PART 1
Richard Feynman, Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, interview by Christopher Sykes, Fun to Imagine, BBC, July 15, 1983.
CHAPTER 1
precise mathematical laws so far to describe reality Neil Turok, The Universe Within: From Quantum to Cosmos (Toronto: Anansi Press, 2012), 46 et passim.
CHAPTER 2
holding electrons in place and allowing atoms to link up into molecules Sean Carroll, in discussion with the author, December 2016.
a field for each of the fundamental forces and thirteen other fields governing matter David Tong, “The Real Building Blocks of the Universe,” Royal Institution lecture, November 25, 2016, available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNVQfWC_evg. As he explains, the thirteen fields have to do with quarks, the electron, neutrinos, and the Higgs.
have a value everywhere in the world Sean Carroll, in discussion with the author, December 2016.
“to understand invisible angels” Richard Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics: Commemorative Issue, vol. 2 (Pasadena: California Institute of Technology, 1989), 20–29.
a little wave tied up into a bundle of energy Tong, “The Real Building Blocks.”
the bits that will eventually form the cores of atoms For more detail, consult G. Brent Dalrymple, Ancient Earth, Ancient Skies: The Age of Earth and Its Cosmic Surroundings (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004).
ascending atomic number, from hydrogen on up It goes from hydrogen, with one proton, to the handful of man-made atoms with 118, called Oganesson. So far. New elements with even more protons could be yet created in a lab. The bigger they get, the less stable they are, because the strong nuclear force keeping their protons together is struggling to keep up.
Those variations are called isotopes The nomenclature of an isotope comes from combining its element name and the sum of its protons and neutrons. By far the most common carbon isotope (99 percent) is carbon-12, with six protons and six neutrons. Carbon-13, with six and seven, makes up about 1 percent. Carbon-14, with six and eight, is radioactive and extremely rare and is created when a hot neutron left over from cosmic radiation shows up in the carbon nucleus. This form of carbon is unstable and its mission is to gain greater stability. So, in lockstep with time, one of its neutrons mutates, creating a proton and turning carbon-14 into nitrogen-14. Carbon-14 is the one that scientists use to tell how old a fossil is, a process called radiocarbon dating after the radioactive carbon isotope. They use the transformation of radioactive potassium (K) into argon (Ar) in the same way. That method of dating became a key in proving the theory of pole reversals.
With some exceptions Plasmas, for example.
must spin in opposite directions This is Pauli’s exclusion principle.
Electrons strongly prefer not to be in pairs This is known as Hund’s rule.
made up of two components a vector Technically, the Earth’s magnetic field is an axial vector. Thanks to Andrew D. Jackson for this note in a communication with the author in December 2016.
CHAPTER 4
unusually strong natural magnets Vasilios Melfos et al., “The Ancient Greek Names ‘Magnesia’ and ‘Magnetes’ and Their Origin from the Magnetite Occurrences at the Mavrovouni Mountain of Thessaly, Central Greece. A Mineralogical-Geochemical Approach,” Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 3, no. 2 (2011): 165–72, doi: 10.1007/s12520-010-0048-6.
“into whose embrace iron leaps” Pliny the Elder, Natural History (Loeb Classical Library, 1938), Book 36, 25, doi:10.4159/DLCL.pliny_elder-natural_history.1938.
as the historian A.R.T. Jonkers chronicles A.R.T. Jonkers, Earth’s Magnetism in the Age of Sail (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 39–41.
correctly predicted the solar eclipse of May 28, 585 BCE Joshua J. Mark, “Thales of Miletus,” Ancient History Encyclopedia, September 2, 2009, http://www.ancient.eu/Thales_of_Miletus/.
wearing bronze slippers Diogenes Laërtius, “Empedocles, 484–424 B.C.,” in Lives of Eminent Philosophers 8: 69, available online at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0258%3Abook%3D8%3Achapter%3D2.
mysterious circular connection Jonkers, Earth’s Magnetism, 40.
as a Victorian translator put it Titus Lucretius Carus, On the Nature of Things, trans. Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro (London: Bell, 1908).
Galileo Galilei, Charles Darwin, and Albert Einstein Harvard University scholar Stephen Greenblatt tracked the resurrection of Lucretius’s work in The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011).
Gillian Turner, a physicist and historian of magnetism Gillian Turner, North Pole, South Pole: The Epic Quest to Solve the Great Mystery of Earth’s Magnetism (New York: The Experiment, 2011), 9–10.
Lucera in Italy, a geopolitically important site For more about the siege of Lucera, consult Julie Anne Taylor, Muslims in Medieval Italy: The Colony at Lucera (New York: Lexington Books, 2005).
Subsequent archeological excavations John S. Bradford, “The Apulia Expedition: An Interim Report,” Antiquity 24, no. 94 (June 1950): 84–94.
CHAPTER 5
different from the Earth’s geographical pole Gregory A. Good, “Instrumentation, History of,” in Encyclopedia of Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism, eds. David Gubbins and Emilio Herrero-Bervera (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2007), 435 (referred to subsequently as Encyclopedia of G and P).
