continued) work on atomic bomb, ix, 124–33, 134–35, 141, 151–52, 158–59 Global Positioning System (GPS), 83–84, 194 God, 21, 27, 47, 74, 80, 86, 214 creating universe, 19, 30 proof of existence of, 62, 63, 64 Goebbels, Joseph, 120 Gravesande, Willem Jakob ’s, 65, 68 Gravitation, laws of, 6, 85 Gravity, 204, 206 Grossman, Marcel, 5, 205 Groves, Leslie, 144–45, 160, 162, 188 Guillotin, Dr., 35 Hahn, Otto, 100–107, 101f, 110, 112 Haller, Dr., 5, 7 Harvard Payne at, 176, 177, 178–79, 185, 187 Haukelid, Knut, x, 140, 154, 155, 156 Heat energy, 19, 26 in atomic bomb explosion, 166–69 Heavy water, 126–27, 128, 134–35 ferry carrying, blown up, 153–57 Norwegian factory, 135–42, 153–57 Heavy water reactor, 151 Hebrew symbols, 24 Helium, 182, 184, 185 as fuel, 187 squeezed to create carbon, 188 Helium ash, 184, 189, 195, 196 Heisenberg, Werner, x, 120– 30, 125f, 132–33, 134, 135, 141, 143, 145, 151, 152, 157 work of, blocked, 158–59 Hess, Kurt, 104 Hevesy, George de, 98–99, 153 Hilbert, David, 78 Himmler, Heinrich, 122–23, 130 Himmler, Mrs., 121–22 Hiroshima, 167, 173, 192, 218 Hitler, Adolf, 103, 121, 217 Hörlein, Heinrich, 104 Household devices E=mc2 in, ix Hoyle, Fred, 185–89, 186f, 188 Hyades cluster, 209–10 Hydrogen, 31, 126, 184, 189, 191 in creation of Earth, 190 in sun, 180–81, 182–83, 187, 195 Hydrogen bomb, 191 Hydrogen nucleus, 182, 187 I.

…

Freundlich was hopeful again. A great new eclipse expedition was being planned, for 1919. If conditions allowed international travel, he’d finally be able to prove what he could do. In November 1918 World War I ended. There were no obstacles to a German national traveling now! It’s not recorded what Freundlich felt as the great expedition set out, but we know exactly where he was when the results came through. He read it in the newspaper, back in Berlin. He hadn’t been invited along. In fact, it was a cool Englishman we’ve already met who led the team. Arthur Eddington wore small metalrimmed glasses, was medium height and barely medium weight, and spoke in sentences that tapered off whenever he had to pause for thought, which was fairly often.

Big Bang by Simon Singh

Albert Einstein, Albert Michelson, All science is either physics or stamp collecting, Andrew Wiles, anthropic principle, Arthur Eddington, Astronomia nova, Bletchley Park, Boeing 747, Brownian motion, carbon-based life, Cepheid variable, Chance favours the prepared mind, Charles Babbage, Commentariolus, Copley Medal, cosmic abundance, cosmic microwave background, cosmological constant, cosmological principle, dark matter, Dava Sobel, Defenestration of Prague, discovery of penicillin, Dmitri Mendeleev, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Edward Charles Pickering, Eratosthenes, Ernest Rutherford, Erwin Freundlich, Fellow of the Royal Society, Ford Model T, fudge factor, Hans Lippershey, Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, Harvard Computers: women astronomers, heat death of the universe, Henri Poincaré, horn antenna, if you see hoof prints, think horses—not zebras, Index librorum prohibitorum, information security, invention of the telescope, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, John von Neumann, Karl Jansky, Kickstarter, Louis Daguerre, Louis Pasteur, luminiferous ether, Magellanic Cloud, Murray Gell-Mann, music of the spheres, Olbers’ paradox, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, Paul Erdős, retrograde motion, Richard Feynman, scientific mainstream, Simon Singh, Stephen Hawking, Strategic Defense Initiative, the scientific method, Thomas Kuhn: the structure of scientific revolutions, time dilation, unbiased observer, Wilhelm Olbers, William of Occam

In a wonderful demonstration of mock hubris, Einstein answered: ‘Then I would feel sorry for the Good Lord. The theory is correct anyway.’ Figure 28 Albert Einstein, who developed the theoretical framework of general relativity, and Sir Arthur Eddington, who proved it by observing the 1919 eclipse. This photograph was taken in 1930, when Einstein visited Cambridge to collect an honorary degree. Einstein’s Universe Newton’s theory of gravity is still widely used today to calculate everything from the flight of a tennis ball to the forces on a suspension bridge, from the swinging of a pendulum to the trajectory of a missile.

…

Page numbers in italic refer to Figures Abell, George O. 401 absorption 235, 235, 236, 244, 245, 259 abundances, see atomic abundances Accademia del Cimento 89 Aikman, Duncan 276 Alexandria 11, 12, 13 Alfonso VI, King of Spain 33 Alfonso X, King of Castile and León 36, 76 Algol 195, 197, 198,199 al-Haytham (Alhazen) 88 alpha particles 289-92, 291, 295, 296, 297, 298,299 Alpher, Ralph 335, 471, 476, 481-3; Alpha-Beta-Gamma paper 319, 322-3,328,332,435; CMB radiation prediction 332-3,430, 434-7, 456, 473; work on nucleosynthesis 315-23,326, 390,397, 437; work on recombination 326—36, 429 Alphonsine Tables 36, 37 American Association for the Advancement of Science 227 American Astronomical Society 227 American Physical Society 460 American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) 402-3, 425; see also Bell Laboratories Anaxagoras 15-16, 17, 195 Anaximander 6, 7, 79 Andromeda Galaxy/Nebula 178, 179, 225; Doppler shift 247; Hubble’s distance measurement 223—6, 374—7; novae in 191-3, 222-3, 224 Annalen der Physik 107 Annates de la Société Scientifique de Bruxelles 160 anthropic principle 395, 396, 487-8 Arabs 32-3,36 Archimedes 22 Arcturus 239 Argonne National Laboratory 317 Aristarchus 15—17, 17; Sun-centred universe 22-7, 23,32, 38,41,44, 46 Aristotle 28,36,61,88 asteroids 145,479 Astrophysical Journal 432, 434, 460 Atkinson, Robert d’Escourt 300-2 atom 107,284-94,299; formation of, see nucleosynthesis; nuclear model 292—3, 294, 296, 299,368; plum pudding model 289, 289, 292, 296,368; primeval 159,269,276, 280,309; size 293-5; stability 297,299-300,310, 324-5,391; structure 292-5, 294; wavelengths 232-5, 234, 420 atomic abundances 305, 308-9, 369 388, 400,Table 4,6; hydrogen/helium 283-5,318-19,323, 327, 397 atomic bomb 311, 317 atomic number 293, 294 atomic physics 285,299 Augustine, St 492-3 Ault, Warren 217 Auteroche, Jean d’ 136 Avicenna, see Ibn Sina Baade, Walter 373-80,381, 382, 384, 414, 416 Babylonians 17-18, 28, 77 Bailey, Solon 206-7 Ball, Robert: The Story of the Heavens 194 Barberini, Francesco 74 Barnard’s Star 240 BBC 351,352 Bell, Jocelyn 167-8, 400 Bell Laboratories 402-3, 406, 422, 424—5, 431—2; horn antenna radio telescope 425-9, 427, 437, 439 Bellarmine, Cardinal 74 beryllium 391-3, 392, 396 Bessel, Friedrich Wilhelm 174-7, 176, 195 Betelgeuse 238 Bethe, Hans 303-5, 310, 319, 322 Bible 76-7, 276, 360, 362, 399 Big Bang model 3-4, 168, 254, 268-70, 336; acceptance of 438, 463; criticism of 277-83, 323, 334, 337, 341, 363-4, 378, 459, 483; forerunners of 152, 158—61; multiple 490-1; naming of 352—3, 483—4; observational evidence 252, 255,258,272, 323,430-38,460; philosophical implications 485—88; scientific method in 469-71; versus Steady State 346,347-9,359,361, 364-73,415-22, 430,432,438, 440-2, Table 4, 6; what came before it 488-92 Big Crunch 146, 480, 490-1 binary stars 145, 197-8 black holes 134, 145, 479 Bohr, Niels 491 Bond, William Cranch 204 Bondi, Hermann 340-1,345-50, 349, 384,418, 421, 438 Bonner, William 361 Born, Max 142, 338 boron 398 Brahe,Tycho 47-52, 53, 54, 71, 89, 119; De mundi ætherei 49, 50 ; model of universe 49-50, 50 Braidwood, Thomas 196 Bronstein, Matvei 363 Brownian motion 107 Bruno, Giordano 39—40; On the Infinite Universe and Worlds 39 Bunsen, Robert 237, 238 Burbidge, Geoffrey 398, 439 Burbidge, Margaret 398 Burke, Bernard 430 Buys-Ballot, Christoph 243 California Institute of Technology 272, 278, 395, 425 Cambridge 134, 412, 413, 416 Cancer,Tropic of 11, 20 Cannon, Annie Jump 206 Capra, Frank 260 carbon 304-5,308; excited state of 393-5; formation 390-5, 392, 394,396-7 Carnegie, Andrew 188,402 Carnegie Institute 187 Cassini, Giovanni Domenico 90,92 catastrophe theory 78, 147 Catholic Church 39, 41, 44, 58, 67, 70, 73-5, 484-5; banned books 70, 74; endorses Big Bang 360-2, 364; Inquisition 39, 70, 73 Cavendish Laboratory 288 centrality, illusion of 272 Cepheid variable stars 199-201, 207-10, 211, 223-6, 224; distance scale 212-13, 225, 376-7, 381; magnitude 211; populations 376-7 Chadwick, James 295-6, 302,312 Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan 380 chaos 326 Chicago University 186, 215, 267 Chown, Marcus 389, 457 Christian IV, King of Denmark 51 Churchill, Winston 409 circular perfection 28, 56,58 Clarke Telescope 247 Clerke, Agnes 192 Cleveland, Lemuel 227 COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) 453-63, 458, 461, 471-3,481 Cockcroft, John 310 colour 230-5, 231 Columbia University 424 comets 147, 170, 180 computers 326 Comte, Auguste 229,237 Copernicus, Nicholas 37-47, 71,129, 367,401,485; Commentariolus 37-9; De revolutionibus 41-4, 42, 46,49,53, 63,70; errors exposed 53-4; planetary phases predicted 63-6; Sun-centred universe 38, 41, 174 cosmic density 228 cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation 473,476,Table 4,6; detected as noise 430-8; predicted 333-4,336, 430; satellites 453-63, 458, 461,471, 481, 482; variations in 446-62, 452, 461 cosmic-ray physics 158 cosmological constant 148-9, 151-2, 153, 161, 273-4 cosmological principle 146,345; perfect 347 Coulson, Charles 484 creation 180, 261,276,284, 489-90, Table 4,6; continuous 345,347-8, 364; date of 76-7; moment of 158-9, 252-3, 255,269-70,282,344,379, 417,438 creation field (C-field) 347 creation myths 4—6 Curie, Marie and Pierre 285-7,297-8, 312 Curtis, Heber 190, 191,193-4, 224, 227 Daguerre, Louis 201 dark energy 481, 482 dark matter 280,479-80,481, 482 Darwin, Charles 3,77,350 Davis, Elmer 360 Davisson, Clinton J. 402 Dead of Night 341-4 deferents 30, 31,32, 45, 124, 367 Delta Cephei 198-9, 199 Dicke, Robert 431-2,434-5, 491 Dirac, Paul 338 Doppler, Christian 241,243,244 Doppler effect 241-8, 242,365,451; see also redshift Draper, John and Henry 204 Drydenjohn 118 dust, interstellar 193,227,407 Dyson, Frank 135 Dyson, Freeman 487 Earth 10; age of 77-8, 372, 378; composition 283; measuring 11—13, 12, 14,20,Table l; motion 24, 100-1, 405, 451, Table 2, 3; orbit around Sun 22, 119; rotation 22,38; speed through cosmos 451-2 Earth-centred universe 20—7, 23, 29, 58, 63, 72, 124, Table 2, 3; Brahe’s model 49-50, 50; Copernicus on 38-9; phases of Venus 63—5, 66; Ptolemaic model 30-6, 31,44-6, 63, 65 eclipses 197-9; lunar 10, 13, 14; solar 17, 20, 71,132-3, 135, 138-40, 141 Eddington, Arthur 134-41, 144,157, 338,476; expanding universe theory 270,280-3; and Lemaître 268-9,280; The Mathematical Theory of Relativity 135; nucleosynthesis theory 385; on rebounding universe 491; solar eclipse observations 135,137-41,143; Space, Time and Gravitation 138; on tired light theory 280 Ehrenfest, Paul 123 Egyptians 18-19,28 Einstein, Albert 24,105-7, 108, 144,191, 198; and bending of light 130-3, 140-2; and Big Bang 161,273-4,372; constancy of speed of light 103—5, 107; cosmological constant 148—9, 151-3,161,273-4; cosmology 145-9, 167,272-3; E = mc2 formula 298-9, 301; eternal, static model of universe 146-8,161, 273-4; ether thought experiment 98-103, 105, 106; and Friedmann 153-6; general relativity 116-37,143-9,153,273,345-7,471; and Lemaître 160,273-6, 275; spacetime 120—2, 121; special relativity 108-16,298-9 electromagnetic radiation 230,406, 407 electromagnetic spectrum 407, 407 electrons 292-5, 294,299, 314,328, 472 elements: formation, see nucleosynthesis; heavy 309-10,323-6,328, 385-89, 397-8,Table 5; periodic table 286-7, 287; radioactive 285—6; see also atomic abundances ellipses 54-6,55,58,119 epicycles and deferents 30, 31, 32,45, 58, 65, 66,124, 367 Eratosthenes 11-16, 12,17,19,20,177, 195 Eta Aquilae 198-9 ether 93-8, 96,101-3,141-2,145,306, 368 evolution 77,158-9, 258-60,350,360 exponential notation Table 1 Fabricius, David 58 Ferdinand, Archduke of Graz 51 Fermi, Enrico 327,380 Fernie, Donald 378 Fleming, Alexander 409 Fleming, Williamina 204, 205,206,374 Fowler, Willy 395-6,398,425 Franz Ferdinand, Archduke 133 Fraunhofer, Joseph von 237 Frederick II, King of Denmark 47, 50 Frederick Wilhelm III, King of Prussia 174 Frederiks, Vsevolod 363 Freundlich, Erwin 130,132-3 Friedmann, Alexander 150, 167, 306; expanding universe model 149—56, 249, 268; forerunner of Big Bang 254, 258,269,273,363,471,491 Fry, Art 408 galaxies 230, Table 4, 6; age of 378; distances 226, 228,372-3,376-79, 381—3; dwarf 226; expansion 271; formation 369,442-7, 451, 452, 457-62,473,477-8, 480; gravity 279; Hubble’s law 256; as nebulae 180—1, 184, 193, 219, 226; radio galaxies 405, 408, 414-20,425; recessional velocity 247-50,252-60, 253, 259,268,270-3,277, 365,373,377; redshifts 248, 252, 259,260,270,273, 277-80,282; single galaxy theory 190, 191—2,219; in Steady State universe 345, 346,348; young 348,369, 415-17 Galileo Galilei 60-75, 71,129,250,367, 401; astronomical observations 62—6, 62, 64,65-7, 66; Church and 72-4, 361,485; Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems 72-4,99; relativity principle 99-101,105,110,145; speed of light measurement 88—9; telescope 59,61-2,171,203 Gamow, George 308, 310,312, 335, 336, 364,385,471,473, 476; Alpha-Beta-Gamma paper 319,322-3,328, 332, 435; correspondence with Pope 360-1; Creation of the Universe 361, 489; critics of 323-4,332; humour 319, 325,334-5,349, 398, 399,417, 419, 420; popular science 334,351, 359,361; work on CMB radiation 333-4, 430-1, 435-7, 473; work on nucleosynthesis 306-22,326, 327, 390,397 Gauss, Carl Friedrich 472 Geiger, Hans 290-2, 291, 296 geocentric universe, see Earth-centred universe geology 78,277 George I, King of England 169 George III, King of England 169, 172, 402 George Washington University 308,311, 315,320 Gerard of Cremona 33, 36 Giese, Canon 41 Global Positioning System (GPS) 113 God 76, 79,147,180,360-1,462-3, 484-5, 488,490 gods 7,16,18 Gold, Thomas 349, 349,361, 384; on radio galaxies 413-15,418; and Steady State model 340-7, 421,438 Goodricke, John 196-8,200 gravity 25, 58, 67, 87, 200,488,Table 3; anti-gravity 148, 274; extreme 124—6, 130,144; galactic 279, 443,479; and general relativity 117,119-33,137, 144-6; Greek model 10-11, 24-5; Newtonian 118-19,122-8,137,144 Great Debate 189-94,198,201,206, 213,219-20,223-5 Greeks, Ancient 6-17,19, 33-6,79, 195; on composition of stars 238; measurements 9-17,20; nebulae 178; on planetary orbits 28—32; theory of light and sound 87—8; world-view 22—7 Grossman, Marcel 123 Grote, Harriet 214-15 Guericke, Otto von 93 Guth, Alan 477, 479, 492 H II regions 383 Haldane, J.

…

Hans Reichenbach, From Copernicus to Einstein (Dover, 1980) A short history of the ideas that contributed to relativity theory. David Bodanis, E = mc2 (Walker, 2001) The biography of an equation, inspired by Cameron Diaz, who once asked if somebody could explain the meaning of Einstein’s famous formula. Clifford Will, Was Einstein Right? (Basic Books, 1999) An examination of the various tests that have been applied to Einstein’s theories, including the measurement of Mercury’s anomalous orbit and Eddington’s eclipse expedition. Jeremy Bernstein, Albert Einstein and the Frontiers of Science (OUP, 1998) A popular biography with clear explanations of Einstein’s work.

The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel

Albert Einstein, card file, Cepheid variable, crowdsourcing, dark matter, Dava Sobel, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Edward Charles Pickering, Ernest Rutherford, Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, Harvard Computers: women astronomers, index card, invention of the telescope, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, John Harrison: Longitude, luminiferous ether, Magellanic Cloud, pattern recognition, QWERTY keyboard, Ralph Waldo Emerson

The idea of relativity put forth by Albert Einstein in 1915 was changing the nature of space from a passive container of the stars to a fabric warped by the stars’ presence. Einstein’s German roots and the course of the Great War at first slowed the theory’s acceptance, but the English pacifist Arthur Stanley Eddington tested its validity during the May 29, 1919, total solar eclipse, which he observed from the African island of Príncipe. It was an eclipse expedition even Pickering would have approved. The stunning results, announced in November 1919, demonstrated that light waves indeed felt the effect of gravity—and by the amount Einstein had predicted. The erudite Eddington expressed the findings in poetry as well as prose, borrowing the rhythm of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: “Oh leave the Wise our measures to collate / One thing at least is certain, light has weight / One thing is certain and the rest debate / Light rays, when near the Sun, do not go straight.”

…

He was the first, in 1872, to capture the spectrum of a star on film, and followed that feat by imaging the faint stars in the Orion Nebula in 1882. Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (December 28, 1882–November 22, 1944), one of the first to appreciate Einstein’s theories, traveled to Príncipe Island, off the west coast of Africa, for the 1919 total solar eclipse, and returned with proof of general relativity. The leader in efforts to describe the internal constitution of the stars, Eddington was knighted in 1930. Priscilla Fairfield (later Bok) (April 14, 1896–November 19, 1975) taught astronomy at Smith College while measuring the widths of spectral lines on plates at Harvard.

…

Draper’s request for an accounting, 107–9 time line, 274–79 See also Draper Catalogue; Draper classification D stars, 91 Dugan, Raymond, 242 dwarf stars, 152, 194, 288, 289, 290 Dyson, Frank, 134, 156, 214, 238 Earth-Sun distance, 83–84, 99, 295 eclipse observations. See solar eclipse observations eclipsing binaries/variables, 58, 112, 216, 240, 251, 281 Eddington, Arthur Stanley, 195, 287 honors awarded to, 230, 259, 260 and Miss Cannon, 159–60, 163, 213 and Miss Payne, 198–99, 209 work of, 185, 259, 287, 296 Edison, Thomas, 3, 168 Einstein, Albert, 185 Eliot, Charles, 61, 116, 121, 131, 147, 190 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 244 epochs, 281, 294 Eros (asteroid), 81–83, 84–85, 99–100, 277, 296 E stars, 91 Evershed, John, 120 Evershed, Mary Orr, 120 Faber, Sandra Moore, 259 Fairfield, Priscilla (later Bok), 217, 223–24, 226, 239, 278, 287 Farrar, Nettie, 12, 22, 23, 37, 105 Fecker, J.

The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom by Graham Farmelo

Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Arthur Eddington, Berlin Wall, Bletchley Park, cuban missile crisis, double helix, Dr. Strangelove, Eddington experiment, Ernest Rutherford, Fall of the Berlin Wall, Fellow of the Royal Society, financial independence, gravity well, Henri Poincaré, invention of radio, invisible hand, Isaac Newton, John von Neumann, Kevin Kelly, Large Hadron Collider, Murray Gell-Mann, Neil Armstrong, period drama, Richard Feynman, Simon Singh, Stephen Hawking, strikebreaker, Suez canal 1869, Suez crisis 1956, University of East Anglia

.: Social Phases of Education in the School and the Home 1 Dyson, Freeman 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6n31, 7n11, 8n6, 9n13, 10n45 Eddington, Sir Arthur 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 mathematician and astronomer 1, 2 understanding of relativity theory 1 solar-eclipse experiments 1, 2, 3, 4 on Einstein’s E = mc2 equation 1 introduces PD to relativity 1 appearance 1 personality 1, 2 mathematical approach to science 1 and Rutherford 1 congratulates PD on his Ph.D. thesis 1 and the splitting of the atom 1 media savvy 1 pilloried by his younger colleagues 1 and nuclear energy 1, 2n60 disagreement with PD 1 Dublin conference (1942) 1 death 1 The Mathematical Theory of Relativity 1n20 The Nature of the Physical World 1 Space, Time and Gravitation 1 Edward VII, King 1 Ehrenfest, Paul 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Ehrenhaft, Felix 1n48 Einstein, Albert 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18n20 personality 1 most successful spurt of creativity 1 appearance 1, 2 studies Mill’s System of Logic 1 E = mc2 equation 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and Planck’s blackbody radiation spectrum formula 1 and solar eclipse results 1 light quanta idea 1 and Bohr 1 and Heisenberg’s theory of 1925 1 suspicious of the new quantum mechanics 1, 2 top-down approach to physics 1 on PD 1, 2 stimulated emission process and the laser 1 attacks Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle 1 differs from PD in his approach to science 1 praises PD’s textbook 1 at the 1930 Solvay Conference 1 despises Hitler 1 Nazis’ view of his ‘Jewish physics’ 1 and the photon 1 and the splitting of the atom 1 flees from Germany to the USA 1, 2 at Princeton 1, 2, 3, 4 and Kapitza’s detention 1, 2 dislike of quantum electrodynamics 1 treats Heisenberg with contempt 1 Hoover’s campaign against 1 suggests the existence of a positive electron 1 in search of generalisations 1 death 1 centenary of his birth 1, 2 ‘Electron and General Relativity’ 1n34 see also relativity Eisenhower, Dwight D. 1 electrical charge 1, 2 electromagnetic interaction 1 electromagnetism 1 laws of 1, 2 Maxwell’s theory 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 PD’s magnetic monopole theory 1 electron-positron pairs 1, 2 electrons bare 1, 2 behaving as discrete particles 1 Cavendish annual dinner, toast to 1 describing behaviour of a single, isolated electron 1 diffraction by light 1, 2 Dirac equation 1, 2, 3 discovered by J.

…

He was one of the few scientists who could work on the experiments because, as a Quaker, he was registered as a conscientious objector. Unknown to most of his colleagues, Eddington had used his reputation to contrive the media hullabaloo that followed the announcement in November 1919 that the solar eclipse results supported the prediction of Einstein’s theory rather than Newton’s.16 Dirac attended his lectures and, like most people who first encountered him through his dazzling prose, was disappointed to find that he was an incoherent public speaker who had the habit of abandoning a sentence, as if losing interest, before moving on to the next one.17 But Dirac admired Eddington’s mathematical approach to science, which would become one of the most powerful influences on him.

…

– (2006) The Scientist as Rebel, New York: New York Review of Books. Earman, J. and Glymour, C. (1980) ‘Relativity and Eclipses: the British Eclipse Expeditions of 1919 and Their Predecessors’, Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, 11: 49–85. Eddington, A. (1918) ‘Report on the Meeting of the Association Held on Wednesday November 27 1918 at Sion College, Victoria Embankment, E. C.’, Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 29: 35–9. – (1928) The Nature of the Physical World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Einstein, A. (1931) in James Clerk Maxwell: A Commemorative Volume 1831–1931, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris

Albert Einstein, Albert Michelson, Alfred Russel Wallace, anthropic principle, Arthur Eddington, Atahualpa, Cepheid variable, classic study, Commentariolus, cosmic abundance, cosmic microwave background, cosmological constant, cosmological principle, dark matter, delayed gratification, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Eratosthenes, Ernest Rutherford, Garrett Hardin, Gary Taubes, Gregor Mendel, Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, Harvard Computers: women astronomers, Henri Poincaré, invention of writing, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, John Harrison: Longitude, Karl Jansky, Lao Tzu, Louis Pasteur, Magellanic Cloud, mandelbrot fractal, Menlo Park, Murray Gell-Mann, music of the spheres, planetary scale, retrograde motion, Richard Feynman, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Searching for Interstellar Communications, source of truth, Stephen Hawking, Thales of Miletus, Thomas Kuhn: the structure of scientific revolutions, Thomas Malthus, time dilation, Wilhelm Olbers

But then, moments after the moon’s shadow came speeding across the landscape and totality began, a hole opened up in the clouds around the sun, and the camera shutters were triggered. The results of Eddington’s expedition, and of a second eclipse observation conducted at Sobral, Brazil on the same day, were presented by the Astronomer Royal at a meeting of the Royal Society in London on November 6, 1919, with Newton’s portrait looking on. They were positive: The light rays coming from the stars of the Hyades were found to be offset to just the degree predicted in the theory. When Einstein received a telegram from Lorentz announcing the outcome of the Eddington expedition, he showed it to a student, Ilse Rosenthal-Schneider, who asked, “What would you have said if there had been no confirmation?”

…

.), 136–137, 138 Renaissance exploration of, 47–59 retrograde motion of, 23 stellar fusion of elements and, 279–280 triangulation of the stars and, 136–137 Eccentrics of Ptolemy, 29–30 Eddington, Arthur Stanley, 38n, 170, 203, 210, 211, 253, 272 Eddington’s number, 38n Egypt (ancient), 20 Eightfold way (hadron arrangement), 311 Einstein, Albert, 10, 11, 15, 177–178, 182–204, 211, 212, 283, 302, 364 four-dimensional space-time continuum and, 197, 198, 199–202 on Galileo, 83, 94–95 general theory of relativity of, 178, 185, 191, 196–197, 200–204 gravitation and, 120 inertial and gravitational mass and, 34, 193–196 Lemaître’s origin of the universe and, 212 on mystery of science, 385 on Newton, 103, 121 nuclear weapons and, 252, 254 quantum indeterminacy and, 290–291 quantum physics and, 178, 200 special theory of relativity of, 178, 183, 185, 191–194, 197, 200 symmetry and, 307 thought experiments of, 91, 184–185, 196–197 unified field theory and, 186, 332–333 Electromagnetic field theory, 185–188 Electromagnetism, 187, 293, 294, 295, 297 weak nuclear force and, 315, 316–318, 326, 337, 345 Electrons, 256, 257–258 early-universe theory and, 343 as fermions, 292 inflationary universe hypothesis and, 360 symmetry and, 307 Electroweak theory, see Unified electroweak theory Elements atomic nuclei of, 257 big bang as source of, 272–273, 281 cosmic element abundance curve, 277, 278 stellar nuclear fusion as source of, 271–272, 275–280 in the sun, 164–165 terrestrial, 69 Elliptical nebulae, 144, 146, 148, 152, 161–162, 165 beyond the Milky Way, 175 island universe theory of, 161, 171, 172, 173 Emission lines, 164 Emission nebula, 143 Enceladus (satellite of Saturn), 156 Epicycles of Ptolemy, 29 Equinoxes, precession of, 23n Erikson, Leif, 56n Essay on the Principle of Population, The (Malthus), 237 Euclid, 40, 41, 62, 116 Euclidean geometry, 26, 198–199 Eudoxus, 25–27, 33, 65 Evolution, theory of, see Darwinism Expansion of the universe, 205–215, 354–356, 392–393 general theory of relativity and, 205, 208–209, 210–214 Exploding stars, 167 Extraterrestrial life, 368–380 conditions necessary for, 372–374 networking of interstellar communications to determine, 375–380 SETI projects and, 371–372, 374 Falling bodies, law of, 84, 90–94 Faraday, Michael, 185–186, 188, 190 Fermi, Enrico, 212, 273, 292, 374 Fermilab accelerator, 319–320, 322, 324–325, 326, 336 Fermilab Tevatron, 340 Fermions, 292, 294 bosons and, 328 Feynman, Richard, 311n, 352, 363 Fibonacci series, 305, 306 Ficino, Marsilio, 65, 77 Field theory, 186–187 See also Quantum field theory; Unified field theory; Yang-Mills gauge field theory Finite universe, infinite universe and, 200–204 First law of thermodynamics, 247 Fission bomb (atomic bomb), 252 Fitz-Roy, Robert, 233, 245 Flamsteedjohn, 115, 153, 156 Flatness problem, inflationary universe hypothesis and, 359 Fossils, scientific age-dating of, 222–229 Four-dimensional geometry, 199, 202 Four-dimensional space-time continuum, 197, 198, 199–202 Fowler, Willy, 276, 277, 278 Fraunhofer, Joseph, 10, 139, 163–164 Fraunhofer lines, 164 Free quarks, 344 Fusion bomb (hydrogen bomb), 252, 253 Galactic plane, 159 Galaxies, 167–175 quasars and, 174 redshift-distance relation of, 207–208, 209–211, 214 stars in, 144 superclusters of, 175, 214 See also Milky Way galaxy Galilei, Galileo, 11, 69, 71, 83–101, 107, 130, 167 Einstein and, 185 inertia experiments of, 34, 91–94 law of falling bodies and, 84, 90–94 observations of planets by, 88–90, 101 Roman Catholic Church persecution of, 11, 84, 96–100 solar system and, 88–90, 123, 132 telescope and, 84, 86–88, 95–96 thought experiments of, 90–91, 92, 93–94 velocity of light determined by, 179–180 Galilei, Vincenzo, 84 Gamma Draconis, 137, 139 Gamma rays, 293, 297 Gamow, George, 212–214, 262, 263, 264 big bang and, 273–274, 277, 279 Gauge field theory, see Yang-Mills gauge field theory Gauss, Karl Friedrich, 199, 308 Gell-Mann, Murray, 294n, 310–311, 317, 330, 332, 336, 337, 340 General theory of relativity, 120, 178, 185, 191, 196–197, 200–204 expansion of the universe and, 205, 208–209, 210–214 quantum genesis hypothesis and, 362–363 scientific testing of, 203–204 space-time continuum of, 31, 32 string theory and, 330, 331 symmetry and, 307 Genes, natural selection and, 241–242 Geology radiometric age-dating and, 251–252 scientific age-dating and, 221–229 Geometry, 25–26, 40, 110 euclidean, 26, 198–199 four-dimensional, 199, 202 space-time, 364–365 symmetry in, 303–304 Giant stars, 70 lifetime of, 266–271 Glashow, Sheldon, 313, 314–317, 321, 326, 333 Global symmetry, 309–310 Globular star clusters, 170–171 Glossary of terms, 391–411 Gluons, 293–294, 312 Gödel, Kurt, 384, 385 Gold, 279 Gold, Thomas, 275, 338 Grand unified theories (GUTs), 327–328, 332–334 early-universe theory and, 345, 348 Gravitation, 293–298 contraction of the sun and, 247–248 Einstein’s conception of, 120 general theory of relativity and, 196–197 Kepler’s theories of, 94 Newton and, 103, 107–109, 113–118, 120–121, 177 stellar energy and, 280 string theory and, 330, 331 unified field theory and, 346 Gravitational mass, 194–195 equality of inertial mass and, 195–196 Graviton, 330 Graviton decoupling, 346n Great Chain of Being, 223 Greece (ancient), 20 conception of inertia in, 34–35 conception of time in, 217–220 Earth as conceived by, 26n Grossmann, Marcel, 190, 199–200 Guth, Alan, 356–357, 361–362 h (quantum of action), 286, 287 Hadrons, 311, 330 Hakluyt, Richard, 128 Hale, George Ellery, 168, 208 Half-life of radioactive materials, 250–252 Halley, Edmond, 103, 112–116, 127, 128, 131, 137, 201n publication of the Principia and, 118 Halley’s comet, 70n, 112, 113, 117, 131 Harrison, John, 129–130 Hawking, Stephen, 356, 362–364 Heavy hydrogen, 264–265 Heisenberg, Werner, 286, 287, 288, 291, 302, 333, 351–352 Heisenberg indeterminacy principle, 351–352 Heliocentric universe Aristarchus and, 35–36, 38, 43 Copernicus and, 63–68 Kepler and, 77–82 Helium, 250, 343 big bang and, 273 composition of the sun and, 265–266 stellar fusion and, 272, 278–279 Helium-3, 264–265 Helmholtz, Hermann von, 246–247, 248 Henderson, Thomas, 139 Henry the Navigator, Prince, 50–52, 53, 54, 55 Heraclitus, 33, 367 Hereditary traits, transmission of, 242 Herman, Robert, 213, 214 Herodotus, 50–51 Herschel, John, 163, 241 Herschel, William, 143, 144, 150–159, 395 Hertzsprung, Ejnar, 259, 260 Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, 259–260, 261, 263, 266 tree of stars and, 267–270 Heyerdahl, Thor, 56n Hipparchus, 29, 124 History of the universe, 415–429 stairway depiction of, 341–348 Hoffmann, Banesh, 179n Hooft, Gerard’t, 318 Hooke, Robert, 112–113, 115, 118, 137 Hooker, Joseph, 240, 244 Hoskin, Michael, 201n Hoyle, Fred, 211, 274–277, 278 Hubble, Edwin, 161, 172–174, 207–210, 211–212, 274 Hubble law, 208–210, 214 Hubble Space Telescope, 389–390 Huggins, William, 165, 167 Humason, Milton, 173, 274 Hume, David, 151 Hutton, James, 205, 225–226 Huxley, Aldous, 119 Huxley, Thomas, 243, 244–245, 247 Huygens, Christian, 118, 120, 125, 130, 136 Hyades (star cluster), 203, 259 Hydrogen atoms of, 256, 260 big bang and, 273 composition of the stars and, 260 composition of the sun and, 265–266 stellar fusion and, 272, 278–279 Hypatia, 42 Hyperdimensionality, 332–334 Imaginary numbers, 363 Imaginary time, 363, 364 Incompleteness theorem, Gödel’s, 384–385 Inertia ancient Greeks’ conception of, 34–35 Aristotle and, 92–94 Descartes on, 106 Einstein and, 193–195, 196 Galileo’s experiments on, 34, 91–94 Newton and, 34, 94, 116–117, 177 Inertial mass, 193–195 equality of gravitational mass and, 195–196 Infinite universe, finite universe and, 200–204 Inflationary universe hypothesis, 345, 356–360, 361, 362 model of, 275n Initial conditions, problem of, 122 Integer spin particles, 292 Interferometry, 180, 181 Interstellar communications network, 375–380 Interstellar space flights, 374–376 Invariance theory, 193 symmetry and, 307 Inverse-square law, 108n gravitation and, 117 Kepler’s third law and, 112–113, 114, 115, 117 Iron, 165, 279 stellar evolution and, 140–141 stellar fusion and, 275, 276–280 Irrational numbers, 305n Islamic astronomical scholarship, 43 Island universe theory of elliptical nebulae, 161, 171, 172, 173 Isospin, 31, 309 Jeans, James, 166, 167n John Paul II, Pope, 100n Jupiter, 25, 72, 112, 117 Galileo’s observation of, 88, 90 mean distance from the sun (est.), 124 satellites of, 88, 90, 158, 179 Kaluza, Theodor, 332 Kaluza-Klein theory, 332 Kant, Immanuel, 75, 143, 144–148, 150, 161, 246 Kelvin, Lord, 186, 246, 247–248, 249, 250, 280, 282 Kepler, Johannes, 66, 69, 71, 74–82, 84, 107, 136, 167, 182, 205, 346 astronomical unit estimated by, 125 date of Creation estimated by, 220 Galileo and, 94–96, 97, 98 mean distances of planets from the sun as measured by, 124 solar system and, 75, 78–82, 123 Kepler’s laws, 79–81 inverse-square law and, 112–113, 114, 115, 117 Newton’s laws and, 81, 108n, 112–113, 115 Keynes, John Maynard, 104 Kirchhoff, Gustav, 164–165 Klein, Oskar, 332 Kopernik, Mikolai, see Copernicus, Nicolaus Koran, the, 43 Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste de, 236 Lamarckism, 236 Lambert, Johann Heinrich, 144, 149–150, 161 Laplace, Pierre-Simon de, 161, 290–291 Large Magellanic Cloud, 70, 175, 327 Law of falling bodies, 84, 90–94 Law of universal gravitation, 81 Laws of thermodynamics, 247 Lead, 279 Leavitt, Henrietta Swan, 169–170, 171, 172, 258 Le Gentil, Guillaume, 133–134 Lemaître, Georges, 210–211, 212, 214, 274 Leptons, 294–296, 350 Light as electromagnetic field, 187n, 188 velocity of, 179–180 Light-year, 38 Linde, Andrei, 393–394 Linear time, 220–225 Lithium, 278, 343 Little Dipper, 57 Lobachevski, Nikolai Ivanovich, 199 Local Group of galaxies, 175 Local symmetry, 309–310 Locke, John, 118, 119, 223 Longitude, determination of, 128–130 Lookback time, 174 Lorentz, Hendrik Antoon, 181, 182, 191, 197, 203 Lorentz contractions, 181–182 special theory of relativity and, 181, 191 Lucretius, 33, 90n, 201, 369 Luther, Martin, 67, 369 Lyell, Charles, 217, 225, 226–229 Darwin and, 229, 231, 232, 239, 242, 243, 244 Mach, Ernst, 190–191, 386 Magellan, Ferdinand, 48, 56n, 59 Magellanic Clouds, 70, 169–170, 171, 175, 327 Magnesium, 165, 272 Magnetic monopoles, 356–357 Malthus, Thomas, 237 Many body problem, 121 Mars, 117 Kepler’s study of, 78–79 life on, 394 mean distance from the sun (est.), 124 measurement of diameter of, 125 retrograde motion of, 24, 25 spacecraft mission to, 371 triangulation of, 126, 130 Mason, Charles, 132–133 Mass inertia and, 193–195, 196 Newton’s laws and, 116–117 relativistic time dilation and, 192–193 Mathematical Syntaxis (Ptolemy), 28–29 Matter building blocks of, 294–296 electromagnetism and, 193 Maury, Antonia, 258, 259 Maxwell, James Clerk, 10, 185–188, 190, 255 Maxwellian velocity distribution theory, 263 Medici, Cosimo de, 95, 96 Mendel, Gregor, 242 Mercury, 23, 68, 279 death of the sun and, 270 mean distance from the sun (est.), 124 transit of, 131 Messier, Charles, 157 Meteorites, 252 Michelson, Albert, 180, 182 Michelson-Morley experiment, 11, 180–181, 188 aether drift theory and, 188, 192 Micrometry, 125 Microwave radiotelescope, 213, 347 Milky Way galaxy, 48, 96, 144, 145, 146, 149, 152, 161, 162 big bang and, 272–273 dark nebulae in, 144, 158 diameter of, 171 early-universe theory of, 341 ecology of, 266–267 elements in, 277 galaxies beyond, 175 Galileo’s observation of, 89, 90 location in the solar system of, 168–175 spectroscopy and, 166 spiral arms of, 153, 174 Milton, John, 76, 83, 101 Mimas (satellite of Saturn), 156 Minkowsky, Hermann, 197–198 Moon, 22 Galileo’s observation of, 88, 90 Newton’s laws of gravitation and, 107 Moon rocks, 252 Morrison, Philip, 371 Music, symmetries in, 304–305 Mutuality of gravitation, 117–118 NASA’s interstellar spacecraft study, 375 Natural selection theory of evolution, see Darwinism Navigation astronomy as tool for, 20–21, 47–49, 52 determination of longitude and, 128–130 Nebulae, 151–152 bright, 143–144 elliptical, 144, 146, 148, 152, 161–162, 165 Herschel’s study of, 150–159 island universe theory of, 161, 171, 172, 173 nature of, 144 planetary, 143, 157 spiral, 144, 162, 165–166 Nebular hypothesis, 161, 162, 165–166 defects in, 166–173 Ne’eman, Yuval, 311 Neoplatonism, 64, 65 Networking of interstellar communications, 375–380 Neutrino decoupling, 344 Neutrinos, 264, 265, 327, 344 Neutrons, 256 as fermions, 292 quarks and, 296, 338, 340 symmetry and, 307 Neutron star, 279 Newton, Humphrey, 113, 115–116 Newton, Isaac, 101, 103–122, 127, 128, 152, 161 the calculus invented by, 106, 108–110 date of Creation estimated by, 220 Einstein and, 177, 178, 183, 184, 193n gravitation and, 103, 107–109, 113–118, 120–121, 177 inertia and, 34, 94, 116–117, 177 Kepler’s third law and, 81, 108n, 112–113, 115 the Principia of, 103, 115–118, 119, 120–121 reflecting telescope of, 110–112 stellar distances measured by, 136 Newton’s first law, 116–117 Newton’s second law, 117 Newton’s third law, 117 Nickel, 277 Nitrogen-14, 251 Noneuclidean geometries, 198, 199 Novikov, Igor, 280 Nuclear energy, 248 Nuclear forces, see Strong nuclear force; Weak nuclear force Nuclear fusion, 248, 252–254, 367 See also Stellar nuclear fusion Nuclear physics, 211–212 Nuclear weapons, 252–254 Nucleons, 293, 294 Observational astrophysics, 168 Olbers, Wilhelm, 201n Olbers’s paradox, 201n Oldenburg, Henry, 111, 112 “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” (Einstein), 193 On the Heavens (Aristotle), 28, 69 On the Revolutions (Copernicus), 63, 64, 65, 66, 67–68, 84, 98 Öpik, Ernst, 275–276 Oppenheimer, Robert, 279, 310 Optics, 110, 163, 187 Oresme, Nicole, 64–65 Origin of Species, The (Darwin), 68, 116, 236, 242, 243–244, 245, 248 Origin of the universe, see Cosmogony Orion Nebula, 157 Oxygen, 272 Pangenesis theory of Darwin, 242 Parallax (triangulation), 125–126, 127, 130 of the stars, 136–141 Parity violation in the weak nuclear force, 313 Particle physics -cosmology link, 335–348 time and, 337–340 Pauli, Wolfgang, 292, 310, 333 Pauli exclusion principle, 292, 293 PEP accelerator, 333 PETRA accelerator, 333 Photinos, 333 Photon decoupling, 343 Photons, 258, 264–265, 318, 337 early-universe theory and, 343 released by the big bang, 212n, 213, 214 Pi, value of, 40 Pi mesons, 318 Planck, Max, 183, 193, 258, 286 Einstein and, 204n Planetary nebulae, 143, 157 Planetesimals, 167n Planets, 22–23 Copernicus and, 68 elliptical orbit of, 66 extrasolar, 394–395 Kepler’s laws and, 79–81 mean distances from the sun (est.), 124 measuring distances via micrometry and triangulation, 125–126, 127 Newton’s laws and, 107, 117, 120–121 retrograde motion of, 23, 24, 25, 26–27 spacecraft missions to, 370, 371 transit of, 130–136 See also names of planets Plato, 19, 25–26, 27, 31, 62, 64, 65, 75, 145, 217 Pleiades (star cluster), 259, 263 Hertzsprung-Russell diagram for, 269–270 Plutarch, 33, 39, 40 Poincaré, Henri, 181–182, 193, 201 Polaris (North Star), 57 Pole star, 52 Political power, use of astronomy for, 22 Polo, Marco, 47, 49–50, 54 Popper, Karl, 383 Portable telescopes, 163 Positrons, 308 Pound, James, 137, 153 Precession of equinoxes, 23n Primordial atom, 211, 212 Principia (Newton), 103, 115–118, 120–121 publication of, 118–119, 120 Printing press, invention of, 62–63 Probes in interstellar flight, 374–375, 376 Project Ozma (SETI experiment), 372 Proton accelerators, 319–326 Proton-antiproton collider, 324–326 Proton-proton chain reaction for stellar nuclear fusion, 263–265, 272, 278 Protons, 262, 264–265 as fermions, 292 half-life of, 327 heat of stars and, 260–261 penetration of the Coulomb barrier by, 262, 264–265 quarks and, 338, 340 symmetry and, 307 Ptolemy, Claudius, 28–31, 33, 34, 38, 40, 62, 63, 69, 72, 124, 145 Islamic astronomy and, 43 Pythagoras, 35, 217 Pythagorean doctrine of celestial harmony, 75–77 Q and A time for interstellar radio signals, 376, 377, 378 Quantum chromodynamics (QCD), 297, 311, 312, 313 Quantum electrodynamics (QED), 297, 315–316 Quantum field theory relativistic, 297, 337 string theory and, 328 symmetry and, 312–313 Quantum genesis hypothesis, 351, 362–365 Quantum indeterminacy, 287–288 Einstein and, 290–291 proton action and, 262 quantum genesis hypothesis and, 365 Quantum leap, 288 Quantum mechanics, 200, 257 string theory and, 330, 331 Quantum numbers, 31 Quantum physics, 178, 183, 186, 200, 286–299, 367 four fundamental forces in, 293–294, 295 standard model theories for, 292–299 symmetry and, 307–309 Quantum principle, 286–287 Quantum tunneling, 262–263 Quantum vacuum, 351–352 Quarks, 293, 294–295, 350 antiquarks and, 344 big bang and, 338, 339, 340 inflationary universe hypothesis and, 360 symmetry and, 312 Quasars, 174, 390 Radioactive decay, 293 Radioactivity, 248, 249–254, 255, 256 Radio astronomy, 213–214 Radiometric age-dating, 250–252 age of the solar system by, 266 Radio telescopes, 213, 347 SETI projects and, 371–372, 374, 376 Radium, 249, 250 Red giant stars, 269, 270 Redshift-distance relation of galaxies, 207–208, 209–211, 214 Reflecting telescope, 110–112, 154, 168 Refracting telescope, 152–157, 158 Relativistic quantum field theories, 297, 337 Relativistic time dilation, 192–193 Relativity (term), 193, 285–286 See also General theory of relativity; Special theory of relativity Renaissance, 47–59 Retrograde motion of planets, 23, 24, 25 Eudoxus and, 26–27 Roman Catholic Church Copernicus’s heliocentric theory and, 67 persecution of Galileo by, 11, 84, 96–100 Rubbia, Carlo, 322–323, 324–326 Russell, Henry Norris, 168, 259–260, 261 Rutherford, Ernest, 249–250, 256, 282 Salam, Abdus, 313, 314, 316, 317, 321, 326 Sandage, Allan, 174, 351 Saturn, 23, 43, 73, 117 mean distance from the sun (est.), 124 Saturn (cont.)

