Redefining Reality - The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

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Many scientists preferred the idea of constant expansion to Gamow and Alpher’s theory. But what, then, is causing the expansion seen by Hubble, and why do we see galaxies? Where do they come from? Why don’t they all die out? If the universe is getting larger, then the energy density—the amount of stuff in any region—is getting smaller; this should mean that the universe is dying. But that isn’t what we see when we look at the night sky. Any theory that would preserve a static universe while allowing for expansion would have to account for the apparent continuity of energy density in the universe. Two astronomers, Thomas Gold and Hermann Bondi, posited that perhaps the expansion allowed the universe to create itself by allowing for the spontaneous creation of bits of mass and energy. But this seemed to contradict one of the fundamental principles underlying the paradigm of modern physics: Energy is neither created nor destroyed. Where would this energy and mass magically come from? Another astronomer, Fred Hoyle, argued that we should think of the Einsteinian static picture in terms of the conservation of energy density. Yes, the universe is expanding, but as it expands, there must always be the same amount of stuff per energy. When the universal expansion drops the average amount concentrates its energy and increases the mass and energy of the region. If this were true, then we would have the conservation of energy and the conservation of energy density. This view was called the because it proposed that the universe was always in a constant state with respect to how much stuff there is per unit volume. 44
If Gamow and Alpher’s work was right, the detectable background radiation left over from the big bang would be in the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The physicist Robert Dicke for and create a strong enough radio-telescope, he could answer the question that divided big bang and steady-state theorists. Dicke enlisted fellow physicist Jim Peebles to rederive Gamow and Alpher’s results, only more exactly. They determined that the background radiation should be about three degrees above absolute zero. At the same time, at Bell Labs in New Jersey, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson had access to a radio-telescope that NASA was no longer using. Other researchers had been analyzing the radio waves coming from the space between galaxies, but Penzias and Wilson wanted to look at the signals that came from between galaxies. These would be faint signals that required precision observation. First, Penzias and Wilson needed to remove all interference— radio broadcasts and radar—but there remained a low hum in the background that they could not seem to eliminate, nor could they determine where it originated. No matter where they pointed the antenna, they could not eliminate this background noise. Penzias and Wilson had accidentally found the signal that Dicke was working so hard to discover. Gamow’s background radiation had been discovered, and it was just what Dicke had said it should be. The best explanation for it is that it is the leftover energy from the big bang. Cosmology now gave rise to questions about the beginning of time. Did the universe have an origin? Will gravitation cause it to recollapse on itself in a big crunch? Will it cause another big bang? 45
Page 1 and 2: Topic Philosophy & Intellectual His
Page 3 and 4: Steven Gimbel, Ph.D. Professor of P
Page 5 and 6: Table of Contents LECTURE 11 Dark M
Page 7 and 8: Table of Contents SUPPLEMENTAL MATE
Page 9 and 10: : I and technological a
Page 11 and 12: This question allows us to turn fro
Page 13 and 14: The study of reality is what philos
Page 15 and 16: Semmelweis noticed that the inciden
Page 17 and 18: ut sometimes, even after checking t
Page 19 and 20: . The Matrix. We don’t believe
Page 21 and 22: Wisdom comes from rejecting the imp
Page 23 and 24: Thus, Aristotle’s prime mover, th
Page 25 and 26: Aristotle had said that an object
Page 27 and 28: For centuries, mathematics was cons
Page 29 and 30: th century, the Russian mathematici
Page 31 and 32: had turned their attention to logic
Page 33 and 34: Abbott, . Bell, Men of Mathematics.
Page 35 and 36: Scientists thought that the physica
Page 37 and 38: H. A. Lorentz had found, when you a
Page 39 and 40: Thinkers as far back as Gottfried L
Page 41 and 42: E grounds. First, the prin
Page 43 and 44: If you woke up tomorrow in a small
Page 45 and 46: speed up going in and slow down com
Page 47 and 48: Is it true that a difference that m
Page 49 and 50: Einstein thought, there would be lo
Page 51: Scientists largely hated this idea,
Page 55 and 56: Although physicists at the end of t
Page 57 and 58: In the 19 th century, there was the
Page 59 and 60: In 1873, James Clerk Maxwell publis
Page 61 and 62: The idea of a large central mass at
Page 63 and 64: We know, however, that for a given
Page 65 and 66: whether light is a particle or a wa
Page 67 and 68: is a particle, then the slits would
Page 69 and 70: One of the early results of quantum
Page 71 and 72: eams, we also knew that there were
Page 73 and 74: The hadrons are made up of quarks,
Page 75 and 76: As the meaning of the physics began
Page 77 and 78: The demon is a being with a super-i
