The Science Book

by Clifford A Pickover

  1858, The Möbius Strip

  Pickover, C., The Möbius Strip, Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006.

  1859, Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

  Darwin, C., The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (many editions)

  Quammen, D., The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.

  Ridley, M, Evolution. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2003.

  1859, Ecological Interactions

  Howe, H. F., Ecological Relationships of Plants and Animals. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

  Schoonhoven, L. M., et al., Insect-Plant Biology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

  1859, Riemann Hypothesis

  Derbyshire, J., Prime Obsession, NY: Plume, 2004.

  1861, Cerebral Localization

  In more than 95 percent of right-handed men, language and speech appear to be mediated by the brain’s left hemisphere. D. Ferrier performed tests on brains from various animals to map sensory and motor areas. Other important names in the history of cerebral localization include F. du Petit, J. Jackson, and C. Wernicke.

  1861, Maxwell’s Equations

  Mathematical theories and formulas have predicted phenomena that were only confirmed years after the theory was proposed. For example, Maxwell’s Equations predicted radio waves. All four equations in the set of equations are found, with slightly different notation, in his 1861 paper “On Physical Lines of Force.” Note that it is possible to extend Maxwell’s equations to allow for the possibility of “magnetic charges,” or magnetic monopoles, analogous to electric charges, e.g. ∇∙B = 4πρm, where ρm is the density of these magnetic charges.

  Crease, R., tinyurl.com/dxstsw.

  Feynman, R., The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1970.

  1862, Germ Theory of Disease

  Pasteur’s vaccinations were notable in that he created them from weakened organisms. This was not the case in E. Jenner’s use of cowpox to provide cross-immunity to smallpox. Pasteur’s work influenced J. Lister and his quest to reduce infections during surgeries through antiseptic methods.

  1865, Antiseptics

  Listerine mouthwash is named after Lister. Around 1862, the physician G. Tichenor used alcohol as an antiseptic for wounds.

  Clark, F., Med. Libr. & Hist. J. 5:145; 1907.

  1874, Cantor’s Transfinite Numbers

  Cantor’s most important work relating to transfinite numbers spanned the years from about 1874 to 1883. He fully explored his thoughts on transfinite numbers in his best-known work Beiträge zur Begründung der transfiniten Mengelehre, 1895.

  Cantor’s first proof demonstrating that the set of all real numbers is uncountable, and that no one-to-one correspondence can exist between the real numbers and natural numbers, was formulated in 1873 and published in: J. Reine Angew. Math. 77:258; 1874.

  Dauben, J., Georg Cantor, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1979.

  1876, Gibbs Free Energy

  A nontechnical treatment of this (and thermo-dynamics in general) is a tall order, because sooner or later, it’s going to be Math or Nothing.

  American Physical Society. “J. Willard Gibbs,” www.aps.org/programs/outreach/history/historicsites/gibbs.cfm.

  Set Laboratories, Inc. “Thermal Cracking,” www.setlaboratories.com/therm/tabid/107/Default.aspx.

  Wikipedia, “Josiah Willard Gibbs,” in.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Willard_Gibbs.

  1876, Telephone

  John, R., Network Nation, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.

  1878, Enzymes

  Berg, J. M., et al., Biochemistry. New York: W. H. Freeman, 2010.

  Nelson, D. L., et al., Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry. New York: W.H. Freeman, 2012.

  1878, Incandescent Light Bulb

  Note that incandescent lights have many advantages, such as being able to operate at low voltages in flashlights.

  1878, Power Grid

  Energy Graph, http://tinyurl.com/mxayh62.

  1887, Michelson-Morley Experiment

  Trefil, J., The Nature of Science, NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.

  1890, Steam Turbine

  Encyclopedia Britannica, http://tinyurl.com/ncrj8q7.

  1890, The Principles of Psychology

  Menand, L., The Metaphysical Club. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2002.

  Richardson, R. D., William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism. New York: Mariner, 2007.

  1891, Neuron Doctrine

  Shepherd, G., Foundations of the Neuron Doctrine, NY: Oxford University Press, 1991.

  1892, Discovery of Viruses

  In 1901, W. Reed and colleagues recognized the first human virus, yellow fever virus.

  Adler, R., Medical Firsts, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2004.