…

The theory was beautiful, but was it true? Einstein, having been to the mountaintop, felt supremely confident on this score. General relativity explained a precession in the orbit of the planet Mercury that had been left unaccounted for in Newtonian mechanics, and he did not doubt it would survive further tests as well. As he wrote his friend Besso, “I am fully satisfied, and I do not doubt any more the correctness of the whole system…. The sense of the thing is too evident.”41 The wider scientific community, however, awaited the verdict of experiment. There would be a total solar eclipse on May 29, 1919, at which time the sun would stand against the bright stars of the Hyades cluster.

The Human Cosmos: A Secret History of the Stars by Jo Marchant

Albert Einstein, Alfred Russel Wallace, Arthur Eddington, British Empire, complexity theory, Dava Sobel, Drosophila, Easter island, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Eratosthenes, founder crops, game design, Great Leap Forward, Henri Poincaré, invention of writing, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, John Harrison: Longitude, lateral thinking, Lewis Mumford, lone genius, mass immigration, meta-analysis, Nicholas Carr, out of africa, overview effect, Plato's cave, polynesian navigation, scientific mainstream, scientific worldview, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Searching for Interstellar Communications, Skype, social intelligence, Stephen Hawking, Steven Pinker, Stuart Kauffman, technological singularity, TED Talk, the scientific method, Thomas Bayes, trade route

“weighing light”: Arthur Eddington, “The Total Eclipse of 1919 May 29 and the Influence of Gravitation on Light,” The Observatory 42 (1919): 121. He presented his theory: Longair, “Bending Space-time.” The data was ambiguous: Ben Almassi, “Trust in Expert Testimony: Eddington’s 1919 Eclipse Expedition and the British Response to General Relativity,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 40 (2009): 57–67; Coles, “Einstein, Eddington and the 1919 Eclipse.” the headline in the Times: Almassi, Trust in Expert Testimony; Coles, “Einstein, Eddington and the 1919 Eclipse.” Two days later, the New York Times followed up with the headline “Lights All Askew in the Heavens.”

…

., “A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun’s Gravitational Field, from Observations Made at the Total Eclipse of May 29, 1919,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 220 (1920): 291–333; Malcolm Longair, “Bending Space-time: A Commentary on Dyson, Eddington and Davidson (1920) ‘A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun’s Gravitational Field,’” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 373 (2015): 20140287; Peter Coles, “Einstein, Eddington and the 1919 Eclipse,” in Historical Development of Modern Cosmology, ASP Conference Proceedings 252 (2001): 21. “weighing light”: Arthur Eddington, “The Total Eclipse of 1919 May 29 and the Influence of Gravitation on Light,” The Observatory 42 (1919): 121.

…

“paces back and forth”: André Breton, Manifesto of Surrealism (Paris, 1924); discussed in Gavin Parkinson, Surrealism, Art and Modern Science: Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Epistemology (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008), 38. “the smart set . . . buried suns”: André Breton and Philippe Soupault, Les Champs Magnétiques (Paris, 1919); discussed in Parkinson, Surrealism, Art and Modern Science, 48–50. a real-life solar eclipse: Confirmation of the theory of general relativity: Abraham Pais, Subtle Is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005); Parkinson, Surrealism, Art and Modern Science, ch. 1. Accounts of Eddington’s expedition: Frank Dyson et al., “A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun’s Gravitational Field, from Observations Made at the Total Eclipse of May 29, 1919,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 220 (1920): 291–333; Malcolm Longair, “Bending Space-time: A Commentary on Dyson, Eddington and Davidson (1920) ‘A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun’s Gravitational Field,’” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 373 (2015): 20140287; Peter Coles, “Einstein, Eddington and the 1919 Eclipse,” in Historical Development of Modern Cosmology, ASP Conference Proceedings 252 (2001): 21.

The Star Builders: Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet by Arthur Turrell

Albert Einstein, Arthur Eddington, autonomous vehicles, Boeing 747, Boris Johnson, carbon tax, coronavirus, COVID-19, data science, decarbonisation, deep learning, Donald Trump, Eddington experiment, energy security, energy transition, Ernest Rutherford, Extinction Rebellion, green new deal, Greta Thunberg, Higgs boson, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), ITER tokamak, Jeff Bezos, Kickstarter, Large Hadron Collider, lockdown, New Journalism, nuclear winter, Peter Thiel, planetary scale, precautionary principle, Project Plowshare, Silicon Valley, social distancing, sovereign wealth fund, statistical model, Stephen Hawking, Steve Bannon, TED Talk, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, Tunguska event

Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character 144 (1934): 692–703. 10. R. Sherr, K. T. Bainbridge, and H. H. Anderson, “Transmutation of Mercury by Fast Neutrons,” Physical Review 60 (1941): 473–79. 11. A. Einstein, “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend on Its Energy Content?,” Annalen der Physik 323 (1905): 639–41; F. W. Dyson, A. S. Eddington, and C. Davidson, “A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun’s Gravitational Field, from Observations Made at the Total Eclipse of May 29, 1919,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 220 (1920): 291–333. 12. J. Cockcroft and E.

…

See also deuterium-tritium fusion JET’s use of, 94–95 Lawson’s equations on use of, 109–10 number of years left for supply of, if used exclusively, 44–45 Rutherford’s experiment and discovery of nuclear fusion using, 54–55, 61, 149 structure of, as hydrogen isotope, 51–52 deuterium-tritium fusion Chapman on, 55–56, 185 Culham Centre’s use of, 55, 62–63 energy released in, 55–56, 58–59 energy security and access to, 43 First Light Fusion’s use of, 63, 190 Herrmann on, 55–56 ITER tokamak, Cadarache, France, and, 186–87 neutrons in, 51–52, 55, 57–58 NIF’s use of, 62–63 number of years left for supplies in, 44–45 Tokamak Energy’s use of, 63 Didcot Power Station, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, 139 Dinan, Richard, 13, 144 Dyson, Freeman, 82–83, 214 Dyson spheres, 83 Eagle Nebula, 74 EAST tokamak, China, 14, 184, 193 Eddington, Arthur, 15, 49, 56–57, 71, 84 EDF Energy, 174 Einstein, Albert, 57–59, 62 electricity. See also energy generation Teller’s idea of using hydrogen bombs to generate, 115–16 electromagnetism, in nuclear reactions, 60–61, 62, 65, 66, 96 end of life stars, and nuclear fusion, 83–86 energy consumption climate change and addiction to, 28–29 estimates of future increases in, 30 exajoule as measurement of, 30 global annual growth in, 31, 34, 35 inequalities in, 29 number of years left for different types of fuel in, 43–45 population growth and, 29–30 energy crisis, 31–35 approaches to solving, 35–41 climate change consequences and, 33–34 fission power for, 39–41 fossil fuels use and, 31–33 limitations of renewable energy sources and, 36–39 public demand for action against, 28, 31 star power rescue plan with nuclear fusion for, 41–46 energy generation batteries for, 38 fossil fuels used for, 31–32, 34, 35 inequalities in energy consumption and need for increase in, 29 net zero carbon emission goal and, 28, 46, 199, 200 renewable energy sources for, 36–39, 46 Etzler, John Adolphus, 46 Euratom, 106–7 Eurofusion, 193 European Environment Agency, 176 European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), 52, 66, 202 European Union (EU) ITER tokamak, Cadarache, France, and, 186–87 JET project by, 88 Wendelstein 7-X stellarator and, 156 exajoule, as energy measurement, 30 Extinction Rebellion movement, 28 Fermi, Enrico, 161, 164 Fields Medal, 66 financial backers.

…

Conservation of mass was a central tenet of physics. Eddington wondered whether a theory published by a brilliant physicist he greatly admired could shed light on the puzzle. It said that mass and energy were different sides of the same coin. Mass could become energy, and energy could become mass. It was a wild idea. Impressively, the physicist in question had published this theory along with three others that challenged fundamental concepts in physics in 1905. His name was Albert Einstein.11 The Secrets of Atomic Energy The theory of Einstein’s that Eddington had in mind to explain the minute differences in mass of atoms said that the relationship between an object’s mass, when it is not moving, and its energy is E=mc2 where E is energy, c is the speed of light (a gut-wrenching 300 million meters, almost a billion feet, per second), and m is the mass difference that Aston found.

Wonders of the Universe by Brian Cox, Andrew Cohen

a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Albert Einstein, Albert Michelson, Apollo 11, Arthur Eddington, California gold rush, Cepheid variable, cosmic microwave background, dark matter, Dmitri Mendeleev, Eddington experiment, Eyjafjallajökull, Ford Model T, heat death of the universe, Higgs boson, Isaac Newton, James Watt: steam engine, Johannes Kepler, Karl Jansky, Large Hadron Collider, Magellanic Cloud, Mars Rover, Neil Armstrong, Stephen Hawking, the scientific method, time dilation, trade route

If it happened in any other way we’d immediately know there was something wrong. * * * This phrase was first used by the British physicist Sir Arthur Eddington in the early twentieth century to describe this deceptively simple and yet profound quality of our universe: it always seems to run in a particular direction. Eddington was instrumental in bringing Einstein’s theory of relativity to the English-speaking world during the First World War, and also one of the first scientists to directly confirm the findings of relativity when he led an expedition to observe the total solar eclipse on 29 May 1919. In 1928 he published The Nature of the Physical World, in which he introduced two great ideas that have endured in popular scientific culture to this day.

…

Vulcan was supposedly first sighted by amateur astronomer Lescarbault on 26 March 1859, but further observations were inconclusive and Vulcan was later proved to be a ghost planet. SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY EINSTEIN’S THEORY OF GENERAL RELATIVITY German-born physicist Albert Einstein (left) created the famous Theory of General Relativity. British astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington (right), later put this theory to the test and confirmed its accuracy. ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Einstein would have loved the Vomit Comet. The fact that the effects of gravity can be completely removed by falling freely in a gravitational field was, for him, the thought experiment that led to his theory of General Relativity. How wonderful it would have been for him to experience it as I did!

…

René 32, 38, 58, 59, 150 Draco (constellation) 190, 191 Duillier, Nicolas Fatio de 164 ‘Dwingeloo 1’ (galaxy) 13, 13 Dyson, Freeman 180–1 E Earth 204, 205 age of 205 blue marble 166–7, 166–7 death of 230, 232, 240, 241 elements see elements gravity and see gravity light and see light orbit 39, 39, 149, 202, 204–5 Eddington, Sir Arthur 188, 189, 213, 215, 219 Eduard Bohlen 234–5 Egypt, ancient 17–19, 83, 209 Einstein, Albert 10, 11, 12, 36, 43, 65, 145, 151, 185, 188, 188, 189–93, 194, 195, 213 El Tatio geysers, Chile 103, 104–5, 104, 105 Electromagnetic Induction, Faraday’s Law of 36 electromagnetism: Big Bang and 106 force of nature 140 light as an electromagnetic wave 36, 37, 43 spectrum 59, 68, 69, 168 stability of elements and 116 stars and 122 strength of 151, 174 electron 69, 79, 101, 114, 130, 181, 194, 195, 209, 210, 222 electron degeneracy pressure 181, 194, 195 elements, chemical 79 atomic explosions and 115 construction of 113, 114 Periodic Table of 94–5 rarest of all 126–7 role in human history 114 Empedocles 38 entropy: arrow of time and 219, 221 destiny of stars and 228 in action 216–19, 216–17, 218, 219 randomness and 215 ESA (European Space Agency) 75, 85, 135, 158 Eskimo Nebula 124, 124 Eta Carinae (star) 30, 31, 75 Euclid 38, 150 Euler, Leonhard 34 European Southern Observatory (ESO) La Silla Observatory, Chile 75, 85 evolutionary Big Bang 72–3, 75 exoplanets, how to find 88–9 extraterrestrial life 84, 175, 177 eye, emergence of the 72–3, 75 F Faraday, Michael 36, 37 Faraday’s Law of Electromagnetic Induction 36 Fermi, Enrico 115 fermions 181, 194 Fish River Canyon, Nambia 152–3, 153, 154, 154, 166 Fornax (constellation) 54 Fraunhofer lines 99 Fraunhofer, Joseph von 98, 99 G Gagarin, Yuri 141, 142, 143 galactic halo 27 galactic neighbourhood 24–5 galaxies 24 barred spiral 28 collisions of 169–71 dwarf 24, 25, 48 giant 24 measuring distance of 60–1 shape of our 28 spiral 25, 25, 28, 48, 49, 53, 55, 70, 169, 169 term 24 see also under individual galaxy name Galaxy Evolution Explorer, NASA 235 Galileo 32, 38, 40, 52, 145, 209 gamma-ray burst 226, 226, 227, 227 General Theory of Relativity 11–12, 145, 151, 182, 188, 189–93, 194–5, 213 Gentilin, Guillaume 29 geoid 155, 158–9, 158, 159 Glenn, John 142 Gliese 581 (planet) 84, 89 GOCE (satellite) 158 GPS 191, 193 Grand Unified Theory 239 gravity 11–12, 138–97 centrifuge and 174–5 formation of 161 geoid 155, 158–9, 158, 159 invisible string 140, 148–9 minimising potential energy and 166 Moon and 148, 159, 160–3 mountains and surface gravity 154 neutron stars and 84, 180, 181, 182, 194, 195 Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation 150–1, 163, 184, 185, 186, 190, 193 newtons 154, 155 paradox of 174–5 planets, effect on 174–5 sculptor 140, 146, 147, 151, 152–3 stars and planets, creator and destroyer of 141, 166 Sun’s 175 surface 154 understanding 150–1 water and 153, 156, 159, 160–3 weakness of 174–5 weight, mass and 154–5 weightlessness 141, 142, 144–5, 155 what is?

Massive: The Missing Particle That Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science by Ian Sample

Albert Einstein, Arthur Eddington, cuban missile crisis, dark matter, Donald Trump, double helix, Eddington experiment, Ernest Rutherford, Gary Taubes, Higgs boson, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, John Conway, John von Neumann, Kickstarter, Large Hadron Collider, Menlo Park, Murray Gell-Mann, Richard Feynman, Ronald Reagan, Stephen Hawking, Strategic Defense Initiative, synthetic biology, uranium enrichment, Yogi Berra

His English teacher urged him to read about science outside the classroom, especially the popular books by the Cambridge physicist Arthur Eddington, the cosmologist James Jeans, and Albert Einstein. One of Eddington’s tales had unfolded on May 29, 1919, ten years to the day before Higgs was born.19 Eddington had cooked up a brilliant plan. He realized that nature provided a way of testing Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which said massive objects created gravity by curving space around them. Eddington promptly set sail for the tiny island of Principe off the west coast of Africa and arrived in time to witness a total eclipse of the sun. The sun has more mass than anything else in the solar system. If it didn’t, the planets would orbit some other celestial body.

…

Later that year, before LEP switched on, the British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, gave a speech at the Royal Society in London, the most prestigious scientific organization in the country. She spoke wistfully of Arthur Eddington, whose stories Peter Higgs had read as a schoolboy. Eddington had chosen the Royal Society as the venue in which to describe his 1919 expedition to the west coast of Africa to prove Einstein right by watching starlight bend around the sun. “When Arthur Eddington presented his results to this society in 1919 . . . it made headlines,” Thatcher said. “Many people could not get into the meeting, so anxious were the crowds to find out whether the intellectual paradox of curved space had really been demonstrated.

…

If it didn’t, the planets would orbit some other celestial body. Eddington’s idea was that if the sun really curved space, the effect should reveal itself as a shift in the usual positions of the stars that became visible when the moon briefly blotted out the sun during an eclipse. The stars hadn’t moved, of course, but the light coming from them would follow the curvature of space around the sun, making them look as though they had. Eddington’s observations were published a year later and made headlines around the world as the first compelling evidence for Einstein’s theory. Higgs read voraciously. The stories Einstein, Eddington, and the others told gripped his imagination, though he was later dubious of some of Eddington’s work.

The Doomsday Calculation: How an Equation That Predicts the Future Is Transforming Everything We Know About Life and the Universe by William Poundstone

Albert Einstein, anthropic principle, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, Arthur Eddington, Bayesian statistics, behavioural economics, Benoit Mandelbrot, Berlin Wall, bitcoin, Black Swan, conceptual framework, cosmic microwave background, cosmological constant, cosmological principle, CRISPR, cuban missile crisis, dark matter, DeepMind, digital map, discounted cash flows, Donald Trump, Doomsday Clock, double helix, Dr. Strangelove, Eddington experiment, Elon Musk, Geoffrey Hinton, Gerolamo Cardano, Hans Moravec, heat death of the universe, Higgs boson, if you see hoof prints, think horses—not zebras, index fund, Isaac Newton, Jaron Lanier, Jeff Bezos, John Markoff, John von Neumann, Large Hadron Collider, mandelbrot fractal, Mark Zuckerberg, Mars Rover, Neil Armstrong, Nick Bostrom, OpenAI, paperclip maximiser, Peter Thiel, Pierre-Simon Laplace, Plato's cave, probability theory / Blaise Pascal / Pierre de Fermat, RAND corporation, random walk, Richard Feynman, ride hailing / ride sharing, Rodney Brooks, Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan: Tear down this wall, Sam Altman, Schrödinger's Cat, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, self-driving car, Silicon Valley, Skype, Stanislav Petrov, Stephen Hawking, strong AI, tech billionaire, Thomas Bayes, Thomas Malthus, time value of money, Turing test

Paradoxes in Probability Theory. Dordrecht: Springer, 2013. . “Probability Theory and the Doomsday Argument.” Mind 102 (1993): 483–488. . “A Shooting-Room View of Doomsday.” Journal of Philosophy 94 (1997): 244–259. Eddington, Arthur. The Nature of the Physical World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1928. . The Philosophy of Physical Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939. Einstein, Albert. Sidelights on Relativity. London: Methuen, 1922. Elga, Adam. “Defeating Dr. Evil with Self-Locating Belief.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 69 (2004): 383–396. . “Self-Locating Belief and the Sleeping Beauty Problem.”

…

Several twentieth-century thinkers sacrificed their reputations on that altar, most notoriously Arthur Eddington. In spirit Eddington was a Pythagorean, a man who preferred to believe the world sings the unheard music of whole numbers. Eddington claimed that the fine-structure constant was exactly 1/136. He supplied an elaborate rationale that mystified all who read it. Unfortunately for Eddington, the constant is much closer to 1/137. When better measurements established this beyond dispute, Eddington admitted his mistake. The fine-structure constant, he said, is exactly 1/137. Still better measurements showed that the constant was 1/137.0359991… and definitely not the inverse of any whole number.

…

But there are many ways for polls to be skewed and for observations to be distorted by selection effects. British physicist Arthur Eddington gave a classic example in his 1939 book, The Philosophy of Physical Science. Wanting to know the size of the smallest fish in a pond, you get a net and scoop up a hundred random fish, measuring each carefully. The smallest fish of the hundred is six inches long. It is easy to jump to the conclusion that fish smaller than six inches are rare or nonexistent. Nope, runs Eddington’s punch line. It turns out the net can collect fish six inches or longer only. All smaller fish slip through the mesh.

Erwin Schrodinger and the Quantum Revolution by John Gribbin

Albert Einstein, Albert Michelson, All science is either physics or stamp collecting, Arthur Eddington, British Empire, Brownian motion, double helix, Drosophila, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Ernest Rutherford, Fellow of the Royal Society, Gregor Mendel, Henri Poincaré, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, John von Neumann, Large Hadron Collider, lateral thinking, quantum cryptography, quantum entanglement, Richard Feynman, Schrödinger's Cat, The Present Situation in Quantum Mechanics, the scientific method, trade route, upwardly mobile

Schrödinger’s research in Graz was also the kind of thing that Grand Old Men with established reputations, tenured posts, and guaranteed pensions indulge in. He became fascinated by the cosmological ideas of Arthur Eddington (1882–1944), a British Grand Old Man whose illustrious career had included explaining the general theory of relativity to the English-speaking world and testing Einstein’s theory by making observations of the stars during a solar eclipse in 1919. He was a great popularizer of science, and intrigued by the puzzle of how to reconcile the general theory with quantum mechanics. But by the 1930s he was in his scientific dotage.

…

(EPR paper) CERN Charles, Emperor Chemical and Engineering News Chemical–Physical Society Chicago chromosomes Clauser, John Clausius, Rudolf cloud chamber Cockcroft, John Cold War colour vision Columbia University Como conference (1927) complementarity Compton, Arthur Compton effect Condon, Edward Congress of Vienna (1913) Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute Copenhagen Interpretation; author’s view; Bell’s view; Bohm’s view; Born on; consensus view; Einstein’s view; origins; package; predictions; presentation; probability in; Schrödinger’s view Cosmic Code, The (Pagels) cosmic rays cosmology Cramer, John Crick, Francis cryptography Curie, Marie and Pierre Czernowitz D-Wave Systems Darwin, Charles Darwin, Charles (grandson of above) Davies, Paul Davy, Humphry de Broglie, Louis: background and education; Einstein’s view of his work; influence; pilot wave model; Solvay Congress; thesis de Broglie, Maurice De magnete (Gilbert) De motu corporum in gyrum (Newton) de Valera, Éamon (“Dev”): background and career; Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies; invitation to Schrödinger; Schrödinger’s departure; Schrödinger’s lectures de Valera, Sinéad (née Flanagan) Debye, Peter decoherence Delbrück, Max Descartes, René Deutsch, David Dewar, Katherine Mary Dieks, Dennis diffusion equation Dirac, Paul: appearance and character; in Cambridge; Dirac Equation; Directions in Physics; Dublin colloquium; education; Fermi–Dirac statistics; influence; Nobel Prize; Solvay Congress; transformation theory; view of interpretation; work on quantum mechanics Dirac Equation Directions in Physics (Dirac) DNA Dollfuss, Engelbert Doppler, Johann Christian Doppler effect Dora (cousin) double slit experiment Dublin: Austrian community; Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS); Schrödinger in; Schrödinger “family life” in; Schrödinger’s arrival; Schrödinger’s departure; Trinity College (TCD); University College Eckart, Carl Eddington, Arthur Edinburgh University Ehrenfest, Paul Einstein, Albert: on “action at a distance”; annus mirabilis; Berlin professorship; Bose–Einstein statistics; Bose’s work; childhood; Congress of Vienna; Cramer’s work; on de Broglie’s work; on double slit experiment; education and career; EPR Paradox; experiences of anti-Semitism; experiences of Nazism; on Feynman’s work; general theory of relativity; influence on Heisenberg’s work; influence on Schrödinger’s work; on Mount Wilson experiment; Nobel Prize; at Princeton; relationship with Schrödinger; on Schrödinger; on Schrödinger’s cat; Solvay Congress; special theory of relativity; on underlying “reality”; view of chance and probability; view of Copenhagen Interpretation; work on Brownian motion; work on light quanta; work on quantum theory of radiation Ekert, Artur electromagnetic oscillators electromagnetism electron(s): Bohr’s work; bond; Born’s work; “collapse of the wave function”; Compton’s work; Copenhagen Interpretation; Copenhagen scientists’ work; de Broglie’s work; Dirac’s work; Einstein’s work; energy; entangled; Fermi–Dirac statistics; Feynman’s work; Heisenberg’s work; interaction between; Lenard’s work; measurement of charge on; Millikan’s work; negative; orbits; pilot wave model; quantum teleportation; quantum “transaction”; radiation resistance; Rutherford’s work; Schrödinger’s work; sharing of; Solvay Congress (1927); spin; “spooky action at a distance”; Thomson’s work; trajectory in cloud chamber; wave equation; waves and particles entanglement: decoherence; experimental confirmation of; FTL signalling; macroscopic; quantum computing; quantum cryptography; quantum teleportation; Rudolph’s work; Schrödinger’s work; term entropy EPR Paradox Epstein, Paul ETH (Eidgenössiche Technische Hochschule), see Zürich Ettinghausen, Andreas Everett, Hugh evolution Exner, Franz Faraday, Michael Farmelo, Graham faster-than-light (FTL) communication (signalling) Fermi, Enrico Fermi–Dirac statistics fermions Feynman, Richard First World War Forster family Fowler, Ralph Franklin, Rosalind Franz Ferdinand, Archduke Franz Josef, Emperor Fraunhofer, Josef von free will Fresnel, Augustin Friedman, Dennis Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia Frimmel, Franz Galileo Galilei gas in sealed box gases, kinetic theory Geiger, Hans genes: changes in; copying process; Delbrück’s work; DNA; Haldane’s suggestion; molecules; Schrödinger’s work Ghent, University of Gibbs, Willard Gilbert, William Gordon, George Göttingen gravity: Einstein’s work; Newton’s work; Schrödinger’s work Graz: Boltzmann at; Nazism; Schrödinger’s dismissal; Schrödinger’s lectures; Schrödinger’s professorship; Schrödinger’s research “green pamphlet” Greene, Blathnaid Nicolette (Schrödinger’s daughter) Greene, David Habicht, Conrad Habsburg family Haldane, J.

…

Halifax, Lord Halley, Edmond Hamilton, William Hasenöhrl, Friedrich (Fritz) Heidelberg Heisenberg, Werner: concept of half-integer quantum numbers; concept of quantum uncertainty; Copenhagen Interpretation; education and career; influence; matrix mechanics; Nobel Prize; Physics and Beyond; relationship with Schrödinger; Schrödinger’s view of his work; Solvay Congress; theory of quantum world; work on quantum jumps Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle Heitler, Walter Heligoland Hemingway, Ernest Herbert, Nick heredity Hertz, Heinrich Hess, Victor Hibben, John hidden variables Hindenberg, Field Marshal Hiroshima, nuclear bombing Hitler, Adolf: Austrian policy; defeat of France; imprisonment; invasion of Austria; invasion of Soviet Union; letter to Schrödinger; rise to power Hooke, Robert Hoover, Herbert Humboldt, Alexander von Huygens, Christiaan hydrogen atom IBM Research Center ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) imaginary numbers In Search of the Multiverse (Gribbin) In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat (Gribbin) Innitzer, Cardinal Innsbruck: March household; meeting of German scientists (1924); professorship offer; quantum teleportation experiments; Schrödinger at interference pattern International Atomic Energy Agency Inward Bound (Pais) Irish Times Italian Physical Society Ithi, see Junger Jeans, James Jena Jennings, David Jews: anti-Semitism; in Austria; Einstein’s career; Hansi’s background; Lindemann’s aid to scientists; Nazism in Austria; Nazism in Germany; Schrödinger’s position Johns Hopkins University Jordan, Pascual Jung, Carl Junger, Itha (Ithi) Kavanagh, Patrick Kepler, Johannes Khrushchev, Nikita kinetic theory King’s College, London Kirchhoff, Robert Klein, Oskar Klimt, Gustav Kohlrausch, Fritz Kolbe, Ella Krauss, Felicie Krauss, Karl and Johanna Landé, Alfred Langevin, Paul Laplace, Pierre-Simon Large Hadron Collider lasers Laue, Max von: career; Schrödinger’s visit; view of Copenhagen Interpretation; work on X-ray crystallography laws of motion Lean, Lena Lehrbuch der Physik Leiden Leipzig Lemaître, Georges Lenard, Philipp light: Einstein’s work; faster-than-light communication; momentum; Newton’s work; particle theory; Planck’s work; polarized; quanta, see photons; Schrödinger’s work; spectroscopy; speed; wave theory Lindemann, Frederick Alexander Listener, The Lockheed Martin Lockyer, Joseph London, Fritz London: Imperial College; King’s College; University College Loschmidt, Josef MacEntee, Barbara MacEntee, Máire MacEntee, Margaret (née Browne) MacEntee, Seámus Mach, Ernst McCrea, William Madison Madrid magnetism Many Worlds Interpretation (MWI) March, Arthur: death; illness; in Innsbruck; Italian holiday; marriage; Oxford post; Princeton question; relationship with Schrödinger; return to Innsbruck March, Hilde: Arthur’s death; Arthur’s illness; in Belgium; birth of daughter; birth of grandson; in Dublin; education; in Graz; marriage; in Oxford; pregnancy; relationship with Schrödinger; return to Innsbruck March, Ruth George Erica (Schrödinger’s daughter), see Braunizer Mark, Hermann Marsden, Ernest matrices matrix mechanics Maxwell, James Clerk: achievements; background; death; education and career; influence; marriage; Maxwell distribution; statistical techniques; theory of electromagnetism; Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism; work on light May, Sheila Meitner, Lise Mendel, Gregor Michelson, Albert Millikan, Robert Andrews Minkowski, Hermann molecules: arrangements of atoms; Bohr’s work; Boltzmann’s work; Copenhagen Interpretation; DNA; formation; genes; Heisenberg’s work; helical structure; “of life”; Loschmidt’s work; macroscopic entanglement; Maxwell’s work; quantum computing; quantum teleportation; RNA; Schrödinger’s work momentum: Bohr’s work; Compton’s work; de Broglie’s work; Einstein’s work; EPR Paradox; Heisenberg’s work; law of conservation of; matrix mechanics; Newton’s laws; Schrödinger’s work Moore, Walter Morgan, Thomas Hunt Morley, Edward Moscow Declaration (1943) Mount Wilson experiment (1921) Multiverse Mussolini, Benito mutation Myles, see O’Nolan Nagasaki, nuclear bombing Napoleon National Academy of Sciences, US National University of Ireland Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance (Born) Nature Nature of the Chemical Bond, The (Pauling) Naturwissenschaften, Die Nernst, Walther New York Newton, Isaac: education and career; laws of motion; laws of physics; Opticks; Principia; theory of gravity; work on light Nobel Committee Nobel Prize: Blackett (1948); Bohr (1922); Born (1954); Cockcroft (1951); Compton (1927); Crick (1962); Delbrück (1969); Dirac (1933); Einstein (1921); Heisenberg (1932); Hess (1936); Laue (1914); Millikan (1923); Pauling (1954); Planck (1918); Rutherford (1908); Schrödinger (1933); Walton (1951); Watson (1962); Wilson (1927) Nolan, Kate nuclear physics O’Brien, Conor Cruise O’Nolan, Brian (“Myles”) Opticks (Newton) Ortega, José Ostwald, Wilhelm Oxford Pagels, Heinz Pais, Abraham particle mechanics particle theory particles: alpha; anti-particles; beta; Bohr’s work; Born’s work; Bose’s work; bosons; Copenhagen Interpretation; Crick’s work; de Broglie’s work; Einstein’s work; entangled; fermions; Heisenberg’s work; Maxwell’s work; momentum; negatively charged (electrons); Newtonian physics; Newton’s work on light; number in Universe; phase space; photons; positively charged (protons); quantum chemistry; quantum teleportation; quantum transaction; radiation resistance; Schrödinger’s work; Solvay Congress; spin; “spooky action at a distance”; statistical mechanics; subatomic trajectory in cloud chamber; waves and; Young’s work Pauli, Wolfgang: career; Dublin visit; Feynman’s Princeton talk; on half-integer quantum numbers; Heisenberg’s letters; on matrix mechanics and wave mechanics; on measurement of atom; Solvay Congress Pauling, Linus phase space Philosophical Magazine photons: Aspect’s experiments; Bell’s work; Bose–Einstein statistics; Bose’s work; Clauser’s experiment; clones of; Compton’s work; Einstein’s work; entangled; green pamphlet on; light quanta; momentum; Planck’s work; polarization; quantum computing; quantum cryptography; quantum teleportation; Schrödinger’s work; Solvay Congress (1927); term photosynthesis Physica Physical Review Physical Review Letters Physics Physics and Beyond (Heisenberg) Physics Institute Physics World pilot wave model Pisa Planck, Max: career; discovery of “energy elements” (quanta); honours; influence; Nobel Prize; relationship with Schrödinger; Solvay Congress; successor at Berlin; work on black body radiation; work on electromagnetic radiation Planck’s Constant Podolsky, Boris Poincaré, Henri Pontifical Academy of Sciences positron Princeton: Bohm’s dismissal; Einstein Archive; Einstein at; Feynman at; Institute of Advanced Study; Schrödinger’s lectures Principia (Newton) probabilities: Born’s work; Copenhagen Interpretation; de Broglie’s work; Einstein’s work; Heisenberg’s work; quantum world; Schrödinger’s work; statistical rules probability wave Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Proceedings of the Royal Society proteins Prussian Academy quanta: Bohr’s work; Einstein’s work; light, see photons; Millikan’s experiments; Planck’s energy elements quantum chemistry quantum computers quantum cryptography quantum entanglement, see entanglement quantum jumps quantum mechanics: Aspect’s experiments; Bell’s work; Bohm’s work; Born and Jordan’s work; Copenhagen Interpretation; Cramer’s work; development; Dirac’s work; Eddington’s work; Einstein’s work; Heisenberg’s work; Innsbruck meeting (1924); interpretations of; Many Worlds Interpretation; and reality; Schrödinger’s cat; Schrödinger’s work; Solvay Congress (1927); superposition of states; term; transactional interpretation; transformation theory quantum numbers quantum physics: absurdity of; accuracy of; archives; Bohr’s work; “central mystery”; chemistry; chess board analogy; de Broglie’s work; development of; Einstein’s work; first version; Heisenberg’s work; lasers; and reality; Schrödinger’s work; second quantum revolution quantum reality quantum revolution: first; second quantum spin, see spin quantum states quantum statistics quantum teleportation quantum theory: birth of; Bohr’s work; Clauser’s experiments; cosmology and; education in; Einstein’s work; founding fathers; Heisenberg’s work; Rudolph’s work; Schrödinger’s work; statistical approach and Quantum Theory (Bohm) Quantum Theory and Measurement (ed.

