Three Scientific Revolutions: How They Transformed Our Conceptions of Reality

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Three Scientific Revolutions: How They Transformed Our Conceptions of Reality Page 27

by Richard H. Schlagel


  106. Niels Bohr, “Can Quantum-Mechanical Descriptions of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?” Physical Review 48 (1935): 696–702.

  107. Niels Bohr, The Philosophical Writing of Niels Bohr, Vol. III, Essays 1958–62 on Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge (Woodbridge: Ox Bow Press, 1987), p. 4.

  108. Ne’eman and Kirsh, The Particle Hunters, p. 53. My simplified brief discussion of spin and the following description of the “Pauli Exclusion Principle” are based on this work as are the following three parenthetical citations, though I am responsible for any oversimplifications or misinterpretations. Describing these more recent quantum mechanical developments is much more difficult because of their greater complexity and the fact that their dependence on the mathematical formulation makes it difficult to render it in ordinary language. The following three mathematical quotations are to this work.

  109. Crease and Mann, The Second Creation, p. 82. The subsequent parenthetical citation is to this work.

  110. Pais, Inward Bound, p. 290.

  111. Segrè, From X-Rays to Quarks, p. 171.

  112. Crease and Mann, The Second Creation, p. 83. The subsequent parenthetical citation is also to this work.

  113. Chris Quigg, “Elementary Particles and Forces,” Scientific American (April 1985): 83.

  114. Ne’eman and Kirsh, The Particle Hunters, p. 59. The following five parenthetical citations are to this work.

  115. Cf. George Johnson, Strange Beauty (New York: Vintage Books, 2000), pp. 267–96 for an excellent summary of this development. The immediately following parenthetical references are to this work unless or until otherwise indicated.

  116. Crease and Mann, “How the Universe Works,” Atlantic Monthly (August 1984: 91.

  117. Steven Weinberg, Dreams of a Final Theory: The Scientist’s Search for the Ultimate Laws of Nature (New York: Vintage Books, 1994), p. 237.

  118. Harald Fritzsch, Quarks: The Stuff of Matter (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1983), p. 10.

  119. Crease and Mann, The Second Creation, p. 410.

  120. For a review of The Grand Design see Steven Weinberg’s article, “The Universe We Still Don’t Know,” New York Review of Books, February 10, 2011.

  121. Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything (New York: Broadway Books, 2003), pp. 168–69. The following three quotations are also to this work.

  122. Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions (New York: Bonanza Books, 1964), p. 266.

  123. Albert Einstein, quoted from Manjit Kumar, Quantum (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010), p. 320.

  124. Brian Vastag and Joel Achenbach, “Scientists Laud Particle Discovery,” Washington Post, July 8, 2012, A1. The following three parenthetical citations as A2 are to this article.

  125. John Horgan, The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age (New York: Broadway Books, 1997), p. 231.

  126. Brian Vastag, “WIMPs: Hard to See but Vital to the Cosmos,” Washington Post, December, 4, 2012, pp. E1 and E5. The following parenthetical citations are also from E-5.

  127. Kaku Michio, Parallel Worlds (New York: Doubleday, 2005), p. 191. Until otherwise indicated, all the subsequent parenthetical citations are also to this work.

  128. Alex Rosenberg, The Atheist’s Guide to Reality: Enjoying Life Without Illusions (New York: W. W Norton & Company, Inc. 2012), pp. 25–26.

  129. Michio Kaku, Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 (New York: Anchor Books, 2011). Except for two additional citations, all of the subsequent parenthetical quotations are to this work.

  130. Joshua Reynolds with Robert Heller, MD, 20/20 Brain Power (Laguna Beach, CA: 20/20 Brain Power Partners, LLC, 2005), chaps. 8 and 10.

  131. Rosenberg, The Atheist’s Guide to Reality, p. 180. The immediately following parenthetical references are also to this work.

  132. Michio Kaku, The Future of the Mind, p. 196.

  133. David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World (New York: Viking Penguin, 2011), pp. 379–88.

  134. Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, p. 263.

  135. Ariana Eunjung Cha and Sandhya Somashekhar, “FDA Panel Debates Idea of Three-parental Babies,” Washington Post, February 26, 2014, pp. A1, A4.