  1895, X-rays

  In 2009, physicists turned on the world’s first X-ray laser. It was capable of producing pulses of X-rays as brief as 2 millionths of a nanosecond. Prior to Röntgen’s work, N. Tesla began his observations of X-rays (at that time still unknown and unnamed).

  Haven, K., 100 Greatest Science Inventions of All Time, Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2005.

  1896, Proof of the Prime Number Theorem

  Weisstein, E. tinyurl.com/5puyan.

  Zagier, D., Math. Intelligencer 0:7;1977.

  1896, Radioactivity

  Hazen, R., Trefil, J., Science Matters, NY: Anchor, 1992.

  Battersby, S., in Tallack, P., ed., The Science Book, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001.

  1897, Electron

  AIP, tinyurl.com/42snq.

  Sherman, J., J. J. Thomson and the Discovery of Electrons, Hockessin, DE: Mitchell Lane, 2005.

  1899, Psychoanalysis

  C. Jung, A. Adler, and S. Freud are considered to be among the principal founding fathers of modern psychology. The philosopher K. Popper argued that psychoanalysis is pseudoscience, and some studies suggest that outcomes from psychotherapy are no different from placebo controls. The first occurrence of the word psychoanalysis appears in 1896. Freud developed his initial ideas in Studies of Hysteria, cowritten with J. Breuer.

  Hart, M., The 100, NY: Kensington, 1992.

  Reef, C., Sigmund Freud, NY: Clarion Books, 2001.

  Storr, A., Feet of Clay, NY: The Free Press, 1996.

  1900, Hilbert’s 23 Problems

  Yandell, B., Honors Class, A. K. Peters, Ltd., Wellesley, MA, 2003.

  1902, Chromosomal Theory of Inheritance

  Today we know that the number of a creature’s chromosomes is quite varied—humans have 46, chimpanzees 48, horses 64, and gypsy moths 62.

  1903, The Wright Brothers Airplane

  National Parks Service, http://tinyurl.com/mkkd4et.

  1903, Classical Conditioning

  Todes, D., Pavlov’s Physiology Factory: Experiment, Interpretation, Laboratory Enterprise. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2001.

  1905, E = mc2

  Farmelo, G., It Must Be Beautiful, London: Granta, 2002.

  Bodanis, D., E = mc2, NY: Walker, 2005.

  1905, Photoelectric Effect

  Lamb, W., Scully, M., Jubilee Volume in Honor of Alfred Kastler (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1969.

  Kimble, J., et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 39: 691; 1977.

  1908, Internal Combustion Engine

  For a video of the engine in action, see http://tinyurl.com/q9f9wla.

  1910, Chlorination of Water

  Darnall Army Medical Center, tinyurl.com/48evjwo.

  1910, Main Sequence

  A fun online applet, “Stellar Evolution and the H-R Diagram,” can be used to track the evolution of stars of different mass along and eventually off the main sequence: tinyurl.com/b35942.

  1911, Atomic Nucleus

  Rutherford conducted the gold foil experiment with H. Geiger and E. Marsden in 1909.

  Gribbin, J., Almost Everyone’s Guide to Sci
ence, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999.

  1911, Superconductivity

  Baker, J., 50 Physics Ideas You Really Need to Know, London: Quercus, 2007.

  How Stuff Works, tinyurl.com/anb2ht.

  1912, Continental Drift

  Colbert, E. H., Wandering Lands and Animals: The Story of Continental Drift and Animal Populations, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1985.

  1913, Bohr Atom

  In 1925, matrix mechanics (a formulation of quantum mechanics) was created by Max Born, Werner Heisenberg, and Pascual Jordan.

  Goswami, A., The Physicists’ View of Nature, Vol. 2, NY: Springer, 2002.

  Trefil, J., The Nature of Science, NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.

  1919, String Theory

  See notes for Theory of Everything.

  Atiyah, M., Nature, 438, 1081; 2005.

  1920 Hydrogen Bonding

  Wikipedia, “Hydrogen Bond,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_bond.

  1920, Radio Station

  Nebeker, F., Dawn of the Electronic Age, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2009.

  1921, Einstein as Inspiration

  Levenson, T., Discover, 25: 48; 2004.

  Ferren, B., Discover, 25: 82; 2004.

