This Explains Everything
Page 36
Chang, Edward, 217
change, sensory adaptation to, 6–7
Charlier, Carl Vilhelm Ludvig, 70
China, 250, 313
chordates, 163–65
Christiansen, Morten, 395
chromosomes, 87–88
claustrum, 89–90
climate change, 247–51
cocaine, 102–3, 329
cognition, perception in, 57–58
cognitive behavioral therapy, 292–95
cognitive revolution, 215–17
cognitivism, 15–16
Cohn, Martin J., 268
coincidence, 287–88
Coleman, Sidney, 230
Collingridge dilemma, 255
commitment, 102–3
compact disk, 171
competition, 1–2, 9–12, 42, 44–45, 241, 243
complexity theory, 35–37, 59–60, 176, 183, 239–41, 273–75, 299–302
compression algorithm, 233–35
computer programming bugs, 225–26
conceptual-metaphor explanation, 218–20
conditioning, 22, 106–7, 324–27
conflict, 10, 11, 22–23, 42–45, 91, 107, 134–35, 294
consciousness, 22–23, 55–58, 60, 88–90, 285–86
conservation of mass/energy, 245–48
constellations, 28–29
continental drift, 127–30
continuity equations, 245–48
Conway, John, 210–11
cooperation, 102–3, 104–5, 134–35, 152–55
Copernicus, Nicolaus, 28, 150, 243–44, 309, 340, 346
copying errors, 190
corruption, 376
cosmic acceleration, 72–73
cosmological principle, 67–69, 70
cosmological thought, 59–60
cosmology, physical, 85–86. See also universe
creationism, 70
credit-default swap crisis, 316
Cremonini, Cesare, 399
Crick Francis, 3–4, 87–90, 96, 120
Cronin, Helena, 135
cross-modal correspondence, 184–86
crystals, 30–33, 59–60, 239
cultural relativity, 168
culture, theory of, 112–15
cummings, e. e., 240, 308
Cushing, Robert, 50–51
Dahl, Ron, 322
Daly, Martin, 43
dark matter, 22–23
Darley, John M., 284
Darwin, Charles, 1, 5, 8, 9–12, 13–14, 38, 119, 124, 132, 141, 151, 156–60, 179, 276–79, 302
Darwinian fitness, 350
Davies, Paul, 60
Dawkins, Richard, 112
Deacon, Terry, 395
death, 364
deception, 134–35
decision making, 92, 372–73, 385–86
decoherence, 142
deep time, 290–91
defection, 102–3, 104–5
déjà vus, 287–88
delayed gratification, 331
democracy, 401
Democritus, 259, 261
Dennett, Daniel, 161
denumerable infinities, 365–66
depression, 293–95
Deroy, Ophelia, 185
Descartes, René, 175, 198–200, 305, 339
description length, 35–37
descriptions theory (Russell), 206–7
determinism, 79–80
developmental biology, 172–73
developmental psychology, 161–62, 296–98, 320–23, 356–58
DeVoe, Sanford, 193–95
diabetes, 181, 359, 361
Diaconis, Persi, 378, 379
Diamond, Jared, 136
diet, 273–75, 326, 359–63
dinosaurs, 201–3
Dirac, Paul, 81, 143, 387–88
dirt, 168
discontinuity of science and culture, 345–46
disease, germ theory of, 166–67
dispositions, 354–55
division of labor, 152–55
DNA, 3–4, 42, 87–89, 96, 120, 179, 362
dominance, 136, 376
Donne, John, 345–46
dopamine, 328–29, 343–44
dorsoventral inversion, 165
Douglas, Mary, 168
dreams, 294
drugs, 102–3, 166, 325, 328–29, 343–44, 351–53, 379–80
Dyson, Freeman, 64
Earth
circumference of, 108–10
climate change, 247–51
deep time, 290–91
formation, 131–33, 240–44
Gaia hypothesis, 239, 242–44
inertia, 339–42
Oklo pyramid, 280–82
in open system, 247
plate tectonics/continental drift, 127–30
