The Timeline Book of Science - Geroge Ochoa

446 Pages·2006·43.83 MB·English

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Forthcomlngb oohsi n the sames eries:
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TheT imeline Booho f the Arts
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The TimelineB @k of Greatl deas
The TimelineQ ooho f History
The flmellne Book of Sclence
.George
Ochoaa nd MelindaC orey
A StonesongP ressB ook
Ballantine,Book. sN ewY ork
Saleo f this book without a front cover may be unauthorized.I f this
book is coverlessi,t may haveb een reportedt o the publishera s
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may have receivedp aymentf or it.
Copyright@ 1995b y The StonesongP ress,I nc.
All rights reservedu nder Internationala nd Pan-AmericanC opyright
ConventionsP. ublishedin the UnitedS ares by BallantineB ooks,a
divisiono f RandomH ouse,l nc., New York, and simultaneouslyin
Canadab y RandomH ouseo f CanadaL imited,T oronto.
Libraryo f CongressC ataloging-in-PublicatioDna ta
Ochoa,G eorge.
The timelineb ook of science/ GeorgeO choaa nd MelindaC orey.
p. cm.
"A StonesongP ressb ook."
Includesb ibliographicarle ferencesa nd index.
rsBN0 -345-38265-X
I . Science-History-Chronology. I. Corey, Melinda, Il. Title.
'-1995
Qt25.O24
509-dc2O 94-tt865
clP
Coverd esignb y RichardH asselberger
Typographyb y NobleD esktopP ublishers
A Stonesong Pre$ Eook
Manufacturedin the UnitedS tateso f America
First Edition:M arch | 995
l0 9 I7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Photor esearchb y PhotosearchI,n c., New York City
In memory of
VerdiC evallosp, hysiciana nd poet,
Jose
and
HarrietG ri$$sG uild,p hysiciana nd pathftnder
.:. )#
t
tAB-IE Of CO,ilfE.t'13
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction ,ix
A Notet o the Reader xi
Timeline 1
Appendix:B irth and DearhD ates 393
Bibltography 403
Index i 407
vIi
IGKilOWl T DOttilr I
We are indebted to Kerry Benson and Nsa Schneider,
diligent researchersa nd contributors. We also thank
Tom Brown for heyboardingm uch of the manuscript
and Mudit Tyagi for his edltorial assistance.F inally, we
thank PaulF argisa nd ShereeB ykofskyo f The Stonesonlf
Pressa nd Ginny Faber,o ur editor at Ballantine.
viit
l1'lt noD UCT roll
A timeline is a recordo f change;T heT imelineB ooko JS cienceis a record
of stunningc hange.I n ho field of human endeavorh ave rhingsb een
alteredm ore quickly,d ramaticallya, nd irreversiblyt han in our knowl'
edgeo f the physicalu niversea nd our abilityt o manipulateit . The most
rapida nd visiblec hangesh avet akenp lacei n just the lastt wo centuries,
originatingm ostly in Europea nd America,b ut many of the deepest
changest ook place much earlier in distant places.I t is obvious that
microwaveo vens,t elevision,c omputers,t he theory of relativity,a nd
the model of rhe atom are productso f scientifick nowledge;it may be
tesso bvioust hat so are bread, the do$, the pipeline,t he concepto f
anglesa, nd the year.
The TimelineB ooho J Sciencec harts chronologicallyf,r om prehistory
to the present,h ow we came to know what we know about naure and
havew hat we made. It is a story with many twistsa nd turns,f requent
shifts of locale,a nd a decidedlyu neven pace. For millions of years the
tale hardly movesa t all; after the developmento f agricultureit moves
graduallyb ut slowly; then in the last few hundred years it moves at a
blindingp ace.A physicianf rom ancientR omew ould haveh ad much in
common,t echnologicallyw,i th a physicianin seventeenth-centulrtya ly,
but both would have great difficulty figuring out what to do with a CAT
scanneri n a late'twentieth-centurhy ospiml, much less how to drive
home on the expresswaya fter work.