  INDEX

  absolute space and time, cosmological theory of, 13, 63, 76, 77, 140, 164–65, 166, 198

  Accademia dei Lyncei, 47

  Achinstein, Peter, 111

  Acta eruditorum [Acts/Reports of the Scholars] (Wallis), 88

  Adams, John, 18

  “addition of velocities” rule, 167, 169

  adenine (A), 243

  Æpinus, Franz V. T., 104–105

  aether, 152

  and absolute space, 165, 166

  and celestial bodies, 23, 37

  and Michelson-Morely experiments, 144–45, 165–66

  Newton on Æthereal medium, 85, 98, 110, 144, 145, 165

  “Age of Enlightenment.” See Enlightenment, Age of

  AI. See artificial intelligence (AI)

  alchemy, 35, 86, 87, 118, 157

  Alexander the Great, 27

  Almagest (Ptolemy), 29

  alpha rays (α), 156, 157, 173–74, 176, 177, 178–79

  American Philosophical Society, 102

  Ampère, Andre Marie, 146

  Anaxagoras, 11, 21, 117–18

  Anaximander, 19, 87

  Anaximines, 19

  Anderson, Carl D., 208

  Anglicanism, 71, 72, 81, 92

  Ångstrom, Anders Jöns, 148

  angular momentum, 180, 181, 184, 186, 205

  Annalen der Physik [Annals of Physics] (journal), 163, 194

  “antimatter,” 208

  Apelles. See Scheiner, Christopher

  Apollonius, 38

  Arab Spring, 252, 253

  Arago, François, 145–46

  Archimedes, 28–29, 38, 43, 47

  Arian Creed, 72

  Aristarchus of Samos, 20–21, 28–29

  Aristotle, 20, 27, 29, 31, 35, 117

  Aristotle’s Lyceum, 24, 27

  cosmological system of, 23, 37, 43, 46

  dominance of philosophy from thirteenth to seventeenth centuries, 10, 21, 22–23, 28, 46, 53, 67

  followers of, 141–42

  and Galileo, 37, 43, 46, 53–54, 60, 64, 65

  and Newton, 10, 67, 78, 79

  artificial intelligence (AI), 223, 229, 231, 232, 234, 238, 239, 240, 254

  ASIMO (robot), 231–32

  Assad, Bashar al-, 250

  Assayer, The [Il Saggiatore] (Galileo), 11, 47, 49–50

  astrology, 35, 118

  Astronomia Nova [New Astronomy] (Kepler), 39

  astronomy, 10–12, 14, 20–21, 36–49, 53–58, 81–82

  clockwork universe, 11, 37, 41, 64, 91

  distance of stars, 56

  latest explorations, 45, 222–23. See also celestial mechanics; geocentrism; heliocentrism; solar system; sun

  astrophysics, 87, 148

  Athanasian Creed and Isaac Newton, 71–72

  atomic mass, 174, 177

  atomic number, 174, 175, 176

  atomic weights, 125–37, 147, 149, 176, 177

  atoms and atomism, 205, 214

  atomic stability, 175, 186, 188

  Greek views on, 11–12, 21, 24, 25, 26, 117–18, 128, 137, 147

  isotopes, 151, 157–58, 176, 177

  modern atomism, 117–37, 147. See also radiation; subatomic particles

  founder of, 118

  solar model of the atom developed by Bohr, 14, 181, 183, 184, 186–87, 192, 194, 209

  “plum pudding” model of the atom, 173, 179.

  See also molecules; radiation

  Augustine, Saint, 33

  “Autobiographical Notes” (Einstein), 162–63

  Avogadro, Amedeo, 130, 133–34, 162, 164

  awareness and computers, 232–38

  Bacon, Francis, 89

  Balmer,
Johann, 180, 182, 206

  Barberini, Francesco, 59

  Barrow, Isaac, 70, 71, 72

  baryons, 212, 214

  Becher, Johann Joachim, 119

  Becquerel, Henri, 150, 156, 157

  Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World, The (Deutsch), 222, 251

