Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein - Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe (57 page)

Quarks,
255

Quasars,
209
–10,
214
,
247
,
301
n

Queen Mary
(ship),
130

Radioactivity,
69
,
92
–95,
98
,
100
,
102
,
131
,
283
n

Radio astronomy,
203
–7

Ramsay, Andrew,
75

Randall, John,
121
,
123
,
124
,
144
,
287
–88
nn

Rasputin, Grigory,
243

Rauscher, Prince-Bishop,
56

Rayleigh, Lord,
283
n

Redshifts,
222
,
262

Reductionism,
24
,
25
,
241
,
275
n

Rees, Martin,
214
–16,
219

Reiner, Rob,
271

“Relativistic Cosmology” (Robertson),
183

Relativity
(Einstein),
239

Relativity, Einstein’s theory of,
see
General relativity; Special relativity

Renaissance,
36

Repulsion,
231
,
259

cosmic,
221
–23,
232
,
239

electrostatic,
161
,
165
,
173

gravitational,
248

strength of,
see
Cosmological constant

Reynolds, Osborne,
282
n

Rich, Alex,
130
,
139
–40,
152

Richter, Frank,
95

Riess, Adam,
253
,
254

RNA (ribonucleic acid),
102
,
117
,
292
n

Robertson, Howard Percy,
183

Robinson, Robert,
129

Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research,
285
n

Romanes, George,
53
–54

Ronwin, Edward,
119
,
127
,
287
n

Roosevelt, Franklin D.,
233

Royal Astronomical Society (RAS),
170
,
183
,
192
–96,
198
,
202
,
203
,
206
,
209