  1924, De Broglie Relation

  Baker, J., 50 Physics Ideas You Really Need to Know, London: Quercus, 2007.

  1925, Pauli Exclusion Principle

  Massimi, M., Pauli’s Exclusion Principle, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

  Watson, A., The Quantum Quark, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

  1926, Schrödinger’s Wave Equation

  Max Born interpreted c as probability amplitude.

  Miller, A., in Farmelo, G., It Must be Beautiful, London: Granta, 2002.

  Trefil, J., The Nature of Science, NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.

  1927, Complementarity Principle

  Cole, K., First You Build a Cloud, NY: Harvest, 1999

  Gilder, L., The Age of Entanglement, NY: Knopf, 2008.

  Wheeler, J., Physics Today, 16: 30; 1963.

  1927, Food Webs

  Polis, G. A., et al., Food Webs. New York: Springer, 1995.

  1927, Insect Dance Language

  Stearcy, W. A., et al., The Evolution of Animal Communication: Reliability and Deception in Signaling Systems. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.

  1928, Dirac Equation

  Wilczek, F., in Farmelo, G., It Must Be Beautiful, NY: Granata, 2003.

  Freeman, D., in Cornwell, J., Nature’s Imagination, NY: Oxford University Press, 1995.

  1928, Penicillin

  Although it was once believed that antibiotics in a natural setting are a means for bacteria or fungi to better compete with bacteria in the soil, American biochemist S. Waksman suggested that these microbial products are a “purely fortuitous phenomenon” and “accidental.”

  1929, Hubble’s Law of Cosmic Expansion

  Huchra, J., tinyurl.com/yc2vy38.

  1931, Gödel’s Theorem

  Gödel demonstrated the incompleteness of the theory of Principia Mathematica.

  Hofstadter, D., Gödel, Escher, Bach, NY: Basic Books, 1979.

  Wang, H., Reflections on Kurt Gödel, MIT Press, 1990.

  1932, Antimatter

  In 2009, researchers detected positrons in lightning storms.

  Baker, J., 50 Physics Ideas You Really Need to Know, London: Quercus, 2007.

  Kaku, M., Visions, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999.

  1932, Neutron

  During the process of beta decay of the free neutron, the free neutron becomes a proton and emits an electron and an antineutrino in the process.

  Cropper, W., Great Physicists, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001.

  Oliphant, M., Bull. Atomic Scientists, 38: 14; 1982.

  1933, Dark Matter

  Dark matter is also suggested by astronomical observations of the ways in which galactic clusters cause gravitational lensing of background objects.

  McNamara, G., Freeman, K., In Search of Dark Matter. NY: Springer, 2006.

  1933, Polyethylene

  Walton, D., and P. Lorimer. Polymers. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000.

  1933, Neutron Stars

  The neutrons in the neutron star are created during the crushing process when protons and electrons form neutrons.

  1935, EPR Paradox

  Although we have used spin in this example, other observable quantities, such as photon polarization, can be used to demonstrate the paradox.

  1935, Schrödinger’s Cat

  Moring, G., The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Einstein, NY: Alpha, 2004.

  1937, Superfluids

  Superfluidity has been achieved with two isotopes of helium, one isotope of rubidium, and one isotope of lithium. Helium-3 becomes a superfluid at a different lambda point temperature and for different reasons than helium-4. Both isotopes never turn solid at the lowest temperatures achieved (at ordinary pressures).

  1938, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

  Ernst, R., Foreword to NMR in Biological Systems, Chary, K., Govil, G., eds., NY: Springer, 2008.

  1941, Doped Silicon

  Brain, M., http://tinyurl.com/kov5tve.

  1942, Energy from the Nucleus

  Weisman, A., The World Without US, NY: Macmillan, 2007.

  1945, Little Boy Atomic Bomb

  The second atomic bomb, the “Fat Man,” was dropped three days later on Nagasaki. Fat Man made use of plutonium-239 and an implosion device—similar to the Trinity bomb tested in New Mexico. Six days after the Nagasaki bombing, Japan surrendered.

  1945, Uranium Enrichment

  US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, http://tinyurl.com/opubbot.

  1947, Hologram

  Gabor’s hologram theories predated the availability of laser light sources.