By the early fifteenth century Jonkers, Earth’s Magnetism in the Age of Sail, 26.
modern reconstructions See NOAA’s Historical Magnetic Declination map for images: https://maps.ngdc.noaa.gov/viewers/historical_declination/.
Norman measured the dip Allan Chapman, “Norman, Robert (Flourished 1560–1585),” in Encyclopedia of G and P, 707.
A military letter recently uncovered in the Naples state archives Paolo Gasparini et al., “Macedonio Melloni and the Foundation of the Vesuvius Observatory,” in Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 53, no. 1–4 (1992), doi:10.1016/0377-0273(92)90070-T.
CHAPTER 6
not celestial but terrestrial A.R.T. Jonkers, “Geomagnetism, History of,” Encyclopedia of G and P, eds. David Gubbins and Emilio Herrero-Bervera (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2007), 356–57.
The great conundrum was longitude For more, read Dava Sobel and William J. H. Andrewes, The Illustrated Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time (London: Fourth Estate, 1998), and Jonkers, “Geomagnetism.”
68 statute miles or 110 kilometers A.R.T. Jonkers, Andrew Jackson, and Anne Murray, “Four Centuries of Geomagnetic Data from Historical Records,” Review of Geophysics 41, no. 2 (2003): 2–15, doi: 10.1029/2002rg000115. Or, as Sobel puts it, 60 minutes or 1 degree equals 110 kilometers or 68 statute miles in Illustrated Longitude, 7.
spins on an axis at the same rate every day That was beginning to be commonly understood after the 1543 publication of Nicolaus Copernicus’s treatise De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, which described a sun-centered solar system, and the Earth spinning on its axis each day.
you have traveled each day Read Sobel, Illustrated Longitude, for the full story.
with a declination angle of 0 Jonkers, “Geomagnetism,” 356.
At the time Gilbert began his magnetic research Stephen Pumfrey, Latitude and the Magnetic Earth: The True Story of Queen Elizabeth’s Most Distinguished Man of Science (Duxford, Cambridge: Icon Books, 2003), 70.
Back then, it was outrageous Allan Chapman, “Gilbert, William (1544–1603),” in Encyclopedia of G and P, 361.
Gilbert’s main aim Pumfrey, Latitude and the Magnetic Earth, 90.
one scholar who has plowed through the later work Ibid., 91.
To prove his point Dava Sobel, Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love (New York: Penguin Books, 2000), 173.
likely as directed by Inquisitional censors Pumfrey, Latitude and the Magnetic Earth, 222.
under strict house arrest Read Sobel’s Galileo’s Daughter for the full story.
rather than evidence of his fears of official prosecution Chapman, “Gilbert, William (1544–1603),” Encyclopedia of G and P, 361.
Gilbert’s colleague William Harvey unhappily discovered Ibid.
at the heart of the Maker’s creation Jonkers, “Geomagnetism,” 357.
CHAPTER 7
one of about ninety volcanoes L’Équipe Associée de Volcanologie de L’Université de Clermont-Ferrand II, Volcanologie de la Chaîne des Puys, 5th ed. (Clermont-Ferrand: Parc naturel régional des Volcans d’Auvergne, 2009), 20.
two thousand pages of Latin to explain how he came to that date James Barr, “Pre-Scientific Chronology: The Bible and the Origin of the World,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 143, no. 3 (1999): 379–87, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3181950.
still debated into the late twentieth century Ronald L. Numbers, “The Most Important Biblical Discovery of Our Time: William Henry Green and the Demise of Ussher’s Chronology,” Church History 69, no. 2 (2000): 257–76, doi:10.2307/3169579.
Both Neptunists and Plutonists visited the Auvergne Volcanologie, 20.
Modern analysis says Ibid., 144.
the pressure became too great Ibid., 155.
CHAPTER 8
“plodding, industrious mathematician without a spark of genius” S.R.C. Malin and Sir Edward Bullard, “The Direction of the Earth’s Magnetic Field at London, 1570–1975,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 299, no. 1450 (1981): 357–423, doi:10.1098/rsta.1981.0026.
on a fast canter Ibid., 359.
Gunter had taken Ibid., 414.
“A New and Correct CHART” Edmond Halley, The Three Voyages of Edmond Halley in the Paramore 1698–1701, ed. Norman J. W. Thrower (London: Hakluyt Society, 1980), vol. 2.
until the nineteenth century Julie Wakefield, Halley’s Quest: A Selfless Genius and His Troubled Paramore (Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2005), 141.
except when sailing where Halley’s curved lines Ibid.
for a planetary total of four Sir Alan Cook, “Halley, Edmond (1656–1742),” in Encyclopedia of G and P, eds. David Gubbins and Emilio Herrero-Bervera (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2007), 375.
uncannily accurate prediction Wakefield, Halley’s Quest, 141.
one unit of intensity Turner, North Pole, South Pole, 106.
an elegant formula Ibid., 117, gives a full explanation of the math.
could be shown to be correct Chris Jones, “Geodynamo,” in Encyclopedia of G and P, 287.
He enlisted Gauss Turner, North Pole, South Pole, 124.
fourth and most perfect of his mariner’s clocks Sobel and Andrewes, The Illustrated Longitude, 132.