The Last Stargazers by Emily Levesque

Albert Einstein, Apollo 11, Arthur Eddington, Boeing 747, Carrington event, cognitive dissonance, complexity theory, cosmic microwave background, dark matter, Eddington experiment, Harvard Computers: women astronomers, if you see hoof prints, think horses—not zebras, it's over 9,000, Kuiper Belt, Kwajalein Atoll, lolcat, Magellanic Cloud, mass immigration, messenger bag, Neil Armstrong, Pluto: dwarf planet, polynesian navigation, the scientific method

• • • The phrase scientific expedition tends to conjure up mental images of turn-of-the-century explorers doggedly trekking through the unexplored wilderness with only a team of horses, a shotgun, and their wits. It’s true that eclipse observations have included some famous historical adventures, but it’s also equally true that these types of adventures persist even today. Eclipse expeditions from previous centuries have filled entire books, including David Baron’s American Eclipse, recounting a worldwide Gilded Age scramble to study the solar eclipse that crossed North America in 1878. The most scientifically famous eclipse observation is undoubtedly Arthur Eddington’s expedition in 1919 to test Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. According to Einstein, the sun should “lens” background stars as it passes in front of them, bending their light thanks to the effects of the sun’s gravity on space-time and causing them to appear at a slightly different place in the sky.

…

The problem with testing this theory is that normally, the sun is so bright, it outshines the light of all the other stars in the sky. An eclipse would solve this, handily blocking the sun and allowing Arthur Eddington to measure the position of nearby stars. He just needed to pack up the cutting-edge astronomical equipment of 1919 and get into the path of the eclipse. In 2017, many normally quiet corners of the United States found themselves overrun with astronomy enthusiasts as they crammed themselves, their cars, and their cameras into the path of the solar eclipse. Still, a traffic jam in Wyoming isn’t quite as rough as what Eddington’s 1919 trip entailed. More than two months before the May 29 eclipse, he sailed from England to Príncipe Island off the coast of western Africa, toting a huge telescope borrowed from an observatory in Oxford and a slew of fragile glass photographic plates.

…

In some distant future, if we wind up in some sort of interstellar travel network with communities of intelligent friendly aliens, Earth’s solar eclipses would probably function as a planetary tourism draw in the same way that the Grand Canyon draws people to Arizona. There was also another layer of incredible serendipity thrumming under the surface on that August day during the eclipse, although only a relatively small handful of people knew about it at the time. It was the reason I’d pulled out my phone and started poking at the internet shortly after the eclipse had completed, admiring heaps of totality photos on social media from astronomer friends scattered around the country but also keeping one eyeball on my email.

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

Albert Einstein, Albert Michelson, anthropic principle, Apple Newton, Arthur Eddington, bet made by Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne, Brownian motion, cosmic microwave background, cosmological constant, dark matter, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Ernest Rutherford, Henri Poincaré, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Magellanic Cloud, Murray Gell-Mann, Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking

What might happen to it then was first understood only at the end of the 1920s. In 1928 an Indian graduate student, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, set sail for England to study at Cambridge with the British astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington, an expert on general relativity. (According to some accounts, a journalist told Eddington in the early 1920s that he had heard there were only three people in the world who understood general relativity. Eddington paused, then replied, “I am trying to think who the third person is.”) During his voyage from India, Chandrasekhar worked out how big a star could be and still support itself against its own gravity after it had used up all its fuel.

…

They therefore change their apparent position relative to other stars. FIGURE 2.9 It is normally very difficult to see this effect, because the light from the sun makes it impossible to observe stars that appear near to the sun in the sky. However, it is possible to do so during an eclipse of the sun, when the sun’s light is blocked out by the moon. Einstein’s prediction of light deflection could not be tested immediately in 1915, because the First World War was in progress, and it was not until 1919 that a British expedition, observing an eclipse from West Africa, showed that light was indeed deflected by the sun, just as predicted by the theory.

…

And even if every star managed to lose enough mass to avoid collapse, what would happen if you added more mass to a white dwarf or neutron star to take it over the limit? Would it collapse to infinite density? Eddington was shocked by that implication, and he refused to believe Chandrasekhar’s result. Eddington thought it was simply not possible that a star could collapse to a point. This was the view of most scientists: Einstein himself wrote a paper in which he claimed that stars would not shrink to zero size. The hostility of other scientists, particularly Eddington, his former teacher and the leading authority on the structure of stars, persuaded Chandrasekhar to abandon this line of work and turn instead to other problems in astronomy, such as the motion of star clusters.

Neutrino Hunters: The Thrilling Chase for a Ghostly Particle to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe by Ray Jayawardhana

Albert Einstein, Alfred Russel Wallace, anti-communist, Arthur Eddington, cosmic microwave background, dark matter, Eddington experiment, Ernest Rutherford, Higgs boson, invention of the telescope, Isaac Newton, it's over 9,000, Johannes Kepler, Large Hadron Collider, Magellanic Cloud, New Journalism, race to the bottom, random walk, Richard Feynman, Schrödinger's Cat, seminal paper, Skype, South China Sea, Stephen Hawking, time dilation, undersea cable, uranium enrichment

Davis was aware that neutrinos should be an essential byproduct of how the Sun generates energy, thanks to astrophysicists who had figured out the Sun’s inner workings in the preceding decades. The first crucial insight on solar energy production came in 1920 from the British astronomer Arthur Eddington, who suggested that nuclear reactions are responsible. One of Eddington’s Cambridge colleagues had found that a helium atom is slightly less massive than four hydrogen atoms combined. Eddington proposed that as four hydrogen nuclei fuse to make one helium nucleus in the Sun’s core, the small mass difference would be converted into energy, according to Einstein’s equation E=mc2. It was a stroke of brilliance on Eddington’s part, but he didn’t work out the details of the mechanism.

…

Sometimes experiments provided dramatic confirmation of a theoretical prediction, as when astronomers observed during a solar eclipse in 1919 that the Sun’s gravity could bend the light from a distant star, just as Einstein’s general theory of relativity had anticipated. On other occasions, the application of a new theory led to a satisfactory explanation of experimental data. For example, Bohr used the concept of quantized energy to account for the spectral lines produced by hydrogen atoms absorbing light: he suggested that the lines resulted from electrons jumping between fixed orbits around the atomic nucleus. Einstein himself had used the quantum hypothesis to explain how shining light on certain materials would release electrons from that material.

…

He was favorably inclined toward neutrinos at first, and praised Fermi’s theory of beta decay in a letter to a colleague in 1934, in which he noted that “neutrinos seem to provide the only escape from nonconservation of energy and until something else turns up one should not be unsympathetic to them.” Barely two years later, he seemed to have had a change of heart, dismissing the neutrino as an “unobservable particle.” By the end of the 1930s, other scientists shared Dirac’s doubts about Pauli’s neutrino hypothesis. The British astrophysicist, expositor of relativity theory, and science popularizer Arthur Eddington reflected the skepticism of the time when he noted in his book The Philosophy of Physical Science: “Just now nuclear physicists are writing a great deal about hypothetical particles called neutrinos supposed to account for certain peculiar facts observed in beta-ray disintegration … I am not much impressed by the neutrino theory.

Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life Beyond Our Solar System by Ray Jayawardhana

Albert Einstein, Albert Michelson, Arthur Eddington, Boeing 747, cosmic abundance, dark matter, Donald Davies, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, fake news, invention of the telescope, Isaac Newton, James Webb Space Telescope, Johannes Kepler, Kuiper Belt, Late Heavy Bombardment, Louis Pasteur, Neil Armstrong, Pierre-Simon Laplace, planetary scale, Pluto: dwarf planet, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, seminal paper

A total solar eclipse was to take place on May 29, 1919. Conveniently, it would occur in front of a rich cluster of stars known as the Hyades, offering an excellent opportunity to measure any defection of starlight by the Sun’s gravity. Less conveniently, the total eclipse could only be seen from the tropics. So the English astrophysicist Arthur Eddington mounted an expedition to the island of Principe, off the west coast of Africa, while another group set sail for Brazil. The idea was to compare photographs of the Hyades stars during the totality with those taken a few months earlier at night and measure any shifts in the stars’ positions relative to each other.

…

The idea was to compare photographs of the Hyades stars during the totality with those taken a few months earlier at night and measure any shifts in the stars’ positions relative to each other. Most of Eddington’s photographs during the eclipse turned out to be useless, because wispy clouds obscured the stars. But one good photograph allowed him to discern a tiny defection: his measurement and Einstein’s prediction were in good agreement. “Through clouds, hopeful,” he telegraphed home. The team in Brazil had better luck with weather, but its photographs could not be examined until the members returned to Europe. On November 6, the offcial results of the expeditions were presented at a joint meeting of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society in London.

…

Little did McCormick know that she, a Kiwi mother with no formal scientifc training, was treading on the legacy of Albert Einstein, possibly the most celebrated scientist of all time. In his general theory of relativity, completed in 1915, Einstein proposed a whole new theory of gravity. Instead of the Newtonian idea of gravity as an attractive force, he conceptualized gravity as geometry: a massive object warps the fabric of space-time around it. That means light, instead of traveling in a straight line, takes a curved path in its vicinity. Einstein’s equations predicted by just how much the light’s path would bend. The stunning confrmation came four years later. A total solar eclipse was to take place on May 29, 1919.

What We Cannot Know: Explorations at the Edge of Knowledge by Marcus Du Sautoy

Albert Michelson, Andrew Wiles, Antoine Gombaud: Chevalier de Méré, Arthur Eddington, banking crisis, bet made by Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne, Black Swan, Brownian motion, clockwork universe, cosmic microwave background, cosmological constant, dark matter, Dmitri Mendeleev, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Edward Lorenz: Chaos theory, Ernest Rutherford, Georg Cantor, Hans Lippershey, Harvard Computers: women astronomers, heat death of the universe, Henri Poincaré, Higgs boson, invention of the telescope, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Large Hadron Collider, Magellanic Cloud, mandelbrot fractal, MITM: man-in-the-middle, Murray Gell-Mann, music of the spheres, Necker cube, Paul Erdős, Pierre-Simon Laplace, quantum entanglement, Richard Feynman, seminal paper, Skype, Slavoj Žižek, stem cell, Stephen Hawking, technological singularity, Thales of Miletus, Turing test, wikimedia commons

Pull against gravity and you are accelerating and thus slowing your clock down. So Einstein’s theory predicted that light would be bent by the presence of a large mass. It was a highly unexpected prediction of the theory, but one that could be tested: a perfect scenario for a scientific theory. Convincing evidence for this picture of a curved space-time was provided by the British astronomer Arthur Eddington’s observations of light from distant stars recorded during the solar eclipse of 1919. The theory predicted that the light from distant stars would be bent by the gravitational effect of the Sun. Eddington needed the eclipse to block out the glare of the Sun so that he could see the stars in the sky.

…

An aeroplane flying from London to New York takes a curved path passing over Greenland rather than the straight line we’d expect by looking at a map of the Earth. This curved line is the shortest path between the two points on the Earth. Light too found the shortest path from the star to Eddington’s telescope on Earth. Eddington announced his experimental evidence confirming Einstein’s ideas on 6 November 1919. Within days, newspaper headlines across the world trumpeted the great achievement: ‘EINSTEIN THEORY TRIUMPHS: Stars Not Where They Seemed To Be, but Nobody Need Worry’ announced the New York Times; ‘Revolution in Science’ declared the London Times. Although we’re quite used to Higgs bosons or gravitational waves hitting the headlines, this was probably the first time in history that a scientific achievement was given such public exposure.

…

Heralded by journalists as the new Newton, the obscure 40-year-old Einstein shot to international fame. If you are finding all this warping of space and time bending your brain, don’t despair. You are in good company. After Eddington announced his discovery that light bends, a colleague came up to congratulate him: ‘You must be one of only three people in the world to understand Einstein’s theory.’ When Eddington failed to respond, the colleague prompted: ‘Come, come, there is no need to be modest.’ ‘On the contrary,’ replied Eddington, ‘I was trying to think who was the third.’ But trying to say what happens to time as we head back towards the Big Bang would test even Eddington’s understanding of Einstein’s theory. 10 There is a place where time stands still.

Why the West Rules--For Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future by Ian Morris

addicted to oil, Admiral Zheng, agricultural Revolution, Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Apollo 11, Arthur Eddington, Atahualpa, Berlin Wall, British Empire, classic study, Columbian Exchange, conceptual framework, cotton gin, cuban missile crisis, defense in depth, demographic transition, Deng Xiaoping, discovery of the americas, Doomsday Clock, Eddington experiment, en.wikipedia.org, falling living standards, Flynn Effect, Ford Model T, Francisco Pizarro, global village, God and Mammon, Great Leap Forward, hiring and firing, indoor plumbing, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), invention of agriculture, Isaac Newton, It's morning again in America, James Watt: steam engine, Kickstarter, Kitchen Debate, knowledge economy, market bubble, mass immigration, Medieval Warm Period, Menlo Park, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, mutually assured destruction, New Journalism, out of africa, Peter Thiel, phenotype, pink-collar, place-making, purchasing power parity, RAND corporation, Ray Kurzweil, Ronald Reagan, Scientific racism, sexual politics, Silicon Valley, Sinatra Doctrine, South China Sea, special economic zone, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Steven Pinker, strong AI, Suez canal 1869, The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Thomas Kuhn: the structure of scientific revolutions, Thomas L Friedman, Thomas Malthus, trade route, upwardly mobile, wage slave, washing machines reduced drudgery

That provides an easy test of the theory—except for the fact that the sun is so bright that we cannot see stars near it. But in 1919 the British astronomer Arthur Eddington came up with a clever solution, very much in the spirit of Einstein’s aphorism: by looking at the stars near the sun during a solar eclipse, Eddington realized, he could measure whether they had shifted by the amount Einstein predicted. Eddington set off to the South Pacific, made his observations, and pronounced Einstein correct. Acrimonious arguments ensued, because the difference between results that supported Einstein and results that disproved him was tiny, and Eddington was pushing the instruments available in 1919 to their very limits; yet despite the theory of relativity’s complexity,* astronomers could agree on what they needed to measure and how to measure it.

…

TAKING THE MEASURE OF THE PAST 135 “From the remotest past”: Spencer 1857, p. 465. 137 “the vanity”: Max Weber, cited in Gerth and Mills 1946, p. 66, note. 139 “exist[ing] in a”: Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle (1882), chapter 10. 139 agreement among indices: Carneiro 2003, pp. 167–68. 140 “sympathy and even admiration”: Sahlins 2005, pp. 22–23. 141 “Evolutionary theories”: Shanks and Tilley 1987, p. 164. 141 “We no longer”: Ortner 1984, p. 126. 143 “The ships”: Lord Robert Jocelyn, cited from Waley 1958, p. 109. 143 “as if the subjects”: Armine Mountain, cited from Fay 1997, p. 222. 145 “in science”: people regularly attribute these or similar words to Einstein, but no one has been able to trace them back to a source. The strongest claim I have seen is on the One Degree website (http://www.onedegree.ca/2005/04/08/making-einstein-simple), suggesting that the phrase actually comes from a Reader’s Digest summary of the general theory of relativity. Perhaps it was the most important thing Einstein never said (but should have). 145 “I’m just wondering”: Arthur Eddington, quoted in Isaacson 2007, p. 262. 146 Norway and Sierra Leone scores: United Nations Development Programme 2009, Table H, pp. 171, 174 (available at http://hdr.undp.org/en/). 148 E x T → C: L.

…

Acrimonious arguments ensued, because the difference between results that supported Einstein and results that disproved him was tiny, and Eddington was pushing the instruments available in 1919 to their very limits; yet despite the theory of relativity’s complexity,* astronomers could agree on what they needed to measure and how to measure it. It was then just a matter of whether Eddington had got the measurements right. Coming down from the sublime movement of the stars to the brutal bombardment of Tinghai, though, we immediately see that things are much messier when we are dealing with human societies. Just what should we be measuring to assign scores to social development? If Einstein provides our theoretical lead, we might take a practical lead from the United Nations Human Development Index, not least because it has a lot in common with the kind of index that will help answer our question.

Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military by Neil Degrasse Tyson, Avis Lang

active measures, Admiral Zheng, airport security, anti-communist, Apollo 11, Arthur Eddington, Benoit Mandelbrot, Berlin Wall, British Empire, Buckminster Fuller, Carrington event, Charles Lindbergh, collapse of Lehman Brothers, Colonization of Mars, commoditize, corporate governance, cosmic microwave background, credit crunch, cuban missile crisis, dark matter, Dava Sobel, disinformation, Donald Trump, Doomsday Clock, Dr. Strangelove, dual-use technology, Eddington experiment, Edward Snowden, energy security, Eratosthenes, European colonialism, fake news, Fellow of the Royal Society, Ford Model T, global value chain, Google Earth, GPS: selective availability, Great Leap Forward, Herman Kahn, Higgs boson, invention of movable type, invention of the printing press, invention of the telescope, Isaac Newton, James Webb Space Telescope, Johannes Kepler, John Harrison: Longitude, Karl Jansky, Kuiper Belt, Large Hadron Collider, Late Heavy Bombardment, Laura Poitras, Lewis Mumford, lone genius, low earth orbit, mandelbrot fractal, Maui Hawaii, Mercator projection, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, mutually assured destruction, Neil Armstrong, New Journalism, Northpointe / Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions, operation paperclip, pattern recognition, Pierre-Simon Laplace, precision agriculture, prediction markets, profit motive, Project Plowshare, purchasing power parity, quantum entanglement, RAND corporation, Ronald Reagan, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, skunkworks, South China Sea, space junk, Stephen Hawking, Strategic Defense Initiative, subprime mortgage crisis, the long tail, time dilation, trade route, War on Poverty, wikimedia commons, zero-sum game

., 152–53 Dyna-Soar spaceplane, 279 Earth-observation satellites, see remote-sensing satellites Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company, 144 Eastman Kodak, 203, 205 Ebertin, Elsbeth, 57–58, 61 Echo communication satellite, 278 eclipses and ancient astronomy, 44–49, 423–24n cycle of lunar eclipses, 56 daguerreotype of solar eclipse, 144 effects on history, 45–49 evidence of Earth’s slowing rotation, 46 Eddington, Arthur, 400–401 Edison, Thomas Alva, 220 education in science and engineering decline in US share of degrees, 22, 31 reaction to Sputnik launch, 270, 490n Egypt ancient astronomy, 39, 40, 42 early ships, 68, 432n Nabta Playa, 42 pyramids at Giza, 42 solar calendar with 365 days, 40, 422–23n Einstein, Albert, 182, 215, 218 Eisenhower, Dwight D. Atoms for Peace, 287, 498–99n on military-industrial complex, 26, 161, 404 military space budget, 282 military space efforts, 273–74, 278–79 moratorium on nuclear testing, 307 presidential exit speech, 26, 161 Project Plowshare, 287, 499n proposed ban on weapons in space, 281 quest for both peace and preparedness, 275–78, 493–94n satellite proposals, 267, 271, 488n, 491n science advisor appointed, 269, 491n Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, 269, 275 Vela Hotel satellites and, 216 electric telegraphs, 118, 123 electromagnetic pulse, 290 electromagnetic spectrum, 100–101, 168–69, 170–71, 199–200, 209, 213–14 Elements of Geometry (Euclid), 44, 107 elements, origin of, 400–403 Ellsberg, Daniel, 248 empire building American empire, 34–36 by Portuguese, 81, 83–84, 87–88 and science, in eighteenth century, 90–91, 95, 439n in seventeenth century, 90 by Spain, 87–88 Enceladus, 196–97 Energiya, 359, 363 Energomash, 363 England, warfare in seventeenth century, 108–9, 443–44n Enlargement of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, 502n Enola Gay, 457n entanglement (photons), 313, 351 ephemerides, 82, 94 Eratosthenes, 87, 434n, 437n Euclid, 44, 107 Eudoxus of Cnidus, 71, 72, 73 European Defence Agency, 327 European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), 328 European Launcher Development Organisation, 326 European Space Agency ACES (Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space), 339 collaboration with China, 377 collaboration with Russia, 364 Columbus laboratory linked to ISS, 368 nonmilitary mandate, 326–27, 329–30 recent successes, 32 science spending, 520n, 533n space weather prediction, 160–61 weather satellites, 341 European Space Research Organisation, 326 European Union code of space conduct, 397 Common Security and Defence Policy, 327 military spending, 327, 512n nonmilitary interest in space, 22, 326–27 reliance on soft power, 326 space spending, 329 “Space Strategy for Europe,” 328–29 stability as vital goal, 325–26 terrorist attacks, 327 on threats to global security, 14 ExoMars, 364 exoplanets, detection of, 175, 399 Experiments and Observations on Electricity (Franklin), 123 Explorer 1 satellite, 269 Explorer XI satellite, 213–14 exports of military space systems, 300, 505n eye (human), abilities and limitations of, 100–101 Fair Housing Act of 1968, 288 FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope), 182 “Fat Man” (Nagasaki), 303, 307, 505n Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (NASA), 199 financial crisis of 2008–2009, 3–4 Finnish Meteorological Institute, 385 First Battle of Bull Run, 124, 448n, 449n first use of nuclear weapons, as option, 308, 309 Five D’s: deception, disruption, denial, degradation, and destruction, 322 Fizeau, Armand-Hippolyte-Louis, 144 Flamsteed, John, 52, 94 FOBS (Fractional Orbital Bombardment System), 286 F-117A stealth fighter, 197, 198, 332, 470n, 514n food for mariners, 84–85 Food Stamps Act of 1964, 288 Fort Sumter, 124 Foucault, Jean-Bernard-Léon, 92, 133, 144 Fowler, William, 402 Fox Talbot, William Henry, 142, 455n Franklin, Benjamin, 112, 123 Fraunhofer, Joseph von, 146 Fraunhofer lines, 146, 147 Frederick the Great, 111, 130, 446n “freedom of space” issue after Sputnik, 268–69, 301, 505n frequency, defined, 100 Frisius, Regnier Gemma, 95, 441n Fugate, Robert, 155 Fukushima nuclear disaster, 255 Furst, Luther C., 449n fusion bombs, 304, 389, 390, 391, 474n fusion in stars, 304, 389, 390, 391, 400 Gagarin, Yuri, 157, 264, 282 Galaxy IV satellite failure, 478n Galbraith, John Kenneth, 55 Galilei, Galileo astrology, 49, 52–53 discoveries with telescopes, 52, 103, 109–10 drawings, 141, 202, 455n patronage and telescopes, 105–6, 160, 173, 442–43n telescope construction, 102, 107, 110, 441–42n Galileo global positioning system, 160, 329, 337 GAMBIT (KH-8) satellites, 205 gamma-ray bursts, 214–15, 217, 473–74nn gamma rays detection of, 199, 213–18 discovery of, 171, 213 Earth’s atmosphere and, 214 generation by cosmic rays, 218 Garwin, Richard L., 249, 250–51, 377, 482n, 485n General Dynamics, 11, 18 Generall Historie of Virginia (Smith), 436n general theory of relativity, 182 geodetic meridian, 99 Geographike Hyphegesis (Ptolemy), 50, 78, 85, 86, 87 George III (king), 96 geostationary orbit (GEO), 278–79, 494n Germany air war against in World War II, 189–90 export and manufacturing after World War I, 137–39, 453n, 454nn exports before World War I, 137, 453n radar development, 186, 465n rearming in 1930s, 186 withdrawal from the League of Nations, 139 Gettysburg, 126–27, 449nn Giacconi, Riccardo, 225, 226 Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, 182–83 glass, 131 see also optical glass Glaucon, 46 global GDP, 403, 533n Global Positioning System (GPS) accuracy and precision, 332, 333, 336–37, 513n Air Force control of, 158, 337 Beidou system (China), 337 cruise missiles and, 332, 346 in first Gulf War, 332–36 funding, 337, 516n Galileo system (EU), 160, 329, 337 and geodetic meridian, 99 GLONASS system (Russia), 160, 337–38, 362, 363, 516n GPS III, 337 ionosphere and, 333 in Iraq War, 336, 346, 348 jamming of, 333, 515n, 516n NAVSTAR Global Positioning System, 278, 332, 335–36 overview, 158, 332–33, 339–40 selective availability, 336 smart bombs and, 335 global security, 14–15 GLONASS global positioning system, 160, 337–38, 362, 363, 516n GNSS (global navigation satellite systems), 337 Goddard, Robert, 192 Goebbels, Paul Joseph, 58, 59, 60, 61–62, 428n, 429n Goerner, F.

…

: New Approaches to Managing Human Activities in Space,” SAIS Review of International Affairs 36:2 (Summer–Fall 2016), 15–28; Hitchens and Johnson-Freese, “New National Security Space Strategy”; Weeden, “Alternatives to a Space Weapons Treaty”; “Executive Summary,” in Space Security Index 2016, ed. Jessica West (Waterloo, ON: Project Ploughshares, Sept. 2016), 1. 26.“HST Publication Statistics,” Feb. 25, 2017, archive.stsci.edu/hst/bibliography/pubstat.html (accessed Sept. 21, 2017). 27.Arthur S. Eddington (1920), quoted in S. Chandrasekhar, foreword to Eddington, The Internal Constitution of the Stars (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1926/1988), x. 28.Eddington, Internal Constitution, 301. 29.William A. Fowler, “Formation of the Elements,” Scientific Monthly 84: 2 (Feb. 1957), 98. 30.Jonathan M. Weisgall, “The Nuclear Nomads of Bikini,” Foreign Policy 39 (Summer 1980), 83. 31.E.

…

Research into radioactivity—the natural transmutation of elements—led to strong suspicions that some kind of natural nuclear process lurked behind it all, perhaps the same nuclear process that liberated sufficient energy to keep the stars shining. In 1920, with the carnage of the Great War freshly ended, the English astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington offered prescient reflections on the source of stellar energy at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science: A star is drawing on some vast reservoir of energy by means unknown to us. This reservoir can scarcely be other than the subatomic energy which, it is known, exists abundantly in all matter; we sometimes dream that man will one day learn how to release it and use it for his service.

Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand: Fifty Wonders That Reveal an Extraordinary Universe by Marcus Chown

Albert Einstein, Anton Chekhov, Apollo 11, Arthur Eddington, Carrington event, dark matter, Donald Trump, double helix, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, gravity well, horn antenna, Isaac Newton, Kickstarter, Large Hadron Collider, microbiome, Neil Armstrong, Richard Feynman, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, space junk, Stephen Hawking, Turing machine

Our big moon also pulls large tides, which twice a day leave large tracts of the ocean margins high and dry. Long ago, stranded fish evolved lungs. Ultimately, this drove the colonization of the land. Our big moon has even driven science. Total eclipses blot out the sun and make stars visible close to the solar disk. In 1919, this permitted the observation of the bending of starlight by the gravity of the sun, a key prediction of Einstein’s theory of gravity. Isaac Asimov, in his 1972 essay “The Tragedy of the Moon,” even claimed that had the moon belonged to Venus, rather than to the earth, science would have arisen 1,000 years earlier.

…

Afterwards, it was realized that violent convulsions on the solar surface, or photosphere, could fire magnetic missiles at our planet with devastating effects. In the 1920s, the British astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington deduced the internal structure of the sun and its central temperature of more than ten million degrees merely by assuming that it is a giant ball of gas. The key to this was his recognition that, because the sun is not noticeably expanding or contracting, every portion of its interior must be in perfect balance. In such a state of “hydrostatic equilibrium,” the force of gravity pulling inward on every chunk of solar matter must be perfectly countered by the force of the hot gas pushing outwards.

…

In such a state of “hydrostatic equilibrium,” the force of gravity pulling inward on every chunk of solar matter must be perfectly countered by the force of the hot gas pushing outwards. Although we now know that the sun’s heat comes from the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to helium, the by-product of which is sunlight, remarkably Eddington’s conclusions did not require him to know anything about the source of solar heat. As pointed out in Chapter 15, the sun’s central temperature depends essentially only on its mass and would be the same for a similar mass of bananas, rusty bicycles, or discarded TV sets. Eddington’s sun was a predictable and somewhat dull ball of hot gas. However, the fact that it has a magnetic field changes everything. It makes the nearest star an unpredictable, seething, explosive, infinitely surprising laboratory for extreme physics.

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife

Albert Einstein, Albert Michelson, Arthur Eddington, Cepheid variable, cosmological constant, dark matter, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Georg Cantor, heat death of the universe, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, John Conway, machine readable, Pierre-Simon Laplace, place-making, probability theory / Blaise Pascal / Pierre de Fermat, retrograde motion, Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking

This analogy explains the orbits of the planets; Earth is simply rolling around in the dimple that the sun makes in the rubber sheet. Light doesn’t go in a straight line, but in a curved path around stars—an effect that the British astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington went on an expedition in 1919 to observe. Eddington measured the position of a star during a solar eclipse and spotted the curvature that Einstein had predicted (Figure 51). Einstein’s equations also predicted something much more sinister: the black hole, a star so dense that nothing can escape its grasp, not even light. Figure 51: Gravity bends light around the sun. A black hole begins, like all stars, as a big ball of hot gas—mostly hydrogen.

…

There were a few problems. Mercury’s orbit, for instance, wobbled in a way that disagreed with what Newton predicted, but on the whole, Newton’s theories were tested again and again, and they usually passed. Einstein’s theories corrected Newton’s errors; they explained Mercury’s wobble, for instance. These theories also made testable predictions about the way gravity works. Eddington observed the bending of starlight during a solar eclipse, confirming one of those predictions. String theory, on the other hand, ties together a number of existing theories in a very pretty way, and makes a number of predictions about the way black holes and particles behave, but none of those predictions are testable or observable.

…

Discourse on Method (Descartes) distributive property division by zero Donne, John Doppler effect drawing and painting, dimension in duality: in geometry in religion E = mc 2, Earth, position of Easter, date of Eddington, Arthur Egypt, Egyptians Book of the Dead calendar of geometry invented by numerals of Einstein, Albert n E = mc2 equation of probability and relativity theory of, see relativity singularities and universe as viewed by Elder Edda electrons Eliot, T. S. ellipses elliptic curve energy, in vacuum Engels, Friedrich Epic of Gilgamesh epicycles equations beauty of differential linear quadratic escape velocity Euler, Leonhard event horizon evil exclusion principle Feynman, Richard Fibonacci five-based (quinary) system fluxions fractions free energy machines French Revolution galaxies see also universe Galileo Galilei gases plasma Gauss, Carl Friedrich gematria geometry Cartesian coordinates in Egyptian invention of projective God Aristotelian doctrine as proof of complex numbers and Pascal’s wager and universe created by golden ratio Grandi, Guido Graves, Robert gravitational lenses gravity light bent by Greeks number-philosophy of numerals of guitar strings Guy, Richard Halley, Edmund Hamlet (Shakespeare) Hardy, Thomas harmonic series Hawking, Stephen heat death Hebrew creation myths Hebrew numerals Heisenberg, Werner Hertz, Heinrich Hilbert, David Hinduism Hippasus “Hollow Men, The” (Eliot) Hooke, Robert Hubble, Edwin imaginary numbers India infinitesimals infinite vacuum infinite zeros infinity Euler and in Indian mathematics limit and and measuring area and volume Pascal’s wager and Renaissance and of universe vanishing point and integers integration interference irrationality irrational numbers irregular shapes, measuring of Islam Jansenists Jesuits Jesus Jews John I, Pope Julian Date kabbalism Kelvin, William Thomson, Lord Kepler, Johannes Koran Kronecker, Leopold Lamoreaux, Steven Laplace, Pierre-Simon Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm length Leonardo da Vinci L’Hôpital, Guillaume-François-Antoine de Liber Abaci (Fibonacci) light bending of interference in speed of ultraviolet limit line, slope of linear equations lottery Lucretius Luther, Martin Maclaurin, Colin Maimonides, Moses Manichaean heresy mass inflation of mathematics beauty in birth of Indian Mayans calendar of numerals of Michelson, Albert millennium, controversy over start of Millis, Marc Mohammed Monge, Gaspard monochord Morley, Edward motion of planets multiplication by zero musical scale Muslims myriads mysticism, Jewish NASA nature Nature nautilus negative numbers square roots of neutron star Newton, Isaac calculus of Nicholas of Cusa Number: The Language of Science (Danzig) numbers and counting Indian starting with zero numerals Arabic Babylonian Mayan omicron “On Poetry: A Rhapsody” (Swift) orders ordinal numbers Oresme, Nicholas origin of zero painting and drawing, dimension in parabola Parmenides Parthenon particle accelerators particles string theory and virtual Pascal, Blaise experiments of wager of Pascal, Étienne Pauli, Wolfgang Pensées (Pascal) pentagram perpetual-motion machines perspective, in painting and drawing photoelectric effect photons physics Planck, Max plane, complex planets: motion of Pythagorean model of see also universe plasma point vanishing Polder, Dik pole polynomials Poncelet, Jean-Victor probability projective geometry Ptolemy Puthoff, Harold Pythagoras, Pythagoreans planetary model of quadratic polynomials and equations quanta quantum leap quantum mechanics string theory and quantum sail quarks quartic polynomials quinary system quintic polynomials rate times time equals distance rationality, rational numbers ratios golden Rayleigh-Jeans law real numbers Rees, Martin Reformation relativity string theory and Renaissance renormalization retrograde motion Riemann, Georg Friedrich Bernhard Rig Veda Romans numerals of Scaliger, Joseph Schrödinger equation scientific revolution sets Seven Years’ War sexagesimal system Shakespeare, William Shiva Sierpinski, Waclaw singularities essential naked slope of tangent space-time space travel speed of light sphere square diagonal of square numbers square roots of negative numbers stain, measuring of standard candles stars Cepheid collapsing of light bent around movement of statistical mechanics steady-state theory Stefan-Boltzmann equation Stone Age string theory Suiseth, Richard supernovas Swift, Jonathan Sylvester II, Pope tachyons tally sticks tangent Taylor, Brook Tempier, Étienne Thales theories, beauty in Theory of Everything thermodynamics Thomas Aquinas, Saint time: relativity of space-time travel in timekeeping see also calendars time machine, making Times (London) Torricelli, Evangelista transfinite numbers triangle, estimating size of triangular numbers trigonometry two-based (binary) system ultraviolet catastrophe ultraviolet light uncertainty principle universe: Aristotelian model of, see Aristotle, Aristotelian doctrine big bang theory of origin of Earth’s position in as eternal expansion of fate of God as creator of Hindu model of as infinite lumpiness of size of steady-state theory of vacuum and vacuum energy in infinite and lumpiness of universe see also void vanishing point velocity escape vigesimal (base-20) system void atomism and Descartes and in Hinduism Leibniz and see also vacuum Washington Post wave functions wavelength waves interference in Wheeler, John Whitehead, Alfred North wormholes wormhole time machine, making Yorktown, USS Zeno Achilles paradox of zero: birth of as dangerous division by infinite, see also infinity life without multiplication by origins of as placeholder roots of word for starting counting with transformation of, from placeholder to number Western rejection of zero-dimensional objects zero-point energy * The Greek word for ratio was (logos), which is also the term for word.

