HUMANS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN travelers and explorers, venturing over the next horizon in search of resources, knowledge, and adventure. Today we still explore the depths of the ocean, the frigid wastes of the Arctic, and the challenging peaks of mountains.
In the middle of the twentieth century, humans ventured for the first time beyond the boundaries of the earth’s atmosphere, beginning with the Russian launch of the Sputnik satellites in 1957. For thirty years, space programs concentrated on exploring our own solar system. That changed with the development of the Hubble Space Telescope.
In April 1990, the space shuttle Discovery launched the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit 370 miles above the earth, free from the distortions of Earth’s atmosphere. Astronomers expected that the telescope would be able to see the far corners of the universe and provide the answers to big questions: How old is the universe? How big is the universe? Do black holes really exist?
Astronomers were quickly disappointed. Two months after Hubble was launched, it was obvious that the telescope was in trouble. The mirror at the heart of the telescope was faulty. The solar panels and gyroscopes were failing. It took two years for NASA to design a solution.
On December 2, 1993, the space shuttle Endeavor took off, carrying the seven astronauts who repaired the telescope in a series of complicated and dangerous space walks. Once the crew returned to earth, astronomers held their breath, waiting to see the first images from the repaired telescope. They came through just after midnight on December 18, 1993. Repairs to the telescope succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations.
In the years since 1993, Hubble has changed the way we look at the universe. In our own galaxy, it has furnished us pictures of the weather on Mars, shown us new moons around Saturn and, given us front row seats when a comet slammed into Jupiter. It has shown us stars being born and dying in distant galaxies, matter rotating around the edge of a suspected black hole, and the first proof that other solar systems may exist. Hubble has revealed that a single dot of light in the night sky is the light from ten thousand galaxies. The telescope has given us new questions to replace the old ones, including those surrounding the existence of a mysterious force, “dark energy,” that appears to counteract the gravitational pull of the equally mysterious “dark matter.” Most amazing of all, Hubble looks back in time, capturing light that began its journey towards earth billions of years ago, from a star that was formed in the earliest days of the universe and is still moving out and away through time and space.
Helix Nebula
EDWIN POWELL HUBBLE
The Hubble Space Telescope is named after American astronomer Edwin Powell Hubble. Before Hubble’s pioneering work at the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California, in the 1920s, astronomers believed that our galaxy, the Milky Way, was the only one in the universe. Hubble proved that there is more than one galaxy in the universe. He also discovered that galaxies are moving away from each other. Hubble’s Law, which provides the foundation for the Big Bang theory, suggests that everything in the universe is expanding outward from an initial explosion.
Thanks to Hubble’s work, we know that the universe contains hundreds of billions of galaxies, each filled with hundreds of millions of stars.
Edwin P. Hubble
Astronaut Steve Smith repairing the Hubble Space Telescope, 1997
A barred spiral galaxy has a bar shape in the center, which is possibly a “stellar nursery.” Recent studies suggest that the bar shape is a sign that the galaxy is nearing full maturity
Looked at together, the scientific studies done using the Hubble telescope help us understand that our planet is a rare gift, the result of thousands of Goldilocks moments needed to create a planet that would support life.
The Hubble Space Telescope is expected to come to the end of its useful life around 2020. Another great telescope is in the planning stages, with a project launch in 2018. The James Webb Space Telescope, named after a former NASA director, is designed to see farther into space than Hubble—so far that scientists will be able to look back in time to study the first light in the universe—the Big Bang itself.
An artist’s rendition of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover
MEDICAL MIRACLES AND SPACE exploration were both made possible by another technological revolution—the rise of the computer. The first fully electronic computer was built in 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania. Known as the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) the computer operated on vacuum tubes, filled a large room, and required a full-time team of engineers to keep it running. Only fifty years later, several hundred million people had access to the Internet through personal computers, and more computing power than the operators of ENIAC could imagine. Today computers, cell phones, and satellite navigation systems connect people in a way we have never been connected before.
ONE HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND years ago, the first true humans stood on their own two feet in Africa’s Rift Valley. Since then, our journey has been nothing less than incredible. From a small area in Africa, we have spread across the planet, making our homes everywhere from the tundra of Siberia to the Sahara desert. Always changing, always adapting, we have developed new technologies at each stage of history: crossbow to cannon, cuneiform to movable type, and sailing ship to jumbo jet. We have continuously sought to improve and innovate. We have reengineered landscapes, rerouting rivers and moving mountains. We have built pyramids, castles, cities, and skyscrapers and connected the world in a web of roads, highways, shipping lanes, flight paths, and fiber-optic cables. We are even on the verge of being able to reengineer ourselves.
For 150,000 years, humans have adapted, improvised, and invented. Today we stand poised to explore both the far reaches of space and the most basic building blocks of life. We now have the power to transform our planet and ourselves in ways that our ancestors would never have imagined possible.
We are exploring new sources of energy, the shape of the human mind, and the possibility of life in space. At the same time, our future depends on the outcomes of millions of tiny uncertainties coming together in ways that we cannot predict to create the Goldilocks moments of the future.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT IN THE STORY OF THE HUMAN RACE?