Harrison eventually won the reward Ibid., passim.
near-fanaticism David Gubbins, “Sabine, Edward (1788–1883),” in Encyclopedia of G and P, 891.
“one of the most turbulent periods” John Cawood, “The Magnetic Crusade: Science and Politics in Early Victorian Britain,” Isis 70, no. 4 (1979): 493, doi:10.1086/352338.
was newborn Today it is called the British Science Association.
Sabine already had a passion for magnetism Gubbins, “Sabine, Edward (1788–1883),” 891.
the scientific mission took on a zeal Cawood, “The Magnetic Crusade,” 517.
the fervor was about proving British scientific supremacy Ibid., 494.
masterminded the establishment of observatories Gubbins, “Sabine, Edward (1788–1883),” 891.
Sabine soldiered on Ibid.
“the greatest scientific undertaking” William Whewell, quoted by Cawood in “The Magnetic Crusade,” 493.
more than thirty permanent observatories Cawood, “The Magnetic Crusade,” 512–13.
complete what Newton had begun Ibid., 493.
British science historian Ibid., 516.
CHAPTER 11
“Magnetism and electricity are not independent things” Feynman, Lectures on Physics, 13–16.
electrical field lines can end Sean Carroll, in discussion with the author, December 2016.
but only when they are moving Thanks to Sean Carroll for this explanation, in discussion with the author, December 2016.
all magnetism is produced from currents of one sort or another Feynman, Lectures, 13–16.
If you are at rest with respect to an electrical charge Thanks to Andrew D. Jackson for this explanation in a communication with the author in December 2016.
CHAPTER 12
It was “cosmologically neutral” John Lewis Heilbron, Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries: A Study of Early Modern Physics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), 2.
The fellows of the society wrote back Ibid., 4.
As the modern American historian of science J. L. Heilbron explains Ibid., 4–5.
“Forty years ago, when one knew nothing about electricity” Ibid., 6.
as absurd as boxing a light beam inside a soap bubble Park Benjamin, The Intellectual Rise in Electricity: A History (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1895), 502.
But then in January 1746, the legendary Dutch physicist Pieter van Musschenbroek His experiments followed the similar independent finding of the Prussian Lutheran cleric Ewald von Kleist a few months earlier. Von Kleist, alas, wrote the descriptions of his experiment so poorly that no one could reproduce them. So the credit for the discovery has gone to van Musschenbroek and is named after his city.
Van Musschenbroek wrote up the experiment in Latin Benjamin, The Intellectual Rise in Electricity, 519.
“I understand nothing and can explain nothing” Heilbron, Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries, 314.
Future scientific refinements replaced the jar’s water with a lead lining Patricia Fara, An Entertainment for Angels: Electricity in the Enlightenment (Duxford, Cambridge: Icon Books, 2002), 56.
As the Cambridge University historian of science Patricia Fara explains Ibid., passim.
It was also dangerous Ibid., 54–55.
they were living in an “age of wonders” Ibid., 70.
It smacked of a carnival Ibid., 71.
At one point, he methodically disassembled Joseph Priestley, The History and Present State of Electricity: With Original Experiments (London: printed for C. Bathurst et al., 1775), 201–203, available online at https://archive.org/details/historyandprese00priegoog.
So, on a stormy day in Philadelphia in June 1752 Ibid., 216–20.
The physics of lightning is still being explored today Joseph R. Dwyer and Martin A. Uman, “The Physics of Lightning,” Physics Reports 534, no. 4 (2014): 147–241, doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2013.09.004.
searching for a positive charge Sometimes a negative or positive spark can come up from the ground to meet its opposite in a cloud.
At the British court Fara, Entertainment for Angels, 3.
CHAPTER 13
Together, the two were always on the move Anja Skaar Jacobsen, “Introduction: Hans Christian Ørsted’s Chemical Philosophy,” in H. C. Ørsted, H. C. Ørsted’s Theory of Force: An Unpublished Textbook in Dynamical Chemistry, ed. and trans. Anja Skaar Jacobsen, Andrew D. Jackson, Karen Jelved, and Helge Kragh (Copenhagen: The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, 2003), xii.
Ørsted referred to his scientific work as his “literary career” Andrew D. Jackson and Karen Jelved, “Translators’ Note,” in Theory of Force, xxxiii.
form of religious worship Andrew D. Wilson, “Introduction,” in Hans Christian Ørsted, Selected Scientific Works of Hans Christian Ørsted, trans. and ed. Karen Jelved, Andrew D. Jackson, and Ole Knudsen (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), xli.
Because of this overriding philosophy of nature Robert M. Brain, “Introduction,” in Robert M. Brain, Robert S. Cohen, and Ole Knudsen, eds., Hans Christian Ørsted and the Romantic Legacy in Science: Ideas, Disciplines, Practices (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2007), xvi.
Galvani experimented on sheep and frogs, alive and dead Fara, An Entertainment for Angels, 150–52.
who in his 1799 doctoral dissertation Andrew D. Jackson, in a communication with the author in December 2016.
he would conduct an experiment in class Wilson, “Introduction,” xvii.
