Science and scientists

1213 Pages·2006·14.9 MB·English

by  Salem Press

Science
and
Scientists

MAGILL’S C H O I C E
Science
and
Scientists
Volume 1
Abstract Algebra – Global Warming
from
The Editors of Salem Press
Salem Press Inc.
Pasadena, California Hackensack, New Jersey
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Copyright © 2006, bySalem Press, Inc.
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SomeessaysoriginallyappearedinGreatEventsfromHistory:Science
andTechnologySeries(1991),TheTwentiethCentury:GreatEvents:1900-2001
(2002),GreatEventsfromHistoryII:Science&Technology(1991),GreatEvents
fromHistory:TheAncientWorld,Prehistory-476c.e.(2004),GreatEventsfrom
History:TheMiddleAges,477-1453(2005),GreatEventsfromHistory:TheRe-
naissance&EarlyModernEra,1454-1600(2005),GreatEventsfromHistory:
The Seventeenth Century, 1601-1700(2006). New material has been added.
∞ The paper used in these volumes conforms to the American Na-
tional Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
Z39.48-1992 (R1997).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Science and Scientists.
p. cm. -- (Magill's choice)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN-10: 1-58765-302-8 (set : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-1-58765-302-5 (set : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-58765-303-6 (v. 1 : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-1-58765-303-2 (v. 1 : alk. paper)
[etc.]
1. Discoveriesinscience.2. Scientists--Biography. I.SalemPress.II.
Series.
Q180.55.D57S29 2006
509--dc22
2005030915
First Printing
printed in the united states of america
Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for
inclusion in the eBook.
Contents
Publisher’s Note. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Alphabetical List of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Abstract Algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
AIDS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Alpha Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Amino Acids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Anesthesia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Antisepsis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Artificial Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Aspirin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Atmospheric Circulation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Atmospheric Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Atomic Nucleus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Atomic Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Atomic Theory of Matter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Australopithecus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Axiom of Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Ballistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Bell Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Big Bang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Binomial Classification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Black Holes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Blood Circulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Blood Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Blue Baby Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Boolean Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Bourbaki Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Boyle’s Law. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Brahe’s Supernova. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Buckminsterfullerene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Calculus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Carbon Dioxide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Cassini-Huygens Mission. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Cell Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
v
Science and Scientists
Celsius Temperature Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Cepheid Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Chandrasekhar Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Chaotic Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Chlorofluorocarbons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Chromosomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Citric Acid Cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Cloning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Compton Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Conductivity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Contagion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Continental Drift. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Copernican Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Cosmic Rays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Cro-Magnon Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
D’Alembert’s Axioms of Motion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Dead Sea Scrolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Decimals and Negative Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Definite Proportions Law. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Diffraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Diphtheria Vaccine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
DNAFingerprinting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
DNASequencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Double-Helix Model of DNA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Earth Orbit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Earth’s Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Earth’s Structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Electric Charge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Electrodynamics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Electromagnetism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Electron Tunneling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Electrons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Electroweak Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Euclidean Geometry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Evolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Exclusion Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Expanding Universe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Extrasolar Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
vi
Contents
Fahrenheit Temperature Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Falling Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Fermat’s Last Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Fossils. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Fractals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Galactic Superclusters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Galaxies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Galen’s Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Galileo Probe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Game Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Gamma-Ray Bursts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Gene-Chromosome Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Genetic Code. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Geologic Change. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Geomagnetic Reversals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Germ Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Global Warming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
vii

Publisher’s Note
Lucan’sfamousdictumthatthosestandingontheshouldersofgiants
seefartherthanthegiantsthemselvesappliestonohumanendeavormore
thoroughlythantothe“pure”sciences:astronomy,chemistry,biology,ge-
ology, mathematics, physics, and the many subdisciplines they have
spawned.ThethreevolumesofScienceandScientistsdocuments245ofthe
mostimportantbreakthroughsinthehistoryofscience,cross-referencedto
linkthosethatbuiltonothers,fromancienttimestothepresentday.These
essaysareaccompaniedbybiographicalsidebarsonmanyofthegiantsbe-
hindthediscoveries,aswellaschartsandschematicsillustratingmanyof
the basic concepts.
The disciplines covered here are broad, including Anthropology, Ar-
chaeology,AstronomyandCosmology,Biology,Chemistry,ComputerSci-
ence, Earth Science, Environmental Science, Evolution, Genetics, Mathe-
matics, Medicine, Meteorology, Methods, Paleontology, Physics,
Psychology,andSpaceScience.Arrangedalphabetically,theseessaysad-
dressthemostimportantbreakthroughsinthesefields,rangingfromAb-
stractAlgebratoQuantumMechanics,fromtheBigBangtoX-RayAstron-
omy, from Antisepsis to Viruses.
Accompanying the essays are 125 sidebars highlighting the scientists
andtheiraccomplishments.Anadditional62charts,diagrams,anddraw-
ingsillustratethescientificconceptspresented.Itisimportanttonotethat
technologicaladvancesand inventions—suchasthetelephone,thelight
bulb,andtheairplane—arenotaddressedherebutarecoveredinthecom-
panion Magill’s Choice set Inventions and Inventors (2 vols., 2002). How-
ever,afew“crossover”achievements—suchasthePersonalComputer,the
Internet,andVaccination—areincludedinthesepagesforhavinghadas
great an impact on the “pure” sciences as on everyday life. The core
achievements in space science also appear here, from the Apollo Moon
landing to the International Space Station.
Eachessayopenswithabriefdefinitionofthetopicandasummaryof
itssignificance,followedbyalistofthecentralscientificfigures.Thetextof
eachessayisbrokenintosectionswithconcisesubheads.“Seealso”cross-
references to other essays in these volumes follow, and each essay ends
withalistingofcoreresourcesfor“FurtherReading.”Allessayswerewrit-
ten by scholars of history or the sciences.
Attheendofthethirdvolumestudentsandgeneralreaderswillfinda
listoftheNobelPrizewinnersinscience(Chemistry,Medicine,andPhys-
ics)andalistofusefulWebSites.IndexesarrangetheessaysbyCategory,
list Personages discussed, and end with a comprehensive Subject Index.
ix