{"product_id":"the-discoveries-isbn-9780375713453","title":"The Discoveries","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn this captivating and lucid book, the bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eEinstein's Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e  chronicles   twenty-four great discoveries of twentieth-century science--everything from the  theory of relativity to mapping the structure of DNA.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese discoveries radically  changed our notions of the world and our place in it.  Here are Einstein, Fleming,  Bohr, McClintock, Paul ing, Watson and Crick, Heisenberg and many others.  With remarkable  insight, Lightman charts the intellectual and emotional landscape of the time, portrays  the human drama of discovery, and explains the significance and impact of the work.   Finally he includes a fascinating and unique guided tour through the original papers  in which the discoveries were revealed.   Here is science writing at its best–beautiful,  lyrical and completely accessible.  It brings the process of discovery to life before  our very eyes.\u003ci\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003eA Note on Numbers\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e1. THE QUANTUM\u003cbr\u003e—“On the Theory of the Energy Distribution Law of the Normal Spectrum,” by Max Planck (1900)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2. HORMONES\u003cbr\u003e—“The Mechanism of Pancreatic Secretion,” by William Bayliss and Ernest Starling (1902)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e3. THE PARTICLE NATURE OF LIGHT\u003cbr\u003e—“On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light,” by Albert Einstein (1905)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e4. SPECIAL RELATIVITY\u003cbr\u003e—“On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,” by Albert Einstein (1905)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e5. THE NUCLEUS OF THE ATOM\u003cbr\u003e—“The Scattering of alpha and beta Particles by Matter and the Structure of the Atom,” by Ernest Rutherford (1911)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e6. THE SIZE OF THE COSMOS\u003cbr\u003e—“Periods of 25 Variable Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud,” by Henrietta Leavitt (1912)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e7. THE ARRANGEMENT OF ATOMS IN SOLID MATTER\u003cbr\u003e—“Interference Phenomena with Röntgen Rays,” by W. Friedrich, P. Knipping, and M. von Laue (1912)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e8. THE QUANTUM ATOM\u003cbr\u003e—“On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules,” by Niels Bohr (1913)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e9. THE MEANS OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN NERVES\u003cbr\u003e—“On the Humoral Transmission of the Action of the Cardiac Nerve,” by Otto Loewi (1921)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e10. THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE\u003cbr\u003e—“On the Physical Content of Quantum Kinematics and Mechanics,” Werner Heisenberg (1927)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e11. THE CHEMICAL BOND\u003cbr\u003e—“The Shared-Electron Chemical Bond,” by Linus Pauling (1928)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e12. THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE\u003cbr\u003e—“A Relation Between Distance and Radial Velocity Among Extra-Galactic Nebulae,” by Edwin Hubble (1929)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e13. ANTIBIOTICS\u003cbr\u003e—“On the Antibacterial Action of Cultures of Penicillium, with Special Reference to Their Use in the Isolation of \u003ci\u003eB. Influenzae\u003c\/i\u003e,” by Alexander Fleming (1929)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e14. THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION OF ENERGY IN LIVING ORGANISMS\u003cbr\u003e—“The Role of Citric Acid in Intermediate Metabolism in Animal Tissues,” by Hans Krebs and W. A. Johnson (1937)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e15. NUCLEAR FISSION\u003cbr\u003e—“Concerning the Existence of Alkaline Earth Metals Resulting from Neutron Irradiation of Uranium,” by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann (1939) and\u003cbr\u003e—“Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: A New Type of Nuclear Reaction,” by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch (1939)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e16. THE MOVABILITY OF GENES\u003cbr\u003e—“Mutable Loci in Maize,” Barbara McClintock (1948)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e17. THE STRUCTURE OF DNA\u003cbr\u003e—“Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids,” by James D. Watson and Francis H. C. Crick (1953) and\u003cbr\u003e—“Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate,” by Rosalind E. Franklin and R. G. Gosling (1953)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e18. THE STRUCTURE OF PROTEINS\u003cbr\u003e—“Structure of Hæmoglobin,” by Max F. Perutz, M. G. Rossmann, Ann F. Cullis, Hilary