Seeing Further (54 page)

Fugger family of Augsburg, 302–3

fundamentalism, 80

Gaia, 389

Galá pagos, threats to, 280

galaxies, expanding, 325–26

Galen, 109

Galileo Galilei, 95, 111,
112

The Assayer,
111, 115–16

and cosmology, 62, 67, 73

followers of, 127

on motion, 127

opponents of, 114

rationalism of, 113–14, 115, 117–18, 120, 121, 122–23, 124, 128

Galois, é variste, 350, 351

Galois fields, 346, 351

galvanism, 153

Gamble, Dixon, 139, 149, 150, 152

game of life, 473

Gardeners’ Chronicle,
209–10

Gaskell, Elizabeth, 407

Gateshead Millennium Bridge, 247, 248

gauge theories, 365

Gee, Maggie:

The Burning Book,
411, 414

The Flood,
411–12, 414, 419

The Ice People,
411

Where Are the Snows,
411

gene pool, 226–27

gene sequencing, 335

genetic drift, 289

genetic engineering, 154–55, 314–17, 479, 483

genetics:

and evolution, 222–23, 226–27, 278–79

Mendelian, 222, 223–24, 279

molecular, 223

necessity vs. chance in, 278–79

population, 223, 278

Watson/Crick and, 223, 224,
225
, 265

geochemistry, 394

geography, and biodiversity, 285–86

Geological Society, 274

geology, 450–52

geometry, Euclidean, 90, 353

geophysicists, 469

George I, king of England, 89

George III, king of England, 174

George Washington Bridge, 244, 246

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, 160, 174

Gibbon, Edward, 12, 135

Gilbert, Cass, 246

Gilbert, William, 111, 113, 122, 123, 127

Giotto di Bondone, 67, 69, 71

Arena Chapel scenes by,
69

The Last Judgement, 68
, 69

global warming,
see
climate change

Gödel, Kurt, 94, 103–4,
103

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 30

Golden Gate Bridge, 241–43,
242

Goldilocks enigma, 339

Goldschmidt, Victor, 394

Gore, Al,
442

Gould, Stephen Jay, 219

GPS (Global Positioning System), 357,
358
, 454

Graham, James, 135, 137

graph theory, 356

gravitational “redshift,” 454

graviton, 371

gravity:

force of, 61, 72, 329, 368, 371

Newton on, 72, 344,
347
, 348, 363, 373, 450, 463, 470

and space-time, 454, 455

Gray, Asa, 213, 216

Gray, John,
Black Mass,
407

Great Exhibition (1851), 237

Greatorex, Ralph, 21, 22

Great Stove, design of, 237

Greece, ancient, 69, 446

Green, Charles, 181

Green, Michael, 366

greenhouse gas emissions, 428, 429, 433–34, 437, 441

Gresham College, 18,
21
,
109
, 111, 113, 122

Grosseteste, Robert, 298

group theory, 473

Grove, Sir William, 9

Häberlein, Karl, 201

haemoglobin, 263–66,
264
, 271

Haggard, Rider,
She,
55

Haldane, J.B.S., 223, 332

Halley, Edmond, 9

Hao Wang, 104

Hardy, G. H., 476

Harrington, Ralph, “The Neuroses of the Railway,” 407

Hartlib, Samuel, 300

Harvey, William, 111,
112
, 113, 122, 127

Haskin, Byron, 42

Hastings, Warren, 12

Hawaiian crow,
282
, 283

Hawking, Stephen, 318, 460

Haynes, John, engraving by,
200

heat, flow of, 355

heaven:

in cyberfiction, 80

location of, 72–73

Heckingham House of Industry, Norwich, 133–35, 137,
138

destruction of, 153

lightning rods at, 134, 138–40, 144, 148,
149
, 150, 152–53

lightning strike at, 133–34, 150

Heisenberg, Werner, 471

Herschel, William, 135, 137, 172, 325

Hill, John, 137

Himba tribe, 81

HMS
Beagle,
9, 275,
276
, 280, 281

Hobbs, Thomas, 315

Hodgkin, Dorothy Crowfoot, 252–53, 260–63,
262
, 269–71,
270

Insulin, Chemistry and Biochemistry, 269
, 270–71

Hodgkinson, Eaton, 234, 236

Holdren, John, 431

Hooke, Robert, 10, 26, 28, 468

and Newton, 33–34, 35

Hooker, Sir Joseph, 213

Hoover Dam, 398,
399

Horvitz, Robert, 267

Houghton, John, 435–36

house-sparrow, collapse of, 293

Housman, A. E., 465

Hubble, Edwin, 325, 338

Hubble Space Telescope, 326, 336,
337

Huffman coding, 356

Hughes, Thomas,
Tom Brown’s School Days,
51–52

Human Genome Project, 271, 316–17, 474

Hume, David, 204–5, 206

Husserl, Edmund, 104

Hutton, James, 396

Huxley, T. H., 13, 134, 210, 223

Huygens, Christiaan, 5, 468

Huysum, Jacob van, botanical prints by,
194
, 195

Hyatt, John and Isaiah, 311

hyperspace theories, 74–76

hypothesis, 128

IBM, Deep Blue, 477, 478

ice ages, 289–90, 401

immortality, quest for, 55

Imperato, Ferdinand, 34

Industrial Revolution, 303

Ingold, Tim, “Globes and Spheres,” 389–90, 394

insulin, genetic engineering of, 316

insulin molecule,
269
, 270–71

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 428, 434, 435–36, 437–41

International Union for the Conservation of Nature, 281, 283, 286

Internet, 356, 359, 475,
475

Iraq, invasion of, 407

island biodiversity, 277–78, 289

Jammer, Max, 71

Jankvist, Uffe, 344

Jardin Botanique, Paris, 195

Jeffries, John, 160, 175–76, 179

Jenkin, Fleeming, 222, 223, 224

Jervas, Charles, portraits by,
40
,
88

Johnson, Louise, 266, 268

Joseph, Sir Keith, 270

Journal, Le, 162
, 163

Kant, Immanuel, 129, 142, 449

Critique of Pure Reason,
94

and Leibniz, 94, 104

Kapteyn, Jacobus, 325

Kasparov, Garry, 477

Kelly, William, 306

Kelvin, William Thomson, Lord, 222, 451

Kendrew, John,
264
, 265, 266, 268

Kepler, Johannes, 62, 111,
112
, 127

rationalism of, 113, 115

on solar system, 375, 376,
376

Kerseboom, Johann, portrait by,
23

Kevlar, 313

Kew Gardens, 191–92, 195, 275

Klug, Aaron, 267

Kneller, Sir Godfrey, portraits by, 79,
199

knowledge:

diffusion of, 198

as end in itself, 122

future, 469–74

as power, 297, 314, 317

pure, 319

purpose of, 121–29

Knowles, Tim, artwork by,
392
, 393

Köhler, Georges, 267

Kuhn, Thomas, 435

Kunzig, Robert,
Fixing Climate,
421–22

Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste, 206, 214

Laplacian determinism, 93

Large Hadron Collider, 318

Le Corbusier, 246

Leeuwenhock, Antoni van,
6
, 7

drawings by,
8
, 10

letter about duckweed from,
7

microscopes of, 7,
8

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 85–105,
87

and background-independent theories, 99–100

on “best of all possible worlds,” 102

and binary arithmetic, 97

and calculus, 86, 89, 105, 348, 359

Characteristica Universalis,
97

on compossibility, 101–2

on conservation of energy, 100–101

and Continuum, 91

death of, 86, 89, 91, 94

and Gödel, 94, 103–4

on Identity of Indiscernibles, 90–91, 98–99

Leibniz-Clarke correspondence, 86, 89–90, 93, 97

and metaphysics, 85–86, 90–91, 105

Monadology,
90, 91–94, 96, 97–99, 102, 104

on motion, 100–101

and Newton, 85, 89–94, 100–102, 105

on pre-established harmony, 100, 102

Principle of Sufficient Reason, 90

Production Rule of, 93, 97–98

and rationalism, 117, 119n

and Royal Society, 85

and Russell, 90, 92, 95–96

Theodicy,
90

Lessing, Doris,
Mara and Dann,
423

Lewis, David,
Plurality of Worlds,
102

Lewis, Jerry, 51

Lewis, Peter, 238

Liebermann, Max, portrait by,
464

life:

complexity of, 330–31

elements needed for, 333–34, 339

engineering, 314–17

game of, 473

habitability window for, 330

human life expectancy, 478

intelligent, 335–36, 470

living in the present, 415

made in laboratories, 333

origins of, 278, 315–17, 331–32, 335–36

other forms of, 278, 315–17, 470

on other planets, 328–31, 334

“primordial soup” theory of, 331–32

structure of, 253

lightning rods:

and electricity, 140–48,
151
, 152

experiments on, 145–47,
146
, 152

at Heckingham, 134, 138–40, 144, 148,
149
, 150, 152–53

idiomatic use of term, 155

invention of, 142

and Promethian science, 142–43, 148–54

Lily House, Chatsworth, 237

Linnaeus, Carolus:

on the fixity of species, 195, 196

floral clock of, 193

Systema Naturæ,
192–93

systematic plantings of, 193, 195

Linnean Society of London, 193, 213, 216, 221, 274

Littleton, Sir Edward, 172

Locke, John, 5,
78
, 89, 111,
112
, 118

and science of mind, 77, 79–80

logic, 115

and computers, 350, 351

and mathematics, 350, 371

logical positivism, 94

London Millennium Bridge, 247–48

Long, James, 28–29

Long, Richard, 393

Lonsdale, Kathleen Yardley, 256–57,
258
, 262

loop quantum gravity, 100, 105

Lovelock, James, 389, 403, 415, 421

Lowell, Percival, 330

Lubbock, John, 14, 15

diary entry of,
15

Lucas, John, group portrait by, 235–36,
236
, 237, 238, 249

Lunardi, Vincenzo, 160, 172, 173–74, 178

Lunar Society, 163

Lyell, Sir Charles, 212–13, 217, 450,
451

Lynas, Mark,
Six Degrees,
406, 409,
409
, 414–15

mad scientists, 38–57

in B movies, 38–39, 41, 49, 54

in
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,
52,
53
, 54

and
Frankenstein,
49–51,
50

and
Gulliver’s Travels,
39, 41–42, 44–49, 55–57

Island of Dr Moreau,
54

nutty professor, 51

stock figure of, 38–39

in
Tom Brown’s School Days,
51–52

magnetism, 113

Malpighi, Marcello, 5

Malthus, Robert, 218

Manhattan Project, 481

Mars:

Earth seen from, 402,
402

life on, 330, 334

space probes on, 331, 343

Martin, John,
The Last Man, 422
, 423

Martinus Scriblerus Club, 48

Martyn, Thomas,
Hints of Important Uses for Aerostatic Globes,
172

Marvell, Andrew,
To His Coy Mistress,
446

Mathematical Platonism, 95

mathematics:

applied vs. pure, 359

a priori, 69, 117, 124

discrete, 353

and experimentation, 128–29, 381

importance of, 69, 342–48, 349

and logic, 350, 371

medical applications of, 358

and the natural world, 117–18, 352

in navigation, 356–57

Newton on, 93, 126–29, 344, 348, 359

power of, 115, 121

of pseudo-random numbers, 357–58

Pythagoras on, 69–70

and rationalism, 113, 115, 118

and science, 359, 363

and society, 352

and space programmes, 343, 344–48, 349, 351–52

symmetries of, 375

and time, 449–50

and truth, 95, 128

unreasonable effectiveness of, 129

usefulness of, 371–72

Mather, Cotton, 48

matter, properties of, 92

Matthew, Patrick, 206, 208–11, 219, 221, 224, 226

Maxwell, James Clerk, 369,
369
, 377

May, Lord Robert, 379, 431, 480

Mayor, Adrienne, 188

Mearns, Linda, 441

Medawar, Peter, 297, 298, 302, 318

medieval world:

art in, 67,
68
,
69

nature study in, 69

philosophy in, 66–67

Meikle, Jeffrey, 312

Menai Strait Suspension Bridge, 230–31,
232
, 234, 237, 238, 241, 246

Mendel, Gregor, model of heredity, 265

Mendelian genetics, 222, 223–24, 279

Mercer, Christia, 90, 91, 93

mercury barometer, 173

Merret, Christopher, 5

Mesmerism, 159–60

Mesolimulus,
185,
185

Messer, Mabel J.B., portrait by,
207

Messier, Charles, 325, 327

metal fatigue,
306
, 307–8

metals, 302–8

alloys, 307, 308

Bessemer process, 303–4

mechanical properties of, 307–8