  Bell, John Stewart, 205

  Bellarmine, Cardinal, 48–49

  Benghazi, killing of American diplomats, 250–51

  Bentley, Richard, 76–77

  Bergson, Henri, 242

  Bernoulli, Daniel, 107

  Bernoulli, Johann, 88

  Berthollet, Claude Louis, 122

  Berzelius, Jöns Jakob, 128, 131–32, 133, 135, 136

  beta rays (19β), 156, 157, 158, 176, 182–83

  Big Bang theory, 14, 140, 141, 214, 217, 223, 224, 252

  Biography of Isaac Newton, A (Westfall), 68–69

  biological method of scientific explanation, 65

  Bjorken, James, 213

  Black, Joseph, 93

  blackbody radiation, 70, 84, 158–59, 160–61, 163, 182, 184, 185–86

  black holes, 14, 172, 224, 226

  Blue Gene (computer), 235

  Bohr, Niels, 14, 178–84, 209, 219–20

  Bohr-Sommerfeld quantum conditions, 190

  “Bohr’s radius,” 182

  and Einstein, 183, 188, 200

  and Heisenberg, 187–91, 199, 200–201

  on hydrogen, 180, 182, 183, 184, 186, 206

  on meaning of understanding, 189–90, 204

  on Pauli and Heisenberg unified field theory, 227

  and quantum mechanics, 181, 184, 187, 201–202

  Bohr’s Institute’s impact on, 206

  Copenhagen Interpretation, 183, 203, 220

  response to EPR article, 201–202

  and Schrödinger, 199

  solar model of the atom, 14, 181, 183, 184, 186–87, 192, 194, 205, 209

  Boltzmann, Ludwig, 161, 164

  Born, Max, 184, 190, 191–92, 193, 196–98

  Bose, S. N., 210

  bosons, 13, 208, 210, 212

  Higgs boson (“God particle”), 208, 213, 221, 228, 243

  vector bosons. See W particles; Z particles

  Boston Marathon bombing, 254

  Boulton, Mathew, 93

  Boyle, Robert, 23, 67, 69, 76, 78, 96, 117, 118, 125

  Bracciolini, Poggio, 25

  Brahe, Tycho, 10, 38, 40, 42, 49

  brain

  compared to a computer, 232–33, 247–48

  and consciousness, 246–47, 248

  installing human brain in a robot, 240–42

  “reverse engineering,” 234–35, 236–37

  “Brane World,” 227

  Brewster, David, 94–96

  Brookhaven National Laboratory, 211, 213

  Brougham, Henry, 110

  Brown, Robert, 164

  Browne, Edward, 88

  Brownian motion, 163, 164

  Bruno, Giordano, 12, 46, 55

  Bunsen, Robert, 148

  Buridan, Jean, 60

  Caccini, Tommaso, 48

  Callipus of Cyzicus, 20

  Cambridge University, 67, 68, 70, 81–82, 88, 156, 207, 216

  Cannizzaro, Stanislao, 134–35

  “Can Quantum Mechanical Descriptions of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?” (Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen), 201, 203, 215

  Cartan, Élie, 213, 214

  Castelli, 48, 58

  cathode rays, 149, 150, 152–53, 154, 157, 175

  Catholic Church, 10, 35, 37, 46, 252

  attempts to return England to Catholicism, 81–82

  and the Inquisition, 12, 26, 34, 48–49, 53, 58

  treatment of scientists, 12, 37

  Galileo Galilei, 12, 47–49, 53, 58–59, 61–62

  Giordano Bruno, 12, 46, 55.

  See also Christianity

  Cavendish Laboratory, 156, 173, 177, 178, 180

  celestial cosmology, 13, 119

  celestial mechanics, 22, 66, 72–73, 74, 75, 117

  distinction between celestial and terrestrial worlds, 13, 23, 36, 45, 47, 49, 64, 77

  orbits of planets, 20–21

  circular orbits, 29, 36–37, 43, 55, 78

  elliptical orbits, 10–11, 38–39, 43, 53, 55, 68, 73, 78

  and velocities and dimensions of planets, 40, 41, 43, 66.

  See also astronomy; geocentrism; heliocentrism

  CERN. See European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)

  Chadwich, James, 177

  Chaitin, Gregory, 223

  Charles, Jacques, 125

  Charlie Hebdo, attack on, 254

  “charm,” 212, 213

  Chemical Treatise on Air and Fire (Scheele), 119

  chemistry, 13, 84, 117–37, 147, 148, 149, 151, 158, 183, 226

  quantum chemistry, 182–83

  Christianity

  Arian Creed, 72

  Athanasian Creed, 71–72

  lack of rational credibility, 9–10, 15, 35, 252

  and Plato’s philosophy, 21

  transfer of Roman Empire to Constantinople, 32–33.