The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything by Michio Kaku

Albert Einstein, anthropic principle, Arthur Eddington, cosmic microwave background, cosmological constant, dark matter, double helix, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Ernest Rutherford, fudge factor, Higgs boson, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Large Hadron Collider, Murray Gell-Mann, Olbers’ paradox, place-making, Richard Feynman, Schrödinger's Cat, Stephen Hawking, Tacoma Narrows Bridge, uranium enrichment

He also realized that according to his theories light should be deflected by the sun. Einstein realized that the sun’s gravity would be powerful enough to bend the starlight of nearby stars. Since these stars could only be seen during a solar eclipse, Einstein proposed that an expedition be sent to witness the solar eclipse of 1919 to test his theory. (Astronomers would have to take two pictures of the night sky, one where the sun was absent and another during a solar eclipse. By comparing these two photographs, the position of the stars during the eclipse would have to move due to the sun’s gravity.) He was certain his theory would be shown to be correct.

…

He was convinced he was correct, he wrote to his colleagues, because it had superb mathematical beauty and symmetry. When this epic experiment was finally performed by astronomer Arthur Eddington, there was remarkable agreement between Einstein’s prediction and the actual result. (Today, the bending of starlight due to gravity is routinely used by astronomers. When starlight passes near a distant galaxy, light is bent, giving the appearance of a lens bending the light. These are called gravity lenses or Einstein lenses.) Einstein would go on to win the Nobel Prize in 1921. Soon, he became one of the most recognized figures on the planet, even more than most movie stars and politicians.

…

This concept was so bizarre that, for many decades, it was considered science fiction, a strange by-product of Einstein’s equations that didn’t exist in the real world. Astronomer Arthur Eddington once wrote that “there should be a law of Nature to prevent a star from behaving in this absurd way!” Einstein even wrote a paper arguing that, under normal conditions, black holes could never form. In 1939, he showed that a whirling ball of gas could never be compressed by gravity to within the event horizon. Ironically, that very same year, Robert Oppenheimer and his student Hartland Snyder showed that black holes could indeed form from natural processes that Einstein did not foresee.

The Clockwork Universe: Saac Newto, Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern WorldI by Edward Dolnick

Albert Einstein, Apple Newton, Apple's 1984 Super Bowl advert, Arthur Eddington, clockwork universe, complexity theory, double helix, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Leo Hollis, lone genius, music of the spheres, Pierre-Simon Laplace, Richard Feynman, Saturday Night Live, scientific worldview, Simon Singh, Stephen Hawking, Thomas Kuhn: the structure of scientific revolutions

Voltaire wrote one of the most successful, Elements of Newton’s Philosophy, much as Bertrand Russell would later write ABC of Relativity. An Italian writer produced Newtonianism for Ladies, and an English author using the pen name Tom Telescope wrote a hit children’s book. But in physics a mystique of impenetrability only adds to a theory’s allure. In 1919, when the New York Times ran a story on Einstein and relativity, a subheadline declared, “A Book for 12 Wise Men.” A smaller headline added, “No More in All the World Could Comprehend It.” A few years later a journalist asked the astronomer Arthur Eddington if it was true that only three people in the world understood general relativity. Eddington thought a moment and then replied, “I’m trying to think who the third person is.”

…

See also planets; universe Aristotle’s immobile, 98–99, 172, 174 earth-centered universe, 91, 112, 113, 160, 176, 335n 112 four elements theory, 92 gravity and, 305 Greek understanding of, 92 hell, location within, 113 mathematical laws for, 93–94 right triangle of Earth, sun, moon, 138n speed of, 175 as spinning and moving, 97–99, 101, 111, 112, 170, 172 Eddington, Arthur, 298 education, 42, 62, 69–70, 69n Edward III, 27 Edwards, Jonathan, 11 Einstein, Albert, 39n, 88, 125, 132, 133, 169, 283, 304, 306, 338n 143 special relativity, 171–72, 229, 298 Elements of Newton’s Philosophy (Voltaire), 297 Elizabeth I, 37n, 78 ellipses, 40, 40, 163–65, 164, 164n, 166, 179, 275, 278 inverse-square laws and, 281–82, 282n England in the seventeenth century beheading of Charles I, xiv, 15 bulldog, 80 Civil War, xiii, xvi, 44 comets in 1664–1665, 16 crime and punishment, 53–54, 76–78, 78, 78n, 331n 78 Hanoverian claim to the throne, 261 as incurring God’s anger, 17 Newton-Leibniz feud, 259–70 plague (bubonic plague), xvi practicality celebrated, 88 Puritan rule, 15 Restoration (of monarchy), 15 scientific rise in, 98 Euclid, 40, 135, 190, 227, 240, 298 five “Platonic solids” and, 152–53, 153, 339n 153 Euclid’s geometry, 40, 40 Evelyn, John, 32–33, 60 evolution, 127, 128, 266, 309 experimentation on animals, 59, 79–82 blood transfusions, 60–61, 61, 81–82 on dogs, 80–82, 86 experimentation (cont.)

…

See also planets; sun; stars anthropomorphizing of, 93 Biblical dating of, 128 clockwork universe, xvii, 18, 182–83, 274, 310, 311–13, 316 earth-centered, 91, 112, 113, 160, 176, 335n 112 eclipse prediction, 101 Einstein and shape of, 88 fifth element of, quintessence, 92 Greek view of, 90–92 life on other worlds, 99, 143n man-centered, 95–96, 112–13, 116, 309–10 Milky Way, 106, 110 motions of the stars, 100 planets, 91, 100, 100–101, 105, 110, 110–11 position of stars in the sky, 92, 92n Ptolemaic model, 99–100, 100, 335n 112 right triangle of Earth, sun, moon, 138n size of, 113 sun-centered solar system, 97–99, 112, 146, 154, 156, 160, 171 Urban VIII, Pope, 170 U. S. Constitution, 316 vacuum chamber, 4, 59–60, 65, 198n vacuums, 197–98, 198n, 286 falling objects and, 188 van Doesburg, Theo, 196 Van Gogh, Vincent, 92n Vermeer, Jan, 115n Vicars, George, 27–28 Vidal, Gore, 75 Virtuoso, The (Shadwell), 85–86 Voltaire, 45, 127, 158n, 235, 236, 297, 317 Wallis, John, 231 Watson, James, 155 Watts, Isaac, 12 “weapon salve,” 50, 50n, 52 Westfall, Richard, 232, 319, 343n 226, 351n 319 Whewell, William, 300 Whiston, William, 311 Whitehead, Alfred North, xvii, 42, 195, 342n 195 Whiteside, D.

Time Travel: A History by James Gleick

Ada Lovelace, Albert Einstein, Albert Michelson, Arthur Eddington, augmented reality, butterfly effect, Charles Babbage, crowdsourcing, Doomsday Book, Eddington experiment, index card, Isaac Newton, John von Neumann, luminiferous ether, Marshall McLuhan, Norbert Wiener, pattern recognition, Plato's cave, pneumatic tube, Richard Feynman, Schrödinger's Cat, self-driving car, Stephen Fry, Stephen Hawking, telepresence, The future is already here, time dilation, Wayback Machine, wikimedia commons

— THERE’S A CATCHPHRASE, the arrow of time, familiarly used by scientists and philosophers in many languages (la flèche du temps, Zeitpfeil, zamanın oku, ось времени) as shorthand for a complex fact that everyone knows: time has a direction. The phrase spread widely in the 1940s and 1950s. It came from the pen of Arthur Eddington, the British astrophysicist who first championed Einstein. In a series of lectures at the University of Edinburgh in the winter of 1927 Eddington was attempting to comprehend the great changes under way in the nature of scientific thought. The next year he published his lectures as a popular book, The Nature of the Physical World. It struck him that all previous physics was now seen to be classical physics, another new expression.

…

SIX * * * Arrow of Time The great thing about time is that it goes on. But this is an aspect of it which the physicist sometimes seems inclined to neglect. —Arthur Eddington (1927) WE ARE FREE to leap about in time—all this hard-won expertise must be good for something—but let’s just set the clock to 1941 again. Two young Princeton physicists make an appointment to call at the white clapboard house at 112 Mercer Street, where they are led into Professor Einstein’s study. The great man is wearing a sweater but no shirt, shoes but no socks. He listens politely as they describe a theory they are cooking up to describe particle interactions.

…

Sean Carroll, From Eternity to Here, 2010. Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction, 2008. Paul Davies, About Time, 1995. How to Build a Time Machine, 2001. John William Dunne, An Experiment with Time, 1927. Arthur Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World, 1928. J. T. Fraser, ed., The Voices of Time, 1966, 1981. Peter Galison, Einstein’s Clocks, Poincaré’s Maps: Empires of Time, 2004. J. Alexander Gunn, The Problem of Time, 1929. Claudia Hammond, Time Warped, 2013. Diane Owen Hughes and Thomas R. Trautmann, eds., Time: Histories and Ethnologies, 1995. Robin Le Poidevin, Travels in Four Dimensions, 2003.

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer

Abraham Maslow, Albert Einstein, Alfred Russel Wallace, anesthesia awareness, anthropic principle, Boeing 747, butterfly effect, cognitive dissonance, complexity theory, conceptual framework, correlation does not imply causation, cosmological principle, death from overwork, discovery of DNA, Eddington experiment, false memory syndrome, Gary Taubes, Higgs boson, invention of the wheel, Isaac Newton, laissez-faire capitalism, Laplace demon, life extension, moral panic, Murray Gell-Mann, out of africa, Richard Feynman, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Silicon Valley, Stephen Hawking, Steven Pinker, The Bell Curve by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, the scientific method, Thomas Kuhn: the structure of scientific revolutions

Historians of science have determined, for example, that in one of the most famous experiments in the history of science, the confirmation bias was hard at work. In 1919, the British astronomer Arthur Stanley Eddington tested Einstein's prediction for how much the sun would deflect light coming from a background star during an eclipse (the only time you can see stars behind the sun). It turns out that Eddington's measurement error was as great as the effect he was measuring. As Stephen Hawking (1988) described it, "The British team's measurement had been sheer luck, or a case of knowing the result they wanted to get, not an uncommon occurrence in science." In going through Eddington's original data, historians S. Collins and J.

…

Collins and J. Pinch (1993) found that "Eddington could only claim to have confirmed Einstein because he used Einstein's derivations in deciding what his observations really were, while Einstein's derivations only became accepted because Eddington's observation seemed to confirm them. Observation and prediction were linked in a circle of mutual confirmation rather than being independent of each other as we would expect according to the conventional idea of an experiment test." In other words, Eddington found what he was looking for. Of course, science contains a special self-correcting mechanism to get around the confirmation bias: other people will check your results or rerun the experiment.

…

Reprinted in the January/February 1996 issue of the Journal of Historical Review, the organ of Holocaust denial, is a famous quote from the nineteenth-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, which is quoted often by those on the margins: "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident." But "all truth" does not pass through these stages. Lots of true ideas are accepted without ridicule or opposition, violent or otherwise. Einstein's theory of relativity was largely ignored until 1919, when experimental evidence proved him right. He was not ridiculed, and no one violently opposed his ideas.

Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick

Albert Einstein, American ideology, Arthur Eddington, Brownian motion, Charles Babbage, disinformation, double helix, Douglas Hofstadter, Dr. Strangelove, Eddington experiment, Ernest Rutherford, gravity well, Gödel, Escher, Bach, Higgs boson, Isaac Newton, John von Neumann, Menlo Park, military-industrial complex, Murray Gell-Mann, mutually assured destruction, Neil Armstrong, Norbert Wiener, Norman Mailer, pattern recognition, Pepto Bismol, Richard Feynman, Richard Feynman: Challenger O-ring, Ronald Reagan, Rubik’s Cube, Sand Hill Road, Schrödinger's Cat, sexual politics, sparse data, Stephen Hawking, Steven Levy, the scientific method, Thomas Kuhn: the structure of scientific revolutions, uranium enrichment

., 298 background, 235–38 at Cornell, 235, 238 Feynman and, 3–4, 7, 240–41, 244, 249–51, 262–66, 273, 323, 368, 424 genius and, 317, 320–21, 323, 328 Nobel Prize, 377–78 Oppenheimer and, 269–70 quantum electrodynamics, 239–40, 252, 259, 263, 266–72, 274, 279–80, 307, 309, 348, 367 Schwinger and, 261, 266–68, 271 Dyson, George, 235, 267 Dyson, Mildred, 235–36 Dyson graph, 269, 273 earthquake science, 281–82 Eastman, George, 55 Eddington, Arthur, 52, 75, 109, 433 Edgerton, Harold, 77 Edison, Thomas Alva, 40–44, 54–55, 319–20, 329 Einstein, Albert, 5, 9–10, 45, 54, 56, 70, 112, 120, 123, 129, 209, 244, 264, 281, 324, 386, 433–34 atomic bomb, 136 Bohr and, 40 brain, 311–12 ether, 18, 101–2 Feynman and, 98, 115, 117, 118–19, 257 legend, 41–44, 311–13, 320–22, 326 Nobel Prize, 375–77 photoelectric effect, 71, 377 on Princeton, 97 on quantum mechanics, 40, 45, 215, 243, 347 relativity, 42–43, 71, 72, 255, 329, 351–52, 365, 368, 375, 429–30 religion and, 58, 372 retirement, 118–19 Einstein Award, 295–96, 343, 378–79 Eisenhower, Dwight D., 296, 297, 340 electric light, 319, 329 electricity, 320 electron, 4, 5, 33, 71–73, 79, 86, 114, 122–23, 127, 231–32, 283, 306 -electron interaction, 48–49, 273 -neutron interaction, 270–71 -photon interaction, 241–42, 246 -positron interaction, 253–54 -proton interaction, 391–95 in beta decay, 335–37 magnetic moment, 251–52 reality of, 375 self-energy, 99–102, 109–12, 239–40, 251–52, 256, 273–75, 380 in solids, 88–90, 349 spin, 229–31, 239 two-slit experiment, 247–48, 250, 366 electron microscope, 38, 355 electroweak theory, 431 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 25, 38, 49, 286, 354–55 energy, 31, 38–39 conservation of, 60, 88, 139, 330, 360–61 force vs., 87–89, 226 gravity waves and, 352 infinite, 49, 99, 253 kinetic and potential, 60–61, 121 mass and, 4, 42 negative, 122, 253 quantum mechanics and, 71–72, 74, 127 textbooks and, 398 Engineering and Science, 355–56 ENIAC, 182 entropy, 355, 362–63, 435 Erhard, Werner, 405–6 Esalen Institute, 407 est Foundation, 405 ether, 18, 42, 48, 101 Ethical Culture School (New York), 24, 159 Euclid, 34, 41, 121 evolution, 31–32, 208, 332 exclusion principle, 6–7, 255, 258 explanation, 357, 364–75 Explorer satellites, 415–16 Far Rockaway (New York), 20–24, 45–49, 64, 98, 126, 191, 409 Temple Israel, 219, 296 Far Rockaway High School, 30–36, 60–61, 302 Young People’s Socialist League, 296 Faraday, Michael, 101 Faulkner, William, 380 Faust (Goethe), 52, 66, 208, 236 Federal Bureau of Investigation, 296–97 Fermat, Pierre de, 57–58, 61, 250 Fermat’s last theorem, 267 Fermi, Enrico, 305, 309 calculating ability, 175 death, 294 Feynman and, 282–83 as genius, 322 “lightness of approach,” 166–67 nuclear reactor, 146, 157, 161 nuclear research, 79, 95, 173 at Pocono, 5, 255–57 Schwinger and, 216 at Trinity, 155, 203 Fermi-Dirac statistics, 399 Fermi interaction, see weak interaction Feynman, Anne (paternal grandmother), 24 Feynman, Arline Greenbaum (first wife), 45–46, 64–65, 67, 69, 91, 116–17, 146, 184–88, 206, 212–14, 221–22, 264, 287, 289, 290, 343, 409–10 illness, 117, 126–27, 134–35, 149–51, 159–60, 170, 191–96, 200–202 marriage, 149–51 Feynman, Carl (son), 346, 378, 396–98, 405, 409, 435 Feynman, Gweneth Howarth (third wife), 340–47, 353, 378, 401–2, 405, 408, 426, 438 Feynman, Henry Phillips (brother), 25–26, 46, 221 Feynman, Joan (sister), 16, 19, 26–27, 30, 40–42, 46, 64, 135, 194–95, 202, 220–21, 335–36, 438 Feynman, Louis (paternal grandfather), 24 Feynman, Lucille (née Phillips, mother), 15, 19, 23, 24–26, 27–28, 32, 40–42, 46, 115, 149–51, 156, 159, 169, 182–83, 201, 213–14, 220–21, 263, 293, 346, 378–79, 397 Feynman, Mary Louise (second wife), see Bell, Mary Louise Feynman, Melville (father), 22, 24–26, 27–31, 40–42, 46, 68, 91, 126, 133, 149–51, 169, 176, 186, 214, 219–22, 242, 379, 388, 410 Feynman, Michelle (daughter), 346, 396–98, 401, 408, 437 Feynman, Richard Phillips “aggressive dopiness,” 405 ambition, 34, 170, 265–66 atomic bomb and, 3, 6, 11, 15, 140, 153–205, 213, 216, 218, 224–25, 263–64, 417 awards, 295–96, 343, 375–86 beaches and, 21–22, 283–87, 339, 401 beauty and, 13, 373, 435 birth, 25 books, 11–13 The Character of Physical Law, 13, 364–71 The Feynman Lectures on Physics, 12, 21–22, 37–38, 145, 357–64, 407, 435–36 Photon-Hadron Interactions, 395 QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, 13 Quantum Electrodynamics, 12 Surely You’re Joking, Mr.

…

New Yoik: Pantheon. Earman, John. 1989. World Enough and Space-Time. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Eddington, A. S. 1940. The Nature of the Physical World. New York: Macmillan. Edson, Lee. 1967. “Two Men in Search of the Quark.” New York Times Magazine, 8 October, 54. Einstein, Albert. 1909. “Development of Our Conception of the Nature and Constitution of Radiation.” Physikalishe Zeitschrift 22:1909. In Weaver 1987, 2:295. Einstein, Albert, and Infeld, Leopold. 1938. The Evolution of Physics: From Early Concepts to Relativity and Quanta. New York: Dover. Erwin, G. S. 1946. A Guide for the Tuberculous Patient.

…

“Time’s arrow” was already the catchphrase for this directionality, so evident to common experience, yet so invisible in the equations of physicists. There, in the equations, the road from past to future looked identical to the road from future to past. “There is no signboard to indicate that it is a one-way street,” complained Arthur Eddington. The paradox had been there all along, since Newton at least, but relativity had highlighted it. The mathematician Hermann Minkowski, by visualizing time as a fourth dimension, had begun to reduce past-future to the status of any pair of directions: left-right, up-down, back-front. The physicist drawing his diagrams obtains a God’s-eye view.

The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium by Martin Gurri

Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Alan Greenspan, Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Arthur Eddington, Ayatollah Khomeini, bitcoin, Black Monday: stock market crash in 1987, Black Swan, Burning Man, business cycle, citizen journalism, Climategate, Climatic Research Unit, collective bargaining, creative destruction, crowdsourcing, currency manipulation / currency intervention, dark matter, David Graeber, death of newspapers, disinformation, Eddington experiment, en.wikipedia.org, Erik Brynjolfsson, facts on the ground, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, Frederick Winslow Taylor, full employment, Great Leap Forward, housing crisis, income inequality, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), invention of writing, job-hopping, military-industrial complex, Mohammed Bouazizi, Nate Silver, Occupy movement, Port of Oakland, Republic of Letters, Ronald Reagan, scientific management, Skype, Steve Jobs, the scientific method, The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver, too big to fail, traveling salesman, University of East Anglia, urban renewal, War on Poverty, We are the 99%, WikiLeaks, Yochai Benkler, young professional

If Science Is the Modern Deity, Then the Public Is on the Verge of Deicide The epochal moment for the prestige of modern science among the public came on November 6, 1919, when the Royal Society, meeting in Piccadilly, London, announced the findings of Arthur Eddington’s expedition to the island of Principe and the city of Sobral in northern Brazil. At stake was the very shape of the universe. Eddington, head of the Cambridge Observatory, had measured the gravitational curvature of light during the solar eclipse of May 29. The Newtonian universe, with its notions of absolute space, predicted a curvature of 0.87 arc-seconds. Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, however, had done away with absolute space.

…

Because a thesis must rely on abstractions like “the public” and “authority” – or, for that matter, “gravity” and “relativity” – it is to the effects that we must look for both support and falsification. Eddington’s findings in Brazil and Principe, for example, were in line with the predictable effects of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Identifying effects in human affairs is beyond tricky, because the instances are so few and the causes interact rather bafflingly with each other. The analyst must live with a higher degree of uncertainty and imprecision than a physical scientist would tolerate. I wish I could offer you a number, like Einstein’s curvature of light, to prove or disprove my story: but I can’t.

…

In general, the prestige of the scientist derived from the belief that he journeyed to realms of mystery and brought back material benefits for the human race. But certain conditions particular to the event helped amplify the resonance of Einstein’s achievement. 6.1 Albert Einstein (1947)[90] It was the first major scientific breakthrough in the age of mass media – and it occurred in a field that was impenetrable to all but a handful of brilliant specialists. When told that people believed only three scientists in the world could understand general relativity, Eddington grew quiet. “I’m just wondering who the third might be,” he explained. The public was told by the news media that the structure of the universe had been changed in incomprehensible ways by men of superhuman intellect.

Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, Arthur Eddington, Boeing 747, complexity theory, correlation coefficient, David Attenborough, discovery of DNA, double helix, Douglas Engelbart, Douglas Engelbart, Eddington experiment, I think there is a world market for maybe five computers, Isaac Newton, Jaron Lanier, Mahatma Gandhi, music of the spheres, Necker cube, p-value, phenotype, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Feynman, Ronald Reagan, Skinner box, Steven Pinker, Stuart Kauffman, world market for maybe five computers, Zipf's Law

from 'Remembering Richard Feynman', The Skeptical Inquirer (1988) Newton's dissection of the rainbow into light of different wavelengths led on to Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism and thence to Einstein's theory of special relativity. If you think the rainbow has poetic mystery, you should try relativity. Einstein himself openly made aesthetic judgements in science, and perhaps went too far. 'The most beautiful thing we can experience,' he said, 'is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.' Sir Arthur Eddington, whose own scientific writings were noted for poetic flair, used the solar eclipse of 1919 to test General Relativity and returned from Principe Island to announce, in Banesh Hoffmann's phrase, that Germany was host to the greatest scientist of the age.

…

Durham, W. H. (1991) Coevolution: Genes, Culture and Human Diversity. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 43. Dyson, F. (1997) Imagined Worlds. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 44. Eddington, A. (1928) The Nature of the Physical World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 45. Ehrenreich, B., & Mcintosh, J. (1997) The new creationism. The Nation, 9 June. 46. Einstein, A. (1961) Relativity: The Special and the General Theory. New York: Bonanza Books. 47. Eiseley, L. (1982) The Firmament of Time. London: Victor Gollancz. 48. Evans, C. (1979) The Mighty Micro. London: Victor Gollancz. 49.

…

This is because any perpetual motion machine would violate the laws of thermodynamics. Sir Arthur Eddington wrote: If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations—then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation—well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation. The Nature of the Physical World (1928) Eddington is cleverly bending over backwards to make overwhelming concessions in the first part of the passage, so that his confidence in the second part has the more impact.

The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, Arthur Eddington, Boeing 747, butterfly effect, coherent worldview, complexity theory, Computing Machinery and Intelligence, conceptual framework, cosmological principle, different worldview, Donald Knuth, Douglas Hofstadter, Eddington experiment, Georg Cantor, Gödel, Escher, Bach, Johannes Kepler, Occam's razor, phenotype, quantum cryptography, Richard Feynman, scientific worldview, Stephen Hawking, the scientific method, Thomas Kuhn: the structure of scientific revolutions, time dilation, Turing machine

Nevertheless, a few decades later Einstein's general theory of relativity gave us a fundamentally different explanation of gravity, in terms of curved space and time, and thereby predicted slightly different motions again. For instance, it correctly predicted that every year the planet Mercury would drift by about one ten-thousandth of a degree away from where Newton's theory said it should be. It also implied that starlight passing close to the Sun would be deflected twice as much by gravity as Newton's theory would predict. The observation of this deflection by Arthur Eddington in 1919 is often deemed to mark the moment at which the Newtonian world-view ceased to be rationally tenable.

…

Lakatos and Musgrave) 324 crucial experimental tests see under experimental tests crypto�inductivists 143�65, 166, 341, 346 cryptography 221 ������public�key 215, 217, 219 ������quantum 217�19, 220 Darwin, Charles 169, 176, 315, 325, 331, 334, 337, 340, 366 Darwinism 333 Dawkins, Richard v, 171, 172, 176, 334, 335. 336, 340, 346, 366 {374} decoherence 213, 214, 216, 220 deduction 59, 165 ������laws of 163 ������logical 225 depth 13, 15, 16, 17, 60, 69, 70, 168, 344�5, 366 Descartes, Rene 81, 89, 112, 346 design ������and aesthetics 363 ������and living organisms 337 ������of spaceship 4 ������of structures 14 ������of universal computer 111 ������see also adaptation determinism 270, 273 ������and chaos 202 ������and free will 338 ������of multiverse 277, 285 ������in quantum theory 203�6, 281 ������in time travel 313 Deutsch, David ������'cannot consistently judge this statement to be true' 237 ������as a child 1, 29, 169�70, 366 ������experience of scientific debate 325, 327 ������multiple versions of 53 ������and universal quantum computer 210 DeWitt, Bryce 278, 328, 329, 335 diagonal argument 126, 139, 140, 234, 236 Dialogue of the Two Chief World Systems (Galileo) 74�5 diamond 42, 180 discrete variables 35, 36, 211 ������see also quantization DNA 10, 68, 171, 175, 187�93, 190, 197 ������junk DNA sequences 173, 174, 188�91 ������see also genes Dr Johnson's criterion see under Johnson, Dr Samuel 'dream�people' 82 Dummett, Michael 314 Earth ������age of 27, 80 ������as apparently stationary 78, 136, 328�9� ������biosphere 169, 177, 186 ������and geocentric theory 9, 18, 55, 96 ������and heliocentric theory 9, 56, 73, 89, 96 ������as an impurity 177 ������and the 'Inquisition's theory' 77 ������and Jupiter 95 ������life on 177, 184 earthquake prediction 201 ecological niche see niches economics 20, 184 Eddington, Arthur 56, 57, 58 education 1, 15, 169�70, 185,198, 228, 247,253,291, 315, 325�7, 328, 332 effect see cause Einstein, Albert 2, 3, 17, 23, 56, 85, 157, 247, 266, 290, 311, 325, 327 Einstein's equations 311�12 electrochemistry 344 electromagnetism 9, 18, 23, 265, 271�3, 274 Elements (Euclid) 247 emergence 20, 30, 362 ������predictive and explanatory 96, 362�4 emergent phenomena 20�21, 23, 27, 30, 68, 84,137,176,191, 235, 337, 345 energy 46, 160, 177, 182, 186, 286 ������conservation of 317, 345, 353�4 ������needed to power computers and virtual�reality generators 91, no, 114, 348�9 Enlightenment, the 74 environment ������Cantgotu 128, 129, 130, 132, 133, 139, 140, 222, 231, 257, 356 ������of genes 178 {375} ������logically possible 123, 126, 128, 129, 140 ������and niche 172 ������past 291�2, 293, 305 ������physically impossible 105, 118�20 ������physically possible 105, 118, 119, 120, 122, 134�6, 140, 181, 231, 292, 293, 330�31, 348 ������quantum 209 ������rendering an 113�21, 123, 124, 125, 132, 134, 139, 179, 194, 208, 209�10, 214�15, 221, 292, 294, 295, 357 ������simulated in, 127, 298 ������specifying 113 ������unpredictable 115�16 ������see also experience epistemology 49, 55�72, 73�97, 141�66, 222�57, 315, 316, 321�43, 344�66 ������evolutionary 68 ������nature of 94, 341, 347 ������as one of the four main strands of explanation 28, 30�31, 54, 62, 320, 344 ������Popperian 61�5, 143�51, 156, 331, 332, 334, 336, 341, 346, 351, 354, 356, 366 ������as underlying all other knowledge 346 ������and time travel 315 equations of motion 25�7 ethics 29, 357, 359�63, 365�6 Euclid/Euclidean geometry 227, 241�5, 247, 254 Everett, Hugh v, 50, 328, 329, 330, 332, 335, 339 'Everett�Wheeler' theory 328 evolution 139, 196, 316, 317, 333, 346, 357 ������and adaptation 69 347 ������compared with scientific discovery 68, 71 ������and increasing complexity 346 ������as a computation 197 Dawkins and 334 punctuated equilibrium theory 334�5 stellar 182�3 theory of 20, 27, 167�93, 315, 321�43, 344�66; as one of the four main strands of explanation 28, 30�31, 140, 166 ������as a world�view 345�6 evolutionary epistemology 68 excluded middle, law of the 232, 233 existence see reality experience(s) ������a classification of 105 ������external 103, 104, 121, 136 ������and inductivism 61 ������internal 103�4, 105, 121 ������logically impossible 104�5 ������logically possible 104, 105, 121 ������and virtual reality 120�21, 122, 130, 136 ������see also environment experimental tests 65, 71, 239, 321, 323, 332 ������and criticism 65, 66, 71 ������crucial 6�7, 30, 65, 147 ������and explanations 7, 141�2 ������Galileo and 73, 74 ������and proof 224 ������and refuting rival theories 65, 147, 149 explanation(s) 11, 13, 29, 48, 84, 139, 159, 239, 241, 342 ������argument and 75, 164�5 ������bad 7, 62�3, 65, 80, 142, 150, 156, 161 ������by causes 24 ������and complexity 21, 78�9, 90�92 ������and criticism 66 ������crypto�inductivists and 143 ������emergent 362�4 ������and experiments 7, 141�2 ������is unlike food 9 {376} ������four main strands of see four main strands of explanation ������and fundamental phenomena 168 ������and the initial state 24, 27 ������justification of 69, 84, 85, 146, 165 ������mathematical 253 ������and Occam's razor 78 ������practical value of 4�6 ������and prediction 5, 6, 8, 30, 56�7, 62, 64�5, 66, 76 ������proof and 236 ������in pure mathematics 236 ������as the purpose of science 4, 7, 51, 236 ������reductive 21, 24, 30 ������renouncing 231, 316 ������and simplicity 11, 21, 24, 78�9, 90�92, 137, 142 ������solipsism as an 97, 142, 233 ������theories and 2�3, 4, 7, 60, 66, 70, 71, 76, 80�81, 117, 118, 157, 332 ������and the theory of everything 19 ������and truth 142 ������ultimate 85, 169 ������and understanding 11, 224 ������and universality 29 explanatory gaps (in four strands) 336�7, 340, 342, 343 exponential computation see under computation external experience see under experience extrapolation 59�62, 71, 350 extraterrestrial intelligence 4, 116, 185, 314, 353 factorization 104, 199�200, 215�16, 221, 251 ������quantum factorization engine 215�16, 217 fallibility 71�2, 76, 102�3, 146, 163, 225, 326, 332, 365 faith 74, 143, 169, 357 Faraday, Michael 9, 32, 265, 325, 344 ������'death in 1830' premise 274�6, 288 'feelies' (movies for all the senses) 109, 111 Feynman, Richard 200, 201, 208�10, 252 fibre optics 219 final state 25�6, 202 flight simulators 5, 98�9, 101�4, 106�8, 118�19 Floater 144 flow of time see under time Forms 226, 227, 238, 242, 243, 254 Foucault pendulum 89 four main strands of explanation 321�43, 366 ������apparently narrow, inhuman and pessimistic 336, 342, 343 ������explanatory gaps 336�7, 340, 342, 343 ������and the first real Theory of Everything 28�9, 345 ������and time travel 288, 318, 319 ������see also computation theory; epistemology; evolution, theory of; quantum theory 'four�colour conjecture' 249 free fall 106�8 free will 269, 270, 288, 294, 307, 331, 338�9, 339, 361, 366 Freedom and Rationality: Essays in Honour of John Watkins 144n Frege, Gottlob 230, 254 frogs 34�5, 35, 42, 47, 52 fundamental phenomena/theory 28, 168, 176, 177 future, changing the 309 Galileo Galilei 83, 86, 87, 93, 95, 193, 214, 222, 224�5, 324, 325, 335 ������'Book of Nature' 74, 222 ������concept of a law of nature 337 ������concept of reality 74, 94 {377} ������develops the method of systematic experimental testing 73 ������and the heliocentric theory 73, 74, 75, 76, 78, 89 ������and the Inquisition 73, 75�9, 328 ������insists on the precedence of scientific reasoning 74 ������and quantum theory 327, 328�9 ������recants 73 ������theory of inertia 78, 329 gap ������explanatory 336�7, 340�42, 343 ������God�shaped 143 ������induction�shaped 143 Gauss, Carl Friedrich 247 genes 171�2, 192 ������as computer programs 171 ������diamond�encoded 180 ������embodying knowledge 180�81, 196 ������niches 175, 179, 181, 187, 188 ������non�replicating 180�81 ������in parallel universes 190 ������and memes 360 ������replication 171, 172, 175, 181, 187, 188, 346 ������selfish 334 ������as theories 315 ������variations in 188, 315, 334 genetic code 171 genetic theories 361 geocentric theory 9, 18, 55, 74, 75, 96 geometry ������Euclidean 227, 241, 242�3, 244, 245; 247, 254 ������and the general theory of relativity 2�3, 4, 17�18, 161, 247, 344 ������mis�classified 247 ������three dimensions of space in 267�8 God 75, 143, 315, 333, 356, 366�7 Gödel, Kurt 126, 128, 234, 235, 236, 245, 248�51, 325 ������incompleteness theorem 126, 234, 237, 240, 256 gold 34�5, 38 Goodman, Nelson 152 grandfather paradox 293, 319 grass�cure theory 7, 66, 79 Gravitation and Cosmology (Weinberg) 4 gravity 13, 18, 151, 154�7, 159, 168 ������best theory of 145 ������Einstein and 3, 23, 56, 85 ������and free fall 106 ������Newton's theory of 2, 17, 56, 85, 93 ������quantum theory of 24, 277, 278, 312, 349, 351 ������and starlight passing close to the Sun 56 Great Bear constellation 167, 191�2 Haken, Wolfgang 249 Hawking, Stephen 177, 313, 346 ������insignificance of life 177�8 heliocentric theory 9, 56, 73�9, 86, 89, 95, 96 hierarchy ������academic 325�7 ������of forms of reasoning 59, 84�5 ������of flows of time 264 ������of knowledge 20�21, 23, 84�5, 169�70 ������within mathematics 235, 255 Hilbert, David 228, 233�4, 235, 237, 240, 250 ������problems (published 1900) 234 ������tenth problem 234�5, 256 holism 11, 30 Hoyle, Fred 333 Hubble, Edwin 311 human rights 362�3 Hume, David 145, 359 Huxley, Aldous 99, 109 IBM Research 214, 218 image generators 99, 100, 105�16, 121, 123, 296�9 ������universal 109�11,121, 129, 134, 300 {378} images 122 ������artificial 106, 110 ������manipulation of 108 ������rendered 110, 113, 116 imaginary numbers 227�8 imagination ������and 'Faraday's death in 1830' premise 275 ������and reality 49, 86, 263, 285 ������and virtual reality 98, 120, 121, 122, 244 immortality 357, 359, 366 induction 59, 70, 71, 141�6, 155, 156, 166, 225, 332, 334, 340 ������'principle of induction' 142�5, 157�8, 159, 162 inductive extrapolation 60 inductivism 148, 157, 165, 166, 231, 332, 333, 350 ������as false 59�60, 61, 64, 69, 71, 84, 94, 141, 144�5, 241 ������and justification 60, 69 ������and observations 59, 60, 61, 69, 149 ������and a 'principle of induction' see under induction ������and Russell's chicken story 60�61 ������scheme of 59, 62 infinite numbers 126, 228 infinity 126, 224, 250 ������of universes 279 information 10, 19, 58, 69, 72, 160, 180, 195, 214, 215, 218, 316�18, 340, 349�50 ������complexity of 92�3 ������lost in random processes 281�2 ������processing 195, 213, 215, 318, 349�50, 354; ������see also computation ������and virtual�reality generators 100, 111, 293, 297 initial state 18, 19, 20, 24�7, 105, 201, 202, 209, 220, 357 Inquisition 73, 75�80, 86, 89, 101, 233, 240, 328, 329 'Inquisition's theory' 77, 78�80 instrumentalism 3, 29, 48, 75 ������and the Copenhagen interpretation 328 ������and an oracle 4, 6 ������positivism as an extreme form of 6 ������pragmatic 329 insulin 171 interference 41, 42, 48, 54, 89, 168, 205, 207�9, 213, 218, 252, 277�8, 318, 329 ������in Bohm's theory 93 ������as hard to detect 49, 213 ������with matter 46 ������multi�particle 46, 207 ������non�random interference phenomena 204, 206, 209 ������observation and 49�50, 213 ������and parallel universes 45, 51 ������patterns 39, 40, 41, 44, 204 ������photons deflected by 43, 89 ������quantum computers and 195 ������single�particle 46, 47, 51 ������with the real by the possible 48 interferometer 204�5, 205, 206, 209 internal experience see experience, internal intractability 203, 207, 208; see tractability intuitionism 163, 231�3, 256 intuition(s) ������about computation 131 ������about proof 249, 250�51 ������about time 263, 266�7 ������as applied to novel situations 14�15, 350 ������and geometry 147 ������and Gödel's theorem 148�9 ������inborn 254 ������logical 232 ������mathematical 227�8, 231�2, 236�7, 239, 240, 247, 252�3, 254, 256 ������physical 253, 254 ������and relativity 311 {379} ������'self�evident' 231�2 ������as theories 14 jigsaw puzzle 273, 285 Johnson, Dr Samuel 170, 292, 294, 302 ������Dr Johnson's criterion 86�93, 96, 97, 101�2, 207, 223, 224, 300 joke 81, 171 junk DNA sequences 173, 174, 188, 189, 190, 191 Jupiter 95, 177 justification 59, 60, 69, 84, 85, 141�66, 225, 248�9, 341 ������ultimate 80, 85, 94, 225 Kant, Immanuel 254 Keats, John 364 Kepler, Johannes 56, 95, 337 'kicking back' 87�90, 97, 100, 101�2, 113, 223, 224 knowledge ������comprehensibility 17, 344 ������epistemology as underlying all other 346 ������of everything that is known 1�18, 28�30 ������and explanations 30, 75, 160�61 ������as a physical quantity 187�90, 347 ������the future of 181, 184�6, 351 ������genes embodying 180�81, 196 ������growth of 7, 8, 9, 16, 17, 29, 61, 68, 313, 315, 324, 331, 338, 346�7, 351�2, 359, 365 ������hierarchy of see under hierarchy ������life and 181, 187, 191 ������mathematical 221, 226, 236, 247, 248, 257 ������multiverse view of 191, 317�18, 345 ������non�replicating 181 ������objective 69 ������perfect see certainty ������reliable 142 ������scientific 7, 21, 23�4, 30, 59, 62, 75, 117, 143, 315, 324, 331, 346 ������and self�similarity 96 ������'second�class' scientific 225�7; see also hierarchy of knowledge ������as significant 182�7 ������survival of 181 ������theory of see epistemology knowledge paradox 314, 315, 316, 319 Knuth, Donald 200 Kuhn, Thomas/Kuhnian 321�5, 327, 328, 329, 332, 334, 342 Lamarckism 333 Landauer, Rolf 214 language 152�5, 258, 259�60, 278 law of the excluded middle 232, 233 laws of physics 22�3, 105, 131, 164, 214, 221, 249, 275, 337, 356 ������and a Cantgotu environment 129 ������as capable of being approximated 197 ������as capable of being rendered 136 ������comprehensibility of 135, 197 ������and computation 98 ������and computational universality 196 ������as deterministic 270; ������see also determinism ������false 102, 119, 136, 137, 222, 224 ������and finiteness 249�50 ������and free fall 107 ������Galileo's v.