Muirhead, Georg Will, and A. C. T. North (1960)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e19. RADIO WAVES FROM THE BIG BANG\u003cbr\u003e—“A Measurement of Excess Antenna Temperature at 4080 Mc\/s,” by Arno A. Penzias and Robert W. Wilson and\u003cbr\u003e—“Cosmic Black-Body Radiation,” by Robert H. Dicke, P. James E. Peebles, Peter G. Roll, and David T. Wilkinson (1965)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e20. A UNIFIED THEORY OF FORCES\u003cbr\u003e—“A Model of Leptons,”\" by Steven Weinberg (1967)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e21. QUARKS: A TINIEST ESSENCE OF MATTER\u003cbr\u003e—“Observed Behavior of Highly Inelastic Electron-Proton Scattering,” by M. Breidenbach, J. I. Friedman, H. W. Kendall, E. D. Bloom, D. H. Coward, H. DeStaebler, J. Drees, L. W. Mo, and R. E. Taylor (1969)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e22. THE CREATION OF ALTERED FORMS OF LIFE\u003cbr\u003e—“Biochemical Method of Inserting New Genetic Information into DNA of Simian Virus 40,” by David A. Jackson, Robert H. Symons, and Paul Berg (1972)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEPILOGUE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eAbridgments of Papers\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003ePermission Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/i\u003e\"Engaging. . . . Masterly. . . . Intimate. . . . [Lightman's] enjoyment of the material shines through.\" –\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Lightman's map of 20th century science beautifully conveys the human drama of discovery.” –\u003ci\u003eAmerican Scientist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An intriguing mix of the famous and unfamiliar.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Lightman's introductions to the discoveries are, collectively, an outstanding primer on the development of science in the twentieth century.”–\u003ci\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/i\u003eALAN LIGHTMAN is the author of seven novels, including the international best seller \u003ci\u003eEinstein’s Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Diagnosis\u003c\/i\u003e, a finalist for the National Book Award. He has taught at Harvard and at MIT, where he was the first person to receive a dual faculty appointment in science and the humanities. He is the host of the public television series \u003ci\u003eSearching: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science\u003c\/i\u003e. He is a professor of the practice of the humanities at MIT.\u003cb\u003eChapter 1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Quantum\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn his famous autobiography \u003ci\u003eThe Education of Henry Adams\u003c\/i\u003e, published   only a few years into the twentieth century, the historian Henry Adams   shouted alarm that the sacred atom had been split. Since the ancient   Greeks, the atom had been the smallest particle of matter, the   irreducible and indestructible element, the metaphor for unity and   permanence in all things. Then, in 1897, the British physicist J. J.   Thomson found electrons, particles far lighter and presumably smaller   than atoms. The next year, Marie Sklodovska (Madame Curie) and her   husband Pierre Curie discovered that the atoms of a new element, called   radium, continuously hurled out tiny pieces of themselves, losing   weight in the process. Now, nothing was permanent — nature no more than   human civilizations. The solid had become fragile. Unity had given way   to complexity. The indivisible had been divided.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs Adams was summing up the nineteenth century, he was evidently   unaware of another scientific bombshell that had just exploded,   ultimately as earthshaking and profound as the fracturing of the atom.   On December 14, 1900, in a lecture to the stodgy German Physical   Society in Berlin, Max Planck proposed the astounding idea of the   quantum: energy does not exist as a continuous stream, which can be   subdivided indefinitely into smaller and smaller amounts. Rather, he   suggested, there is a smallest amount of energy that can be divided no   further, an elemental drop of energy, called a quantum. Light is an   example of energy. The seemingly smooth flood of light pouring through   a window is, in reality, a pitter-patter of individual quanta, each far   too tiny and weak to discern with the eye. Thus began quantum physics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the time of his lecture, Planck was bald from the middle of his head   forward, with a sharp aquiline nose, a mustache, a pair of spectacles   fastened to his face, and the overall look of a dull office clerk. He   was forty-two years old, almost elderly for a theoretical physicist.   Newton had been a youth in his early twenties when he worked out his   law of gravity. Maxwell had polished off electromagnetic theory and   retired to the country by age thirty-five. Einstein and Heisenberg   would be in their mid-twenties when they erected their great monuments.