It “threatened to upset the whole structure of Newtonian science” Leslie Pearce Williams, Michael Faraday: A Biography (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971), 140.
a Danish first Helge Kragh, “Preface,” in H. C. Ørsted’s Theory of Force, ii.
And yet, as the science historian Gerald Holton put it Gerald Holton, “The Two Maps: Oersted Medal Response at the Joint American Physical Society, American Association of Physics Teachers Meeting, Chicago, January 22, 1980,” American Journal of Physics 48, no. 12 (1980): 1014–19, doi:10.1119/1.12297.
He spoke for all Britain Brain, “Introduction,” xiv.
CHAPTER 14
Conversations on Chemistry, by Jane Marcet Thanks to Andrew D. Jackson for this note in a communication with the author in December 2016.
tickets to Davy’s talks by chance These and other details are from Williams, Michael Faraday.
once described equations as “hieroglyphics” David Bodanis, Electric Universe: How Electricity Switched On the Modern World (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005), 70.
Faraday did so and tasted fame Nancy Forbes and Basil Mahon, Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field: How Two Men Revolutionized Physics (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2014), 61.
The wire moved clockwise around the magnet This description of Faraday’s first electric motor is based on ibid., 59.
“Very satisfactory, but make a more sensible apparatus” David Gooding, “Nature’s School,” in David Gooding and Frank A.J.L. James, ed. and introd., Faraday Rediscovered: Essays on the Life and Work of Michael Faraday, 1791–1867 (New York: Stockton Press, 1985), 120.
CHAPTER 15
“A peculiar aura of good nature” Williams, Michael Faraday, 5.
glass furnace installed in his laboratory Forbes and Mahon, Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field, 63.
fluxes of oxygen in the atmosphere Frank A.J.L. James, Michael Faraday: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 83–86.
Ørsted’s pioneering ideas were an influence Thanks to Andrew D. Jackson for this note in a communication with the author in December 2016.
At that point in the history of electromagnetism Forbes and Mahon, Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field, 69.
On the day he did his experiment This explanation is based on the description in ibid., 70–73.
CHAPTER 16
This was a far more difficult task Thanks to Andrew D. Jackson for this note in a communication with the author in December 2016.
“stretched-out or shrunken-down versions of one another” Turok, The Universe Within, 47.
The electromagnetic waves we can see Ibid.
Maxwell’s equations theoretically connected space and time Ibid.
Neither are time and space separate from each other Brian Greene, “Introduction,” in Albert Einstein, The Meaning of Relativity: Including the Relativistic Theory of the Non-Symmetric Field (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014), viii–ix.
known as his annus mirabilis, or miraculous year Eleven years later, Einstein followed it with his general theory of relativity, which linked space, time, mass, energy, and gravity.
CHAPTER 17
Its spin helps to organize the field Thanks to Sabine Stanley for this note in communication with the author in March 2017.
Then something happened Read Dalrymple, Ancient Earth, Ancient Skies, 20–23, for more detail here. Also, thanks to Sabine Stanley of Johns Hopkins for this and the following explanation in various conversations with the author from 2015 to 2017.
if only we could get at them Thanks to Sabine Stanley for this in communication with the author in March 2017.
In the case of the sun Eugene Parker, “Dynamo, Solar,” in Encyclopedia of G and P, eds. David Gubbins and Emilio Herrero-Bervera (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2007), 178.
including a whole month’s worth drawn by Galileo in 1612 Sobel, Galileo’s Daughter, 58.
CHAPTER 18
Known as the Assam earthquake Nicolas Ambrasey and Roger Bilham, “Reevaluated Intensities for the Great Assam Earthquake of 12 June 1897, Shillong, India,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 93, no. 2 (2003): 655–73, doi:10.1785/0120020093.
six competing theories about the structure of the inner Earth This description is based on Stephen G. Brush, “Chemical History of the Earth’s Core,” Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 63, no. 47 (1982): 1185–88, doi:10.1029/EO063i047p01185; Stephen G. Brush, “Nineteenth-Century Debates About the Inside of the Earth: Solid, Liquid or Gas?” Annals of Science 36, no. 3 (1979): 225–54, doi:10.1080/00033797900200231; Stephen G. Brush, “Discovery of the Earth’s Core,” American Journal of Physics 48, no. 9 (1980): 705–24, doi:10.1119/1.12026.
it really came down to a dispute over how old the Earth was Charles Coulston Gillispie, Genesis and Geology: A Study in the Relations of Scientific Thought, Natural Theology, and Social Opinion in Great Britain, 1790–1850 (New York: Harper, 1959).
a direct conduit to the seething cauldron below Brush, “Nineteenth-Century Debates,” 228.
an “ejectum from the solar furnace” Ibid., 229.
“its figure must yield” Ibid., 239.
The raw egg wobbled a great deal Ibid., 242.
She was in her teens Inge Lehmann, “Seismology in the Days of Old,” Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 68, no. 3 (1987): 33–35, doi:10.1029/EO068i003p00033-02.