earthquakes, 133
Eco, Umberto, 53
effective theory, 214
Einstein, Albert, 27, 28, 38, 40–41, 61–63, 64, 65, 67, 72, 80, 120, 141–43, 144–46, 178, 243, 305, 307, 336, 341
Eipo people (New Guinea), 48–49
electricity, biological generation of, 389–91
electromagnetism, 26–27, 334–38
elegance, 25–26, 30–33, 36–37, 38–39, 119–21, 381–82
embodiment, 90
emergence, 174–76
Empedocles, 14, 259
empiricism, 215, 399–401
energy-deficit (“starving cell”) hypothesis, 359–63
Enlightenment, 400
Eno, Brian, 53
entropy, 19–21, 35, 61–62, 188–90
environment
interaction with genes, 157–59
subjective, 139–40
Epicurious, 273
epicycles, 28
epigenetics, 179–82
Eratosthenes, 108–11
ethics, compromise in, 95
eukaryotes, 153–55
Euler, Leonhard, 177–78, 305, 306
Eulerian frame, 177–78
evidence-based policy, 159–60
evolution
coevolution, 124
in developmental biology, 172–73
evolutionary genetics, 42–45
geographical range, 276–79
importance of individuals, 137–38
by natural selection, 1–2, 5, 8, 9–12, 13–14, 42–45, 129–30
evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS), 252–54
evolutionary biology, 239, 242–44, 252–54
evolutionary psychology, 323
experimental psychology, 85–86
explanation, 25–27, 387–88
Fairchild Semiconductor, 236
family, 42–45, 155. See also marriage
Faraday, Michael, 20, 334–35
Faurie-Raymond hypothesis, 46–49
females, 15–18, 42–45, 134–35, 159–60, 252–54, 265–68
fermions, 260
fetal testosterone, 265–68
Feynman, Richard, 62, 208–9
First Rule of Reasoning in Philosophy (Newton), 38
fixed adaptations, 43
flocking behavior, 183
Fodor, Jerry, 109–10
food-pairing principle, 274–75
Fourier’s theorem, 204–5
Fournier d’Albe, Edmund Edward, 70
frames of reference, 177–78, 189, 190
Frayn, Michael, 81
free will, 89–90, 357
Freud, Sigmund, 22–23
Gaia hypothesis, 239, 242–44
Galaburda, Albert, 266
galaxies, 174
Galileo, 40–41, 178, 339–41, 346, 399–400
game theory, 252–54
Gandhi, Mahatma, 137–38
ganglion cells, 7
gender diversity, 159–60
gene pools, 8
genetic variation, 301
Genovese, Kitty, 283
geocentric universe, 28–29
geographical range, 276–79
geometry, 144–46
germ theory of disease,
166–67
Geschwind, Norman, 266
global cultural imitation, 114
Goethals, George, 296, 298
Goldilocks zone, 243
Good Idea, 303–4
Google, 194–95
grammatical structure, 99–101
“grandmother neurons,” 5–6, 97
Gratias, Denis, 32
gravitational-wave detector, 77–78
graviton, 77–78
gravity, 20, 27, 40–41, 72, 76, 142–43, 240
quantum, 65–66, 77–78, 145–46
greenhouse gases, 247–48
Greenland, 127
Griffith, Fred, 88
group apathy, 283–84
groupness, 107
group polarization phenomenon, 50–51
group-selection, 252, 253
group theory, 30–33
Guth, Alan, 71
Habicht, Conrad, 63
Haldane, John Scott, 299–300, 302
Hamilton, W. D., 243–44
Hamilton, William, 43, 154–55
Hamlet (Shakespeare), 24, 385
handedness, 46–49
Hardin, Garrett, 122
Harmony of the Spheres, 75
Harryhausen, Ray, 270
Hartley, Ralph, 170
Harvey, William, 400
Hawking, Stephen, 80
Heald, Mark, 337
Heisenberg, Werner, 79–81, 143
Helmholtz, Hermann von, 55–58