  One can create the illusion of movement in a hologram by exposing a holographic film multiple times using an object in different positions. Interestingly, a hologram film can be broken into small pieces, and the original object can still be reconstructed and seen from each small piece. The hologram is a record of the phase and amplitude information of light reflected from the object.

  Kasper, J., Feller, S., The Complete Book of Holograms, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 1987.

  1947, Photosynthesis

  Baillie-Gerritsen, V. “The Plant Kingdom’s Sloth.” Protein Spotlight 38 (September 2003). web.expasy.org/spotlight/back_issues/038/.

  1947, Transistor

  Riordan, M., Hoddeson, L., Crystal Fire, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998.

  1948, Information Theory

  Tallack, P., The Science Book, Weidenfield & Nicholson, 2003.

  1948, Quantum Electrodynamics

  The Lamb shift is a small difference in energy between two states of the hydrogen atom caused by the interaction between the electron and the vacuum. This observed shift led to renormalization theory and a modern theory of QED.

  Greene, B., The Elegant Universe, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003.

  QED, Britannica, tinyurl.com/yaf6uuu.

  1948, Randomized Controlled Trials

  Comparative effectiveness research can sometimes be useful when performed using electronic medical records of large health networks.

  Enkin, M., preface to Randomized Controlled Trials, Jadad, A., Enkin, M., Malden, MA: BMJ Books, 2007.

  1949, Radiocarbon Dating

  Other methods such as potassium-argon dating are employed for dating very old rocks.

  Bryson, B., A Short History of Everything, NY: Broadway, 2003.

  1950, Chess Computer

  Computer chess, a film by Andrew Bujalski, provides some interesting background information: http://tinyurl.com/k4cql25.

  1951, HeLa Cells

  Skloot, R., The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, NY: Crown, 2010.

  Skloot, R., tinyurl.com/y8h5trq.

  1952, Cellular Automata

  Von Neumann, J., Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata, Urbana
: IL: U. Illinois Press, 1966.

  Wolfram, S., A New Kind of Science, Champaign, IL: Wolfram Media, 2002.

  1952, Miller-Urey Experiment

  The original Miller-Urey experiment’s idea of a primitive atmosphere was probably wrong, but complex biochemicals can be formed under many other conditions. This takes us right into origin-of-life books, which are many and various (and often contain political or religious/antireligious agendas of their own).

  1953, DNA Structure

  DNA may be used to assess hereditary risk for certain diseases. Gene therapy, in which healthy genes are inserted into human cells, continues to be researched for treatment of diseases. Understanding gene regulation, in which genes become active and inactive, is crucial to our understanding of DNA function.

  Ridley, M., jacket flap for DNA, Krude, T., ed., NY: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

  1955, Atomic Clocks

  In 2010, “optical clocks” that employ atoms (e.g. aluminum-27) that oscillate at the frequencies of light rather than in the microwave range were among the most precise timekeepers.

  1955, Birth-Control Pill

  The mini-pill was introduced in the early 1970s, and it contained only progestin. It prevented pregnancy solely through changes in the cervix and uterus. Other key scientists in the development of the pill are J. Rock and M. C. Chang.

  1955, Placebo Effect

  Placebo treatments of gastric ulcers have often been as effective as acid-secretion inhibitor drugs, as confirmed by stomach endoscopy. Many recent clinical trials of antidepressant medications have shown that sugar pills can provide the same relief.

  Shapiro, A., Shapiro, E., in The Placebo Effect, Harrington, A., ed., Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.

  1955, Ribosomes

  Garrett, R. A., et al., (eds.), The Ribosome: Structure, Function, Antibiotics, and Cellular Interactions. Washington, DC: American Society Microbiology 2000.

  1957, Antidepressant Medications

  Healy, D., The Anti-Depressant Era. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.

  1957, Space Satellite

  Jorden, W., http://tinyurl.com/lc6rm6s.

  1958, Central Dogma of Molecular Biology

  Ridley, M., Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code. New York: Eminent Lives, 2006.

  1958, Integrated Circuit

  Bellis, M., tinyurl.com/y93fp7u.

  Miller, M., tinyurl.com/nab2ch.

  1959, Structure of Antibodies

  Monoclonal antibodies, derived from a single immune cell, have been found that recognize certain human cancers.