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1900, Planck was already established as one of the leading   theoretical physicists in Europe. Planck himself had helped legitimize   the discipline. Fifteen years earlier, when he secured the rare   position of professor of theoretical physics at the University of Kiel,   theoretical science was considered an impotent profession, inferior to   laboratory experiments. Few students clamored to hear Planck’s   mathematical lectures. Then, in 1888, after his studies of heat — in   which he clarified the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the concept of   irreversibility — Planck was appointed professor at the University of   Berlin. At the same time, he was made director of the new Institute for   Theoretical Physics, founded mainly for him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the end of the nineteenth century, physics basked in the glow of   extraordinary achievement. Newton’s precise laws of mechanics, which   described how particles respond to forces, together with Newton’s law   for gravity had been successfully applied to a large range of   terrestrial and cosmic phenomena, from the bouncing of balls to the   orbits of planets. The theory of heat, called thermodynamics, had   reached its climax with the melancholy but deep Second Law of   Thermodynamics: an isolated system moves inexorably and irreversibly to   a state of greater disorder. Or, equivalently, every machine inevitably   runs down. All electrical and magnetic phenomena had been unified by a   single set of equations, called Maxwell’s equations after the Scottish   physicist James Clerk Maxwell, who completed them. Among other things,   these laws demonstrated that light, that most primary of natural   phenomena, is an oscillating wave of electromagnetic energy, traveling   through space at a speed of 186,282 miles per second. The new areas of   physics known as statistical physics and kinetic theory had shown that   the behavior of gases and fluids could be understood on the basis of   collisions between large numbers of tiny objects, assumed to be the   long-hypothesized but invisible atoms and molecules. In short, as   Planck scribbled his equations at the dawn of the new century, physics   might survey its vast kingdom and be pleased.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSome cracks, however, were starting to show in the marble facade. Aside   from the philosophical dismay expressed by Mr. Adams, Thomson’s   electron was clearly a new type of matter that demanded explanation and   raised other questions about the innards of atoms. The “radioactive”   disintegrations observed by the Curies involved the unleashing of huge   quantities of energy. What was the nature of this energy and where did   it come from? Other emissions of electromagnetic radiation from atoms,   the so-called atomic spectra, exhibited surprising patterns and   regularities but with no theoretical understanding. Equally perplexing   were the repeating patterns in the properties of the chemical elements,   a phenomenon that scientists suspected was caused by the structure of   atoms.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFinally, physicists had observed that a unique kind of light, called   black-body light or black-body radiation, emerged from all hot,   blackened boxes held at constant temperature. (Set a kitchen oven at   some temperature, leave the oven door closed for a long time, and   black-body radiation will develop inside — although at any practical   cooking temperature this light will be below the frequencies visible to   the human eye.) It was already well known to scientists that all hot   objects emit light — that is, electromagnetic radiation. In general, the   nature of such light varies with the properties of the hot object. But   if the radiating object is additionally enclosed within a box and held   at constant temperature, its light assumes a special and unvarying   form, the so-called black-body radiation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA particularly mysterious aspect of black-body light was that its   intensity and colors were completely independent of the size, shape, or   composition of the container — as surprising as if human beings all over   the world, upon being asked a question, uttered the same sentence in   reply. A heated black box made of charcoal and shaped like a cigar   produces precisely the same light as a black box made of dark tin and   shaped like a beach ball, provided that the two boxes have the same   temperature. The known laws of physics could not explain black-body   light. Even worse, the standard working theories of light and of heat   actually predicted that a blackened box held at constant temperature   should create an \u003ci\u003einfinite\u003c\/i\u003e amount of luminous energy! It was the puzzle   of black-body radiation that Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck had solved   for his lecture of December 14, 1900.