It is no accidentt,h en,t hat most of this book dealsw ith the few hun-
dred yearss incet he sixteentha nd seventeenthc enturiesw, hen people
like CopernicusG, alileoa, nd FrancisB aconb roughta bouta fundamen'
tal shift in humanity'sa pproacht o studyingn ature,a chan$ek nown as
the scientific revolution.Y et The TimelineB ooko f Sciencea lso outlines
other importants torleso f scientificp rogressh: ow earlyh umanss pread
out of Africa acrosst he world and invented such technologiesa s frsh
hooks,s ewing needles,a nd the use of fire; how farmersa nd herders
domesticatedw ild plants and animals;h ow Chinesee xperimenters
inventeds ilk, paper, and gunpowderw hile Chinesea stronomersf irst
recordedw hat becamek nown as Halley'sC omet; how the Hindus
developeda systemo f numeralst hat was passedt o the Arabsa nd from
them to Europeansa; nd how Mayansi n CentralA mericai ndependently
developedt heir own systemo f numerals.
tx
IttnoDUCtlOl|
TheT imelineB ooko f sciencer angeso ver as many different ropicsa s
it doesp eriodsa nd localesI.t chartst he growtho f the disciplinesu sually
taught in school-biology, chemistry,p hysics,a nd the earth sciences.
But it also mapst he rise of rechnologye, ngineeringa, rchaeologyp, ale-
ontolo$y,m athematics,m edicine,p sychologyc, omputers cience,a nd
the explorationo f earth and space.I t concentrateso n the physicals ci-
encesb ut neverthelesisn cludese ntrieso n linguisticsa nd the socials ci,
ences-anthropologys, ociologye, conomicsp, otiticals cience.
Throughoutt,h e timeliner eportsa ction.I t tellsw hat was discovered,
invented,s uggesteda, rgued,a nd disproved-by whom, when, where,
and why. It notesw rong stepsa s well as right ones,e stablishedid easa s
well as controversiaol nes.T herea re explodedt heoriess ucha s the four
humors and phlogiston( materials upposedlylo sr in combusrion)o; ut-
moded proceduress uch as medicalb leeding;a nd obsoletei nventions,
and the controversieso f the presentd ay-who first settledt he
Americasw; herei s the masst hat astronomersc all ,.missing"?
Lestt he accumulationo f eventsb ecomeo verwhelmingT, heT imeline
Booko f sciencei ncludess idebarst hat spotlightm omenrsi n rhe story.
Some of thesea re serious( how the bubonicp laguew as blamed on
EuropeanJ ews),o thersh umorous( how an Englisht own incorporateda
dinosauri nto its coato f arms).S omeo ffer more detailo n how a discov-
ery was made and why it was significanr,w hile others bring out the
human side of scientistsa nd inventors( sucha s charlesG oodyearw, ho
neverm ade a penny from his inventiono f vulcanizedr ubber).o ther
sidebarsq uotet he reflecrionso, bservationsa,n d quipso f scientistsa nd
eyewitnessefsr om Aristotleo n naturet o Einsteino n the atomicb omb.
In rhe stanleyK ubrick frlm 2001:A Spaceo dyssey( 196g)t here is a
sequencein which a hairy ancestoro f humans,h avingl earnedh ow to
usea bonea s a weapon,h urlsi t into the air; the next thingw e know, a
human-mades pacecrafits orbitingt he earth.I f rhe devil is in the
details,t hen this accounto f our divelopmenr,h owevere vocative,
leavesm uch to be explained.H ow do we know what we know about
the universea nd ourselves?w hat are we still trying to discover?H ow
did we come to own the technologiews e possessw; hy is it they some-
timess eemt o own us?w ith the year2 001 now muchc losert han it was,
TheT imelineB ooho Js cienceis wrinen to help answert heseq uestions.