herd behavior, 50–51, 53, 96–98, 283–84
heterosexuality, 16
Higgs boson, 214, 380
Higgs mechanism, 212–14
Hilbert, David, 385–86
hippocampus, 91–92
histones, 87–88
Hitchin, Nigel, 145
Hitler, Adolf, 376, 390
Hobbes, Thomas, 9, 400
Hodgkin, Alan, 389–91
Hoffman, Don, 87
holism, reductionism versus, 54
holographic bound, 234–35
Home Depot, 194
homeopathy, 347
hormesis, 347–50
Hubel, David H., 7–8, 96
Hume, David, 149–51
Hutton, James, 290–91
Huxley, Andrew, 389–91
Huxley, T. H., 48
Iceland, 264
Idaghdour, Youssef, 180
illusions, 55–58
inbreeding, 263–64
inclusive-fitness theory, 154–55
income distribution, 368
indivisible component of matter, 259
induction, 20
inertia, 339–42
inexactness, 79–81
inference, 55–58
infidelity, 45, 134–35
information theory, 6, 169–71
Intel, 236
interference pattern, 63
intergroup conflict, 107
internal combustion engine, 191–92
International Energy Agency, 250
Internet, group polarization phenomenon, 51
intuition, 151, 210–11
inverse power laws, 367–69
isotropic, 110
jealousy, 17, 18
Jefferson, Thomas, 401
Johnson, Mark, 218–20
Johnson, Steven, 123
Jung, Carl, 378
“just-so” stories, 130–31, 370–71
Kahneman, Daniel, 95, 349
Kandinsky, Wassily, 345
Kaplan-Meier estimator, 332–33
Kauffman, Stuart, 123
Keats, John, 48, 106
Kelvin, Lord, 131–33, 204–5
Kepler, Johannes, 28, 75, 305
Kierkegaard, Søren, 10–11, 80
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 138
kinship, 42–45, 155. See also marriage
Kipling, Rudyard, 370, 371
Kirby, Simon, 395
Koch, Christof, 89–90
Komogorov-Smirnov-Chaitin complexity, 35
Kuhn, Thomas, 128
Kunreuther, Howard, 349
Lagrangian frame, 177–78
Lakoff, George, 216, 218–20
language, 99–101, 267–68, 395–96
Latané, Bibb, 284
lateral inhibition, 7
left-handedness, 46–49
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 70
Leonardo da Vinci, 305, 306
leptin, 300
leptons, 76, 82–84
Lettvin, Jerry, 5–8
Levine, Dov, 32
Life Force, 239–41
light-quantum hypothesis, 63
LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), 77–78
Locke, John, 182, 215
Lomborg, Bjorn, 250–51
love, 45
Lovelock, James, 242–44
Lucretius underestimation, 349
Lundberg, Kristjen, 217
magnetic fields, 125–26
magnetohydrodynamics, 70
magnetometers, 127–28
males, 15–18, 42–45, 134–35, 159–60, 252–54, 265–68
Mandela, Nelson, 138
Mandelbrot, Benoit, 349
Mann, John, 294–95
Margulis, Lynn, 239, 242–44
marijuana, 352
marriage, 15–18, 45, 135, 264
mathematical theory, 34, 35–37
Maxwell, James Clerk, 26–27, 309, 335–36, 337
Mayberg, Helen, 293
McManus, Chris, 186
McNeill, William, 166–67
Mead, Margaret, 138
measurement problem, 73
medial posterodorsal (MePD) nucleus, 266
mediocrity, 397–98
Meier, Brian, 216
Meier, Paul, 332–33
meme, 112
memory, 91–92
Menander, 175–76
Mendel, Gregor, 87–88
Menger, Carl, 312–14
mentalizing, 118
mental states, 365–66
Merton, Robert, 351
metabolic syndrome (MetSyn), 359–63
metaphor, 215–17, 218–20, 299, 302
metarepresentation, 110, 116–18
metatheory, 39
Miceli, Paul, 217
Milinda, 175–76
Milinski, Manfred, 104–5
mind, theory of, 121