IT’S ALL UP TO US.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NO BOOK IS WRITTEN IN A VACUUM, AND THIS ONE IS NO EXCEPTION. I owe a debt of gratitude to many people involved in the project, both officially and unofficially. First, to Kate Winn, SVP Consumer Products at A+E Networks, Kim Gilmore, Senior Historian & Director, Corporate Outreach, and David Wilk, Publishing Consultant to HISTORY, who believed in my work. To my editor, Geoff Stone of Running Press, who kept all the balls in the air. To designers Bill Jones and Frances Soo Ping Chow at Running Press and Paul Kepple and Ralph Geroni at Headcase Design for creating such a beautiful book. To photo researcher Susan Oyama for her tireless research. To Chris Navratil and Craig Herman for their publishing vision. To my agent, Jason Ashlock, who provided a voice of sanity whenever one was needed. To my friend, historian Karin Wetmore, who generously shared her knowledge about the history of science. And most of all to my husband, Sandy Wilson, who read many drafts, demanded explanations, cheered me on, dragged me away from my desk—and was always happy to pick up a pizza when the deadline was tight.
—Pamela D. Toler
TO TACKLE A PROJECT OF THIS SCOPE IS CERTAINLY BOLD, AND BY ITS very nature there are bound to be omissions and oversights. However, we would be remiss not to thank some of the key players involved in HISTORY’s documentary series Mankind The Story of All of Us, without whom this book would not be possible. First to our series consultant Ian Morris, Professor of Classics and History at Stanford University, whose works inspire us and thoughtful feedback kept us on track. And to those listed below from Nutopia, the production company who brought this vision to life, and to those at HISTORY for their ambitious programming that continues to highlight and celebrate our collective history.
—Julian P. Hobbs
Executive Producer, Mankind The Story of All of Us, HISTORY
NUTOPIA
Jane Root and Ben Goold, Executive Producers
Tim Lambert, Series Producer
Helen Docherty, Assistant Producer
HISTORY®
Nancy Dubuc, President and General Manager, HISTORY and Lifetime®
Dirk Hoogstra, Senior Vice President, Development and Programming, HISTORY
Paul Cabana, Executive Producer, Mankind The Story of All of Us, HISTORY
Ian Luce, Director of Photography, A+E Networks
Brandy Crawford, Programming Coordinator, HISTORY
FURTHER READING
Abulafia, David. The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean. Oxford University Press. 2011.
Adler, Robert E. Medical Firsts: From Hippocrates to the Human Genome. John Wiley & Sons. 2004.
Al-Khalili, Jim. The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance. Penguin Press. 2010.
Ambrose, Stephen E. Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863–1869. Simon & Schuster. 2000.
Ansary, Tamim. Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes. PublicAffairs. 2009.
Axelrod, Alan. A Savage Empire: Trappers, Traders, Tribes, and the Wars That Made America. Thomas Dunne Books. 2011.
Benjamin, Thomas. The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians and Their Shared History, 1400–1900. Cambridge University Press. 2009.
Bloom, Jonathan M. Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World. Yale University Press. 2001.
Boorstin, Daniel J. The Discoverers: A History of Man’s Search to Know His World and Himself. Random House. 1983.
Boulnois, Luce. Silk Road: Monks, Warriors & Merchants on the Silk Road. Odyssey Books. 2006.
Bovill, E. W. The Golden Trade of the Moors. Oxford University Press. 1970.
Bown, Stephen R. Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail. Thomas Dunne Books. 2004.
Brownstone, David M. et al. Island of Hope, Island of Tears: The Story of Those Who Entered the New World Through Ellis Island—In Their Own Words. MetroBooks. 2003.
Brownworth, Lars. Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization. Crown Publishers. 2009.
Cahill, Thomas. How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe. Nan A Talese. 1995.
Chambers, James. The Devil’s Horsemen: The Mongol Invasion of Europe. Atheneum. 1979.
Christian, David. Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History. University of California Press. 2003.
Cipolla, Carlo M. Guns, Sails and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European Expansion, 1400–1700. Pantheon Books. 1965.
Crosby, Alfred W. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. Praeger. 2003.
Crowley, Roger. City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas. Random House. 2012.
Dash, Mike. TulipoMania: The Story of the World’s Most Coveted Flower and the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused. Crown Publishers. 1999.
Davenport-Hines, Richard. Voyagers of the Titanic: Passengers, Sailors, Shipbuilders, Aristocrats, and the Worlds They Came From. HarperCollins. 2012.
De Villiers, Marq and Sheila Hirtle. Timbuktu: The Sahara’s Fabled City of Gold. Walker & Company. 2007.
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates ofHuman Societies. W. W Norton & Co. 1997.
Dolin, Eric Jay. Fur, Fortune and Empire: The Epic History ofthe Fur Trade in America. W. W. Norton & Co. 2010.
Dolnick, Edward. The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society and the Birth of the Modern World. HarperCollins. 2011.
Dray, Philip. Stealing God’s Thunder: Benjamin Franklin’s Lightning Rod and the Invention of America. Random House. 2002.