…

The observation of this deflection by Arthur Eddington in 1919 is often deemed to mark the moment at which the Newtonian world-view ceased to be rationally tenable. (Ironically, modern reappraisals of the accuracy of Eddington's experiment suggest that this may have been premature.) The experiment, which has since been repeated with great accuracy, involved measuring the positions of spots (the images of stars close to the limb of the Sun during an eclipse) on a photographic plate. As astronomical predictions became more accurate, the differences between what successive theories predicted about the appearance of the night sky diminished. Ever more powerful telescopes and measuring instruments have had to be constructed to detect the {56} differences.

Crucible: The Long End of the Great War and the Birth of a New World, 1917-1924 by Charles Emmerson

Albert Einstein, anti-communist, British Empire, continuation of politics by other means, currency peg, disinformation, Eddington experiment, Etonian, European colonialism, Ford Model T, ghettoisation, Isaac Newton, land reform, Mahatma Gandhi, Monroe Doctrine, Mount Scopus, new economy, plutocrats, strikebreaker, Suez canal 1869, trade route, W. E. B. Du Bois

‘drops pamphlets’ to ‘British are uncertain’: ‘Decypher of telegram from Fiume’, 18 September 1919, NA, FO 608/36/1. ‘comic element’: interview in the Corriere della Sera in Macdonald, 106. ‘truly Futurist’: letter dated 16 September 1919 in Ernest Ialongo, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti: The Artist and his Politics, 2015, 92. • MUNICH: ‘Capitalism Be Eliminated?’: Joachimsthaler, 252. • BERLIN: ‘Joyous news’: to Pauline Einstein, 27 September 1919, CPAE IX, 170–171. ‘need to be properly interpreted’: see Daniel Kennefick, ‘Testing Relativity from the 1919 Eclipse–a Question of Bias’, Physics Today, 62/3, 2009, 37–42; and Peter Coles, ‘Einstein, Eddington and the 1919 Eclipse’, available online at https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0102462. • MUNICH: ‘too lightly characterised’ to ‘complete and total removal’: letter to Adolf Gemlich, 16 September 1919, SA, 88–90. • SOUTHERN RUSSIA: ‘will see in my memo’: to Lloyd George, 20 September 1919, WSC IX, 865.

…

. • BELÉM: Crommelin’s account of the trip was published as ‘The Eclipse Expedition to Sobral’, The Observatory, No. 544, October 1919, 368–371. ‘local newpaper publishes’: in Marcelo C. de Lima and Luís C. B. Crispino, ‘Crommelin’s and Davidson’s Visit to Amazonia and the 1919 Total Solar Eclipse’, International Journal of Modern Physics, 25/9, 2016, 1641002-1–1641002-5. ‘team on Principe are similarly worried’: A. Vibert Douglas, The Life of Arthur Stanley Eddington, 1956, 40. • MUNICH: ‘always advocated’: Joachimsthaler, 212. • MILAN: ‘Universale Illusione’, Il Popolo d’Italia, 14 May 1919, OO XIII, 120–123. • DUBLIN: ‘willed into more elaborate form’: for the struggle to assert statehood see Townshend, 52–99, and Walsh, 127–144.

…

., The Long Thirst: Prohibition in America, 1920–1933, 1975 COHN, Norman, Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World-Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 1967 COLES, Peter, ‘Einstein, Eddington and the 1919 Eclipse’, https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0102462 CONRADI, Peter, Hitler’s Piano Player: The Rise and Fall of Ernst Hanfstaengl, Confidant of Hitler, Ally of FDR, 2004 COOGAN, Tim Pat, Michael Collins, 1990 De Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow, 1993/1995 COOPER, John Milton, Breaking the Heart of the World: Woodrow Wilson and the Fight for the League of Nations, 2001 Woodrow Wilson: A Biography, 2011 CRAWFORD, Rosemary and CRAWFORD, Donald, Michael and Natasha: The Life and Love of the Last Tsar of Russia, 1997 CRELINSTEN, Jeffrey, Einstein’s Jury: The Race to Test Relativity, 2006 CRISS, Nur Bilge, Istanbul under Allied Occupation, 1918–1923, 1999 CROSBY, Alfred W., America’s Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918, 2003 DANTO, Elizabeth Ann, Freud’s Free Clinics: Psychoanalysis and Social Justice, 2005 DARMON, Pierre, ‘Une Tragédie dans la tragédie: la Grippe Espagnole en France (Avril 1918–Avril 1919)’, Annales de Démographie Historique, 2, 2000, 153–175 DAVIS, Ryan A., The Spanish Flu: Narrative and Cultural Identity in Spain, 1918, 2013 DEAN, John W., Warren G.

Extraterrestrial Civilizations by Isaac Asimov

Albert Einstein, Cepheid variable, Columbine, Eddington experiment, Edward Charles Pickering, Future Shock, Harvard Computers: women astronomers, invention of radio, invention of the telescope, invention of writing, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Louis Pasteur, Magellanic Cloud, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, time dilation

Any mechanism that could be devised to provide it was all too apt to give them enough speed to cause them to escape from the Solar system altogether. Then, in the 1920s, the English astronomer Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944) worked out the internal temperature of the Sun (and of stars generally). The Sun’s enormous gravitational field tends to compress its matter and pull it inward, yet the Sun is gaseous throughout and has a density only about a quarter that of the Earth. Why does it not condense to much greater densities under the inexorable inward pull of gravity? To Eddington, it seemed that the only thing that could counteract the inward pull of gravity would be the outward expansive force of internal heat.

…

It involves details concerning the hydrogen atom, and that information is expressed in binary numbers. It locates the Earth relative to nearby pulsars, giving the periods of the pulsars in binary numbers. Since pulsars are in a particular place only at particular times, and since their rate of rotation slows so that they will have the given rate for only a period of time, this information tells exactly where the Earth has been relative to the rest of the Galaxy at a particular time in cosmic history. There is also a small diagram of the planets of the Solar system and an indication of Pioneer 10 itself and the path it took in going through the Solar system. The most noticeable item on the plaque, though, is a diagrammatic representation of Pioneer 10 and in front of it, to scale, an unclothed man and woman (drawn by Linda Salzman Sagan, Carl’s wife).

…

This might seem irrelevant to the problem of getting to the stars. If light takes 4.40 years to reach Alpha Centauri, need we not merely build up our speed to where it is faster than light and thus outrace the signal and get there in less time than light does? However, as Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first pointed out in his Special Theory of Relativity in 1905, it is impossible for any object with mass to exceed the speed of light. Einstein set this limit from purely theoretical considerations and it seemed, when it was first suggested, to go against the dictates of “common sense” (and it seems so to many people even today)—but it is true just the same. The speed-of-light limit has been verified in innumerable experiments and observations, and there is no even remotely reasonable ground for doubting it where the matter and the Universe we know are involved.

Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search for Life Among the Stars by Lee Billings

addicted to oil, Albert Einstein, Anthropocene, Apollo 11, Arthur Eddington, California gold rush, Colonization of Mars, cosmological principle, cuban missile crisis, dark matter, Dava Sobel, double helix, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Ford Model T, full employment, Hans Moravec, hydraulic fracturing, index card, Isaac Newton, James Webb Space Telescope, Johannes Kepler, Kuiper Belt, Late Heavy Bombardment, low earth orbit, Magellanic Cloud, music of the spheres, Neil Armstrong, out of africa, Peter H. Diamandis: Planetary Resources, planetary scale, private spaceflight, profit motive, quantitative trading / quantitative finance, Ralph Waldo Emerson, RAND corporation, random walk, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Searching for Interstellar Communications, selection bias, Silicon Valley, space junk, synthetic biology, technological singularity, the scientific method, transcontinental railway

Drake had found a way to transform the Sun itself into the ultimate telescope. A consequence of the Sun’s immense mass is that it acts as a star-size “gravitational lens,” bending and amplifying light that grazes its surface. This effect, first measured during a solar eclipse in 1919 by the astronomer Arthur Eddington, was one of the key pieces of evidence that validated Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Simple math and physics, judiciously applied, show that our star bends light into a narrow beam aligned with the center of the Sun and the center of any far-distant light source. As first calculated by the Stanford radio astronomer Von Eshleman in 1979, the beam comes into focus at a point beginning some 82 billion kilometers (51 billion miles) away from the Sun, nearly fourteen times farther out than the orbit of Pluto, and extends outward into infinity.

…

., 196, 198, 215, 221–23 Butler, Paul, 55, 58–70, 96, 114 Caldeira, Ken, 181 California, 105–7, 112–13 gold rush in, 105–6, 111, 112–13 Calvin, Melvin, 15, 19–20, 25 Cambrian Period, 138–39, 143–45, 182 Cameron, James, 258 Campbell, Joseph, 261 Canada, 244–48 Canadian Shield, 246 Capella, 239 carbon, 123, 131, 132, 134, 135, 140, 141, 175, 179, 182 carbonate-silicate cycle, 175–81, 184 carbon cycle, organic, 175 carbon dioxide (CO2), 124, 132, 134–37, 140, 141, 157, 159–62, 168, 170, 172, 173, 175–82, 184 Carboniferous Period, 131, 132 Carina Nebula, 238 Carnegie Institution, 251 Carpenter, Scott, 100 Carter, Jimmy, 240 Cash, Webster, 219–20 Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, 96 Challenger, 3, 188–89 Chandra X-Ray Observatory, 192, 209 Chaotian Eon, 139 Charbonneau, David, 228–30, 232 charged-coupled devices (CCDs), 51–53 China, 21–22 chlorofluorocarbons, 134, 142 chlorophyll, 141, 143 Christmas Tree Cluster, 238 Clinton, Bill, 196, 215 clouds, 161–62, 164, 206 coal, 125, 131, 134, 136, 137, 144, 160, 184 Columbia, 189, 196 comets, 2, 3, 19, 76–77, 140 Halley’s, 3 Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, 192, 209 computers, 43–44 Constellation program, 196, 198, 203, 204, 215, 221, 223 convergent evolution, 21 Cook, James, 85–86 Copernican Principle (principle of mediocrity), 83, 89, 91 Copernicus, Nicolaus, 81–83, 86, 87, 89, 91, 200 Cornell University, 39, 42 coronagraphic TPF, 217–22, 224, 231, 249 coronagraphs, 217 cosmology, 77–82 Copernican Principle (principle of mediocrity) in, 83, 89, 91 inflationary theory in, 89–92 modern, 86–87, 91 see also astronomy Cosmos, 240 Costanza, Robert, 74–75 Crab Nebula, 30 Crabtree, William, 84 Crutzen, Paul, 134–35 Cuban missile crisis, 23–24 cyanobacteria, 140–44, 175, 183 Daily Mail, 74 dark energy, 88, 90 dark matter, 206 Darwin, Charles, 200 Davidson, George, 113 deep time, 145–46 Democritus, 79, 80, 92, 238 Demory, Brice, 259 De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) (Lucretius), 80–81 De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of Heavenly Orbs) (Copernicus), 82 Devonian Period, 128, 130–32 Diamandis, Peter, 258 dinosaurs, 30, 136, 144 Discovery, 189 DNA, 40, 141, 143, 170 dolphins, 16, 20–21 Drake, Frank, 9–17, 27–45, 101, 167–68, 240 Arecibo transmission of, 39–41 orchids of, 37–38 Drake equation, 16–25, 28–29, 38–39, 41, 42, 183 longevity of technological civilizations (L term) in, 22–25, 38–39, 41, 42 Draper Laboratory, 256 Dyson, Freeman, 104 Dyson spheres, 104, 105 Earth, 109 asteroid strike on, 30 atmosphere of, 3, 132, 134–35, 139, 140, 144, 157–60, 168–69, 174–77, 206, 238 “Blue Marble” images of, 212, 239–41 carbonate-silicate cycle on, 175–81, 184 climate of, 123–24, 128, 132–37, 142, 144, 156–57, 160–62, 173–75, 184 in early cosmology, 77–82 energy consumption on, 103–4 extinctions on, 43, 135, 184 faint young Sun problem and, 173–75 formation of, 2, 7, 20, 139, 173 geologic time periods of, 128–45 glaciation on, 132–34, 142, 174, 176, 178, 179, 183 human population of, 43, 100, 134, 136 ice caps of, 128, 132–33, 135, 136, 184 Laughlin’s idea for moving orbit of, 76–77 Laughlin’s valuation of, 73–76 oxygen on, 139–44, 159, 171, 180–82, 200, 238 Snowball Earth events, 142, 174, 179 Sun’s distance from, 83, 86 tectonic plates of, 30, 105, 111, 128, 140, 144, 176, 229 union of organisms with geophysical systems on (Gaia hypothesis), 175, 176, 178, 183 water on, 3, 30, 158–61, 174, 177–80, 182 Earth, life on, 31, 154 diversification and explosion of, 138–39, 143, 144, 182 emergence of, 4, 7, 19–20, 238 end of, 7–8, 31–32, 75–77, 159, 180–83 essential facts of, 29–30 humanity’s ascent, 144–46 intelligent, 20–21, 182–83 jump from single-celled to multicellular, 28 redox reactions and, 168 Earth-like planets, 29, 32–34, 71–72, 99, 227–28 Earth-size or Earth-mass planets, 6, 53–54, 56, 200, 227, 251 ecology and economics, 74 economic growth, 102, 103 Eddington, Arthur, 35 Edison, Thomas, 106 Einstein, Albert, 35, 87 Elachi, Charles, 211–12, 214, 221 electricity, 103, 136 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 254 Endeavour, 190 endosymbiosis, 143 energy, 103–4, 136–38 from fossil fuels, 103, 124–27, 137, 154, 160, 184 Engelder, Terry, 126 Epicurus, 80 Epsilon Eridani, 10–11 Eshleman, Von, 35 ethanol, 137 eukaryotes, 143, 144 European Southern Observatory (ESO), 60, 64, 66 European Space Agency, 222 evolution, 183 convergent, 21 of universe, 88–89 exoplanetology, 13, 14, 34, 51, 193 exoplanets, 5, 27–28, 87, 222–23, 263 51 Pegasi b, 50, 53, 54, 58–59 Alpha Centauri Bb, 98–99 biosignatures and, 167–72, 261–62 Blue Marble images of, 212–15 distinguishing between various compositions of, 251 Earth-like, 29, 32–34, 71–72, 99, 227–28 Earth-size or Earth-mass, 6, 53–54, 56, 200, 227, 251 formation of, 109 GJ 667Cc, 65–69, 72 Gliese 581c, 163 Gliese 581d, 163 Gliese 581g (Zarmina’s World), 63–64, 68, 69, 72, 163 Gliese 876b, 60 habitability of, 154–83 HD 85512b, 163–64 Jupiter-like, 13, 28, 50, 56, 59, 60, 108, 109, 226, 228, 248–49 Laughlin’s valuation of, 71–77 migration theory and, 108 Neptune-like, 56, 108–9, 251 “Next 40 Years” conference on, 225–35, 263 observation of stars of, 33 snow line idea and, 110 super-Earths, 228–29, 251, 262 transits of, 53 TrES-4, 228 exoplanet searches, 5–7, 13–14, 32–33, 69–70 and false-alarm discoveries, 52–53 press releases on progress in, 163–65 SETI and, see SETI spectroscopy in, see spectroscopy, spectrometers see also telescopes Ferguson, Chris, 185–86 financial markets, 111–12 Fischer, Debra, 59, 61, 62, 69, 96 Ford, Eric, 249–50 Ford, Henry, 125 fossil fuels, 103, 124–27, 137, 154, 160, 184 fracking (hydraulic fracturing), 126–27 Gaia hypothesis, 175, 176, 178, 183 galactic planetary census, 54 galaxies, 87, 88, 99, 238 Andromeda, 31, 191, 238 Hubble Telescope and, 191 Local Group of, 88 Milky Way, see Milky Way Galileo, 241–42 Galileo Galilei, 81–83, 210 Galliher, Scot, 257 Garrels, Robert, 178 gas, natural, 125–27, 137, 184 Gemini telescopes, 199–200, 203 General Dynamics Astronautics time capsule, 100–103 geologic time periods, 128–45 geology, 110–11, 123 glaciers, 132–34, 142, 174, 176, 178, 179, 183 Glenn, John, 100 Goldin, Dan, 194, 211, 215, 242 governments, Urey on, 102 gravitational lenses, 35–37 Great Observatories, 192, 197, 209 Greece, ancient, 77, 92, 238 Green Bank conference, 15–25, 27–28, 101, 167–68, 240 greenhouse gases, 124, 134, 137, 157, 160, 174, 175 carbon dioxide, see carbon dioxide methane, 140, 142, 168–71, 174, 200 Grunsfeld, John, 197–99, 225–26, 235 Guedes, Javiera, 96 Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, 74–75 “Habitable Zones around Main Sequence Stars” (Kasting), 155–56, 159 Hadean Eon, 139–40, 156 Halley, Edmond, 84 Halley’s comet, 3 Hart, Michael, 174, 178 Hays, Paul, 176–79 heliocentrism, 79–82 Hiroshima, 23 Holmes, Dyer Brainerd, 100–101 Holocene Epoch, 133–35, 145 Horrocks, Jeremiah, 84 Howard, Andrew, 62 How to Find a Habitable Planet (Kasting), 167 Hu, Renyu, 259 Huang, Su-Shu, 15, 19 Hubble, Edwin, 86–87 Hubble Space Telescope, 189–93, 195, 197–99, 205–7, 209, 218–19, 226 human genome project, 234 hydraulic fracturing (fracking), 126–27 hydrogen, 159, 170–72 Icarus, 155 ice ages, 132, 133, 142–43 Industrial Revolution, 22, 134 inflationary theory, 89–92 Ingersoll, Andrew, 159 intelligence, 20–21, 23, 32, 182–83 interferometry, 213–14, 216, 231 International Space Station (ISS), 187, 189, 197, 202, 207–8, 210 interstellar travel, 44–45, 100–101 iron, 141 James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), 193–99, 202–4, 209, 215, 216, 218, 220, 225, 262 Jensen-Clem, Becky, 259 Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 211–12, 216, 219, 221–25, 231 Johnson, Lyndon B., 101 Journal of Geophysical Research, 178 Jupiter, 76, 109, 191, 239 Galileo’s study of, 81 Kepler’s laws and, 83 moons of, 28, 110 Jupiter-like planets, 13, 28, 50, 56, 59, 60, 108, 109, 226, 228, 248–49 Kasdin, Jeremy, 219–20 Kasting, Jerry, 150–52 Kasting, Jim, 150–67, 169–84 children of, 153 Kasting, Sandy, 150 Kasting, Sharon, 153 Keck Observatory, 59, 60, 62, 66, 118 Kennedy, John F., 224 Kennedy Space Center, 185 Kepler, Johannes, 82, 83 planetary motion laws of, 82–84 Kepler field stars, 41 Kepler Space Telescope, 13–14, 53–54, 56, 62, 71–73, 98, 108–9, 166, 201, 225, 229–30, 263 Kirschvink, Joseph, 142 Knapp, Mary, 259 Korolev, Sergei, 186 Kuchner, Marc, 217–18 Kuiper Belt, 76 Large Magellanic Cloud, 238 Lasaga, Antonio, 178 Late Heavy Bombardment, 3, 140 Laughlin, Greg, 5–6, 48–50, 53–57, 69–70, 93–100, 107–12, 114–15, 117–20 Alpha Centauri planet search and, 94–98 idea to move Earth, 76–77 magnetic toy of, 93–94 SETI as viewed by, 99 valuation equation of, 71–77 laws of nature, 155–56 Lederberg, Joshua, 15, 16, 167–68 Le Gentil, Guillaume, 85, 117 Leinbach, Mike, 185–86 Lick, James, 112–14 Lick Observatory, 58, 61, 62, 70, 113–19 life, 32 on Earth, see Earth, life on intelligent, 23, 32 single-celled, 20 technological, see technological civilizations light: photons of, 72, 89, 115–16, 156, 191, 193–94, 201, 202, 213, 216, 237–38 polarization of, 115–16 waves of, 213–14, 216 Lilly, John, 15–16, 20–21 Local Group, 88 Lovelock, James, 168, 170, 174–76, 178, 181–83 Lucretius, 80–81 Lyot, Bernard, 217 Madwoman of Chaillot, The, 36 Manhattan Project, 23 Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research, 127, 149 Marcellus formation, 126–30, 137, 138, 141, 144, 160 Marconi, Guglielmo, 48 Marconi Conference Center, 48–50, 53–57 Marcy, Geoff, 57–63, 69, 70, 114, 194, 230–32, 235 Margulis, Lynn, 175 Mars, 19, 50, 87, 100, 107, 109, 155, 167, 179, 191, 192, 239 Kepler’s study of, 82, 83 missions to, 187, 188, 196, 207, 221 water on, 28, 179 Marshall, James, 105–6, 112 Martian Chronicles, The (Bradbury), 98–99 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 251–52, 259 ExoplanetSat project, 256–57 “Next 40 Years of Exoplanets” conference at, 225–35, 263 Mayor, Michel, 58 McPhee, John, 145 mEarth Project, 228–29 mediocrity, principle of (Copernican Principle), 83, 89, 91 Mercury, 82, 109, 239 meteorites, 20 methane, 140, 142, 168–71, 174, 200 methanogens, 140, 142, 169 microbes, 28 Miletus, 77 Milky Way, 16–17, 25, 31, 39, 41, 79, 86–87, 191, 237, 238 Sun’s orbit in, 95 Miller, George P., 101 Miller, Stanley, 19 Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, 48, 74 mitochondria, 143 Moon, 3, 76, 100, 229, 242 in early cosmology, 78, 83 formation of, 30, 139 Moon, missions to, 188, 196, 221, 224 Apollo, 1, 50, 151, 187, 202, 212, 239 Morrison, Philip, 15, 18–19, 21, 23–24 Mosely, T.

…

I looked down and saw the eclipse’s shadow sweeping across the ocean toward me at breathtaking speed. Then the Moon slid into place, and sunlight shining through its mountains and valleys drew a diamond ring in the sky. The Sun’s corona popped out, white and glowing and wavering. I could see the planets all stretched out along the ecliptic—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter. The whole solar system was right in front of my eyes. Orion was directly overhead. Everyone was hooting and hollering and yelling. It was pure primal joy, like that feeling right after a big football touchdown. The eclipse itself lasted something like seven minutes, but it went by in a flash.

Complexity: A Guided Tour by Melanie Mitchell

Alan Turing: On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem, Albert Einstein, Albert Michelson, Alfred Russel Wallace, algorithmic management, anti-communist, Arthur Eddington, Benoit Mandelbrot, bioinformatics, cellular automata, Claude Shannon: information theory, clockwork universe, complexity theory, computer age, conceptual framework, Conway's Game of Life, dark matter, discrete time, double helix, Douglas Hofstadter, Eddington experiment, en.wikipedia.org, epigenetics, From Mathematics to the Technologies of Life and Death, Garrett Hardin, Geoffrey West, Santa Fe Institute, Gregor Mendel, Gödel, Escher, Bach, Hacker News, Hans Moravec, Henri Poincaré, invisible hand, Isaac Newton, John Conway, John von Neumann, Long Term Capital Management, mandelbrot fractal, market bubble, Menlo Park, Murray Gell-Mann, Network effects, Norbert Wiener, Norman Macrae, Paul Erdős, peer-to-peer, phenotype, Pierre-Simon Laplace, power law, Ray Kurzweil, reversible computing, scientific worldview, stem cell, Stuart Kauffman, synthetic biology, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, Tragedy of the Commons, Turing machine

See DNA Descartes, René, ix, 210 dimension spatial, 107–108 fractal, 107–109, 264–265 diploid organism, 88 DNA, 79, 89 complete sequence of, 276 engineering, 274 information content of, 98–99 junk, 96, 99, 278, 280 mechanics of, 90–93 methylation of, 276 new ideas about, 274–276 patents on, 277 rate of change in, 267 self-replication of, 122 shuffling of in lymphocytes, 174 similarity of (in different species), 277–278 switches in, 278–280 transcription of, 90–93, 249 translation of, 91–93 of yeast, 96 See also genes dominant allele, 80–82 double logarithmic plot, 261, 320 Dow Jones Industrial Average, 11 Draper, Norman, 222 Drescher, Melvin, 213 Dugas, Gaetan, 250 dynamical systems theory, 15–16, 38–39, 285, 298, 303 logistic map as illustration of ideas in, 27–33 roots of, 16–19 See also chaos dynamics. See dynamical systems theory Dyson, Freeman, 126 economic networks, 230 economies, 4, 9–10, 222 Eddington, Arthur, 40 edge of chaos, 284–285 effective complexity, 98–100, 102 effective measure complexity, 102 Eigen, Manfred, 86 Einstein, Albert, 69, 72, 124, 210, 215, 293, 295 Eisenstein, Robert, 94 Eldredge, Niles, 84–85, 87 emergence, xii, 13, 286, 293, 301, 303 in cellular automata, 155 of complexity, 4, 155, 286 of cooperation, 215–220 general theories of, 303 of parallel terraced scan, 195–196 predicting, 301 of randomness, 38 in statistical mechanics, 48 of thinking and consciousness, 189 vagueness of definition of, xii, 293–294, 301 of Web’s degree distribution, 252 emergent behavior.

…

Dukas, H. and Hoffmann B. (editors). Albert Einstein, The Human Side: New Glimpses from His Archives. Princeton University Press, 1979. Dunne, J. A. The network structure of food webs. In M. Pascual and J. A. Dunne (editors). Ecological Networks: Linking Structure to Dynamics in Food Webs. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 27–86. Dunne, J. A. Williams, R. J. and Martinez, N. D. Food-web structure and network theory: The role of connectance and size. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA, 99(20), 2002, pp. 12917–12922. Eddington, A. E. The Nature of the Physical World.

…

CHAPTER 3 Information The law that entropy increases—the Second Law of Thermodynamics—holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of Nature… [I] f your theory is found to be against the Second Law of Thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation. —Sir Arthur Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World COMPLEX SYSTEMS ARE OFTEN said to be “self-organizing”: consider, for example, the strong, structured bridges made by army ants; the synchronous flashing of fireflies; the mutually sustaining markets of an economy; and the development of specialized organs by stem cells—all are examples of self-organization.

The Music of the Primes by Marcus Du Sautoy

Ada Lovelace, Andrew Wiles, Arthur Eddington, Augustin-Louis Cauchy, Bletchley Park, Charles Babbage, computer age, Computing Machinery and Intelligence, Dava Sobel, Dmitri Mendeleev, Eddington experiment, Eratosthenes, Erdős number, Georg Cantor, German hyperinflation, global village, Henri Poincaré, Isaac Newton, Jacquard loom, lateral thinking, Leo Hollis, music of the spheres, Neal Stephenson, New Journalism, P = NP, Paul Erdős, Richard Feynman, Rubik’s Cube, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, seminal paper, Simon Singh, Stephen Hawking, Turing machine, William of Occam, Wolfskehl Prize, Y2K

In this two-dimensional geometry there are no parallel lines of longitude since they all meet at the poles. No one had contemplated the idea that three-dimensional space might also bend. We realise now that Gauss was working on too small a scale to observe any significant bending of space to counter the view of a Euclidean world. Arthur Eddington’s confirmation of the bending of light from stars during the solar eclipse of 1919 supported Gauss’s hunch. Gauss never went public with his ideas, perhaps because his new geometries seemed to be at variance with the task of mathematics, which was to represent physical reality. The friends he did mention his idea to, Gauss pledged to secrecy.

…

Abel, Niels Henrik 66, 223 Adams, Douglas 283 Adleman, Leonard 11, 228–32, 229, 236, 238, 240, 249 Agrawal, Manindra 245 American Mathematical Society 224, 301, 304 Analytical Engine (Babbage) 190 Apollonius 61 Appel, Kenneth 211, 212 Arago, François 45 Archimedes 52, 61 Armengaud, Joel 208 Aronofsky, Darren 28 astronomy 208 AT&T 12, 219–23, 254, 270, 273, 280, 281, 311 Atkins, Derek 239 atoms 264–9, 277, 278 axioms, consistent 179–80, 181 Babbage, Charles 189–90, 191 Babylonians 67 Baker, Alan 16, 256, 258 Bamberger, Louis 160 Barnes, Ernest 126–7 Bell Laboratories 219, 238 Berndt, Bruce 146 Berry, Sir Michael 84, 278–80, 283, 285–6, 307, 311 Bertrand, Joseph 164 Bertrand’s Postulate 164, 169–70 Bessel-Hagen, Erich 151, 154 ‘Bible code’ 271, 275 Birch, Bryan 250–52 Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture 246, 250–51, 252 Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire 174, 175, 190, 191, 192, 204, 205, 206, 226, 311 Bloomsbury publishing house 15–16 Bohr, Harald 117, 118, 119, 121–2, 123, 156, 159 Bohr, Niels 117 Bois-Reymond, Emil du 113 Boiteux, Marcel 299 Bolyai, János 110 Bombieri, Enrico 8, 13, 19, 193, 218, 231, 307 faith in the Hypothesis 10, 214–15, 219 Fields Medal 16, 308 joke email announces the Riemann Hypothesis proved 2,3,4,9,12–14, 19, 102, 285, 309 studies the Reimann Hypothesis as a teenager 2–3, 5 Bonne-Nouvelle military prison, Rouen 289, 294, 297, 298 Born, Max 267 Bourbaki group 292, 299, 300–301 Brent, Richard 217 Brewster, Edwin Tenney 176 Brunswick, Carl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of 22, 51, 57 BSI (German Security Agency) 231, 240, 250 Cameron, Michael 209 Cantor, Georg 185–6, 201, 202 Carr, George 132, 133 Carroll, Lewis 82, 283 Cartan, Elie 289, 290, 295–6, 297 Cartan, Henri 297 Castelnuovo, Guido 296 Catherine the Great 41, 42, 43 Cauchy, Augustin-Louis 65–6, 70–71, 72, 75, 81, 84, 103, 113, 194, 289, 291 Central Limit Theorem 176, 177 Ceres 19, 20, 49, 54, 57 Certicom 249, 252–3 Changeux, Jean-Pierre 7 chaos theory 276, 280 Chebyshev, Pafnuty 104, 164, 168 Chinese 22–3 Chladni, Ernst 265, 266 Choquet, Gustave 288 Chowla, Saravadam 170, 171, 263 Church, Alonzo 187 Churchill, Sir Winston 175 Class Number Conjecture 257–8 Clay, Landon T. 14–17, 33, 242, 246, 252 clock calculator 20–22, 29, 30, 74, 76, 168, 232–5, 238, 239, 240, 249, 295 Cohen, Paul 16, 201–2, 282, 304, 308 Cold War 199 Cole, Frank Nelson 224–5, 236, 244 computers 193, 203, 204–23, 311 Connes, Alain 3, 4, 7, 14, 16, 288–9, 305–9, 311 Conrey, Brian 173, 281, 283–5 Cray computers 207, 208, 220–21, 270 Cray Research 207, 208, 209 Critical line 99 cryptography 224–54 d’Alembert, Jean Le Rond 111 Davenport, Harold 126 Davis, Martin 198 de la Vallée-Poussin, Charles 106, 117, 127, 128, 168, 172, 311 De Morgan, Augustus 43 Decision Problem (Hilbert) 184, 186, 187, 188, 197 Dedekind, Richard 73, 106, 151, 153 Deligne, Pierre 16, 146 Descartes, René 62, 70, 111 Deuring, Max 258 Diaconis, Persi 271–5, 273 Diderot, Denis 42–3 Dieudonné, Jean 292 Difference Engine (Babbage) 189 Diffie, Whit 226–9 Diophantus 29 Lejeune-Dirichlet, Rebecka 75 Dirichlet, Peter Gustav Lejeune 64, 65, 73, 75, 76, 81, 82, 83, 100, 102, 106, 116, 134, 150, 155, 168–9 Dirichlet’s Theorem 81, 168–9 Doxiadis, Apostolos 15 Drazin, Philip 286 Dyson, Freeman 262–4, 267, 269, 275, 312 e-business 11, 74, 241, 246, 253 ECC Central 249, 250 Eddington, Arthur 110, 128 Egypt/Egyptians 67, 94 Einstein, Albert 2, 74, 161, 162, 166, 179, 307 Theory of Relativity 100, 289 electromagnetism 73–4 Electronic Frontier Foundation 209 electrons 265, 267, 268, 277 elliptic curves 246, 249, 251–2, 253 Encke, Johann 55, 56, 72 Enigma code 175, 190–91, 192, 205, 206, 225, 226, 242 equations 107, 113, 114, 193, 197–201, 295, 296 Eratosthenes 23, 239 erbium 264 Erdos, Paul 162–5, 168–71, 173, 176, 209, 219, 238, 245, 262, 311–12 Euclid 36–8, 37, 58, 61, 76, 81, 102, 109, 110, 111, 163, 178, 204, 205, 209, 243, 292, 301, 310 algorithm 16 Euler, Leonhard 41–5, 42, 57, 71–2, 77, 79–80, 86–9, 93, 97, 102, 104,105, 106, 113, 133, 135, 150, 162, 200, 223, 233, 235, 266 Euler’s product 17, 80–81, 89 Faber & Faber 15–16 Faber-Bloomsbury Goldbach prize 15–16 factorising numbers 236–8, 257–8, 259, 261 Felkel, Antonio 47 Feller, William 272 Fermat, Pierre de 5, 22, 29, 39–41, 44, 68, 76, 101, 122, 133, 136, 154, 168, 223, 231, 232, 233, 238, 292 Factorisation Method 238–9 Last Theorem 5, 12–16, 29, 33, 34, 44, 101, 113–14, 115, 118, 119, 136, 171, 193, 228, 233, 248, 251, 282, 289, 296, 298, 308 Little Theorem 8–9, 232, 233, 235, 238, 244 Feynman, Richard 262, 263, 285 Fibonacci, Leonardo 25–6 Fibonacci numbers 25, 26, 27, 142, 204, 206 Fields, John 16 Fields Medals 16, 146, 172, 202, 246, 289, 302 First World War 144, 145, 148, 155, 292 Five Hysterical Girls Theorem, The (off-Broadway show) 224 Flannery, Sarah 246–8, 249 Four-Colour Problem 210–12, 210 Fourier, Joseph 60, 93–6, 291 Fourier series 17 fourth dimension 84, 85 fractions 67 Frederick Barbarossa, Emperor 1–2, 115 Frederick the Great 41 French mathematical tradition 69–70, 72, 108 French Revolution 17, 53, 60, 94, 119, 291 Frenicle de Bessy, Bernard 233 Frey, Gerhard 204 Fry, John 281, 284 Fry Electronics 281, 282 Fuld, Caroline Bamberger 160 functions 71–2 Gage, Paul 207, 208 Galileo Galilei 269 Gandhi, Mahatma M.K. 293 Gardner, Martin 230–31, 236 Gauss, Carl Friedrich (main references) 21, 26, 52 background and childhood 20 Class Number Conjecture 257–8 clock calculators 20–22, 29, 30, 74, 232, 233, 234, 249, 295 death 74 director of Göttingen Observatory 57–8 discovery of Ceres’ path 19–20, 24, 49, 54, 64 discovery of a pattern in primes 47–51, 57 failure to disseminate his discoveries 20, 52–3 geometry 109–10, 202 and Germain 193–4 imaginary numbers 69, 71, 84, 85, 221, 257–8, 260–61 lateral thinking 25 logarithms 46–7, 55, 62, 72, 74, 91, 206 methods outstrip Legendre’s 56–7 patronage 22, 51–2 prime motivation 52 Prime Number Conjecture (later Theorem) 49, 53–4, 54, 57, 82, 83, 89, 90, 91, 97, 100, 103–6, 117, 134, 138, 142, 164–8, 170–73, 176, 243, 262, 270, 281, 291, 295, 308, 310–13 second conjecture 57, 128–30 stresses the value of proof 51 triangular numbers 25, 26, 26, 29, 32, 52 and Weber 73–4 Dirichlet succeeds 75 Gaussia 75 Gaussian integers 17 geometry 4, 61, 62, 67, 70, 74, 84, 87–8, 100, 109–13,178, 180, 202, 282, 289, 300, 306–7, 313 algebraic 296, 298, 302, 305, 306 Cartesian 111 non-commutative 288–9, 305, 309 Germain, Sophie 193 Germain primes 193 German Mathematical Society 108 Germany: educational revolution 60, 72 hyperinflation 118 Nazi 156 Ghosh, Amit 283 Gödel, Kurt 1, 2, 177, 178–84, 179, 187, 196, 197, 201, 256, 257, 263, 302, 312 Incompleteness Theorem 181, 182, 184, 186, 190 Gödel numbering 17, 181 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von 59 Goldbach, Christian 44 Goldbach’s Conjecture 15–16, 31, 115, 141, 143, 158, 181, 182, 183, 256 golden ratio 27 ‘golden shield’ 253 Gonek, Steve 284, 285 Göttingen 62–4, 106, 118–9 Göttingen Library 73, 151, 154, 286–7 Göttingen Observatory 57 ‘Göttingen Seven’ 74 Gowers, Timothy 246 Graff, Michael 239 Grand Prix des Sciences Mathématiques (Paris Academy) 95, 104–5, 108, 116 Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) 208 Greeks 20, 23, 29, 32, 34–5, 36, 41, 51, 61, 67, 68, 81, 84, 105, 106–7, 109, 110, 169, 178, 181, 194, 224 Greene, Graham 34 Griffith, C.L.T. 135 Grothendieck, Alexandre 16, 298, 299–306, 300, 303, 308 Guthrie, Francis 210, 211 Hadamard, Jacques 105, 106, 117, 127, 128, 134, 168, 172, 291, 311 Hajratwala, Nayan 209 Haken, Wolfgang 211, 212 Hardy, G.H. 11, 17, 30–31, 33, 38–9, 78, 119–23, 124, 153, 162–3, 165, 175, 212–13, 301, 313 on the difficulty of the primes 132 and Landau 155 and Littlewood 123–8, 132, 137–8, 143, 147, 152, 158–9, 170, 177, 256, 259, 260, 283 and Ramanujan 136–47, 158, 162 and Riemann Hypothesis 120, 121–2, 125–6, 150, 188, 312 and Skewes Number 129 and Turing 187, 188, 190 on uselessness of mathematics in real world 222–3, 250 Hardy-Littlewood Circle Method 17, 143 harmonic series 79, 80 Hasse, Helmut 251 Hawking, Stephen 84, 180 Hecke, Erich 258 height function 253 Heilbronn, Hans 128, 258 Heisenberg, Werner 267 Uncertainty Principle 180, 305 Hellman, Martin 227–8, 228, 229 Hermite, Charles 103, 104–5 Heuser, Ansgar 231, 240 Hewlett-Packard 12, 280, 281, 311 Hilbert, David 102, 106–16, 107, 108–9, 118, 125, 128, 148, 153, 155–6, 175, 191, 193, 291 brings best mathematicians to Göttingen 118, 119 death 156 Decision Problem 184, 186, 187, 188, 197 equations 107, 114, 193, 197–8, 199 geometry 109, 110–11, 178, 180 and Gödel 178, 179, 180, 182 and Hardy 119–20 lecture to International Congress of Mathematicians 1, 2, 112–15, 183–4 and a new approach 14–15, 112 and Noether 194 and Riemann Hypothesis 1–2, 17, 106, 114, 115, 243, 312 sets twenty-three problems 1–2, 113–15, 282 and Siegel 149, 152 tenth problem 114, 183, 197–9 Hilbert space 16 Hill, M.J.M. 135, 136 Hindu mathematicians 68 Hitler, Adolf 155, 160, 251, 291, 293 Hodges, Andrew 190 Humboldt, Alexander von 64, 75 Humboldt, Wilhelm von 59, 60, 64, 237 hydrogen 268 Hyperion (a satellite of Saturn) 24 imaginary numbers 66–72, 70, 81, 82, 84, 85, 86, 88, 103, 113, 115, 119, 221, 251, 257–8, 259, 261, 266, 267, 286, 287, 289, 300 infinities 185–6 Ingham, Albert 188, 283 Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, Paris 299, 303 International Congress of Mathematicians 1, 2, 3, 16, 17, 112, 115, 172, 183–4, 208 Internet 11–12, 74, 225–32, 247 irrational numbers 6, 67, 68, 68 Ishango bone 22 Iyer, Ganapathy 136 Iyer, Narayana 139 Jacobi, Carl 59–60, 75, 139 Jacquard weaving looms 189–90 James, Henry 34 Jordan, Camille 123 Kabalah 240 Kac, Mark 165 Kant, Imannuel 112 Katz, Nick 308 Kayal, Neeraj 245 Keating, Jon 283, 284, 285–7 Kelvin, Lord 95 Kingsley, Ben 240 Klein, Felix 108, 150, 153 Klondike (Idiot’s Delight) card game 274–5, 274 Koblitz, Neal 248–9, 250, 253 Königsberg (later Kaliningrad) 43, 106, 108, 178 Krieger, Samuel I. 196 Kulik, Jakub 56 Kummer, Ernst 150 Lagrange, Joseph-Louis 65, 301 Landau, Edmund 116–18, 117, 128, 132, 137, 143, 148–9, 152–5, 301 Landau, Leopold 148 Landau, Lev 268–9, 270 Lascar, Larry 240 Legendre, Adrien-Marie 53, 54, 56–7, 60, 62, 95, 132, 261–2 Lehmer, Derrick H. 196, 204, 206, 207, 215 Lehmer, D.N. 196, 204, 205–6 Leibniz, Gottfried 77–8, 119 Lenstra, Arjen 239 Lenstra, Hendrik 218, 237 Levinson, Norman 172–3 Leyland, Paul 239 Lindeberg, J.W. 176, 177 Linnik, Yu.