“the discovery of hell” Erik Hjortenberg, “Inge Lehmann’s Work Materials and Seismological Epistolary Archive,” Annals of Geophysics 52, no. 6 (2009): 691, doi:10.4401/ag-4625.
gaining entrée into the best society Andrew D. Jackson, in a conversation with the author in March 2016.
his family only saw him when they ate together Bruce A. Bolt, “Inge Lehmann: 13 May 1888–21 February 1993,” Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 43 (1997): 287, doi:10.1098/rsbm.19997.0016.
woodworking, soccer, and needlepoint Hjortenberg, “Inge Lehmann’s Work Materials,” 682.
teacher gave her tougher problems to solve Bolt, “Inge Lehmann,” 287.
Lehmann experienced “severe restrictions” Ibid., 288.
But it was tolerated Ibid., 289.
“You should know how many incompetent men” Ibid., 297.
swap his quiet downscale hotel room Hjortenberg, “Inge Lehmann’s Work Materials,” 683.
“Of course I am in the summerhouse” Ibid., 684.
“a black art” Bolt, “Inge Lehmann,” 291.
cardboard oatmeal boxes Ibid., 297.
He fobbed her off. For four years Hjortenberg, “Inge Lehmann’s Work Materials,” 690–96.
underpins the development of today’s theory David Gubbins, “Lehmann, Inge (1888–1993),” in Encyclopedia of G and P, eds. David Gubbins and Emilio Herrero-Bervera (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2007), 469.
chasing keepers in Greenland Bolt, “Inge Lehmann,” 291.
Jeffreys wrote to Bohr Hjortenberg, “Inge Lehmann’s Work Materials,” 695.
CHAPTER 19
Japan is a global volcano hot spot W. Yan, “Japan’s Volcanic History, Hidden Under the Sea,” Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 97 (2016), doi:10.1029/2016EO054761.
Few were aligned anywhere in between This was a miracle, considering the later discovery that the continents had moved.
the American geophysicist Allan Cox Allan Cox, Richard R. Doell, and G. Brent Dalrymple, “Reversals of the Earth’s Magnetic Field,” Science 144, no. 3626 (1964): 1537–43, doi:10.1126/science.144.3626.1537.
why a material could hold its magnetic charge Néel also discovered antiferromagnetics, which are substances in whose atoms the spins align in such a way that they fully offset each other. The Néel point, similar to the Curie point, is the temperature at which an antiferromagnetic loses this alignment.
showed that Brunhes’s findings were absolutely correct Carlo Laj et al., “Brunhes’ Research Revisited: Magnetization of Volcanic Flows and Baked Clays,” Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 83, no. 35 (2002): 381–87, doi:10.1029/2002EO000277.
a truck made into a roving rock-sampling lab Louis Brown, Centennial History of the Carnegie Institution of Washington: Volume 2, The Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 121.
He turned to Néel Turner, North Pole, South Pole, 173.
“the earth’s magnetization has suffered repeated reversals” J. Hospers, “Summary of Studies on Rock Magnetism,” Journal of Geomagnetism and Geoelectricity 6, no. 4 (1954): 172–75.
a poll of twenty-eight leading paleomagnetic researchers Turner, North Pole, South Pole, 182–83.
In 1964, Allan Cox, Richard Doell, and Brent Dalrymple Cox, Doell, and Dalrymple, “Reversals of the Earth’s Magnetic Field,” 1537–43.
a small tar-paper shack Konrad Krauskopf, “Allan V. Cox, December 17, 1926–January 27, 1987,” in National Academy of Sciences (US), Biographical Memoirs/National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (Columbia University Press; National Academy of Sciences, vol. 71, 1977), 20, https://www.nap.edu/read/5737/chapter/3.
CHAPTER 20
Alfred Wegener gave two public talks David P. Stern, “A Millennium of Geomagnetism,” Reviews of Geophysics 40, no. 3 (2002): 17, doi: 10.1029/2000RG000097; Edward Bullard, “The Emergence of Plate Tectonics: A Personal View,” Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 3, no. 1 (1975): 3–8, doi:10.1146/annurev.ea.03.050175.000245.
wrote about the backlash Bullard, “Emergence,” 5.
An article in Time magazine Turner, North Pole, South Pole, 179.
They re-dubbed the phenomenon “apparent polar wander” There is something known as “true polar wander.” For an explanation, see Vincent Courtillot, “True Polar Wander,” in Encyclopedia of G and P, eds. David Gubbins and Emilio Herrero-Bervera (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2007), 956–67.
they were underwater volcanoes Bullard, “Emergence,” 10.
dismissed it as “girl talk” Marie Tharp, “Connect the Dots: Mapping the Seafloor and Discovering the Mid-Ocean Ridge,” in Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia: Twelve Perspectives on the First Fifty Years, 1949–1999, ed. Laurence Lippsett (New York: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia, 1999).
amazement, skepticism, and scorn Ibid.
He became obsessed Lawrence W. Morley, “Early Work Leading to the Explanation of the Banded Geomagnetic Imprinting of the Ocean Floor,” Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 67, no. 36 (1986): 665–66, doi:10.1029/EO067i036p00665.
the evolution of the ocean basins Robert S. Dietz, “Continent and Ocean Basin Evolution by Spreading of the Sea Floor,” Nature 190, no. 4779 (1961): 854–57, doi:10.1038/190854a0.