Drews, Robert. The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C. Princeton University Press. 1993.
Egan, Timothy. The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. Houghton Mifflin. 2006.
Erlichman, Howard J. Conquest, Tribute, and Trade: The Quest for Precious Metals and the Birth of Globalization. Prometheus Books. 2010.
Evans, Harold, with Gail Buckland and Devid Lefer. They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine, Two Centuries of Innovators. Little, Brown and Company. 2004.
Fagan, Brian. The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations. Bloomsbury Press. 2008.
Fairbank, John King. China: A New History. Harvard University Press. 1992.
Goodwin, Jason. Lords of the Horizon: A History ofthe Ottoman Empire. Vintage. 1999.
Gurney, Alan. Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation. W. W. Norton. 2004.
Hallion, Richard P. Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age from Antiquity Through the First World War. Oxford University Press. 2003.
Heather, Peter Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe. Oxford University Press. 2010.
Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Houghton Mifflin. 1998.
Johanson, Donald C. and Maitland A. Edey. Lucy, the Beginnings of Humankind. Simon & Schuster. 1981.
Johnson, Steven. The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World. Riverhead Books. 2006.
Kelly, Jack. Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that Changed the World. Basic Books. 2004.
Kurlansky, Mark. Salt: A World History. Penguin. 2002.
Lax, Eric. The Mold in Dr. Florey’s Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle. Henry Holt. 2005.
Levenson, Jay A. Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration. National Gallery of Art and Yale University Press. 1991.
Man, John. Gutenberg: How One Man Remade the World with Words. John Wiley & Sons. 2002.
Mann, Charles C. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Vintage Books. 2005.
McNeill, William H. Plagues and Peoples. Anchor Press. 1989.
Menocal, María Rosa. Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain. Little, Brown and Company. 2002.
Montefiore, Simon Sebag. Jerusalem: The Biography. Alfred A. Knopf. 2011.
Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. Alfred A. Knopf. 2002.
Preston, Diana and Michael. Taj Mahal: Passion and Genius at the Heart of the Moghul Empire. Walker & Company. 2007.
Rhodes, Richard. The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Simon & Schuster. 1995.
Russell, Peter. Prince Henry “the Navigator”: A Life. Yale Nota Bene. 2001.
Slack, Charles. Noble Obsession: Charles Goodyear, Thomas Havelock, and the Race to Unlock the Greatest Industrial Secret of the Nineteenth Century. Hyperion. 2002.
Taylor, Alan. American Colonies: The Settling of North America. Penguin Books. 2002.
Temple. Robert. The Genius of China: Three Thousand Years of Science, Discovery and Invention. Andre Deutsch. 2006.
Thomas, Hugh. Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire, From Columbus to Magellan. Random House. 2003.
Thompson, E. P. The Making of the English Working Class. Vintage Books. 1966.
Twichell, Heath. Northwest Epic: The Building of the Alaska Highway. St. Martin’s Press. 1992.
Waley, Arthur. The Opium Wars Through Chinese Eyes. Stanford University Press. 1958.
Watson, Ian. The Universal Machine: From the Dawn of Computing to Digital Consciousness. Springer. 2012.
Weatherford, Jack. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Three Rivers Press. 2004.
Weightman, Gavin. Signor Marconi’s Magic Box: The Most Remarkable Invention of the Nineteenth Ce
ntury and the Amateur Inventor Whose Genius Sparked a Revolution. Da Capo Press. 2003.
PHOTO CREDITS
T (TOP), B (BOTTOM), L (LEFT), C (CENTER), R (RIGHT)
Photos on the following pages courtesy of Nutopia: x–1, 8–13, 15, 22–25, 27, 30–33, 41, 44, 56, 58, 60–61, 65, 66, 68, 70, 73, 84–86, 89, 100, 105–107, 112–114, 124–126, 134–136, 140, 142–144, 146–147, 154–158, 168–169, 171, 176 T, 180–181, 184, 192, 206–209, 211, 220, 230–231, 238–239, 264–268, 270–275, 291, 320–321, 328, 332–333, 335 B, 355–357, 359–360, 362–365, 386–389, 414–419
Walters and Kissinger: all maps and pages 4, 16 (inset), 20, 52 B, 83, 122, 137, 159, 193, 202, 227, 282, 290
INTRODUCTION:
vi–vii: ©iStockphoto.com/Blai B Mestrich
CHAPTER 1:
5: ©iStockphoto.com/Jana Blašková
16: Man w/digital tablet by ©iStockphoto.com/hocus-focus; inset: Walters and Kissinger
18–19: Andrzej Gibasiewicz/Shutterstock.com
21 T: Natural History Museum, London/Photo Researchers, Inc
21 B: John Reader/Photo Researchers, Inc
28–29: Fedor Selivanov/Shutterstock.com
29 R, 37, 38 L & BR, 39, 45: ©DeAgostini/SuperStock
34: ©iStockphoto.com/syolacan
36 B: ©Ivan Vdovin/age fotostock/SuperStock
38 TR: Gianni Dagli Orti/The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY
42: WhitcombeRD/Shutterstock.com
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