…

Also at Trinity, working alongside Hardy and Littlewood, were the two most eminent philosophers active in England: Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Both were wrestling with the same foundational problems of mathematics that had so concerned Hilbert. And Cambridge was buzzing with new breakthroughs in physics made by the likes of J. J. Thomson, who was awarded a Nobel prize for his discovery of the electron, and Arthur Eddington, who had confirmed Gauss and Einstein’s belief that space was indeed curved and non-Euclidean. The great collaboration between Hardy and Littlewood was fuelled by the timely arrival from Göttingen of a book by Landau about prime numbers. The publication in 1909 of his two-volume work Handbuch der Lehre von der Verteilung der Primzahlen (‘Handbook of the Theory of the Distribution of Prime Numbers’) proselytised the wonders of the connections between primes and the Riemann zeta function.

Surfaces and Essences by Douglas Hofstadter, Emmanuel Sander

Abraham Maslow, affirmative action, Albert Einstein, Arthur Eddington, Benoit Mandelbrot, Brownian motion, Charles Babbage, cognitive dissonance, computer age, computer vision, dematerialisation, Donald Trump, Douglas Hofstadter, Eddington experiment, Ernest Rutherford, experimental subject, Flynn Effect, gentrification, Georg Cantor, Gerolamo Cardano, Golden Gate Park, haute couture, haute cuisine, Henri Poincaré, Isaac Newton, l'esprit de l'escalier, Louis Pasteur, machine translation, Mahatma Gandhi, mandelbrot fractal, Menlo Park, Norbert Wiener, place-making, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Silicon Valley, statistical model, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, theory of mind, time dilation, upwardly mobile, urban sprawl, yellow journalism, zero-sum game

In fact it turned out to be necessary to wait twelve years longer, until 1919, for the confirmation of this prediction during a total eclipse observed by an English team led by the physicist Arthur Eddington from two islands in the south Atlantic Ocean. The global effect of Eddington’s team’s confirmation was phenomenal. Not only did Einstein’s prediction hit the bull’s-eye, but the world, just emerging from under the dark pall cast by the “Great War”, was thrilled that an English team had confirmed a fantastic prediction made by an “enemy” scientist (even if Einstein had renounced his German citizenship and become Swiss in order to distance himself from German militarism); indeed, many people saw Eddington’s confirmation of Einstein’s prediction as a moment of great glory for humanity as a whole.

…

., 453, 482 dirtiness/badness analogy, 289–290 disappointment as source of reminding, 169–170 “dis-aster” of sun ceasing to exist, 489–490 discourse flow/savanna chase analogy, 71 discourse space, patterns and categories in, 69–76 “discoverativity” in mathematics and science, 451 disk ejection, naïve analogy for, 401 disk, rotating, pondered by Einstein, 497–498 distance, semantic: as measured by strength of zeugmaticity, 19; as revealed by speech errors, 270–278 distant domains, linked by analogies, 16–17 distillation of episodes, 165, 171–172 distorted recall of math-problem statement, 431 distrusting one’s own analogies, 528 division: as another name for “sharing”, 421, 426; easy versus hard word problems involving, 422–425; as a highly abstract mathematical operation, 448–449; as measuring, 420–426; naïve analogies for relating to, 416–421, 425–426; as necessarily making smaller, 416–420; as possibly making larger, 417; quotative, 420; as sharing, 419–426, 514; of a skyscraper by a floor, 448; word problems illustrating, 416, 422–425 dizzy analogies, 358, 360, 366 “DNA” versus “deoxyribonucleic acid”, 91 dogs: conceptual repertoire of, 178–181; expert knowledge about, 238–240; impressive analogies by, 180; starry sky as seen by, 165; subcategories of, 240; unfamiliar, dealt with by analogy, 23, 508 domain change, in caricature analogies, 321–324, 326 domestic as opposed to wartime decision-making, 337 domino theory in Vietnam War, 333–335, 513 Don’t judge a book by its cover as a category, 102 doors, doorknobs, doorbells, used by analogy, 23, 507, 509, 516 Doppler effect, 469–471 dormitive virtue, 248, 249 dots seen as moons, 44–45 double letters, subjective amount of salience of, 363–364 double referent of “here”, “there”, “that”, 140–143, 148–149 Doug/Monica analogy, 169–171; summarized, 170 down-ness, as relative notion, 491, 497 “dressing” of a math problem as channeling its solution pathway, 430, 434 “dude, one smart”, as indicative of category of speaker, 75 dump: as example of conceptual extension, 403; as example of marking, 230–231 Duncker, Karl, 250 Dustbuster: brand name, genericized, 217; buttons of, analogy between, 169–170 Dustbuster/subscripts analogy, 169–170, 174 Duvignau, Karine, 39 dyz analogy, see dizzy analogies —E— E = mc2, 319, 463; absent from Einstein’s first relativity article, 468; becomes famous, 482; confirmed by particle/antiparticle annhilation experiment, 482; derived by Einstein, 469–471; first appearance of, in 1905, 469, 474; first meaning of, 471, 472; second meaning of, 473–474; subsequent meanings of, 473, 482, 483–485; summary of Einstein’s mental processes in understanding the meaning of, 483–484 E/hν (number of blackbody quanta) as analogous to N (number of ideal-gas molecules), 459 Earth: mapped onto Jupiter, 44–45; pluralization of, 44 eating, diverse styles of, and zeugmas, 9–10 eclipse: frame blend used to explain, 367; as a shadow, 204–205 Eddington, Arthur, 496 Edison/Franklin analogical conflation, 275 education and naïve analogies, 389–394, 411–434 educational system, failures of, 389, 391–394, 410, 412, 414–416, 418, 421 “ego the size of a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon”, cultural knowledge required to understand, 128 Ehrenfest, Paul, paradox discovered by, 498 Eiffel Tower, exploited in caricature analogy, 322–323 Einstein, Albert, 109, 130, 132, 361: alleged abandonment of own ideas, 461; analogies by, 32, 452–499; as analogous to Ellen Ellenbogen, 468; as analogous to Gerhard Gelenk, 468; attacking fundamental questions, 488; attracting mosquito, 163, 165; belief in thermodynamics as bedrock of physics, 458; black body/ideal gas analogy by, 457–459, 463; deep faith in his own analogies, 459–463; discovering and interpreting E = mc2, 463, 465–485; discovering equivalence principle, 491–495; explanation of gravity by, 18, 489–496; face of, 183–184; finding analogy between gravity and Gauss’s geometry, 498; generalizing via intuition, 473–474, 477, 483, 484; guided by sense of cosmic unity, 468, 473–474, 480, 481, 484, 486, 495, 500, 501; handing weapons to his critics, 460; “happiest thought of my life”, 493–494; inner mental state of, 477–478, 480–481, 483–485, 491, 495, 498; learning to read, 109; likening gravity to fictitious force, 491–492; low-level analogies by, 454–455; magically combining two ideas of Galileo, 492; making an analogy between analogies, 495, 502; misled by his own analogy between gravity and electrostatics, 489–491; missing the analogy of 3-D space to 4-D space-time, 499; as “one smart dude”, 75; Poincaré’s letter of reference for, 501; pondering a rotating disk, 497–498; positing two types of mass, 476; quest for beauty by, 477–478, 485, 495, 500; rapid essence-spotting by, 454, 458, 463, 486, 501; refinding Wien’s analogy, 458; as salient entity, 320; sandwich-like name of, 215; seeing self as donkey, 454; of sex, the, 222; stereotype of, as superlogical thinker having no need to seek analogies, 453, 500; thought experiments by, 487, 491–492, 493–494, 495–496; transformed into world figure, 496; unification as characteristic style of thinking of, 454, 477, 485, 486, 491, 500, 501; word choices by, 454–455 electric field: due to moving magnet, 493; oscillating in vacuum, 212–213; vanishing thanks to shift of reference frame, 493–494 electromagnetic induction, 493 electromagnetic waves, 212–213, 455–460, 462, 469–471, 483; see also light electromagnetism, as area of physics, 467–468, 485 elephant in a store window, 298 elephant in the room situations, 174, 514 elevators, use of by analogy, 23 Ellenbogen, Ellen, 463–464 Ellie, frame blend by, 364–366 email address/postal address naïve analogy, 385–387 embarrassed analogy-making computer blurting out apology, 401 embodiment and analogy-making, 287–289 emergence of a concept’s essence over time, 200–204 Emmas, category of, 226–227 emotions: key role of in encoding and reminding, 169–171; powerfully evoked by analogies, 310–312 emperors, as translation of cor(o)nets, 379–380 encoding of experiences: analogies at the very abstract level of, 354; based on features at surface and deeper levels, 163–166; constraints on, 171; in Copycat microdomain, 346–349, 353–354; enigma of, 161, 346. 348; errors caused by, 274–275; implausibility of clairvoyance in, 173–174, 353–354; involving local, global, abstract, and emotional aspects, 161–162, 169–171, 175; as opposed to total rote recording, 172; as unconscious act of selection, 165–166; at various levels of abstraction, 335 energy: behaving analogously to mass, 472; behaving analogously to strange mass, 479, 484; conservation of, 472; distinction between two varieties of, 480; liquid versus frozen, 480; mutating from one form to another, 479; possessing mass, 471–478, 482, 483–484; potential, 479–480; silently lurking in normal mass, 482, 484 energy/strange mass analogy, 479–480, 484 engines: for categorization, 15; for inference, 20; for searching, 25, 115, 220, 402; for translation, 369 English language: borrowings from French, 122; breakup of siblinghood in, 77; contrasted with Chinese, 12; contrasted with French, 8, 11, 77, 78, 79–80, 81–83, 89, 97, 101, 102, 113, 119–123, 465; contrasted with German, 8–9, 465; contrasted with Indonesian, 77; contrasted with Italian, 8, 11, 89; contrasted with Russian, 9–10 enrichment via impoverishment, 250 entropy calculations leading to light quantum, 458 equals sign: as denoting identity of two items, 407–409; as denoting operation + result, 407–411; invention of, 408; meaning of, in E = mc2, 473 equations: in advertising, 409–410; asymmetric conception of, 407–411, 474; causal interpretation of, 410–411, 474; as requiring interpretation, 473; turned around, 409–410 equivalence principle, 491–495; extended, 495–496 error, as category with blurry boundaries, 41, 281 errors: caused by real-time categorization pressures, 258, 261; caused by semantic proximity, 270–278; deep problem of explanation of, 264; due to frame blend of physical world with virtual world, 404–407; high-level analogies giving rise to, 268, 274–278, 280; versus children’s semantic approximations, 41, 270; as visible traces of subterranean processes, 259, 261; see also action errors, frame blends, lexical blends, speech errors esprit d’escalier as a concept available to francophones but not to anglophones, 121 “essence”, double meaning of, in French, 291 essences: compression of situations down to, 261; hidden by surfaces, 114–115; revealed by caricature analogies, 317–318, 320–323, 326–330; revealed by repeated conceptual extensions, 200–204, 255, 295, 397–398 essence-spotting: in caricature-analogy creation, 321–322, 324–330; by children, 42; in Copycat domain, 350; as crux of intelligence, 125–127, 426–427, 452, 463; in deeply novel situations, as rare gift, 131; by Einstein, 454, 458, 463, 486; implausibility of instant carrying-out of, 173–174; made easy by prior placement of conceptual pitons, 131; role of expertise in, 174; as routine and unseen, 18; as secret of generalization in mathematics, 449; time taken in, 466 esthetics, in Copycat domain, 349–352, 355–357, 359–360, 353–364; as driving Einstein, 477–478, 485, 495, 500 “étudiant” as both gendered and generic in one sentence, 194 Euler, Leonhard, 210, 443, 449 Eureka moment, 250–252, 300–301 Europe/Asia analogies, 306–307, 334 Everest, Mount, 109, 320, 367 Everett, David, 109 everyday imagery versus grand historical precedents, 333–335 everyday life versus book-learning, 391–394 evolution of a concept as revealing its essence, 202–204 evolutionary interpretation of the lure of the superficial, 338 “exactly the same thing”, 143, 152, 153, 346, 347, 358, 364, 379, 399, 407, 495, 520 expectations embedded in “and” and “but”, 70–75 experiments on memory retrieval, flaws in, 337–340 expert knowledge and hierarchical levels of categorization, 236–246 expert-level versus novice-level categorization, 342–344, 346 expertise: in everyday life, 344; facilitating essence-spotting, 174; nature of, 238–246; precision and depth as keys to, 246 experts’ blindness to shallow features, 343–344 explanatory caricature analogies, 324–330 exponents/subscripts analogy by Doug, 169–170 ex post facto diagrams of a deep analogy, as casting no light on its creation, 160 extension versus intension of a category, 55, 244 extra force to explain anomalous motions in an accelerating frame, 488 extrapolation of one’s past experiences as an irresistible mental force, 305–307, 310–313 eyelash/eyelash analogy, 155–156, 517 —F— F = ma, 410, 491 fables as labels of categories, 111–118 Fabre, Jean-Henri, 388 fabric internal to various letter strings, 353–354, 356–357 facial remindings, 181–184 fake boat and fake tango category, 521–522 Falen, James, 315 Falkland Islands War, Greece’s position in, 332 false hopes engendered by irresistible analogy, 313 fame leading to canonization, 221 familiarity, effects on categorization of, 390–391 Faraday, Michael, 493; of window-glass making, the, 222 far-fetched analogies, deliberate search for, as non-recipe for creativity, 251, 452 fathers encoded as disillusioners, 171 fatuity, gratuity, and vacuity, 282 Fauconnier, Gilles, 335, 362–364, 365, 433, 443 fauxthenticity, concept of, 176–178, 345 feminine and masculine rhymes, 380–381 Fenway (dachshund), analogies by, 180 Fermi, Enrico, 453 Ferrari, Lodovico, 445 Ferré, Léo, 221 Ferro, Scipione del, 438 Festinger, Leon, 115 fictitious forces, 488, 491–492 “fictitious” (negative) numbers, 440 fields, electric and magnetic: oscillating, 212–213 fields (mathematical), 447–448 films of events as constituting episodic memory, 172 filtering as ongoing perceptual process, 298–299 fine line separating simple from deep analogies, 45, 142–143 finger-pointing analogies, 140–143; see also index finger, heart, toe finger-wiggling analogies, 350–351, 515 Finlay-Freundlich, Erwin, 496 firewalls protecting us from hackers, spam, and viruses, 396, 398 first ⇒ last conceptual slippage, 356–357 first names as defining categories, 226–227 flashlight, two-headed, 470–471 fleeting analogies, vanishing before being noticed, 282, 285–286 floppy-disk icon, outmodedness of, 402 flow of discourse, psychology reality of, 71 fluid analogies in the Copycat domain, 348, 350, 352, 357 fly on screen, removal of using mouse, 405 Flynn effect on IQ scores, 10–131 Flynn, James R., 130 “folder”, old-fashioned definition of, 397 foot, internal structure of the concept, 51 forgetfulness, selective, as key ingredient of intelligence, 426–427 formal knowledge, inadequacy of, 389, 391–394 formal operations versus mental simulation in math, 424–425, 431 formulas conflated with understanding, 391–394 “4 is to 3 as 3 is to 2” proportional analogy, 438, 444 four-dimensional space: absurdity of, 443; as analogous to three-dimensional space, 444, 453 “Four score and seven years ago” translation challenge, 368–372 “Fox and the Grapes”, fable by Æsop, 112–114; see also poems in the text, sour grapes fractional dimensions, 444 frame blends: of American and Chinese cultures, 367–368; of car driving and video-game playing, 405; of cemetery circuit and hotel circuit, 142; of computer world and physical world, 402–407; of conferences, 142; in Copycat domain, 359–360, 363–364; creativity manifested by, 360–364; defined, 358–359; of dominos toppling and countries falling to communism, 335; of drooping cigarette and drooping penis, 362; of emperor Napoleon and emperor penguins, 380; of grocery stores, 23, 156; of lecture hall and professor’s office, 142; in light/sound analogy, 361; of name-change upon marriage and year-change every January, 148; of plate-throwing woman and her mother, 367; in scientific analogies, 360–361; of solar system and atom, 142–143; subjectivity of, 363–364; of there situations, 140–143; of two trains, 140–141; as typical analogies, 364; underlying diagram of ballet-lesson problem, 432–433; in understanding of “dent”, 363; in understanding of films, operas, etc., 361; in understanding of “safe”, 362; used by authors in the text, 366–367; versus analogies, 363–364, 366–367 frames of reference: absolute, 487; accelerating, 486, 488; indistinguishability of certain, 466–468, 486–487, 492, 494–495; shifts between, 466–468, 469–471, 487–488, 492–494, 495–496, 497–498 framing of errors as making them easy to see, 262 Franklin, Benjamin, 109, 275 freedom-of-speech joke, 358 “freeing oneself from the known”, chimerical idea of, 313–315 French Academy (Académie française), 113 French fries: combined with orange sherbet, 352; portion of, likened to bagels in a batch, 308 French language: “A rolling stone gathers no moss” in, 102; bilingual data base involving, 372–373; borrowings from English in, 122; compound words in, 87, 89; concept of hair in, 77; concept of sibling in, 77; contrasted with English language, 8, 11, 77, 78, 79–80, 81–83, 89, 97, 101, 102, 113, 119–123, 465; different translations for “time” in, 77–78; “Four score and seven years ago” in, 369–372; grammar of, exploited, for high-quality translation, 376–377; idioms in, 97, 119; “Once bitten, twice shy” in, 105; proverbs in, 101, 106, 109; this book’s realization in, 377–382; zeugmas in, 8, 11–12 Fresnel, Augustin-Jean, 212 Freud, Sigmund, 132, 259, 362, 501 Freudian slips, 259 friendship crumbling to bits, 133 fringe members of categories, 14 Fromkin, Victoria, 259 frozen assets/liquid assets membrane, breaking of, 476–477 functional and visual analogies, reinforcing, 277–278 fund-raising in American universities, 109 Funes, Ireneo, lacking ability to abstract, 188 Funk & Wagnalls 1932 dictionary, 201, 396–397 furniture, fringe members of the category, 528 —G— Galilean relativity, principle of, 466–468, 485, 486, 492 Galilei, Galileo, 130, 466, 471; compared with two-year-old Lenni, 45; extending the concept Moon, 43–45, 147, 210, 217; hypothetically admiring Einstein, 392; seeing not moons but quote-unquote “Moons”, 64; of the soccer ball, the, 222; using the Tower of Pisa to investigate falling objects, 493, 493; work on sound waves by, 210 Galois, Évariste: discovery of key link between polynomials and radicals, 446; group theory invented by, 446–447; killed in debate, 274, 448; opening the Pandora’s box of abstraction in mathematics, 448; of tobacco science, the, 222 Gauss, Karl Friedrich, 498 Gaussian primes, 448 gearshift, as perceived by novice versus by expert driver, 340, 343, 344 Gelenk, Gregorius, 464 generalization: of Doppler effect, 470; by Einstein, 467–468, 473–474, 484; of Galilean relativity, 467–468, 485; going hand-inhand with abstraction in math, 449; as irresistible drive in mathematics, 444, 447–449; of 3-D space to 4-D space-time, 498–499; of 2-D Gaussian geometry to 4-D geometry, 499; see also category extension general relativity, see relativity, general genericide, 217–218 genius: compared with child, 45; irrationality at the core of (Hoffmann), 501; spotting essences of important situations, 452; versus mediocrity, silly stereotype of, 452 genius of a given language, 120–124 Gentner, Dedre, 338, 436 genus versus species, 239, 242 geometrical interpretation, as rendering abstract mathematical concepts more real, 443 George’s thesis advisor, judged by analogy with the reader, 157 German language, 6, 8, 9, 12, 369; compound words in, 87, 465 gestalt psychology, 349–350 “get”, broken into many concepts in French, 80 Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Les Cazetiers Dominique Laurent 1996, 245, 256 Ghent, Admiral, definition of intelligence by, 125 Gibson, James, 278, 345 Gick, Mary, 436 gilding the lily in the Copycat domain, 352-353 gist-finding, see essence-spotting gists, sacrificed through wanton acts of abstraction, 107 “give”, metaphorical use of, 6, 64–65 glass of water: conflated with one-dollar bill, 280; falling floorwards, 389 glass on shelf, as multi-categorized by Mr.

…

Not only did Einstein’s prediction hit the bull’s-eye, but the world, just emerging from under the dark pall cast by the “Great War”, was thrilled that an English team had confirmed a fantastic prediction made by an “enemy” scientist (even if Einstein had renounced his German citizenship and become Swiss in order to distance himself from German militarism); indeed, many people saw Eddington’s confirmation of Einstein’s prediction as a moment of great glory for humanity as a whole. Soon Einstein would watch helplessly as he was transformed overnight into a world-famous celebrity. The Noneuclidean Merry-go-round To conclude this tour of some of the many analogies that undergird general relativity, we will give a capsule description of the key breakthrough that brought to light the appropriate branch of mathematics for Einstein’s conception of gravitation. As we have just seen, all of Einstein’s first thought experiments about how gravity and acceleration are related had to do with linear acceleration — scenarios in which a reference frame is moving in a fixed direction but with a speed that is changing.

Radical Uncertainty: Decision-Making for an Unknowable Future by Mervyn King, John Kay

Airbus A320, Alan Greenspan, Albert Einstein, Albert Michelson, algorithmic trading, anti-fragile, Antoine Gombaud: Chevalier de Méré, Arthur Eddington, autonomous vehicles, availability heuristic, banking crisis, Barry Marshall: ulcers, battle of ideas, Bear Stearns, behavioural economics, Benoit Mandelbrot, bitcoin, Black Swan, Boeing 737 MAX, Bonfire of the Vanities, Brexit referendum, Brownian motion, business cycle, business process, capital asset pricing model, central bank independence, collapse of Lehman Brothers, correlation does not imply causation, credit crunch, cryptocurrency, cuban missile crisis, Daniel Kahneman / Amos Tversky, David Ricardo: comparative advantage, DeepMind, demographic transition, discounted cash flows, disruptive innovation, diversification, diversified portfolio, Donald Trump, Dutch auction, easy for humans, difficult for computers, eat what you kill, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse, Edward Thorp, Elon Musk, Ethereum, Eugene Fama: efficient market hypothesis, experimental economics, experimental subject, fear of failure, feminist movement, financial deregulation, George Akerlof, germ theory of disease, Goodhart's law, Hans Rosling, Helicobacter pylori, high-speed rail, Ignaz Semmelweis: hand washing, income per capita, incomplete markets, inflation targeting, information asymmetry, invention of the wheel, invisible hand, Jeff Bezos, Jim Simons, Johannes Kepler, John Maynard Keynes: Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, John Snow's cholera map, John von Neumann, Kenneth Arrow, Kōnosuke Matsushita, Linda problem, Long Term Capital Management, loss aversion, Louis Pasteur, mandelbrot fractal, market bubble, market fundamentalism, military-industrial complex, Money creation, Moneyball by Michael Lewis explains big data, Monty Hall problem, Nash equilibrium, Nate Silver, new economy, Nick Leeson, Northern Rock, nudge theory, oil shock, PalmPilot, Paul Samuelson, peak oil, Peter Thiel, Philip Mirowski, Phillips curve, Pierre-Simon Laplace, popular electronics, power law, price mechanism, probability theory / Blaise Pascal / Pierre de Fermat, quantitative trading / quantitative finance, railway mania, RAND corporation, reality distortion field, rent-seeking, Richard Feynman, Richard Thaler, risk tolerance, risk-adjusted returns, Robert Shiller, Robert Solow, Ronald Coase, sealed-bid auction, shareholder value, Silicon Valley, Simon Kuznets, Socratic dialogue, South Sea Bubble, spectrum auction, Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Suez crisis 1956, Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Thales and the olive presses, Thales of Miletus, The Chicago School, the map is not the territory, The Market for Lemons, The Nature of the Firm, The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, The Wisdom of Crowds, Thomas Bayes, Thomas Davenport, Thomas Malthus, Toyota Production System, transaction costs, ultimatum game, urban planning, value at risk, world market for maybe five computers, World Values Survey, Yom Kippur War, zero-sum game

Friedman’s article appeared in a brief period of intellectual history in which a version of Popperian falsificationism – the idea that a hypothesis acquires scientific status only if there is a possibility that it might be refuted – was in fashion. Falsificationism enjoyed its moment in (or rather out of) the sun in May 1919, when an experiment devised by Frank Dyson was conducted by fellow British astronomer Arthur Eddington on the island of Príncipe off West Africa during a total solar eclipse. Eddington established that Einstein’s theory of relativity correctly predicted the path of light and Newton’s view of gravitational fields did not. Einstein became an international celebrity, and two years later received the Nobel Prize in Physics. 22 But even in physics such conclusive tests are rare.