Monthly Notices of
,
192
,
193
,
195
,
196

Royal College of Science,
281
n

Royal Institution,
94

Royal Irish Academy,
279
n

Proceedings of
,
171

Royal Society of Edinburgh,
69

Royal Society of London,
128
,
129
,
207

Proceedings of
,
109

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences,
176

Rüppell’s Griffon,
273
n

Russell, Bertrand,
157
,
264
,
270

Russia, invasions of,
7

Rutherford, Ernest,
93
–95,
281
n

Ryle, Martin,
203
–8

Sagan, Carl,
158

Salisbury, Robert Cecil, Third Marquis of,
85
,
282
n

Salpeter, Edwin,
171
–72,
176
,
294
n
,
301
n

Schmidt, Brian,
253
,
254

Schneerson, Menachem Mendel,
97

Schomaker, Verner,
119
,
133
,
154

Schrödinger, Erwin,
281
n

Schulz, Kathryn,
298
n

Scientific American
,
232

Scientific method,
262

Sclater, Andrew,
52
–53

Seeds, William,
124

Seeger, Raymond,
235

Seeliger, Hugo von,
301
n

Segrè, Gino,
235

Selection bias,
258
–59

Serengeti plains,
28

Shakeshaft, John,
206

Shakespeare, William,
37
,
140
,
178
–79

Shaw, George Bernard,
84

Shipley, Ruth B.,
128
–29

Silberstein, Ludwik,
162

Simplicity,
10
,
24
,
267

mathematical,
239
–41

of X-ray crystallography,
110

Sky & Telescope
magazine,
158

Slipher, Vesto,
191
,
192
,
222

Smart, William Marshall,
193
–98,
194
–95

Société Scientifique de Bruxelles,
193

Soddy, Frederick,
93
–94,
283
n

Solomon, P.,
179

Solvay Conference,
152

Soviet Union,
190

Space Telescope Science Institute,
253

Space-time,
189
,
221
–23,
248
–49,
206
n

stretching of, in expanding universe,
252
,
261
,
262

warped,
222
,
223
,
225
–29

Spassky, Boris,
5

Special relativity,
220
,
225
–26,
264

Speciation,
18
,
22
–23

Species

dogma of immutability of,
16

extinct,
20
,
22
,
31

interbreeding between,
22
–23

Spencer, Herbert,
29

Spinoza, Baruch de,
62

Staphylococcus aureus
,
31
–32

Methicillin-resistant (MRSA),
32

State Department, US, Passport Division,
128
–29

Statistical mechanics,
169

Steady state theory,
183
,
184
,
198
–219,
200
,
247
,
295
n

age of Earth in,
67
,
70
,
83

big bang versus,
183
,
199
–202,
205
–7,
210
–19

continuous creation of matter in,
199
–200,
244
–45

cosmological principle and,
198
–99

evolution in,
201
–3

Hoyle’s refusal to abandon,
211
–19

inspiration for,
186
–87,
198

radio astronomy and challenges to,
203
–10

uniformitarian assumption of,
76

Stokes, Alexander,
150

String theory,
261
,
268

“Structure of Proteins, The” (Pauling, Corey, and Branson),
112

Strutt, Robert John,
283
n

Subatomic world, theory for,
see
Quantum mechanics

Sudoku puzzles,
99

Sun, age of, Kelvin’s calculation of,
70
,
74
,
81
,
87
,
89
,
99
–101,
109
,
164

Sunday Telegraph
,
212

Supernova Cosmology Project,
253

Supernovae,
16
,
176
,
177
,
211
,
253
–54,
309
n

Supersymmetry,
263

Swamping,
39
–41,
47

Symbiosis,
14

Symmetry,
24
,
265

bilateral,
51

of DNA,
139
,
145
–46,
300
n

of general relativity,
256

in quantum mechanics,
173

undiscovered, for hoped-for cancellation of cosmological concept,
255
–56

Szekeres, P.,
301
n

Szostak, Jack,
291
n

Tait, Peter Guthrie,
82
–83,
87
–89,
282
n

Taxonomy,
21

Taylor, A. J. P.,
7

Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre,
20

Teller, Edward,
129

Telliamed
(de Maillet),
63

Tempest, The
(Shakespeare,
37

Theophilus of Antioch,
61
,
278
n

Theory of Relativity
(Pauli),
239

Thermodynamics,
70
–71,
80
,
279
n

Thomson, James,
85

Thomson, Joseph John “J. J.,”
283
n

Thomson, William,
see
Kelvin, Lord

Third Programme, The
(radio show),
157

Todd, Alexander,
132
,
134

Tolman, Richard C.,
243

Tree of life,
22
,
23
,
24

Truman, Harry S.,
129

Tschermak-Seysenegg, Erich von,
53

Tufts University,
26

Tunneling,
165

Turkevich, Anthony,
294
n

Tversky, Amos,
270

Ulysses
(Joyce),
271

Uniformitarianism,
21
,
66
,
76
,
78
,
82
,
274
n

Universe, evolution of,
10
,
18
,
156

see also
Big bang; Expanding universe; Steady state universe

University College, London,
204

Untersuchungen zur Bestimmung des Werthes von Species und Varietät
(Hoffmann),
53

Urey, Harold,
129

Ussher, James,
60
,
61
,
278
n

Van den Bergh, Sidney,
192

Vanity Fair Album
,
67
–68

Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, The
(Darwin),
50

Vatican,
56
–57

Observatory,
180

Ventral tegmental area (VTA),
98

Victoria, Queen of England,
269

Wagoner, P.,
179

Wald, Abraham,
259

Wallace, Alfred Russel,
27
,
29
,
47
,
48
,
51
,
52
,
275
n
,
277
n

Watchmaker analogy,
217

Waterston, John James,
100

Watson, James,
115
,
131
,
154
,
155
,
284
n

discovery of structure of DNA by Crick and,
103
,
120
–28,
134
–37,
139
–42,
144
–53,
287
n
,
288
n
,
292
n

and Pauling’s alpha-helix model of protein structures,
103
–4

Wave theory,
287
n

Weber, Robert,
90
,
282
n

Wegener, Alfred,
91

Weigle, Jean,
103
–4

Weinbaum, Sidney,
109

Weinberg, Steven,
251
,
257
,
300
n

Weizsäcker, Carl Friedrich von,
100
–101,
166