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA great deal was already known of the subject. With the use of colored   filters and other devices, scientists had measured how much energy   there was in each frequency range of black-body light. A colored filter   allows light of only a narrow range of frequencies to pass through it.   (The frequency of light is the number of oscillations per second. Each   frequency of light corresponds to a particular color, just as each   frequency of sound corresponds to a particular tone.) The amount of   energy in a given frequency range of light is measured by a device   called a photometer. Photometers gauge the intensity of light falling   on a surface — a glass plate, for example — by comparing that light to   another beam of light of known intensity. The comparison can be   accomplished, for example, by the relative penetrating power of light   through a liquid. More intense light beams have greater penetrating   power. (Several decades into the twentieth century, light intensities   could be measured more accurately by their electrical effects, with   photoelectric detectors.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe breakdown of a light source into the amount of energy in each range   of frequency is called a light spectrum. When the light is black-body   light, its spectrum is called a black-body spectrum. Figure 1.1   illustrates two black-body spectra, one for a temperature of 50 K and   another for a temperature of 65 K. Here the K stands for Kelvin, the   unit of temperature on the absolute temperature scale, which is a form   of the Celsius scale with the zero point shifted. The coldest possible   temperature lies at 0 K and -273 C.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA more familiar example of a spectrum is the graph that shows how many   adults there are in each range of heights. Such a spectrum is usually a   bell-shaped curve, with few people at very small heights and few people   at very tall heights. As one would expect, the height spectrum varies   from one country to the next, since human heights are determined by a   large number of variables such as genetics and diet. So, it was   remarkable when Planck’s predecessor to the Berlin chair, Gustav   Kirchhoff, and others, discovered that the black-body spectrum does not   vary at all with the details of the container. \u003ci\u003eThe black-body spectrum   depends only on a single parameter, the temperature.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePlanck was much impressed by the uniqueness and universality of the   black-body spectrum, reasoning that such a universality must be the   result of some fundamental new law of nature. A few weeks prior to his   December lecture, the German physicist had in fact guessed a formula   for the spectrum of black-body light. Planck’s formula was a   mathematical expression for the amount of energy in each range of   frequency of black-body light, and it agreed with all experimental   measurements. Embracing the aesthetic criteria common to most   physicists, Planck found pleasure in the simplicity of his formula,   using the word “simple” (\u003ci\u003eeinfach\u003c\/i\u003e in German) twice in the first   paragraph of his paper.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut a mathematical formula, in itself, is only a tidy summary of   quantitative results, like a sun calendar, which tells the number of   daylight hours on each day of the year. Such a calendar is useful for   making plans, but it does not explain why the numbers come out as they   do. To know why, we need to know what causes day and night, we need to   know that the earth spins on its axis at a certain rate, that the earth   also orbits the sun at a certain rate, that the earth’s axis is tilted   at a particular angle. When we know all of these things, we understand   why. With such understanding, we could then \u003ci\u003epredict\u003c\/i\u003e the sun calendar   for any planet anywhere in the universe, given the corresponding   astronomical facts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePlanck was not satisfied with merely guessing the right formula for   black-body light. What compelled him and haunted him was to answer the   deeper question: Why? What fundamental, inviolable principles led to   that formula, made it a logical necessity, required it and it alone out   of all the possible \u003ci\u003eeinfachen\u003c\/i\u003e formulas that one could imagine? Why was   that same formula observed to be true over and over again, from one   experiment to the next, even for experiments that had never been done?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo understand the why of his formula, Planck discovered that he had to   reject centuries of physical thought that you could chop energy into   smaller and smaller pieces indefinitely. Surprisingly, the world did   not work in that way. Planck could explain his formula for black-body   light only by the radical proposal that there was a smallest piece of   energy, called the quantum, which could not be chopped any further.   Evidently, energy, like matter, came in granular form. The quantum was   the grain of sand on the beach, the penny of currency in the subatomic   world. The quantum was indivisible.