…

., 295 , 407 , 412 business cycles, 347 business history (academic discipline), 286 business schools, 318 business strategy: approach in 1970s, 183 ; approach in 1980s, 181–2 ; aspirations confused with, 181–2 , 183–4 ; business plans, 223–4 , 228 ; collections of capabilities, 274–7 ; and the computer industry, 27–31 ; corporate takeovers, 256–7 ; Lampert at Sears, 287–9 , 292 ; Henry Mintzberg on, 296 , 410 ; motivational proselytisation, 182–3 , 184 ; quantification mistaken for understanding, 180–1 , 183 ; and reference narratives, 286–90 , 296–7 ; risk maps, 297 ; Rumelt’s MBA classes, 10 , 178–80 ; Shell’s scenario planning, 223 , 295 ; Sloan at General Motors, 286–7 ; strategy weekends, 180–3 , 194 , 296 , 407 ; three common errors, 183–4 ; vision or mission statements, 181–2 , 184 Buxton, Jedediah, 225 Calas, Jean, 199 California, 48–9 Cambridge Growth Project, 340 Canadian fishing industry, 368–9 , 370 , 423 , 424 cancer, screening for, 66–7 Candler, Graham, 352 , 353–6 , 399 Cardiff City Football Club, 265 Carlsen, Magnus, 175 , 273 Carnegie, Andrew, 427 Carnegie Mellon University, 135 Carré, Dr Matt, 267–8 Carroll, Lewis, Through the Looking-Glass , 93–4 , 218 , 344 , 346 ; ‘Jabberwocky’, 91–2 , 94 , 217 Carron works (near Falkirk), 253 Carter, Jimmy, 8 , 119 , 120 , 123 , 262–3 cartography, 391 Casio, 27 , 31 Castro, Fidel, 278–9 cave paintings, 216 central banks, 5 , 7 , 95 , 96 , 103–5 , 285–6 , 348–9 , 350 , 351 , 356–7 Central Pacific Railroad, 48 Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, 39 Chabris, Christopher, 140 Challenger disaster (1986), 373 , 374 Chamberlain, Neville, 24–5 Chandler, Alfred, Strategy and Structure , 286 Chariots of Fire (film, 1981), 273 Charles II, King, 383 Chelsea Football Club, 265 chess, 173 , 174 , 175 , 266 , 273 , 346 Chicago economists, 36 , 72–4 , 86 , 92 , 111–14 , 133–7 , 158 , 257–8 , 307 , 342–3 , 381–2 Chicago Mercantile Exchange, 423 chimpanzees, 161–2 , 178 , 274 China, 4–5 , 419–20 , 430 cholera, 283 Churchill, Winston: character of, 25–6 , 168 , 169 , 170 ; fondness for gambling, 81 , 168 ; as hedgehog not fox, 222 ; on Montgomery, 293 ; restores gold standard (1925), 25–6 , 269 ; The Second World War , 187 ; Second World War leadership, 24–5 , 26 , 119 , 167 , 168–9 , 170 , 184 , 187 , 266 , 269 Citibank, 255 Civil War, American, 188 , 266 , 290 Clapham, John, 253 Clark, Sally, 197–8 , 200 , 202 , 204 , 206 Clausewitz, Carl von, On War , 433 climate systems, 101–2 Club of Rome, 361 , 362 Coase, Ronald, 286 , 342 Cochran, Johnnie, 198 , 217 Cochrane, John, 93 coffee houses, 55–6 cognitive illusions, 141–2 Cohen, Jonathan, 206–7 Colbert, Jean-Baptiste, 411 Cold War, 293–4 , 306–7 Collier, Paul, 276–7 Columbia disaster (2003), 373 Columbia University, 117 , 118 , 120 Columbus, Christopher, 4 , 21 Colyvan, Mark, 225 Comet aircraft, 23–4 , 228 communication: communicative rationality, 172 , 267–77 , 279–82 , 412 , 414–16 ; and decision-making, 17 , 231 , 272–7 , 279–82 , 398–9 , 408 , 412 , 413–17 , 432 ; eusociality, 172–3 , 274 ; and good doctors, 185 , 398–9 ; human capacity for, 159 , 161 , 162 , 172–3 , 216 , 272–7 , 408 ; and ill-defined concepts, 98–9 ; and intelligibility, 98 ; language, 98 , 99–100 , 159 , 162 , 173 , 226 ; linguistic ambiguity, 98–100 ; and reasoning, 265–8 , 269–77 ; and the smartphone, 30 ; the ‘wisdom of crowds’, 47 , 413–14 Community Reinvestment Act (USA, 1977), 207 comparative advantage model, 249–50 , 251–2 , 253 computer technologies, 27–31 , 173–4 , 175–7 , 185–6 , 227 , 411 ; big data, 208 , 327 , 388–90 ; CAPTCHA text, 387 ; dotcom boom, 228 ; and economic models, 339–40 ; machine learning, 208 Condit, Phil, 228 Condorcet, Nicolas de, 199–200 consumer price index, 330 , 331 conviction narrative theory, 227–30 Corinthians (New Testament), 402 corporate takeovers, 256–7 corporations, large, 27–31 , 122 , 123 , 286–90 , 408–10 , 412 , 415 Cosmides, Leda, 165 Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction, 32 , 39 , 71–2 Crick, Francis, 156 cricket, 140–1 , 237 , 263–5 crime novels, classic, 218 crosswords, 218 crypto-currencies, 96 , 316 Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, 140 , 264 Cuba, 278–80 ; Cuban Missile Crisis, 279–81 , 299 , 412 Custer, George, 293 Cutty Sark (whisky producer), 325 Daily Express , 242–3 , 244 Damasio, Antonio, 171 Dardanelles expedition (1915), 25 Darwin, Charles, 156 , 157 Davenport, Thomas, 374 Dawkins, Richard, 156 de Havilland company, 23–4 Debreu, Gerard, 254 , 343–4 decision theory, xvi ; critiques of ‘American school’, 133–7 ; definition of rationality, 133–4 ; derived from deductive reasoning, 138 ; Ellsberg’s ‘ambiguity aversion’, 135 ; expected utility , 111–14 , 115–18 , 124–5 , 127 , 128 – 30 , 135 , 400 , 435–44 ; hegemony of optimisation, 40–2 , 110–14 ; as unable to solve mysteries, 34 , 44 , 47 ; and work of Savage, 442–3 decision-making under uncertainty: and adaptation, 102 , 401 ; Allais paradox, 133–7 , 437 , 440–3 ; axiomatic approach extended to, xv , 40–2 , 110–14 , 133–7 , 257–9 , 420–1 ; ‘bounded rationality concept, 149–53 ; as collaborative process, 17 , 155 , 162 , 176 , 411–15 , 431–2 ; and communication, 17 , 231 , 272–7 , 279–82 , 398–9 , 408 , 412 , 413–17 , 432 ; communicative rationality, 172 , 267–77 , 279–82 , 412 , 414–16 ; completeness axiom, 437–8 ; continuity axiom, 438–40 ; Cuban Missile Crisis, 279–81 , 299 , 412 ; ‘decision weights’ concept, 121 ; disasters attributed to chance, 266–7 ; doctors, 184–6 , 194 , 398–9 ; and emotions, 227–9 , 411 ; ‘evidence-based policy’, 404 , 405 ; excessive attention to prior probabilities, 184–5 , 210 ; expected utility , 111–14 , 115–18 , 124–5 , 127 , 128–30 , 135 , 400 , 435–44 ; first-rate decision-makers, 285 ; framing of problems, 261 , 362 , 398–400 ; good strategies for radical uncertainty, 423–5 ; and hindsight, 263 ; independence axiom, 440–4 ; judgement as unavoidable, 176 ; Klein’s ‘primed recognition decision-making’, 399 ; Gary Klein’s work on, 151–2 , 167 ; and luck, 263–6 ; practical decision-making, 22–6 , 46–7 , 48–9 , 81–2 , 151 , 171–2 , 176–7 , 255 , 332 , 383 , 395–6 , 398–9 ; and practical knowledge, 22–6 , 195 , 255 , 352 , 382–8 , 395–6 , 405 , 414–15 , 431 ; and prior opinions, 179–80 , 184–5 , 210 ; ‘prospect theory’, 121 ; public sector processes, 183 , 355 , 415 ; puzzle– mystery distinction, 20–4 , 32–4 , 48–9 , 64–8 , 100 , 155 , 173–7 , 218 , 249 , 398 , 400–1 ; qualities needed for success, 179–80 ; reasoning as not decision-making, 268–71 ; and ‘resulting’, 265–7 ; ‘risk as feelings’ perspective, 128–9 , 310 ; robustness and resilience, 123 , 294–8 , 332 , 335 , 374 , 423–5 ; and role of economists, 397–401 ; Rumelt’s ‘diagnosis’, 184–5 , 194–5 ; ‘satisficing’ (’good enough’ outcomes), 150 , 167 , 175 , 415 , 416 ; search for a workable solution, 151–2 , 167 ; by securities traders, 268–9 ; ‘shock’ and ‘shift’ labels, 42 , 346 , 347 , 348 , 406–7 ; simple heuristics, rules of thumb, 152 ; and statistical discrimination, 207–9 , 415 ; triumph of probabilistic reasoning, 20 , 40–2 , 72–84 , 110–14 ; von Neumann– Morgenstern axioms, 111 , 133 , 435–44 ; see also business strategy deductive reasoning, 137–8 , 147 , 235 , 388 , 389 , 398 Deep Blue, 175 DeepMind, 173–4 The Deer Hunter (film, 1978), 438 democracy, representative, 292 , 319 , 414 demographic issues, 253 , 358–61 , 362–3 ; EU migration models, 369–70 , 372 Denmark, 426 , 427 , 428 , 430 dentistry, 387–8 , 394 Derek, Bo, 97 dermatologists, 88–9 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), 27 , 31 dinosaurs, extinction of, 32 , 39 , 71–2 , 383 , 402 division of labour, 161 , 162 , 172–3 , 216 , 249 DNA, 156 , 198 , 201 , 204 ‘domino theory’, 281 Donoghue, Denis, 226 dotcom boom, 316 , 402 Doyle, Arthur Conan, 34 , 224–5 , 253 Drapers Company, 328 Drescher, Melvin, 248–9 Drucker, Peter, Concept of the Corporation (1946), 286 , 287 Duhem–Quine hypothesis, 259–60 Duke, Annie, 263 , 268 , 273 Dulles, John Foster, 293 Dutch tulip craze (1630s), 315 Dyson, Frank, 259 earthquakes, 237–8 , 239 Eco, Umberto, The Name of the Rose , 204 Econometrica , 134 econometrics, 134 , 340–1 , 346 , 356 economic models: of 1950s and 1960s, 339–40 ; Akerlof model, 250–1 , 252 , 253 , 254 ; ‘analogue economies’ of Lucas, 345 , 346 ; artificial/complex, xiv–xv , 21 , 92–3 , 94 ; ‘asymmetric information’ model, 250–1 , 254–5 ; capital asset pricing model (CAPM), 307–8 , 309 , 320 , 332 ; comparative advantage model, 249–50 , 251–2 , 253 ; cost-benefit analysis obsession, 404 ; diversification of risk, 304–5 , 307–9 , 317–18 , 334–7 ; econometric models, 340–1 , 346 , 356 ; economic rent model, 253–4 ; efficient market hypothesis, 252 , 254 , 308–9 , 318 , 320 , 332 , 336–7 ; efficient portfolio model, 307–8 , 309 , 318 , 320 , 332–4 , 366 ; failure over 2007–08 crisis, xv , 6–7 , 260 , 311–12 , 319 , 339 , 349–50 , 357 , 367–8 , 399 , 407 , 423–4 ; falsificationist argument, 259–60 ; forecasting models, 7 , 15–16 , 68 , 96 , 102–5 , 347–50 , 403–4 ; Goldman Sachs risk models, 6–7 , 9 , 68 , 202 , 246–7 ; ‘grand auction’ of Arrow and Debreu, 343–5 ; inadequacy of forecasting models, 347–50 , 353–4 , 403–4 ; invented numbers in, 312–13 , 320 , 363–4 , 365 , 371 , 373 , 404 , 405 , 423 ; Keynesian, 339–40 ; Lucas critique, 341 , 348 , 354 ; Malthus’ population growth model, 253 , 358–61 , 362–3 ; misuse/abuse of, 312–13 , 320 , 371–4 , 405 ; need for, 404–5 ; need for pluralism of, 276–7 ; pension models, 312–13 , 328–9 , 405 , 423 , 424 ; pre-crisis risk models, 6–7 , 9 , 68 , 202 , 246–7 , 260 , 311–12 , 319 , 320–1 , 339 ; purpose of, 346 ; quest for large-world model, 392 ; ‘rational expectations theory, 342–5 , 346–50 ; real business cycle theory, 348 , 352–4 ; role of incentives, 408–9 ; ‘shift’ label, 406–7 ; ‘shock’ label, 346–7 , 348 , 406–7 ; ‘training base’ (historical data series), 406 ; Value at risk models (VaR), 366–8 , 405 , 424 ; Viniar problem (problem of model failure), 6–7 , 58 , 68 , 109 , 150 , 176 , 202 , 241 , 242 , 246–7 , 331 , 366–8 ; ‘wind tunnel’ models, 309 , 339 , 392 ; winner’s curse model, 256–7 ; World Economic Outlook, 349 ; see also axiomatic rationality; maximising behaviour; optimising behaviour; small world models Economic Policy Symposium, Jackson Hole, 317–18 economics: adverse selection process, 250–1 , 327 ; aggregate output and GDP, 95 ; ambiguity of variables/concepts, 95–6 , 99–100 ; appeal of probability theory, 42–3 ; ‘bubbles’, 315–16 ; business cycles, 45–6 , 347 ; Chicago School, 36 , 72–4 , 86 , 92 , 111–14 , 133–7 , 158 , 257–8 , 307 , 342–3 , 381–2 ; data as essential, 388–90 ; division of labour, 161 , 162 , 172–3 , 216 , 249 ; and evolutionary mechanisms, 158–9 ; ‘expectations’ concept, 97–8 , 102–3 , 121–2 , 341–2 ; forecasts and future planning as necessary, 103 ; framing of problems, 261 , 362 , 398–400 ; ‘grand auction’ of Arrow and Debreu, 343–5 ; hegemony of optimisation, 40–2 , 110 – 14 ; Hicks–Samuelson axioms, 435–6 ; market fundamentalism, 220 ; market price equilibrium, 254 , 343–4 , 381–2 ; markets as necessarily incomplete, 344 , 345 , 349 ; Marshall’s definition of, 381 , 382 ; as ‘non-stationary’, 16 , 35–6 , 45–6 , 102 , 236 , 339–41 , 349 , 350 , 394–6 ; oil shock (1973), 223 ; Phillips curve, 340 ; and ‘physics envy’, 387 , 388 ; and power laws, 238–9 ; as practical knowledge, 381 , 382–3 , 385–8 , 398 , 399 , 405 ; public role of the social scientist, 397–401 ; reciprocity in a modern economy, 191–2 , 328–9 ; and reflexivity, 35–6 , 309 , 394 ; risk and volatility, 124–5 , 310 , 333 , 335–6 , 421–3 ; Romer’s ‘mathiness’, 93–4 , 95 ; shift or structural break, 236 ; Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’, 163 , 254 , 343 ; social context of, 17 ; sources of data, 389 , 390 ; surge in national income since 1800, 161 ; systems as non-linear, 102 ; teaching’s emphasis on quantitative methods, 389 ; validity of research findings, 245 ‘Economists Free Ride, Does Anyone Else?’ (study), 190 Eddington, Arthur, 259 Eden, Anthony, 174 Edgeworth, F. Y., 110 Edison, Thomas, 431 Edmond de Belamy (computer created portrait), 176 education system, 409 efficient market hypothesis, 252 , 254 , 308–9 , 318 , 320 , 332 , 336–7 Egypt, ancient, 142 Ehrlich, Paul, The Population Bomb (1968), 359 , 362 Einstein, Albert, 19–20 , 259 Eisenhower, Dwight D., 279 , 282 , 292 , 293–4 Eliot, George, Middlemarch , 220 Elizabeth II, Queen, 382–3 , 393 Ellsberg, Daniel, 135 , 136 , 282 emerging economies, 315–16 engineering, 23–4 , 33 , 383 , 384 , 390–1 , 399 Enlightenment, eighteenth-century, 163 , 187 , 387 entrepreneurship, 15 , 49 , 74 , 170 , 258 , 275–6 , 337 , 405 , 430–2 environmentalism, 220 , 361 , 362 Equitable Life Assurance Society, 56 , 328 Ethereum, 96 eugenics, 158 European Central Bank, 350 European Monetary System, 319 European Monetary Union, 45 , 316 European Union, 369–70 , 372 eusociality, 172–3 , 274 evolutionary science: adaptation, 401 ; application to economics, 158 ; and behavioural economics, 154–5 ; co-evolution, 163–4 , 429 , 430–1 ; coping strategies for uncertainty, 47 , 155 ; and decision making, 47 , 171–2 , 177 , 272 , 401 ; discovery and development of, 156 , 157–8 ; an essentially continuous process, 407 , 428–9 , 430–1 ; evolutionary psychology, 416–17 ; and extinctions, 32 ; false association with far-right causes, 158 , 161 ; and intentionality, 431 ; language and communication, 159 , 161–2 , 272 ; and learning of complex skills, 268 , 274–5 , 408 ; nature and nurture, 164–5 ; non-scientific mechanisms of, 158–9 ; optimism and confidence, 167–70 , 330 , 427–8 ; parable of the scorpion and the frog, 164 ; predispositions influencing behaviour, 163–5 ; and rationality, 16–17 , 47 , 152–3 , 155 , 157 , 162 , 171–3 , 272 , 401 ; and risk, 129 , 160–1 , 162 , 166 , 170 , 171 ; the ‘selfish gene’, 156 ; social and cultural practices, 156–65 , 408 ; and survival, 165–7 , 401 ; and trust, 162–3 , 165 ; uncertainty as essential, 428–9 , 431 executive pay, xiv , 409 expected value , concept of, 60 , 106–9 , 114–16 , 124–5 ‘expert’ forecasters, 21–2 , 221–2 Falklands War (1982), 291 , 295 falsificationism, 259–60 Fama, Eugene, 252 , 318 , 320 Fauchard, Pierre, 387 Federal Reserve, US, 103 , 317–18 Ferguson, Adam, 163 , 343 Ferguson, Sir Alex, 273 Fermat, Pierre de, 53 , 56 , 57 , 59–60 , 106 Fermi, Enrico, 84 , 129 Feynman, Richard, 373 , 374 fiction, works of, 92–3 , 212–13 , 219 , 220 , 224–6 , 344 , 397 finance theory: beta coefficients, 332–3 ; capital asset pricing model (CAPM), 307–8 , 309 , 320 , 332 , 334 ; covariances , 332–3 , 366–7 ; definition of risk, 420–1 ; efficient market hypothesis, 252 , 254 , 308–9 , 318 , 320 , 332 , 336–7 ; efficient portfolio model, 307–8 , 309 , 318 , 320 , 332–4 , 366 ; limits of, 318–21 ; quest for large-world model, 392 ; risk as volatility, 124–5 , 310 , 333 , 336 ; three pillars of, 309–10 , 320 , 332 financial crisis (2007–08): and Bank of England ‘fan charts’, 105 ; bankers attribute to chance, 266–7 ; and evolutionary theory, 158–9 ; failure of economic models, xv , 6–7 , 260 , 311–12 , 319 , 339 , 349–50 , 357 , 367–8 , 399 , 407 , 423–4 ; financial sector output after, 95 ; Goldman Sachs risk models, 6–7 , 9 , 68 , 202 , 246–7 ; greedy bankers as risk averse, 127–8 ; and historical narratives, 356–7 ; as intellectual failure, 12 , 319 , 320–1 ; and narrative reasoning, 5–6 ; as not unpredictable/unavoidable, 402–3 ; and pernicious narrative, 410–11 ; prevailing narrative changed by, 351 ; the Queen on, 382–3 , 393 ; and ‘real business cycle’ models, 348 ; recession after, 338–9 ; and ‘thick description’, 193–4 ; volatility and risk, 422–3 financial instruments, 6 , 351 , 366–7 , 401 financial sector: and assumptions of stationarity, 333 , 339 , 340–1 , 349 , 350 , 366–7 ; Basel regulations, 310 , 311 ; broad asset categories, 333–4 ; broad portfolio diversification, 333–5 ; ‘call’ and ‘put’ options, 422–3 ; correlations based on historic data sets, 333 , 366–7 , 390 , 406 ; dominance of narratives, 229–30 , 314–16 , 410–11 ; Dr Evil strategy, 229 , 255 ; executive pay, xiv , 409 ; and expected utility theory, 127 ; failure of finance theory, 318–21 ; government index-linked bonds, 330–1 ; inadequacy of forecasting models, 347–50 , 353–4 , 403–4 ; LIBOR scandal, 192 ; need for strong regulation, 313–14 ; as non-stationary, 16 , 202–3 , 268–9 , 320–1 , 331 , 333 , 339 , 366–8 , 402–3 , 406 ; and normal distribution, 233 ; and power laws, 238–9 ; rescue from collapse (2008), 95 , 311 ; risk and volatility, 124–5 , 310 , 333 , 335–7 , 421–3 ; securitisation, 311 , 316 – 18 , 366–7 , 401 ; securitised mortgages, 311 , 317 , 367 , 372 , 390 , 422–3 ; stock market crashes, 238 , 331 , 354 ; US stock market crash (19 October 1987), 238 ; US subprime mortgage market, 317 , 367 , 390 , 422–3 ; Value at risk models (VaR), 366–8 , 405 , 424 ; see also securities trading Financial Times , xiii Finetti, Bruno de, 73 , 80 , 135 First World War, 357 , 361 Fisher, R.

…

Part IV Economics and Uncertainty 17 THE WORLD OF FINANCE Things can be said in equations, impressively, even arrogantly, which are so nonsensical that they would embarrass even the author if spelled out in words. —J. HOOVER MACKIN 1 T hales of Miletus, a Greek philosopher, made important discoveries in geometry and careful observations of the frequency of natural events. His prediction of the solar eclipse in 585 BC was described by Isaac Asimov as ‘the birth of science’. 2 Thales also used his scientific knowledge to anticipate an especially plentiful olive harvest. He bought options on all the olive presses in Miletus, and when demand soared he rented them out at a substantial profit. According to Aristotle, Thales’ motive was not primarily pecuniary; he aimed to provide an answer to the question so often thrown at philosophers and economists: ‘If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?’

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Albert Einstein, Albert Michelson, Alfred Russel Wallace, All science is either physics or stamp collecting, Apollo 11, Arthur Eddington, Barry Marshall: ulcers, Brownian motion, California gold rush, Cepheid variable, clean water, Copley Medal, cosmological constant, dark matter, Dava Sobel, David Attenborough, double helix, Drosophila, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Ernest Rutherford, Fellow of the Royal Society, flying shuttle, Gregor Mendel, Harvard Computers: women astronomers, Helicobacter pylori, Higgs boson, Isaac Newton, it's over 9,000, James Watt: steam engine, John Harrison: Longitude, Kevin Kelly, Kuiper Belt, Large Hadron Collider, Louis Pasteur, luminiferous ether, Magellanic Cloud, Menlo Park, Murray Gell-Mann, out of africa, Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, supervolcano, Thomas Malthus, Wilhelm Olbers

There was no such book, no such publisher, no such circle of learned men, but the notion stuck anyway. Soon the number of people who could grasp relativity had been reduced even further in the popular imagination—and the scientific establishment, it must be said, did little to disturb the myth. When a journalist asked the British astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington if it was true that he was one of only three people in the world who could understand Einstein's relativity theories, Eddington considered deeply for a moment and replied: “I am trying to think who the third person is.” In fact, the problem with relativity wasn't that it involved a lot of differential equations, Lorentz transformations, and other complicated mathematics (though it did—even Einstein needed help with some of it), but that it was just so thoroughly nonintuitive.

…

It was a question that would occupy his thoughts for most of the next decade and lead to the publication in early 1917 of a paper entitled “Cosmological Considerations on the General Theory of Relativity.” The special theory of relativity of 1905 was a profound and important piece of work, of course, but as C. P. Snow once observed, if Einstein hadn't thought of it when he did someone else would have, probably within five years; it was an idea waiting to happen. But the general theory was something else altogether. “Without it,” wrote Snow in 1979, “it is likely that we should still be waiting for the theory today.” With his pipe, genially self-effacing manner, and electrified hair, Einstein was too splendid a figure to remain permanently obscure, and in 1919, the war over, the world suddenly discovered him.

…

Instead, you would come back to where you began (at which point, presumably, you would rather lose heart in the exercise and give up). The reason for this is that the universe bends, in a way we can't adequately imagine, in conformance with Einstein's theory of relativity (which we will get to in due course). For the moment it is enough to know that we are not adrift in some large, ever-expanding bubble. Rather, space curves, in a way that allows it to be boundless but finite. Space cannot even properly be said to be expanding because, as the physicist and Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg notes, “solar systems and galaxies are not expanding, and space itself is not expanding.” Rather, the galaxies are rushing apart. It is all something of a challenge to intuition.

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker

3D printing, Abraham Maslow, access to a mobile phone, affirmative action, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, agricultural Revolution, Albert Einstein, Alfred Russel Wallace, Alignment Problem, An Inconvenient Truth, anti-communist, Anton Chekhov, Arthur Eddington, artificial general intelligence, availability heuristic, Ayatollah Khomeini, basic income, Berlin Wall, Bernie Sanders, biodiversity loss, Black Swan, Bonfire of the Vanities, Brexit referendum, business cycle, capital controls, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, carbon footprint, carbon tax, Charlie Hebdo massacre, classic study, clean water, clockwork universe, cognitive bias, cognitive dissonance, Columbine, conceptual framework, confounding variable, correlation does not imply causation, creative destruction, CRISPR, crowdsourcing, cuban missile crisis, Daniel Kahneman / Amos Tversky, dark matter, data science, decarbonisation, degrowth, deindustrialization, dematerialisation, demographic transition, Deng Xiaoping, distributed generation, diversified portfolio, Donald Trump, Doomsday Clock, double helix, Eddington experiment, Edward Jenner, effective altruism, Elon Musk, en.wikipedia.org, end world poverty, endogenous growth, energy transition, European colonialism, experimental subject, Exxon Valdez, facts on the ground, fake news, Fall of the Berlin Wall, first-past-the-post, Flynn Effect, food miles, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, frictionless, frictionless market, Garrett Hardin, germ theory of disease, Gini coefficient, Great Leap Forward, Hacker Conference 1984, Hans Rosling, hedonic treadmill, helicopter parent, Herbert Marcuse, Herman Kahn, Hobbesian trap, humanitarian revolution, Ignaz Semmelweis: hand washing, income inequality, income per capita, Indoor air pollution, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), invention of writing, Jaron Lanier, Joan Didion, job automation, Johannes Kepler, John Snow's cholera map, Kevin Kelly, Khan Academy, knowledge economy, l'esprit de l'escalier, Laplace demon, launch on warning, life extension, long peace, longitudinal study, Louis Pasteur, Mahbub ul Haq, Martin Wolf, mass incarceration, meta-analysis, Michael Shellenberger, microaggression, Mikhail Gorbachev, minimum wage unemployment, moral hazard, mutually assured destruction, Naomi Klein, Nate Silver, Nathan Meyer Rothschild: antibiotics, negative emissions, Nelson Mandela, New Journalism, Norman Mailer, nuclear taboo, nuclear winter, obamacare, ocean acidification, Oklahoma City bombing, open economy, opioid epidemic / opioid crisis, paperclip maximiser, Paris climate accords, Paul Graham, peak oil, Peter Singer: altruism, Peter Thiel, post-truth, power law, precautionary principle, precision agriculture, prediction markets, public intellectual, purchasing power parity, radical life extension, Ralph Nader, randomized controlled trial, Ray Kurzweil, rent control, Republic of Letters, Richard Feynman, road to serfdom, Robert Gordon, Rodney Brooks, rolodex, Ronald Reagan, Rory Sutherland, Saturday Night Live, science of happiness, Scientific racism, Second Machine Age, secular stagnation, self-driving car, sharing economy, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley ideology, Simon Kuznets, Skype, smart grid, Social Justice Warrior, sovereign wealth fund, sparse data, stem cell, Stephen Hawking, Steve Bannon, Steven Pinker, Stewart Brand, Stuxnet, supervolcano, synthetic biology, tech billionaire, technological determinism, technological singularity, Ted Kaczynski, Ted Nordhaus, TED Talk, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, the scientific method, The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver, The Spirit Level, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, The Wisdom of Crowds, Thomas Kuhn: the structure of scientific revolutions, Thomas Malthus, total factor productivity, Tragedy of the Commons, union organizing, universal basic income, University of East Anglia, Unsafe at Any Speed, Upton Sinclair, uranium enrichment, urban renewal, W. E. B. Du Bois, War on Poverty, We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters, women in the workforce, working poor, World Values Survey, Y2K

The Law of Entropy is widely acknowledged in everyday life in sayings such as “Things fall apart,” “Rust never sleeps,” “Shit happens,” “Whatever can go wrong will go wrong,” and (from the Texas lawmaker Sam Rayburn) “Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one.” Scientists appreciate that the Second Law is far more than an explanation of everyday nuisances. It is a foundation of our understanding of the universe and our place in it. In 1928 the physicist Arthur Eddington wrote: The law that entropy always increases . . . holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell’s equations—then so much the worse for Maxwell’s equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation—well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes.

…

., 447 Dylan, Bob, 341 ear and hearing, 18, 20–21 earthquake deaths, 187, 188 East Africa, famine in, 73 East Asia education in, 236–8, 237–8 emancipative values in, 227, 227 interstate combat reduced in, 158 secularization and, 436, 489n68 undernourishment in, 72 Easterbrook, Gregg, 292, 457n29 Easterlin paradox, 263, 268–9, 270–71 Easterlin, Richard, 263, 268–9 Eastern Europe, 90, 200, 201, 236–7, 237, 271 Ebola, 307 ecomodernism, 32, 122–4, 134–6, 154–5 economic inequality, 97–120 absolute vs. relative inequality, 103, 114 anonymous vs. longitudinal data, 112–13, 114–15 conflation with poverty, 98–9 conflation with unfairness, 101–2 destructive events reducing, 106–7 economic stagnation and, 328–9 Gini, 98, 103, 109, 115, 118, 461n4, 467n12 Gini indexes for consumption, 117–18 global and international, 103–5, 104–5 government role in ameliorating, 119 graduated income tax and, 107 happiness stagnation of U.S. and, 272 homicide rates and, 170–71, 467n12 and individual psychology, 99–102 Kuznets curve, inequality vs. time, 103–6, 110, 111 lower classes not worse off, 114–18, 116 lower middle classes and, 112, 113, 118–19, 339, 340 as political issue, 97 rise of, beginning about 1980, 110–113, 111 social spending and, 107–110, 115–16, 116 Spirit Level theory of effects of, 100–101 theoretical basis for, 102–3 and theory of social comparison, 99–100 Trump and, 335 zero-sum thinking about, 99 economics comparative advantage, 92 demonetization, 332–3 and infectious disease improvements, 67 information tech confounding measures, 332–3 populist elections not determined by, 339, 340 See also capitalism; commerce; consumer products; economic inequality; economic stagnation; GDP; globalization; Great Recession; Gross World Product; Kuznets curve; paradox of value; poverty; productivity; social spending; wealth economic stagnation, 328–33 Eddington, Arthur, 16–17 Edison, Thomas, 252 education basic educational attainment, 236–8, 237 and child labor, end of, 230–31 compulsory, 231, 234 cost of, 118 critical thinking and debiasing instruction, 377–9 democracy and peace dividend from, 235 distance learning, 238, 331 Enlightenment values and, 234, 235–6 and escape from poverty, 234 formal schools, development of, 233–4 future of, 331 of girls and women, 235, 239–40, 239, 473n27 and global well-being, 245–6, 246, 473n45 as human right, 234 and IQ scores, global rise in, 242, 245 modern economies and requirements of, 118 online courses, 238, 260, 331 population peak and, 238 preschool programs, 239 religions meddling in, 234 school readiness, improvements in, 239 secularization and, 435–6, 438 substandard, 118 Trump and, 335, 339 utilitarianism and, 417 See also literacy; university and college education Effective Altruism, 119, 381, 403, 462n69 Egalitarian Revolution, 107 Ehrlich, Paul, 64, 74, 366, 465n76 Einstein, Albert, 308, 309 Eisenhower, Dwight D., 280 Eisner, Manuel, 169, 171, 174 Eldering, Grace, 64 electricity, 141, 146–50, 251, 252, 330 Elias, Norbert, 168–9 Elion, Gertrude, 64 Eliot, T.

…

The sociologist Robert Scott notes that in the Middle Ages “the belief that an external force controlled daily life contributed to a kind of collective paranoia”: Rainstorms, thunder, lightning, wind gusts, solar or lunar eclipses, cold snaps, heat waves, dry spells, and earthquakes alike were considered signs and signals of God’s displeasure. As a result, the “hobgoblins of fear” inhabited every realm of life. The sea became a satanic realm, and forests were populated with beasts of prey, ogres, witches, demons, and very real thieves and cutthroats. . . . After dark, too, the world was filled with omens portending dangers of every sort: comets, meteors, shooting stars, lunar eclipses, the howls of wild animals.8 To the Enlightenment thinkers the escape from ignorance and superstition showed how mistaken our conventional wisdom could be, and how the methods of science—skepticism, fallibilism, open debate, and empirical testing—are a paradigm of how to achieve reliable knowledge.

The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy by Moiya McTier

affirmative action, Albert Einstein, Arthur Eddington, Burning Man, Cepheid variable, cosmic microwave background, cosmological constant, dark matter, Eddington experiment, Edward Charles Pickering, Ernest Rutherford, Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, Harvard Computers: women astronomers, heat death of the universe, Henri Poincaré, Higgs boson, Isaac Newton, James Dyson, James Webb Space Telescope, Karl Jansky, Kickstarter, Large Hadron Collider, Magellanic Cloud, overview effect, Pluto: dwarf planet, polynesian navigation, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Stephen Hawking, the scientific method

It’s hard to maintain hydrostatic equilibrium in anything heavier than 200 solar masses. That might seem counterintuitive to you, that gravity should lose out as a star gets more massive. Gravity is the weakest of the fundamental forces, remember? Radiation pressure, mostly from electromagnetic radiation in the form of photons, gets too strong at high masses. One of your human scientists figured this out without the help of hands-on experiments nearly a century ago, though he was more focused on the upper limit of a star’s luminosity, or brightness, rather than mass, but the two are closely related. His name was Arthur Eddington, dubbed “Sir” even though he never fought in any battle on principle.

…

It features Natalia Reagan, a primatologist, anthropologist, and, apparently, butt expert. 2Saturn’s rings are the most famous in our solar system, but the other gas giants also have their own, less spectacular rings. Despite the rings’ abundance in our solar system, astronomers don’t know how common rings are around other planets, because it’s so hard to find them! There’s no reason to think our solar system is special, however, so it is likely giant exoplanets are sporting some mighty fine rings of their own. 3After observing S2 for more than twenty years, astronomers used its orbit to confirm one of Einstein’s predictions called Schwarzschild precession. GRAVITY Collaboration: R.

…

An Israeli physicist named Mordehai Milgrom conceived the idea in 1983, when he called for a theory of modified Newtonian dynamics, or MOND. MOND advocates believe that Newtonian gravity works only in high-acceleration environments, like Earth and your solar system. Low-acceleration environments like the outer edges of galaxies operate under different gravitational rules. As much as I respect the desire to continuously prove Einstein wrong, MOND doesn’t hold up against observations of galaxies without dark matter. If it’s just a matter of gravity behaving differently at larger scales, then its effects should be observed everywhere. Your astronomers have found a couple of galaxies confirmed to be abnormally devoid of dark matter.

A Dominant Character by Samanth Subramanian

affirmative action, Alfred Russel Wallace, Arthur Eddington, British Empire, CRISPR, double helix, Drosophila, Eddington experiment, epigenetics, Etonian, Fellow of the Royal Society, Gregor Mendel, Gunnar Myrdal, Louis Pasteur, peak oil, phenotype, statistical model, strikebreaker, Suez canal 1869, the scientific method, Thomas Malthus, Tim Cook: Apple

See also Oxford Preparatory School Dreyfus Affair, 148 Dronamraju, Krishna Rao, 282, 283, 300 Drosophila (fruit flies), 20, 25, 79, 343 drugs, 179 Dubinin, Dr., laboratory closed down, 23 Dugdale, Richard, 135 Dundee, Scotland, air quality in 1880s, 32–33 Dutt, Rajani Palmi, 162 earth, atmospheric condition of early, 128 ectogenesis, 140–41 Eddington, Arthur, 189 Edinburgh Academy, 35 Edinburgh University Socialist Society, 191 education, and aptitude of races, 222 Edward VIII, 93 Einstein, Albert, 143 Eldredge, Niles, 118 Elizabeth II, Queen of England, 293–94 Empire Cotton Growing Corporation, 187 Empson, William, 179 Engels, Friedrich, 12, 159, 173, 261 Engels Society, 266, 267 Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, 113 environment vs. ancestry, 185 and aptitude of races, 222 and gene mutation, 115 humans’ change on, 203 and inheritance, 314 organism’s fitness for, 118 enzymes, 108–9 and genes, 124–25 epigenetic molecules, environment and, 314 Estabrook, Arthur, 136 Eton, 66–76 eugenic control, 313 eugenics, 130–32, 312, 316 congress, 193 and feminists, 134 Haldane on, 137–38 Eugenics Education Society, 139 Evening Standard, 265 evidence, 57 evolution, 12 acceleration in humans, 204 compact of, 289 evolutionary biology Haldane’s first major paper in, 112 and political philosophy, 159 evolution theory, 3, 12–13, 59–61, 203 experiments, on self, 36–38, 102, 105 Experiments in the Revival of Organisms (movie), 255 extended evolutionary synthesis, 315 extinction, 289 Fabian Society, 161 Haldane’s lecture to, 165 fascism, 209 vs.

…

Like Wells, he was a man who peered constantly into the future and relayed his visions of what the world looked like. But unlike Wells, he did so as a professional scientist with a loud political voice. In the business of explaining science, Haldane had peers: the physicist James Jeans wrote popular books on cosmology, and the astronomer Arthur Eddington lectured on relativity and its bearing on religious faith. But no one ventured to tie together the ongoing developments in both science and politics the way Haldane did. No one laid out quite as clearly or prolifically how science could solve the immediate problems that people faced. The letters poured in—hundreds a week, his secretary reckoned.

…

The stringency of statistics delighted Haldane. Everyone should know more mathematics, he always thought. Numbers were so satisfyingly precise, equations so universal. How well they ministered to the scientific method! Had Haldane done just this and little else, he would have been an important scientist—not as revolutionary as Einstein, perhaps, and not associated for perpetuity like Watson and Crick with a single, shining discovery, but certainly among the few who altered their field beyond recognition, pushing it forward paper by paper. This is how science progresses most of the time, after all: through the accretive power of daily work, through meat-and-potatoes research.

The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes

Ada Lovelace, Albert Einstein, animal electricity, British Empire, Charles Babbage, Copley Medal, Dava Sobel, double helix, Dr. Strangelove, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, Edward Jenner, Etonian, experimental subject, Fellow of the Royal Society, Gregor Mendel, invention of the printing press, Isaac Newton, James Watt: steam engine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Harrison: Longitude, music of the spheres, placebo effect, polynesian navigation, Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, Thomas Kuhn: the structure of scientific revolutions, Thomas Malthus, trade route, unbiased observer, University of East Anglia, éminence grise

It also returns in a new way to Davy’s early Cornish beliefs about starlight as the source of all energy in the universe: Nothing is lost; the ethereal fire, Which from the farthest star descends, Through the immensity of space Its course by worlds attracted bends, To reach the earth; the eternal laws Preserve one glorious wise design; Order amidst confusion flows And all the system is divine. If matter cannot be destroyed, Then living mind can never die; If e’en creative when alloy’d, How sure is immortality!70 Intriguingly, the first stanza appears to anticipate Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (1915), in which light is ‘bent’ by gravity; and then Eddington’s observations of a solar eclipse in 1919, when he recorded starlight actually being bent by the sun. But apparent anticipations of this kind can be deceptive in science, often hiding a more significant contemporary meaning. Here Davy was really expressing a more traditional belief: the sudden confidence that ‘eternal laws’ govern the universe in a benign and ordered way.