Morley swiftly wrote up a paper Morley, “Early Work.”
“more appropriately discussed at a cocktail party” Ibid.
“You don’t believe all this rubbish, do you Teddy?” Bullard, “Emergence,” 20.
“I felt cold chills” Krauskopf, “Allan V. Cox, December 17, 1926–January 27, 1987.”
CHAPTER 21
under the supervision of David Gubbins Gubbins studied under the famous Teddy Bullard.
put together a 380-year record of the field Jeremy Bloxham and David Gubbins, “The Evolution of the Earth’s Magnetic Field,” Scientific American 261, no. 6 (1989), doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1289-68.
the line ran midway through the Atlantic Ocean For maps over time, see NOAA’s Historical Magnetic Declination map at https://maps.ngdc.noaa.gov/viewers/historical_declination/.
the geophysicist Andrew Jackson Not the theoretical physicist from the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen who is the expert on Hans Christian Ørsted.
has kept growing, and has kept moving westward I. Wardinski and R. Holme, “A Time-Dependent Model of the Earth’s Magnetic Field and Its Secular Variation for the Period 1980–2000,” Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 111, no. B12 (2006): 11, doi:10.1029/2006JB004401.
a massive blob of blue Ibid.
CHAPTER 22
what the models say the gyre might have looked like in 2015 Christopher C. Finlay, Julien Aubert, and Nicolas Gillet, “Gyre-Driven Decay of the Earth’s Magnetic Dipole,” Nature Communications 7 (2016): 10422, doi:10.1038/ncomms10422.
A paper published in 2016 Javier F. Pavon-Carrasco and Angelo De Santis, “The South Atlantic Anomaly: The Key for a Possible Geomagnetic Reversal,” Frontiers in Earth Science 4 (2016): 40, doi:10.3389/feart.2016.00040.
it’s not clear that rocks Jean-Pierre Valet and Alexandre Fournier, “Deciphering Records of Geomagnetic Reversals,” Reviews of Geophysics 54, no. 2 (2016): 410–46, doi:10.1002/2015RG000506.
A recent paper by the Italian researcher Leonardo Sagnotti et al., “Extremely Rapid Directional Change During Matuyama-Brunhes Geomagnetic Polarity Reversal,” Geophysical Journal International 199, no. 2 (2014): 1110–24, doi:10.3389/feart.2016.00040.
it is about twice as strong Valet and Fournier, “Deciphering Records,” passim.
Nonlinear means the answer isn’t directly proportional to the sum of the components Thank you to Sabine Stanley and to Chris Finlay for this explanation, in communications with the author in July 2017.
The most famous way of explaining the idea Kenneth Chang, “Edward N. Lorenz, a Meteorologist and a Father of Chaos Theory, Dies at 90,” New York Times, April 17, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/us/17lorenz.html.
If a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil Edward Lorenz, “The Butterfly Effect,” World Scientific Series on Nonlinear Science Series A 39 (2000): 91–94.
For more than 250 years June Barrow-Green, Poincaré and the Three Body Problem (Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, 1997), 7.
And here’s the sobering truth Alain Mazaud, “Geomagnetic Polarity Reversals,” in Encyclopedia of G and P, eds. David Gubbins and Emilio Herrero-Bervera (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2007), 323.
CHAPTER 23
he wrote a famous commentary for Nature Peter Olson, “Geophysics: The Disappearing Dipole,” Nature 416, no. 6881 (2002): 591–94, doi:10.1038/416591a.
That article accompanied another famous one Gauthier Hulot et al., “Small-Scale Structure of the Geodynamo Inferred from Oersted and Magsat Satellite Data,” Nature 416, no. 6881 (2002): 620–23, doi:10.1038/416620a.
“could be the start of a reversal” David Gubbins, “Earth Science: Geomagnetic Reversals,” Nature 452, no. 7184 (2008): 165–67, doi:10.1038/452165a.
meticulously outlining the case Catherine Constable and Monika Korte, “Is Earth’s Magnetic Field Reversing?” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 246, no. 1 (2006): 1–16, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2006.03.038.
A French study Carlo Laj and Catherine Kissel, “An Impending Geomagnetic Transition? Hints from the Past,” Frontiers in Earth Science 3 (2015): 61, doi:10.3389/feart.2015.00061.
A study by two Italian researchers Angelo De Santis and Enkelejda Qamili, “Geosystemics: A Systemic View of the Earth’s Magnetic Field and the Possibilities for an Imminent Geomagnetic Transition,” Pure and Applied Geophysics 172, no. 1 (2015): 75–89, doi:10.1007/s00024-014-0912-x.
an ingenious study John A. Tarduno et al., “Antiquity of the South Atlantic Anomaly and Evidence for Top-Down Control on the Geodynamo,” Nature Communications 6 (2015), doi:10.1038/ncomms8865.
he stressed the dramatic decay of the dipole John Tarduno and Vincent Hare, “Does an Anomaly in the Earth’s Magnetic Field Portend a Coming Pole Reversal?” The Conversation, February 5, 2017, updated February 17, 2017, http://theconversation.com/does-an-anomaly-in-the-earths-magnetic-field-portend-a-coming-pole-reversal-47528.