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePlanck was a theoretician, someone who works with pencil and paper and   imagines experiments in his mind. To arrive at his conclusions, the   German physicist imagined lots of atoms enclosed in a black box, all   emitting and absorbing light. In such a situation, the atoms are   affected by the surrounding light, and the surrounding light is   affected by the atoms. Planck then discovered that if the atoms could   absorb or emit energy only in whole chunks, quanta, then the resulting   light would necessarily become black-body light.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor much of his life thereafter, Planck was amazed by the success of   his quantum proposal. Like other theoretical physicists, he had an   almost religious faith in the absolute validity of the laws of nature,   which would, as he wrote in 1899, “retain their significance for all   times and for all cultures including extraterrestrial and nonhuman   ones.” For Planck, “the search for the absolute” was “the loftiest goal   of all scientific activity.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet in spite of Planck’s lofty views, he himself did not aspire to make   great discoveries. As he told Philipp von Jolly, his professor at the   University of Munich, he desired only to understand and perhaps deepen   the existing foundations of physics. (In 1878, Jolly actually advised   the twenty-year-old Planck not to continue with physics, on the grounds   that all the fundamental laws had been discovered.) Planck’s cautious   manner of “understanding” was to study a subject slowly and carefully,   until he had mastered it. Such a conservative and modest approach   seemed to grow naturally out of his background as the descendant of a   long line of pastors, scholars, and jurists — Planck’s father, Wilhelm,   was a professor of jurisprudence at Kiel and then Munich — and further to   resonate with his loyal support of imperial Germany. Planck’s natural   restraint carried over to his personal relationships. Marga von   Hoesslin Planck, his second wife, wrote to another physicist that her   husband was quite proper and reserved with anyone other than his family   and could enjoy himself only with people of his own rank, with whom he   might take a glass of wine and a cigar and even make a quiet joke.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere were two situations in which Planck abandoned his reserve: with   his family and in music. As a young man he wrote to a friend, “How   wonderful it is to set everything else aside and live entirely within   the family.” Many years later, Marga confirmed this feeling in a letter   to Einstein upon the death of her husband: “He only showed himself   fully in all his human qualities in the family.” Planck’s other   liberation was music. While a student at the University of Munich, he   composed songs and a whole operetta; he served as second choirmaster in   a school singing group; he played the organ at services in the   student’s church; and he conducted. For the rest of his life, he played   the piano superbly at small musical gatherings in his home. Music,   according to Planck’s nephew-in-law Hans Hartmann, was the “only domain   in life in which [Planck] gave his spirit free rein.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFollowing Planck’s line of argument will help us understand how   theoretical scientists think, how they use models, imagination, and   logical consistency through mathematics. As it turns out, Planck’s   paper on the quantum is one of the most conceptually difficult and   abstract of any in this book, and the reader will need to exercise some   patience and good humor. Planck begins his landmark paper by   considering the material atoms that make up the inner walls of the   blackened box. After all, these atoms are responsible for creating the   observed black-body light, by emitting and absorbing electromagnetic   radiation. He idealizes each of these atoms as a “monochromatic   vibrating resonator,” that is, a system that emits and absorbs light at   only a single frequency, say pure red or pure green. A concrete example   of one of Planck’s monochromatic vibrating resonators would be an   electron bouncing up and down, or “vibrating,” on a spring. As the   electron bounces, it emits light of a particular frequency, the precise   number of up-and-down bounces each second. Different frequencies   correspond to different rates of bouncing, which in turn are determined   by different stiffnesses of the springs. Black-body light is then   hypothetically produced by a large number of these bouncing electrons   at many different frequencies. All of these ideas are in accord with   Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetism.","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301113712869,"sku":"NP9780375713453","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780375713453.jpg?v=1767739029","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-discoveries-isbn-9780375713453","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}