Page 79 and 80: ignoring certain elements, we can c
Page 81 and 82: One of the simplest fractal pattern
Page 83 and 84: Earlier, we talked about Thomas Kuh
Page 85 and 86: so greatly separated that no proces
Page 87 and 88: een able to form in that environmen
Page 89 and 90: Nicolson, . Panek, . Our theories
Page 91 and 92: Similarly, James Clerk Maxwell, in
Page 93 and 94: But as we move away from the pole,
Page 95 and 96: Great press has been given to a pot
Page 97 and 98: Some people take the idea of a theo
Page 99 and 100: see from CAT scans that when someon
Page 101 and 102: Because we are just atoms, we, too,
Page 103 and 104:
Would the randomness of quantum mec
Page 105 and 106:
Aristotle thought that this world i
Page 107 and 108:
If you select strange enough traits
Page 109 and 110:
Although this aspect of the theory
Page 111 and 112:
Darwin posited that children look l
Page 113 and 114:
The key to understanding how we pas
Page 115 and 116:
This picture of illness is quite di
Page 117 and 118:
How much of who we are is determine
Page 119 and 120:
inferred that the function of that
Page 121 and 122:
a byproduct of mental illness, Freu
Page 123 and 124:
With the genetic approach, we are w
Page 125 and 126:
After Freud, psychology developed i
Page 127 and 128:
experiences that are not our own, t
Page 129 and 130:
Behaviorism was an attempt to make
Page 131 and 132:
Psychology, which had begun as a se
Page 133 and 134:
I th century, psychology had the lu
Page 135 and 136:
part, in the group. To understand t
Page 137 and 138:
acting in ways that showed a lack o
Page 139 and 140:
has learned from the so-called barb
Page 141 and 142:
led him to begin one of the most fa
Page 143 and 144:
ules. We are now adult in our ethic
Page 145 and 146:
In a contract-based relationship, y
Page 147 and 148:
The study of psychology changed for
Page 149 and 150:
Instead, we are a part of the world
Page 151 and 152:
But it turns out that exposure to c
Page 153 and 154:
Glickstein, . Lynch, . mean we
Page 155 and 156:
But evolutionary psychologists Leda
Page 157 and 158:
suited to solving these problems an
Page 159 and 160:
As such, when we look at the innate
Page 161 and 162:
In looking at reality, we can exami
Page 163 and 164:
We see this also in the writings of
Page 165 and 166:
one universal is crime. Crime is no
Page 167 and 168:
To avoid such situations of anomie
Page 169 and 170:
Historians create narratives that e
Page 171 and 172:
Society is composed of individuals
Page 173 and 174:
© Digital Vision/Thinkstock.
Page 175 and 176:
The concept of race has long been a
Page 177 and 178:
there are different combinations am
Page 179 and 180:
Perhaps race is what Durkheim calle
Page 181 and 182:
Gould, . Hernnstein and Murray, . K
Page 183 and 184:
Slavery, for example, was a necessa
Page 185 and 186:
Parsons’s picture is not the Marx
Page 187 and 188:
In defeat, the smaller neighbors wo
Page 189 and 190:
Economics became a science with the
Page 191 and 192:
self-interest. Second, the large-sc
Page 193 and 194:
Under the classical model, this sho
Page 195 and 196:
How do we account for these effects
Page 197 and 198:
If the star is large enough, when i
Page 199 and 200:
© amenic181/iStock/Thinkstock.
Page 201 and 202:
What environment on Earth could pro
Page 203 and 204:
The possibility of life on other pl
Page 205 and 206:
Our newfound alien interlocutors te
Page 207 and 208:
Perhaps the best evidence for extra
Page 209 and 210:
Mayor and Frei, . Morrison, Billing
Page 211 and 212:
It has long been argued, however, t
Page 213 and 214:
But the idea of using the body’s
Page 215 and 216:
Although that seems worrisome, it i
Page 217 and 218:
I equally much for how w
Page 219 and 220:
The use of one’s DNA in creating
Page 221 and 222:
With cytoplasmic transfer, the nucl
Page 223 and 224:
Macintosh, . Given that multiple
Page 225 and 226:
we could begin with the desired por
Page 227 and 228:
The second step is trickier. Here,
Page 229 and 230:
Aside from medical uses, we can alt
Page 231 and 232:
We can now use medical technology t
Page 233 and 234:
The problem here is that sometimes
Page 235 and 236:
of disease and disorder. In America
Page 237 and 238:
performance-enhancing drugs? We see
Page 239 and 240:
Advances have led to hand-shaped ap
Page 241 and 242:
Warwick then went a step further. H
Page 243 and 244:
Scientists at MIT have taken DNA fr
Page 245 and 246:
Computers can do many things, but c
Page 247 and 248:
possible right answers. The machine
Page 249 and 250:
player having a king and a pawn and
Page 251 and 252:
If intelligence or sentience is an
Page 253 and 254:
enable us to become a global villag
Page 255 and 256:
engineers used their technological
Page 257 and 258:
Another intriguing development on t
Page 259 and 260:
In these lectures, we’ve seen tha
Page 261 and 262:
leave messages or comments, and whe
Page 263 and 264:
This ability of mothers doesn’t m
Page 265 and 266:
But Einstein showed us that the rea
Page 267 and 268:
Barabasi, Albert-Laszlo. Linked: Th
Page 269 and 270:
———. The Descent of Man: and
Page 271 and 272:
Gilligan, Carol. . Cambridg
Page 273 and 274:
Kramer, Peter. . New York: Viking
Page 275 and 276:
eings that we are willing to act in
Page 277 and 278:
Rothman, Sheila M. Medical Enhance
Page 279 and 280:
———. . London: Century, 2002.
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