A fascinating paper published in 2017 Erez Ben-Yosef et al., “Six Centuries of Geomagnetic Intensity Variations Recorded by Royal Judean Stamped Jar Handles,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 9 (2017): 2160–65, doi:10.1073/pnas.1615797114.
adjured their colleagues to keep heart Jean-Pierre Valet and Alexandre Fournier, “Deciphering Records of Geomagnetic Reversals,” Reviews of Geophysics 54, no. 2 (2016): 410–46, doi:10.1002/2015RG000506.
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an extensive history of serious sodium fires Deukkwang An et al., “Suppression of Sodium Fires with Liquid Nitrogen,” Fire Safety Journal 58 (2013): 204–7, doi:10.1016/j.firesaf.2013.02.001.
no certainty that the dynamo is operating the same way now Masaru Kono, “Geomagnetism in Perspective,” in Geomagnetism: Treatise on Geophysics, vol. 5, ed. Masaru Kono (Radarweg, The Netherlands: Elsevier, 2009).
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Baker is particularly interested See Daniel N. Baker and Louis J. Lanzerotti, “Resource Letter SW1: Space Weather,” American Journal of Physics 84, 166 (2016), doi:10.1119/1.4938403.
the dynamo died David J. Stevenson, “Dynamos, Planetary and Satellite,” Encyclopedia of G and P, eds. David Gubbins and Emilio Herrero-Bervera (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2007), 207.
scoured away Mars’s atmosphere “NASA’s MAVEN Reveals Most of Mars’ Atmosphere Was Lost to Space,” NASA Press Release, April 30, 2017, available at https://mars.nasa.gov/news/2017/nasas-maven-reveals-most-of-mars-atmosphere-was-lost-to-space.
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clocked at 2,000 kilometers a second Ramon E. Lopez et al., “Sun Unleashes Halloween Storm,” Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 85, no. 11 (2004): 105–8, doi:10.1029/2004EO110002.
Astronauts at the International Space Station Donald L. Evans et al., “Service Assessment: Intense Space Weather Storms October 19–November 7, 2003,” Silver Spring, MD: NOAA (2004).
More than 100,000 miles of telegraph lines David H. Boteler, “The Super Storms of August/September 1859 and Their Effects on the Telegraph System,” Advances in Space Research 38, no. 2 (2006): 159–72, doi:10.1016/j.asr.2006.01.013.
the benchmark for worst-case, life-threatening exposure L. W. Townsend et al., “Carrington Flare of 1859 as a Prototypical Worst-Case Solar Energetic Particle Event,” IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 50, no. 6 (2003): 2307–9, doi:10.1109/TNS.2003.821602.
“The light appeared in streams” Freddy Moreno Cárdenas et al., “The Grand Aurorae Borealis Seen in Colombia in 1859,” Advances in Space Research 57, no. 1 (2016): 258, doi:10.1016/j.asr.2015.08.026.
“The whole sky appeared mottled red” Ibid.
whatever horrors the lights foretold Ibid., passim.
The new telegraph system, with its electrical lines, became a target Boteler, “Super Storms,” 163. The detail on telegraph abnormalities is from his paper, passim.
Carrington was watching the sun for dark spots Ibid., 160.
Among the champions of the skeptics Ibid., 170.
A separate study Ying D. Liu et al., “Observations of an Extreme Storm in Interplanetary Space Caused by Successive Coronal Mass Ejections,” Nature Communications 5 (2014): 3481, doi:10.1038/ncomms4481.
it would have been about half again as strong as the Carrington event D. N. Baker et al., “A Major Solar Eruptive Event in July 2012: Defining Extreme Space Weather Scenarios,” Space Weather 11 (2013): 590, doi:10.1002/swe.20097.
according to reports analyzing the potential fallout Edward J. Oughton et al., “Quantifying the Daily Economic Impact of Extreme Space Weather Due to Failure in Electricity Transmission Infrastructure,” Space Weather 15, doi:10.1002/2016SW001491; Mike Hapgood, “Lloyd’s 360° Risk Insight Briefing: Space Weather: Its Impact on Earth and Implications for Business,” Lloyd’s of London, 2010.
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The first salvo Robert J. Uffen, “Influence of the Earth’s Core on the Origin and Evolution of Life,” Nature 198 (1963): 143–44, doi:10.1038/198143b0.
Two of the mass extinctions coincided J. A. Jacobs, Reversals of the Earth’s Magnetic Field, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 293.