  See also Anglicanism; Catholic Church; Protestant denominations

  Christian News (newspaper), 90

  circular orbits of planets. See celestial mechanics

  Classical World, The (Fox), 17, 25

  Clausius, R., 161

  Clavelin, Maurice, 62

  Cleisthenes, 17

  clockwork universe, 11, 37, 41, 64, 91

  Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason, The (Freeman), 222

  Cohen, I. Bernard, 83, 91

  Collegio Romano, 47

  Collins, John, 70–71

  Collinson, Peter, 102

  “Collision of Alpha Particles with Light Atoms” (Rutherford), 177

  combining volumes, Gay-Lussac’s law of, 128–30, 133

  combustion, 100, 118, 119, 120, 122, 147

  Commentaries on the Movement of Mars (Kepler), 39

  “common matter,” 104–105

  common sense and robots, 234

  commutative law, 191

  complementarity, 181, 202

  Compton, Arthur, 163–64, 184, 185

  computer science, 14–15, 230–31, 239–40

  brain compared to computer, 232–33

  computers becoming aware, 232–38

  Deep Blue beating Kasparov in chess, 232, 238

  “reverse engineering of the human brain,” 234–35, 236–37

  “Connection between Waves and Particles, The” (de Broglie), 184

  consciousness, 31

  computers becoming aware, 232–39, 241

  human consciousness, 237–38, 242–43, 246–47, 248

  conservation of momentum, principle of, 52, 68

  Constantine, 32

  constant proportions, law of, 122–23

  “contextual realism,” 15, 18, 204

  “Copenhagen interpretation,” 183, 203, 220

  Copernicus, Nicholas, 10, 21, 23, 29, 36–38, 109, 139

  corpuscular-mechanics worldview of Newton, 36, 50, 52, 63–90, 117, 141, 142, 155, 204

  objections to, 109–111, 112, 142–44

  wave theory of light replacing, 112–13

  “correspondence principle,” 181

  “Cosmic Multiverse,” 220

  Cosmographic Mystery, The [Mysterium Cosmographicum] (Kepler), 20

  cosmological theories

  of “multiuniverses,” 14, 216–17, 220, 224, 227

  of Newton, 13, 198

  Coulomb, Charles, 107–108

  Courant, Richard, 191

  Cox, John, 157

  Crampton, W. Gary, 90

  Crease, Robert P., 191, 193, 195–96, 206, 207, 208, 214–15

  Cremonini, Cesare, 46

  Crick, Francis, 242–43

  Crookes, William, 149, 152

  Curie, Marie, 150–51, 156, 157, 158

  Curie, Pierre, 150, 156, 157


  Curiosity rover on Mars, 45, 223

  Cyril (successor to Theophilus), 33, 34

  cytosine (C), 243

  Dalton, John, 93, 118, 123–30, 132, 135, 137, 147, 175

  dark energy, 14, 224

  “dark-matter particles,” 222, 224, 226

  Darwin, Charles, 13, 23, 93, 179, 250

  Darwin, Erasmus, 93, 179

  Davy, Humphrey, 113, 131, 132

  “Dawn” (computer), 235

  de Broglie, Louis, 184, 185–86, 194

  Declaration of Independence, 18

  deductive method of scientific explanation, 21, 22, 65, 85, 189

  Deep Blue (computer), 232, 238

  deism, 87

  De Magnete [On the Magnet] (Gilbert), 38, 94–96

  Demetrius of Phaleron, 27

  Democritus, 11, 21, 24, 117, 118, 122, 128, 137, 147

  DeMoire, Abraham, 73

  Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, The (Sagan), 18, 89–90, 115

  De Motu [On Motion] (Galileo), 43

  De motu corporum in gyrum [On the Motion of Bodies in Orbit] (Newton), 73–74

  De rerum natura [On the Nature of Things] (Lucretius), 25

  De revolutionibus orbium coelestium [On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres] (Copernicus), 10, 36

  Desaguliers, John Theophilus, 98

  Descartes, René, 10, 23, 50, 52, 61, 67–68, 69, 70, 79, 83, 89, 93, 109, 117

  Deutsch, David, 251, 253

  Dewey, John, 155

  Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems—Ptolemaic & Copernican (Galileo), 12, 53–58

  Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences (Galileo), 12, 44, 59–60

  Different Descriptions of Logarithmic Canons [Merifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio] (Napier), 41

  differential calculus (fluxions), 28, 77–78, 124

  Diophantus, 32

  Dioptrice (Kepler), 40

  Dirac, Paul, 178, 184, 192–93, 198, 199, 206–207, 208

  “Fermi-Dirac statistics,” 210

  Discourse on Bodies on or in Water (Galileo), 47

  diurnal rotation, 54–55

  DNA, 224, 242–44, 247, 249–50, 254, 255

  “junk DNA,” 244

  Drake, Stillman, 47, 48, 52, 58–59, 61

  Dreams of a Final Theory (Weinberg), 222

  Dufay (du Fay), Charles François de Cisternay, 99–101, 105

  Dulong, Pierre, 132–33, 134, 135

  Dumas, J. B. A., 134

  dynamic societies, 251, 252–53, 254

  dynamo, 146

  E = mc2, 81, 163, 168, 194, 211, 223.

  See also relativity, theories of

  earth

  age of, 217

 

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