mind-reading, 121
Minsky, Marvin, 122–23
mitochondrial biogenesis, 360–63
modular mind, theory of, 106–7, 108–11
molecular biology, 146, 163–65
molecular gastronomy, 273–75
money, 312–14
monogamy, 15–18, 135
moons, of Jupiter, 125–26
Moore’s Law, 236–38, 271
morality, 9–12
Morgan, Thomas, 87–88
Moroccan Amizighs (Berbers), 179–80
motion blur, 270–71
movies, 36, 269–72
multilevel selection, 53–54
multimodal associations, 97
multiverse, 24, 59–60, 68–69
music, 53, 54, 114, 171, 227–29, 298
mutation, 253–54
Nagasena, 175–76
National Institute of Mental Health, 295
naturalistic explanations, 13–14
natural selection, 163
continental drift and, 129–30
entropy in, 188–90
evolution by means of, 1–2, 5, 8, 9–12, 13–14, 42–45, 192
gene/environment interaction, 157–59
handedness, 47–49
language and, 99–101
metarepresentations, 117–18
variation-selection process, 52–54
Navier-Stokes equations, 245–46
negative pressure, 72
nepotism, 44
Nernst, Walther, 63
network science, 275
network-tracing model, 113–15
neural code, 87–89
neural networks, 97
new mysterians, 88
Newton, Isaac, 19–20, 28, 38, 41, 142, 150, 198, 305, 306
Nicastro, Nicholas, 108–10
Nicolson, Marjorie, 346
nuclear fusion, 402
nucleus, 84
Nyquist, Harry, 170
obesity, 181, 359, 361
objectivity, 158–60
object-relations theory, 296–98
observation, 85–86, 156–60
Occam’s razor, 38–39, 87, 106–7, 289, 381
oceans, 125–26
Oklo pyramid, 280–82
opioid-drug pathways, 343–44
Ortega y Gasset, José, 387–88
Ostrom, John, 202
other minds, 149–51
outbreeding, 263–64
Pagel, Mark, 114
Papert, Seymour, 122–23
parental investment, 42–45
Parker, G. S., 252–54
parsimony, 38–39, 48, 87, 106–7, 289, 381
particle theory, 76, 82–84, 144–47, 208–9, 212–14, 240, 259–62, 402
Pascal’s Wager, 249–51
path integral formulation, 209
pattern recognition, 5–8
Pavlov, Ivan, 324–27
Pearson, Karl, 378–79
Penrose tiling, 32
perception
of blue sky, 305–7, 310
illusions, 55–58
of natural change, 191–92
persistence of vision, 269–72
subjectivity, 139–40, 285–86
taste, 273–75
visual continuity, 285–86
Perrin, Jean Baptiste, 372
persistence of vision, 269–72
personality differences, 354–58
Pesic, Peter, 306
Peter Principle, 397–98
Pfeffer, Jeffrey, 193–95
phantom limb pain, 57
Phoenix, Charles, 266
photoelectric effect, 61–63
photons, 61–63
pigeonhole principle, 221–24, 233–35
Pixar, 271
placebo effect, 325–26, 343–44
Planck, Max, 61, 63, 64, 65
Planck density, 65–66
plate tectonics, 127–30
Plato, 13, 26
Platonic solids, 75
Playfair, John, 290
Poisson process, 378
pollution, 250
polysensory convergence, 90
Popper, Karl, 156, 159–60
possessiveness, 17, 18
power, 136, 376
power of the preposterous (Kierkegaard), 10–11
precession of the simulacra (Baudrillard), 315–16
presidential candidates, 50–51
Price, G. R., 252–54
Price equation, 52–54
primaries, 84
Prisoner’s Dilemma, 102–3, 104–5
probability distributions, 379–80
Prohibition, 353
prokaryotes, 153–55
protolanguage, 99
protons, 84
protoplanets, 131
psychotherapy, 292–95
Ptolemy, Claudius, 28–29, 150
PTSD, 318–19