Everything's relative : and other fables from science and technology / Tony Rothman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rothman, Tony.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science--History--Miscellanea.

Science.

Technology--History--Miscellanea.

Technology.

History.

Genre:

Trivia and miscellanea.

Physical Description:

xvi, 272 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Hoboken, N.J. : Wiley, [2003]

Summary:

Morse invented the telegraph, Bell the telephone, and Edison the light bulb ... or so we have been led to believe. In a discipline so firmly rooted in empirical data, it's surprising to discover how the history of science can be so riddled by apocrypha, inaccuracies, and blatant falsehoods. In Everything's Relative, writer and physicist Tony Rothman sets the record straight once and for all, giving credit where credit is due by debunking centuries of commonly held beliefs embedded throughout science and technology's illustrious, albeit distorted, history.

Combining a storyteller's gift with a scientist's focus, Tony Rothman breaks down many of the most famous "just-so" stories of physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, and technology. Each engaging anecdote clearly reveals how unique discoveries are the exception, rather than the rule. Discoveries almost always take place simultaneously or are built upon a predecessor's breakthrough ... usually without acknowledgment. Who really discovered Neptune? Was it the quiet, self-effacing Brit John Couch Adams or the arrogant, self-promoting French scientist Urbain Le Verrier? Or was Neptune's discovery just a fantastic coincidence altogether? Everything's Relative tells the fascinating "truth-is-stranger-than-fiction" story behind this and many other scientific discoveries and breakthroughs

Contents:

I. The Domain of Physics and Astronomy 1

1. The Mafia Invents the Barometer 5

2. The Riddle of the Sphinx: Thomas Young's Experiment 12

3. Joseph Henry and the (Near) Discovery of (Nearly) Everything 24

4. Neptune: The Greatest Triumph in the History of Astronomy, or the Greatest Fluke? 35

5. Invisible Light: The Discovery of Radioactivity 46

6. Light, Ether, Corpuscles, and Charge: The Electron 53

7. Einstein's Miraculous Year (and a Few Others) 64

8. What Did the Eclipse Expedition Really Show? And Other Tales of General Relativity 77

9. Two Quantum Tales: Bohr and Hydrogen, Dirac and the Positron 88

10. A Third Quantum Tale: Southpaw Electrons and Discounted Luncheons 98

II. The Domain of Technology 105

11. What Hath God Wrought? Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Samuel Morse, and the Telegraph 113

12. Fiat Lux: Edison, the Incandescent Bulb, and a Few Other Matters 127

13. "Magna Est Veritas et Praevalet": The Telephone 137

14. A Babble of Incoherence: The Wireless Telegraph, a.k.a. Radio 153

15. Mind-Destroying Rays: Television 168

16. Plausibility: The Invention of Secret Electronic Communication 179

III. The Domain of Chemistry and Biology 193

17. The Evolution of Evolution: Erasmus, Charles, Gregor, and Ronald 203

18. Dreams with Open Eyes: Kekule, Benzene, and Loschmidt 216

19. Chance, Good and Bad: Penicillin 224

IV. The Domain of Mathematics: Closed for Renovation 233.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-256) and index.

ISBN:

0471202576

OCLC:

52509456