…

John Davy), 434; Consolations in Travel, 248, 294, 356, 378, 424-33, 450; Elements of Chemical Philosophy, 343-5, 356-7; ‘Essays on Heat and Light’, 250; On the Safety Lamp for Coal Miners, with Some Researches into Flame, 370; Researches Chemical and Philosophical, 264, 270-1, 277, 279, 281-4; Salmonia, or Days of Fly-Fishing, 262, 416-20, 423-4, 432 Davy, Jane, Lady (née Kerr; then Apreece): meets Davy, 304, 337; background and character, 337-8; Davy courts and corresponds with, 340-2; marriage and honeymoon with Davy, 343, 346-7; deteriorating marriage relations, 348-50, 374-6, 397, 400-1, 405, 412-14; social life, 350, 357, 377, 415; attitude to Faraday, 352, 358, 402, 448; Continental tour with Davy (1813-15), 352, 355, 357-8; in Paris, 353; Ticknor meets, 360; fishing holidays, 361; and Davy’s preoccupation with developing miners’ safety lamp, 365; two-year European tour with Davy (1818-20), 375-8, 380; Banks’s attitude to, 384; holiday with Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford, 398; unpopularity in Penzance, 401n; absence from Davy’s later Continental tours, 414-15, 420; and Davy’s nurse in Laibach, 421, 423; and Scott’s review of Salmonia, 423; and Davy’s writing of Consolations in Travel, 425; Davy’s later easier attitude to, 431; visits dying Davy in Rome, 432; and Davy’s death, 433; inheritance from Davy, 434 Davy, John (Humphry’s brother): birth, 234; and Humphry’s romantic attachments, 241, 301; recalls Humphry’s early experiments, 249; sadness at Humphry’s departure for Bristol, 253; as Humphry’s temporary assistant at Royal Institution, 298n; and Humphry’s marriage to Jane, 343, 346; serves as military doctor, 359, 433; on Humphry’s marriage difficulties, 376; and Humphry’s solving naval ships’ corrosion problem, 412; accompanies Humphry on 1827 Continental tour, 414-15; attends mother’s funeral, 414; and Humphry’s poems to Josephine, 423; visits dying Humphry in Rome, 432-3; later travels and career, 433; writes life of Humphry, 434; The Angler and his Friend, 434; Fragmentary Remains (of Humphry Davy), 434; Memoirs of Sir Humphry Davy, 275, 434 Davy, Kitty (Humphry’s sister), 238-9 Davy, Robert (Humphry’s father), 237-40, 243 Dawkins, Richard, 313n, 429n; Unweaving the Rainbow, 321n, 440n de la Tour, Georges, xix Demba (African slave boy), 215-16 Dennett, Daniel, 313n De Quincey, Thomas, 413; ‘Animal Magnetism’, 315n; Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, 431 Descartes, René, 249, 448 Dessalis, Dr: marries Harriet Blosset, 42 Dettela, Josephine (‘Pappina’), 377, 419, 421-3, 427, 432, 434 Devonshire, Georgiana, Duchess of, 137, 139, 147, 217-18, 235, 251-2 Dickens, Charles, 453-4 Dickson, James, 214, 220 Dictionnaire des Athées, 198 Diderot, Denis: Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville, 46n Diodati, Villa, Lake Geneva, 327, 457 Djerassi, Carl, 429n; Oxygen (play), 373n Dolland, John, 79; achromatic telescope, 78 Dolland, Peter, 78 Dollfus, Audoin: Pilâtre de Rozier, 153-4n Dolphin (ship), 3, 17, 30 Dootah (Tahitian chieftain), 23-4, 28-9 Dorset, John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of, 134, 152 double stars, 87, 90 & n, 95 Dublin: Sadlers’ balloon flights from, 156, 158; Davy lectures in, 304, 340 Dudley, John William Ward, 1st Earl of, 347, 412 Durham, Bishop of see Barrington, Shute Dwyer, Patrick, 257-8 Dyer, Susan, 149, 154-5 & n earth, age of see Creation Eddington, Sir Arthur Stanley, 360 Edgeworth, Lovell, 265 Edgeworth, Maria, 264, 281, 291, 350 Edinburgh Review, 299, 317, 369, 435 Edwards, Bryan, 212, 221, 232 Einstein, Albert: General Theory of Relativity, 360; images, 465n electricity: experiments in, 245; Davy’s interest in, 273-4; Davy lectures on, 295-6; and Vitalism theory, 309-10, 312, 314, 317, 428; animal, 431-3; Faraday’s researches into, 444, 453-4; John Herschel on, 444 electro-chemical analysis, 298 Elizabeth, Princess, 111 Encke, Johann, 193 Endeavour, HMS: voyage, xvi, 1, 3, 5, 9-11, 13; deaths, 13-14, 40; and Tahitian thieving, 16; leaves Tahiti, 35; continues voyage to New Zealand and Australia, 38; health and condition of crew, 39; official account of voyage (by Hawkesworth), 44; Banks’s pride in voyage, 57 Enfield, William: History of Philosophy, 243 Englefield, Sir Harry, 189 English Channel: balloon crossings, 148, 153 Epictetus, 73 Estrées, Louis César le Tellier de Louvois, Marshal d’, 69 ether, 284 ‘Eureka moment’, xvii, 94n, 98, 456 evolution: Darwin’s theory of, 313, 451 & n, 461; Coleridge on, 322-3; Davy on, 455 Examiner (journal), 353 extraterrestrial life: speculations on, 91-2, 167, 199, 209, 357, 426 Fabricius, Johann, 49 Fadiman, Anne: ‘Collecting Nature’, 49n Fara, Patricia: Newton: The Making of a Genius, xviiin Faraday, Michael: electro-chemical experiments, 298n; appointed laboratory assistant at Royal Institution, 348-9; attends Davy’s lectures, 349; accompanies Davy and Jane on Continental tour, 352-7, 370; character and appearance, 352, 358; letters to Abbott, 352, 354, 357-8; religious beliefs, 352, 450, 452; and Davy’s claiming priority in analysis of iodine, 354; lectures and discourses, 358, 453-4; promoted at Royal Institution, 358; assists in Davy’s development of miners’ safety lamp, 363-6, 373; and Davy’s absence in Durham, 363; belief in scientific knowledge, 371; unrewarded by Royal Society, 394; and Davy’s candidacy for presidency of Royal Society, 398; Davy blackballs Fellowship of Royal Society, 401; marriage, 401; eventual election as Fellow of Royal Society, 402; injured in laboratory explosion, 402-3; bust at new British Library, 404n; appointed Director of Royal Institution, 405; as Athenaeum club secretary, 405; Davy abandons as protégé, 418; and Davy’s Consolations in Travel, 430; declines to stand for Royal Society President, 436; not recognised, 438; and Babbage’s polemic on scientists, 440; researches into electro-magnetism, 444, 453; congratulates John Herschel on Study of Natural Philosophy, 445; attends British Association meetings, 447; friendship with Coleridge, 448; achievements and appointments, 453, 468; The Times misspells name, 453; Mary Somerville writes on, 458; ‘The Chemical History of a Candle’, 454 Faraday, Sarah (née Barnard), 401-2 Farinelli, Signora (singer), 76, 108 Fatima (Ali’s wife), 216 Felling colliery disasters (1812, 1813), 351 Ferguson, James, 61, 77; Astronomy Explained, 70, 74, 82, 91; Autobiography, 74 Ferrari, Giorgio, 217 Feynman, Richard: The Meaning of it All, 313n fire: understanding of, 145; see also combustion fire-damp (methane), 351, 357, 362-6, 368-9 fireflies: Davy’s poem on, 378-9 Fitzroy, Captain Robert, 446 Flammarion, Camille, 424n Flamsteed, John, 61, 77, 90, 95, 102, 176; Celestial Atlas, 79 & n Fleurus, battle of (1794), 155 flight see balloons Flinders, Matthew, 212, 386 Florence, Italy, 355-7 Fontenelle, Bernard le Bovier de, 167 Forster, Thomas, 317 Fortin, Nicholas, 248 four elements, 245-7 Fowles, John: The French Lieutenant’s Woman, 242 France: voyagers in Tahiti, 3-4; development of balloons and ballooning, 125-32, 136, 145-6, 149; military interest in balloons, 155-6; cloud terms, 160n; invasion threat from, 200; war with Britain, 231; medical and surgical skills, 306; Davy travels in, 354-5 ‘Frankenstein nightmare’, 94n Frankenstein’s Creature (fictional figure): origins and nature of, 330-4; stage and film representations, 334-5; and Newton statue at British Library, 404n; Andrew Crosse claimed as original of creator, 420; influence and effect, 457n Franklin, Benjamin: on French aerial experiments, 125-6, 132, 134, 135, 137; Jeffries meets in Paris, 152; and animal magnetism claims, 314; researches into electricity, 444 Franklin, Rosalind, 373n Fraunhofer, Joseph, 440 & n French language, 242 Friedrich, Caspar David: The Sea of Ice (painting), 469n Friend, The (Coleridge’s magazine), 49n, 338, 340, 367 Fulford, Tim (ed.): Romanticism and Science, 249n Furneaux, Captain Tobias, 49 Fuseli, Henry, 105-6 galaxies see nebulae Galignani, Giovanni Antonio, 385 Galileo Galilei, 77, 86n, 171, 428 Galvani, Luigi, 296, 314, 444 Galvanic Society, 317 galvanism, 273, 285-6, 328-9 Gambia, river, 214-16, 221 Garland, Private William, 224 Garnerin, Jacques, 159 Garnett, Thomas, 292 gas lighting, 382 gases: in medical treatment, 251, 257, 272 Gay-Lussac, Joseph, 159, 297, 299, 345, 353-4, 398, 403n Geneva: Davy in, 433; see also Diodati, Villa Gentleman’s Magazine, 136, 408, 460 Geological Society, foundation, xix, 393 geology: Davy lectures on, 294; Davy on limits of knowledge in, 356; and religious belief, 451, 459; Lyell on deep time and, 454-5, 459 George II, King, 65, 68 George III, King: Banks meets on return from Tahiti, 42-3; Banks advises at Kew, 49; Omai presented to, 50; sends condolences to Banks for gout, 57; interest in astronomy, 99, 168; summons Herschel to court, 109-10; appoints Herschel King’s Personal Astronomer, 110-11; remark on Herschel, 110, 409; buys Herschel telescopes as royal gifts, 114; proposes sponsoring ballooning, 133; sees Lunardi’s balloon flight, 138; meets Lunardi, 139; finances Herschel’s forty-foot telescope project, 164, 176, 178, 180, 190; visits Herschel’s telescope project at The Grove, 177-8; mental decline, 180-1; praises Herschels to Lalande, 188; death, 395; bequeathes books to British Museum library, 404 George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV): interest in ballooning, 137-8; gives watch to Lunardi, 139; grants and honours to Herschel, 181; confers knighthood on Davy, 342; awards baronetcy to Davy, 369; accession to throne, 395 Gerard, John: Herbal, 8 Germany: as inspiration for Frankenstein, 328-30 Gibbon, Edward, 110 Giddy, Davies: letters from Davy, 199, 259, 274, 277; lends books to Davy, 251; Beddoes writes to on Davy, 252; Anna Beddoes runs away to, 280, 286; as guardian of Anna Beddoes’s children, 302; marries and changes name to Davies Gilbert, 302; supports Davy’s candidature for presidency of Royal Society, 397; supports Faraday’s election to Royal Society Fellowship, 402 Gilbert, Davies see Giddy, Davies Gillman, Dr John, 308, 321 Gillray, James, 277, 292 Gleick, James: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics, 313n Godwin, William: on property, 16n; published by Johnson, 106, 271; and Davy, 267-8; and authorship of Frankenstein, 325 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von: on solitary scientific genius, xvii; essays on meteorology, 160; on nature of science, 247; in Jena circle, 315; on Newton’s Optics, 319; Jane Davy meets, 412; Humboldt praises, 440; ‘Empirical Observation and Science’, 249n, 443n; Treatise on Colour, 443n Goree (island), West Africa, 223 Gosse, Sir Edmund: Father and Son, 451n Göttingen: acquires Herschel telescope, 114, 168 Gray, Robert (later Bishop of Bristol), 351, 361, 365 Great Barrier Reef (Australia), 38n, 39 Great Reform Bill (1832), 437 Green, Joseph Henry, 306-7, 321-3; Spiritual Philosophy, 322 Green, William, 5-6, 10, 40 Grove, The (house), Slough, 165-6, 174-5, 188, 194 Guiccioli, Teresa, 380 Hachette, Pierre, 401 Haiti, 386-7 Hale-Bopp comet, 172n Hallam, Arthur, 451n Halley, Edmund: comet, 171-2 Hamblyn, Richard: The Invention of Clouds, 160n Hamilton, Sir William, 46n, 55, 221 Hamilton, Sir William Rowan, 447 Handel, George Frederic, 69 Hanover: Herschel family in, 65-9, 75; Caroline returns to, 409 Hardy, Thomas: Two on a Tower, 118n Harrington, Robert, 413; ‘The Death Warrant of the French Theory of Chemistry’, 273 Harrison, John, 47, 77, 109, 373n, 438n Hastenbeck, battle of (1757), 69 Hatchett, Charles, 339, 374 Hawkesworth, John: Account of Voyages Undertaken…for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere…by…Captain Cook, 44 Hawking, Stephen: images, 465n; A Brief History of Time, 88n Haydn, Joseph: The Creation, 107, 199 Haydon, Benjamin Robert: hosts ‘Immortal Dinner’, 318-19, 321n, 327; Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem, 318-19 Hayes, Charlotte, 54 Hazlitt, William, 209 Heaton, James, 372 Heaven’s Gate cult, 172n Hebburn colliery, 368 Hecla, HMS, 396 Hector, Edmund, 145 Henderson, Thomas, 90n Henslow, John, 460-1 Hepworth, Dame Barbara, 237n Herapath, William, 284 Herculaneum: Davy investigates calcinated papyri rolls from, 376, 378, 380 Herodotus, 217 Heron, Ralph, 143, 155 Herschel, Alexander (William’s brother): home life in Hanover, 71, 75; moves to England, 80; moves to Datchet, 111, 114; accompanies William to Göttingen, 168; wife irritates Caroline, 169; and construction of William’s giant telescope, 177; wife’s death, 183; unhappy pre-marital love affairs, 195 Herschel, Anna (née Moritzen; William’s mother), 65-6, 68-71, 80, 89 Herschel, Caroline (William’s sister): passion for astronomy, 60, 63-4, 66, 82; keeps journal, 64, 71-2; upbringing, 65-7, 70-1; feels Lisbon earthquake, 68, 383; on William’s return to Hanover from England, 69, 75-6; stunted and disfigured by ill health, 71, 75, 80-1; joins William in England, 80-2; singing lessons, 80-2, 89; relations with William, 82-3, 86, 89, 174, 176, 196, 403n; as William’s assistant and helpmeet, 85-6, 89, 95, 117-18; millinery business in Bath, 89, 95; solo singing, 90; on Watson’s meeting with Herschel, 93; and William’s discovery of Uranus, 95-8, 104; and successful trial of William’s telescope at Greenwich, 109-10; moves to Datchet with William, 111, 114; keeps visitors’ book at Datchet, 114; describes astronomical observations, 115-17; compiles index of William’s remarks on practical observation, 116-17; William trains for independent observation, 117; on hazards of astronomical observation, 119-20; injures leg, 120-1; William credits with discovering small ‘associate nebula’, 124; and construction of William’s forty-foot telescope, 163, 175; moves house to The Grove, Slough, 165, 165-6; and visitors to The Grove, 168-9; and William’s absence in Göttingen, 168-9; concentrates on astronomical work, 169-70; operates Newtonian reflector (’small sweeper’), 169-70; Observation Book, 170, 173; discovers and observes new comets, 171-4, 176, 188, 193; published in Philosophical Transactions, 173; Fanny Burney visits, 175; large Newtonian sweeper telescope, 175; Maskelyne’s correspondence and friendship with, 175, 189, 193-5; reputation, 176, 193; on William’s single-mindedness, 176-7; secures royal stipend, 178-80, 384; and George III’s financial stipulations for telescope project, 180-1; affected by William’s courtship and marriage to Mary Pitt, 182-8; celebrates mounting of giant telescope, 182; destroys ten years of journals, 186-7; leaves Grove apartment for rooms in Slough, 188, 194-5; Lalande’s correspondence with, 189, 196; and dangers from forty-foot telescope, 191; astronomical achievements, 193; and birth of William’s son, 193; depicted in cartoon, 193; rides to visit Maskelyne in Greenwich, 193-4; confesses to loneliness, 195; on nebulae and galaxies, 196-7, 205, 208; Lalande praises, 201n; affection for nephew John, 202-3; imagination, 276; and nephew John’s career, 387, 389-90; assists nephew John in astronomical work, 406-7; cares for William in old age, 406-8; health problems, 407; returns to Hanover after William’s death, 409-11; awarded Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal, 410-11; recalculates new Star Catalogue, 410; writes to nephew John, 410; fantasy on comet travelling, 426; lack of religious expression, 450; correspondence with John and family in South Africa, 462-4; public relations in old age, 463-4; ‘Book of Work Done’, 168, 171; Memoirs, 64 & n, 68, 121, 195, 410; Star Catalogue, 193-5 Herschel, Dietrich (William’s brother), 68, 71-2, 80 Herschel, Isaac (William’s father), 64-6, 68-71, 75-6 Herschel, Jacob (William’s brother), 65-71, 75-7, 79-80, 89, 166-7 Herschel, Sir John (William’s son): names Uranus’s moons, 102n; birth, 193; on solar system and nebulae theory, 198; in Paris as boy, 201; aunt Caroline’s devotion to, 202-3; Brighton holiday with father, 209; excels at Cambridge, 381-2; and founding of Astronomical Society, 384; career, 387-90; misgivings over Davy’s character, 397-8, 402; supports Wollaston for presidency of Royal Society, 397-8; awarded Copley Medals, 399-400, 464; Davy acknowledges in presidential speech to Royal Society, 399; Continental tour with Babbage, 405-6; Davy recommends for Athenaeum club, 405; favours women in science, 407; composes epitaph to father, 408; and Caroline’s return to Hanover, 409-11; Caroline sends Memoirs to in instalments, 410; contributes papers to Royal Society, 410; correspondence with Caroline, 410, 462-5; Davy appoints Secretary at Royal Society, 413; refers to Davy’s Consolations in Travel, 430, 455; candidacy for presidency of Royal Society (1829), 436-7; marriage and family, 436, 461; knighted, 437; investigates Fraunhofer’s lines on spectrum, 440; in debate on state of British science, 441-5; literary qualities, 442; attends British Association meetings, 447; Mary Somerville writes on, 458; search for unifying laws, 458; astronomical expedition to southern hemisphere (Cape Town), 461-5; Charles Darwin studies, 461; wealth from inheritances, 462; busy life, 463; reportedly discovers life on moon, 464-6; baronetcy and election to presidency of Royal Society, 465; portrait photograph, 465; achievements, 468; A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, 441-5, 448, 461 Herschel, Margaret Brodie, Lady (née Stewart; John’s wife), 46n, 64n, 186-7, 436, 447, 462-5 Herschel, Mary, Lady (earlier Pitt; née Baldwin), 165, 182-6, 389, 409, 462 Herschel, Sophie (William’s sister), 65-6, 76 Herschel, Sir William: discoveries and theories, xx, 63-4, 88, 90-1, 93; in Bath, 60, 75-7, 80, 95; constructs own telescopes, 60, 63, 83-7, 94; musicianship, 60, 67 & n, 72, 75-7, 89-90, 115, 188; self-taught astronomy, 60-1, 74, 77; Watson meets, 60-1, 92-3; background and family, 61, 63-7; studies and speculations on moon, 61-3, 87, 92-5; character and temperament, 65, 209-10; practical skills, 66, 87; serves in Hanoverian army, 67-70; moves to England, 68-70, 72-4; discharged from army, 71; linguistic skills, 72, 75; revisits Hanover, 72, 75-6; philosophical and religious reflections, 73; appearance, 75; Astronomical Observation Journal, 77, 87-8, 94, 96-7; brings Caroline to England, 80-2; relations with Caroline, 82-3, 86, 89, 120, 174, 196, 403n; Caroline assists, 85-6, 117-18; and double stars, 87, 90, 95; on nebulae and galaxies, 88, 123, 192-3, 196-8, 205, 208-9; membership of Bath Philosophical Society, 93; reading of night sky, 95, 115-16; discovers new planet (Uranus), 96-103, 208; meets British astronomers in London, 101-2; elected to Royal Society and awarded Copley Gold Medal, 102-3, 105; denies accidental discovery of Uranus, 103-4, 108, 367; correspondence with European astronomers about metal specula, 107-8; power of telescopes doubted, 108-9; summoned to meet George III, 109-10; telescope tried and proved at Greenwich, 109-10; appointed King’s Personal Astronomer, 111; commercial manufacture of reflector telescopes, 114; on physics and psychology of night observation, 115-16; ‘sweeping’ method, 115, 118, 120; and hazards of observation, 119-20; writes on celestial system and universe, 121-4, 191-2, 197-8, 204-5, 209-10, 391; catalogue of nebulae, 123, 176; interest in balloons, 135-6; proposes and builds forty- foot telescope, 163, 175-7, 181-2; moves to The Grove, Slough, 165-7; absence installing telescope in Göttingen, 167-8; and Caroline’s celebrity for discovering comet, 174; publishes papers with Royal Society, 176; single-mindedness, 176-7; requests and secures royal stipend for Caroline, 178-9; account book for telescope project, 180; and George III’s financial stipulations for telescope project, 180-1; knighthood, 181; personal finances, 181; courtship and marriage to Mary Pitt, 182-7; and operation of forty-foot telescope, 190; theoretical work, 191, 208; birth of son John, 193; domestic and married life, 193; discovers infra-red light, 199, 328; interest in extraterrestrial life, 199; studies sun, 199, 391; commissioned by War Office to provide spy telescope, 200; meets Napoleon in Paris, 200-1; on philosophical significance of astronomy, 203; on Time, 203-5; on objective observation, 249n; Davy cites, 288; in Walker’s composite portrait, 303; Keats on, 306-8, 323; Jane Apreece dines with, 340; isolation from Banks, 381; disagreement with son over career, 387-90; influence on Shelley, 390-1; reputation, 390, 399, 438; decline and death, 405, 407-8, 435; obituaries, 408-9; Davy writes on ideas of ever-evolving universe, 430; religious scepticism, 450; Brewster summarises work in life of Newton, 456; Mary Somerville writes on, 458; will and bequests to son, 462; ‘An Account of a Comet’, 100; ‘Astronomic Observations Relating to the Sidereal Path of the Heavens’, 208, 407; ‘Astronomical Observations Relating to the Construction of the Heavens’, 204; ‘Catalogue of Second Thousand Nebulae with Remarks on the Construction of the Heavens’, 191, 204; ‘The Description of a Forty Foot Reflecting Telescope’, 196; ‘An Investigation of the Construction of the Heavens’, 122; ‘Observations tending to investigate the Nature of the Sun’, 204; ‘On the Construction of the Heavens’, 122, 191, 197, 204; ‘On the Nature and Construction of the Sun’, 199; ‘On Nebulae Stars, Properly So-called’, 196-7; ‘On the Proper Motion of the Solar System’, 204; ‘One Thousand New Nebulae’, 118; Scientific Papers, 64n; ‘A Series of Observations on the Georgian Planet’, 191; ‘A Third Catalogue of the Comparative Brightness of Stars’, 196 Herschel-Shorland, John, 64n Hicks, Zachary, 40 Hodgson, Revd John, 351 Holmes, J.H., 372 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 190 Holmes, Richard: lectures at Royal Institution, 467; Shelley: The Pursuit, 121n Home, Sir Everard, 7-8 Homer: Iliad, 206-7 Hooke, Robert: Micrographia, 249n Hornemann, Friedrich, 212, 233 horse-dung: used for casting metal mirrors, 84 & n Hoskin, Michael, 94n; Caroline Herschel’s Autobiographies, 64n Houghton, Major Daniel, 212, 216 Household Words (magazine), 454 Houssa (mythical city), 220 Houssa (West African people), 228 Howard, Luke: Barometrographia, 160; On the Modification of Clouds, 159 Hubble, Edwin, 84n, 88, 90, 119n, 403n; The Realm of the Nebulae, 205n Hubble Telescope, 135 Humboldt, Alexander von, 43n, 232n, 310, 324, 370, 406, 439-40, 447, 458; Personal Narrative, 406, 445, 461 Hunt, Leigh, 353, 404 Hunter, John, 51, 308-9, 316, 320 Hunterian Collection, 307; Hunterian Museum, London, 309 Hunterian Orations, 308 Hutton, James, 104, 208, 294, 356, 455 Huygens, Christiaan, 77, 83, 93, 167, 200, 324 hydrogen: discovered, 127-8; in balloons, 131, 144, 146, 158; cheap production method, 156 Hypatia of Alexandria, 201n, 248 Iceland: Banks visits, 47, 54, 121n Illyria, 377-8, 419, 421, 428, 432 Inchbald, Elizabeth: A Magical Tale, or the Descent of the Balloon (play), 143 infra-red light, 199, 328 inoculation, 50 Institut de France: awards Prix Napoléon to Davy, 352 iodine, 354, 373 Ireland: attempted balloon crossing to England from, 157-8 Italy: Davy visits with Jane, 355, 377-8; Romantic wanderers in, 425 J, Miss (of Bristol), 263 Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 144 James, Frank A.J.L.: ‘How Big is a Hole?’

…

(The John Dolland achromatic telescope, which corrected some prismatic distortion, was only invented in 1758, and did not come into general use-as improved by his son Peter Dolland-until the turn of the century.65) The newly appointed Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne, based at the Greenwich Observatory, was largely concerned at this time with observing lunar eclipses, planetary transits and passing comets. His special interests lay in establishing tables for use at sea as a mariner’s almanac, and in the calculation of longitude. He noted that since his seventeenth-century predecessor at Greenwich, John Flamsteed, had thoroughly mapped the heavens, he himself kept only thirty-one stars under regular observation.66 Since his long nights of riding over the moors, Herschel’s interests had roamed far beyond the safe family of the solar system, with its restricted circuit of sun, moon and six known planets.

When Einstein Walked With Gödel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought by Jim Holt

Ada Lovelace, Albert Einstein, Andrew Wiles, anthropic principle, anti-communist, Arthur Eddington, Benoit Mandelbrot, Bletchley Park, Brownian motion, cellular automata, Charles Babbage, classic study, computer age, CRISPR, dark matter, David Brooks, Donald Trump, Dr. Strangelove, Eddington experiment, Edmond Halley, everywhere but in the productivity statistics, Fellow of the Royal Society, four colour theorem, Georg Cantor, George Santayana, Gregor Mendel, haute couture, heat death of the universe, Henri Poincaré, Higgs boson, inventory management, Isaac Newton, Jacquard loom, Johannes Kepler, John von Neumann, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, Large Hadron Collider, Long Term Capital Management, Louis Bachelier, luminiferous ether, Mahatma Gandhi, mandelbrot fractal, Monty Hall problem, Murray Gell-Mann, new economy, Nicholas Carr, Norbert Wiener, Norman Macrae, Paradox of Choice, Paul Erdős, Peter Singer: altruism, Plato's cave, power law, probability theory / Blaise Pascal / Pierre de Fermat, quantum entanglement, random walk, Richard Feynman, Robert Solow, Schrödinger's Cat, scientific worldview, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, selection bias, Skype, stakhanovite, Stephen Hawking, Steven Pinker, Thorstein Veblen, Turing complete, Turing machine, Turing test, union organizing, Vilfredo Pareto, Von Neumann architecture, wage slave

Virtual eternity, gateways to Nowhen, the unreality of time … Do any of these lotus-eater ideas really hit us where we live, in the lifeworld? Probably not. Like Einstein himself, we are stubbornly in thrall to our temporal illusions. We cannot help feeling ourselves to be slaves to one part of the timescape (the past) and hostages to another part (the future). Nor can we help feeling that we are quite literally running out of time. Arthur Eddington, one of the first physicists to grasp Einstein’s relativity theory, declared that our intuitive sense of time’s passage is so powerful that it must correspond to something in the objective world.

…

de Gaulle, Charles Dehaene, Stanislas demarcation problem Democritus “Demon Lover, The” (Bowen) De Morgan, Augustus Dennett, Daniel denotation Derrida, Jacques Descartes, René Descent of Man, The (Darwin) determinism Devotions on Emergent Occasions (Donne) De Vries, Peter Dewey, John Dickens, Charles Diderot, Denis Difference Engine Diogenes the Cynic Dirac, Paul discontinuity Disney, Walt DNA Doctors Without Borders Dombey and Son (Dickens) Donne, John Donnellan, Keith doomsday argument Down syndrome Duck Soup (movie) Dulles, John Foster Dunning, David A. Durkheim, Émile du Sautoy, Marcus Dyson, Freeman Dyson, George Eckert, John Presper École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées École Normale Supérieure École Polytechnique Eddington, Arthur efficient market hypothesis Egorov, Dmitri Ehrenfest, Paul Eilenberg, Samuel Einstein, Albert; death of; Gödel’s walks with; at Institute for Advanced Study; Nobel Prize of; relativity theory of, see relativity; unified theory of physics pursued by; Witten compared to Eisenhower, Dwight D. Elements (Euclid) Elisabeth, Queen of the Belgians elitist authoritarianism Elizabeth I, Queen of England ellipses, law of Empedocles Encyclopédie Larousse energy, conservation of Enescu, George ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) “Enigma code” Enlightenment entanglement, quantum Enzensberger, Hans Magnus Epicurus Episode in Flatland, An (Hinton) epistemological anarchism epistemology eponymy, law of EPR thought experiment Erdös, Paul eschatology essences, doctrine of ethics; intellectual; obligations related to; professional Euclid; infinitesimal rejected by; on prime numbers eugenics Euler, Leonhard Euler beta function everything, theory of Everything Bad Is Good for You (Johnson) Everything and More (Wallace) evolution; of brain; eugenics and evolutionary biology evolutionary psychology Explaining the Universe (Smith) Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (Darwin) Extreme Measures (Brookes) Fabry-Perot interferometer Falangists falsifiability Faraday, Michael feedback loops Feferman, Solomon feminism, cyber Fermat, Pierre de; last theorem of Fermi, Enrico Feyerabend, Paul Feynman, Richard Fields medal field theory Final Solution; see also Holocaust First Three Minutes, The (Weinberg) Fischhoff, Baruch Flatland (Abbott) Flexner, Abraham Flexner, Simon Florensky, Pavel fluid dynamics fluid intelligence Fodor, Jerry Fogelin, Robert formalism four-color conjecture fourth dimension fractals Fondation Sciences Mathématiques Fontenelle, Bernard de Ford, Ford Madox Ford, Gerald Forman, Philip Foster, Jodie Fouts, Roger Fractalist, The (Mandelbrot) Franco, Francisco Frankfurt, Harry Franklin, Benjamin Frayn, Michael Frederick the Great Frege, Gottlob Frenkel, Edward Freud, Sigmund Frost, Robert Fuchsian functions Fuld, Caroline Bamberger functional analysis “Galaxy Song” (Monty Python) Galileo Galois, Évariste Galton, Francis Gandhi, Mahatma Gardner, Martin Gauquelin, Michel Gauss, Carl Friedrich Gaussian distribution Gell-Mann, Murray genetics geometry; of brain functions; dimensional; Mandelbrot’s innovations in; non-Euclidean; Platonist; in set theory; of space-time; in string theory; unification of algebra and George III, King of England Gestapo Giffen, Robert Gilbert, Margaret Ginzberg, Ruth Giscard d’Estaing, Valéry Gisin, Nicolas Giza, pyramid of Gladstone, William Glashow, Sheldon God Delusion, The (Dawkins) Gödel, Kurt; death of; Einstein’s walks with; Platonism of; see also incompleteness theorem Goldbach’s conjecture Golden Goose argument Goldstein, Rebecca Goldstein, Sheldon Gonek, Steve Google Gorbachev, Mikhail Gott, J.

…

Constitution contained a loophole that would allow a dictatorship to come into existence.1 Around the same time that Gödel was studying the Constitution, he was also taking a close look at Einstein’s relativity theory. The key principle of relativity is that the laws of physics should be the same for all observers. When Einstein first formulated the principle in his revolutionary 1905 paper, he restricted “all observers” to those who were moving uniformly relative to one another—that is, in a straight line and at a constant speed. But he soon realized that this restriction was arbitrary. If the laws of physics were to provide a truly objective description of nature, they ought to be valid for observers moving in any way relative to one another—spinning, accelerating, spiraling, whatever.

Rationality: From AI to Zombies by Eliezer Yudkowsky

Albert Einstein, Alfred Russel Wallace, anthropic principle, anti-pattern, anti-work, antiwork, Arthur Eddington, artificial general intelligence, availability heuristic, backpropagation, Bayesian statistics, behavioural economics, Berlin Wall, Boeing 747, Build a better mousetrap, Cass Sunstein, cellular automata, Charles Babbage, cognitive bias, cognitive dissonance, correlation does not imply causation, cosmological constant, creative destruction, Daniel Kahneman / Amos Tversky, dematerialisation, different worldview, discovery of DNA, disinformation, Douglas Hofstadter, Drosophila, Eddington experiment, effective altruism, experimental subject, Extropian, friendly AI, fundamental attribution error, Great Leap Forward, Gödel, Escher, Bach, Hacker News, hindsight bias, index card, index fund, Isaac Newton, John Conway, John von Neumann, Large Hadron Collider, Long Term Capital Management, Louis Pasteur, mental accounting, meta-analysis, mirror neurons, money market fund, Monty Hall problem, Nash equilibrium, Necker cube, Nick Bostrom, NP-complete, One Laptop per Child (OLPC), P = NP, paperclip maximiser, pattern recognition, Paul Graham, peak-end rule, Peter Thiel, Pierre-Simon Laplace, placebo effect, planetary scale, prediction markets, random walk, Ray Kurzweil, reversible computing, Richard Feynman, risk tolerance, Rubik’s Cube, Saturday Night Live, Schrödinger's Cat, scientific mainstream, scientific worldview, sensible shoes, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, Singularitarianism, SpaceShipOne, speech recognition, statistical model, Steve Jurvetson, Steven Pinker, strong AI, sunk-cost fallacy, technological singularity, The Bell Curve by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, the map is not the territory, the scientific method, Turing complete, Turing machine, Tyler Cowen, ultimatum game, X Prize, Y Combinator, zero-sum game

But to really arrive at accurate beliefs requires evidence-fuel, and the further you want to go, the more fuel you need. * 24 Einstein’s Arrogance In 1919, Sir Arthur Eddington led expeditions to Brazil and to the island of Principe, aiming to observe solar eclipses and thereby test an experimental prediction of Einstein’s novel theory of General Relativity. A journalist asked Einstein what he would do if Eddington’s observations failed to match his theory. Einstein famously replied: “Then I would feel sorry for the good Lord. The theory is correct.” It seems like a rather foolhardy statement, defying the trope of Traditional Rationality that experiment above all is sovereign. Einstein seems possessed of an arrogance so great that he would refuse to bend his neck and submit to Nature’s answer, as scientists must do.

…

So from a probability-theoretic standpoint, Einstein was still data-driven—he just used the data he already had, more effectively. Compared to any alternate Earths that demanded huge quantities of additional data from astronomical observations and clocks on airplanes to hit them over the head with General Relativity. There are numerous lessons we can derive from this. I use Einstein as my example, even though it’s cliché, because Einstein was also unusual in that he openly admitted to knowing things that Science hadn’t confirmed. Asked what he would have done if Eddington’s solar eclipse observation had failed to confirm General Relativity, Einstein replied: “Then I would feel sorry for the good Lord.

…

Popper was profoundly impressed by the differences between the allegedly “scientific” theories of Freud and Adler and the revolution effected by Einstein’s theory of relativity in physics in the first two decades of this century. The main difference between them, as Popper saw it, was that while Einstein’s theory was highly “risky,” in the sense that it was possible to deduce consequences from it which were, in the light of the then dominant Newtonian physics, highly improbable (e.g., that light is deflected towards solid bodies—confirmed by Eddington’s experiments in 1919), and which would, if they turned out to be false, falsify the whole theory, nothing could, even in principle, falsify psychoanalytic theories.

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

Able Archer 83, Albert Einstein, Arthur Eddington, Brownian motion, Charles Lindbergh, cuban missile crisis, death from overwork, Donner party, Eddington experiment, Ernest Rutherford, Etonian, fixed income, full employment, God and Mammon, Isaac Newton, jitney, John von Neumann, Louis Pasteur, nuclear winter, publish or perish, Richard Feynman, Ronald Reagan, seminal paper, the scientific method, Upton Sinclair, uranium enrichment, Works Progress Administration

It explained mysterious anomalies in the orbit of Mercury—that confirmed prediction was the one which left Einstein feeling something had snapped in him. The general theory also predicted that starlight would be deflected, when it passed a massive body like the sun, through an angle equal to twice the value Newtonian theory predicts. The Great War delayed measurement of the Einstein value. A total eclipse of the sun (which would block the sun’s glare and make the stars beyond it visible) due on May 29, 1919, offered the first postwar occasion. The British, not the Germans, followed through. Cambridge astronomer Arthur Stanley Eddington led an expedition to Principe Island, off the West African coast; the Greenwich Observatory sent another expedition to Sobral, inland from the coast of northern Brazil.

…

.: Fermi and, 268–70, 273, 289n isotope separation and, 289n, 297–98, 332–33, 380–81, 492, 500 Urey and, 380–81 Duzenbury, Wyatt, 704–5 Ecce Homo (Grosz), 17 Eddington, Arthur S., 169, 370 Eden, Anthony, 530–31 Edict of Tolerance (1782), 179 Edison, Charles, 293 Edward I, King of England, 178 Ehrenfest, Paul, 54, 127, 168, 187, 193, 206 Eichmann, Adolf, 475 E. I. du Pont de Nemours, 431–32, 439, 496–99, 503, 546, 557–60, 603, 649 Eighth Air Force, U.S., 513 VIIIth Bomber Command, U.S., 471 Einstein, Albert, 17, 107, 130, 192, 293, 297 background of, 168–73 Bohr and, 54, 84, 115, 132–33, 170, 173 Born and, 132, 170, 173 on Brownian motion, 19 Bush’s criticism of, 635–36 on electron theory, 76 emigration of, 185–87, 195–96 German citizenship renounced by, 170, 171, 187 on home refrigeration, 20–21, 174 as international celebrity, 168–70 inventions of, 14, 20–21 Marie Curie eulogized by, 215 Meitner and, 80, 259–60 nuclear chain reactions and, 297, 305–8, 312–13 Pais and, 113, 152, 173 on photoelectric effect, 70–71, 128, 363–64 Planck and, 168, 172–73, 174 on quantum mechanics, 132 relativity theory of, 152, 168–73, 185–86, 260 Roosevelt and, 303–4, 305–9, 312–14, 331–32, 635–36 Snow on, 168–69, 304–5 Szilard and, 14, 16, 20–21, 169, 174, 303–4, 305–8, 312–14, 331–32, 635–36 on uncertainty principle, 132–33 Wigner and, 303–4, 305 Zionism of, 173–74, 636 Einstein, Elsa, 174, 186, 195, 307 Eisenhower, Dwight D., 531, 629–30, 688 Eisenstein, Sergei, 186 “eka-osmium,” 347 electromagnetic isotope separation plants, 405–6, 487–91, 495, 500, 600–601 electromagnetism, Maxwell on, 30 electron theory: Bohr’s studies on, 63–64, 67–69, 73–76, 83–85, 113–14, 116–17, 128–29 Einstein on, 76 ground state in, 74 radiochemistry and, 67–68 Rutherford’s studies on, 40–41, 51 Thomson’s studies on, 38–39, 65, 72 Elektron bomb, 100 elementary quantum of action, 70 Eliot, George, 120 Eliot, T.

…

He had been nominated for the Nobel Prize in all but two years since 1910, the secondings increasing in number after 1917; Max Planck, who was not given to exaggeration, wrote the Nobel Committee in 1919 that Einstein “made the first step beyond Newton.”610, 611 The award might have come sooner than in 1922 (belatedly for 1921: the 1922 prize was Bohr’s) had relativity been less paradoxical a revelation. Physically Einstein was not yet the amused, grandfatherly notable of his later American years. His mustache was still dark and his thick black hair had only begun to gray. C. P. Snow would observe “a massive body, very heavily muscled.”612 The Swabian-born physicist’s friends thought his loud laugh boyish; his enemies thought it rude.

The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene

airport security, Albert Einstein, Albert Michelson, Arthur Eddington, Brownian motion, clockwork universe, conceptual framework, cosmic microwave background, cosmological constant, dark matter, dematerialisation, Eddington experiment, Hans Lippershey, Henri Poincaré, invisible hand, Isaac Newton, Large Hadron Collider, luminiferous ether, Murray Gell-Mann, power law, quantum entanglement, Richard Feynman, seminal paper, Stephen Hawking, time dilation, urban renewal

When Einstein redid the standard orbital calculations with his new equations, he derived the observed perihelion precession precisely, a result he found so thrilling that it gave him heart palpitations.3 Einstein also applied general relativity to the question of how sharply the path of light emitted by a distant star would be bent by spacetime’s curvature as it passed by the sun on its way to earth. In 1919, two teams of astronomers—one camped out on the island of Principe off the west coast of Africa, the other in Brazil— tested this prediction during a solar eclipse by comparing observations of starlight that just grazed the sun’s surface (these are the light rays most affected by the sun’s presence, and only during an eclipse are they visible) with photographs taken when the earth’s orbit had placed it between these same stars and the sun, virtually eliminating the sun’s gravitational impact on the starlight’s trajectory.

…

Kleppner, Physics Today, November 1998). 2. Lord Kelvin, “Nineteenth Century Clouds over the Dynamical Theory of Heat and Light,” Phil. Mag. Ii—6th series, 1 (1901). 3. A. Einstein, N. Rosen, and B. Podolsky, Phys. Rev. 47, 777 (1935). 4. Sir Arthur Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1928). 5. As described more fully in note 2 of Chapter 6, this is an overstatement because there are examples, involving relatively esoteric particles (such as K-mesons and B-mesons), which show that the so-called weak nuclear force does not treat past and future fully symmetrically.

…

If correct, this would mean that there is another independent direction in which things can move, and therefore that we need to give four pieces of information to specify a precise location in space, and a total of five pieces of information if we also specify a time. Okay; that’s what the paper Einstein received in April 1919 proposed. The question is, Why didn’t Einstein throw it away? We don’t see another space dimension—we never find ourselves wandering aimlessly because a street, a cross street, and a floor number are somehow insufficient to specify an address—so why contemplate such a bizarre idea? Well, here’s why. Kaluza realized that the equations of Einstein’s general theory of relativity could fairly easily be extended mathematically to a universe that had one more space dimension.

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin

Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Anton Chekhov, British Empire, centre right, cuban missile crisis, David Brooks, desegregation, disinformation, Eddington experiment, Ernest Rutherford, fear of failure, housing crisis, index card, industrial research laboratory, John von Neumann, Lewis Mumford, Mahatma Gandhi, military-industrial complex, Murray Gell-Mann, post-industrial society, public intellectual, Richard Feynman, Robert Gordon, seminal paper, strikebreaker, traveling salesman, union organizing, Upton Sinclair, uranium enrichment

When Frank was only thirteen, and clearly set on following in his brother’s footsteps, Robert wrote: “I don’t think you would enjoy reading about relativity very much until you have studied a little geometry, a little mechanics, a little electrodynamics. But if you want to try, Eddington’s book is the best to start on. . . . And now a final word of advice: try to understand really, to your own satisfaction, thoroughly and honestly, the few things in which you are most interested; because it is only when you have learnt to do that, when you realize how hard and how very satisfying it is, that you will appreciate fully the more spectacular things like relativity and mechanistic biology. If you think I’m wrong please don’t hesitate to tell me so.

…

They began their paper by asking what would happen to a massive star that has begun to burn itself out, having exhausted its fuel. Their calculations suggested that instead of collapsing into a white dwarf star, a star with a core beyond a certain mass—now believed to be two to three solar masses—would continue to contract indefinitely under the force of its own gravity. Relying on Einstein’s theory of general relativity, they argued that such a star would be crushed with such “singularity” that not even light waves would be able to escape the pull of its all-encompassing gravity. Seen from afar, such a star would literally disappear, closing itself off from the rest of the universe.

…

“No one could have been more ingenious,” Oppenheimer wrote, “in thinking up unexpected and clever examples; but it turned out that the inconsistencies were not there; and often their resolution could be found in earlier work of Einstein himself.” What distressed Einstein about quantum theory was the notion of indeterminacy. And yet it had been his own work on relativity that had inspired some of Bohr’s insights. Oppenheimer saw this as highly ironic: “He fought with Bohr in a noble and furious way, and he fought with the theory which he had fathered but which he hated. It was not the first time that this had happened in science.” These disputes did not prevent Oppenheimer from enjoying Einstein’s company. One evening early in 1948, he entertained David Lilienthal and Einstein at Olden Manor. Lilienthal sat next to Einstein and “watched him as he listened (gravely and intently, and at times with a chuckle and wrinkles about his eyes) to Robert Oppenheimer describing neutrinos as ‘those creatures,’ and the beauties of physics.”