There was an astonishingly high correlation Ian K. Crain, “Possible Direct Causal Relation Between Geomagnetic Reversals and Biological Extinctions,” Geological Society of America Bulletin 82 (1971): 2603–6, doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1971)82[2603:PDCRBG]2.0.CO;2.
an increase in radioactive beryllium G. M. Raisbeck, F. Yiou, and D. Bourles, “Evidence for an Increase in Cosmogenic 10Be During a Geomagnetic Reversal,” Nature 315 (1985): 315–17, doi:10.1038/315315a0.
widespread destruction of the ozone layer Karl-Heinz Glassmeier and Joachim Vogt, “Magnetic Polarity Transitions and Biospheric Effects: Historical Perspective and Current Developments,” Space Science Review 155, no. 1–4 (2010): 400, doi:10.1007/s11214-010-9659-6.
the final die-off of the world’s Neanderthal population :Jean-Pierre Valet and Hélène Valladas, “The Laschamp-Mono Lake Geomagnetic Events and the Extinction of Neanderthal: A Causal Link or a Coincidence?” Quaternary Science Reviews 29, no. 27–28 (2010): 3887–93, doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.09.010.
The German physicists Karl-Heinz Glassmeier and Joachim Vogt Glassmeier and Vogt, “Magnetic Polarity Transitions,” 406.
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Helios Solar Storm Scenario E. Oughton, J. Copic, A. Skelton, V. Kesaite, Z. Y. Yeo, S. J. Ruffle, M. Tuveson, A. W. Coburn, and D. Ralph, “The Helios Solar Storm Scenario,” Cambridge Risk Framework Series, Centre for Risk Studies, University of Cambridge (2016).
in a study published in 2017 E. Oughton et al., “Quantifying the Daily Economic Impact of Extreme Space Weather Due to Failure in Electricity Transmission Infrastructure,” Space Weather 15, no. 1 (2017): 65–83, doi:10.1002/2016SW001491.
In a study financed by the UK Space Agency J. P. Eastwood et al., “The Economic Impact of Space Weather: Where Do We Stand?” Risk Analysis 37, no. 2 (2017): 206–18, doi:10.1111/risa.12765.
a 2017 study on the effects of space weather on the satellite industry J. C. Green, J. Likar, and Yuri Shprits, “Impact of Space Weather on the Satellite Industry,” Space Weather 15, no. 6 (2017): 804–18, doi: 10.1002/2017SW001646.
A lesson in the consequences D. J. Knipp et al., “The May 1967 Great Storm and Radio Disruption Event: Extreme Space Weather and Extraordinary Responses,” Space Weather 14, no. 9 (2016): 614–33, doi:10.1002/2016SW001423.
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his office at the University of Duisburg-Essen He has since been appointed to a chair at the Institute for Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Oldenburg in Germany.
There are two leading theories Michael Winklhofer, “The Physics of Geomagnetic-Field Transduction in Animals,” IEEE Transactions on Magnetics 45, no. 12 (2009), doi:10.1109/TMAG.2009.2017940.
as much as 2 percent magnetite Atsuko Kobayashi and Joseph L. Kirschvink, “Magnetoreception and Electromagnetic Field Effects: Sensory Perception of the Geomagnetic Field in Animals and Humans,” in Electromagnetic Fields Advances in Chemistry 250 (1995): 368, doi:10.1021/ba-1995-0250.ch021.
we have consigned it to our subconscious Ibid., 374.
Birds may even be able to process images Thorsten Ritz et al., “A Model for Photoreceptor-Based Magnetoreception in Birds,” Biophysical Journal 78, no. 2 (2000): 707–18, doi:10.1016/S0006-3495(00)76629-X.
could disrupt on a massive scale Kenneth J. Lohmann et al., “Geomagnetic Imprinting: A Unifying Hypothesis of Long-Distance Natal Homing in Salmon and Sea Turtles,” PNAS 105, no. 49 (2008): 19096–101, doi:10.1073/pnas.0801859105.
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Reports of damage from exposure K. Sansare et al., “Early Victims of X-Rays,” Dentomaxillofacial Radiology 40 (2011): 123–25, doi:10.1259/dmfr/73488299.
He died in 1904 at age thirty-nine Raymond A. Gagliardi, “Clarence Dally: An American Pioneer,” American Journal of Roentgenology 157, no. 5 (1991): 922, doi:10.2214/ajr.157.5.1927809.
Astronauts are considered radiation workers Kira Bacal and Joseph Romano, “Radiation Health and Protection,” in Space Physiology and Medicine: From Evidence to Practice, eds. Arnaud E. Nicogossian et al. (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2016), 205.
They may be even more apt to cause the biological injuries Ibid., 214.
high levels of radiation has been found to carry many other health effects Ibid.
they don’t know whether it has precisely the same effects Jancy McPhee and John Charles, eds., Human Health and Performance Risks of Space Exploration Missions: Evidence Reviewed by the NASA Human Research Program (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2009), 123.
Known as tissue-equivalent plastic H. E. Spence et al., “CRaTER: The Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation Experiment on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission,” Space Science Reviews 150, no. 1 (2010): 243–84, doi:10.1007/s11214-009-9584-8.
Results are still being analyzed M. D. Looper et al., “The Radiation Environment Near the Lunar Surface: Crater Observations and Geant4 Simulations,” Space Weather 11 (2013): 142–52, doi:10.1002/swe.20034.
But bad news Bacal and Romano, “Radiation Health and Protection,” 211.
a single intense solar energetic particle event could simply kill everyone Susan McKenna-Lawlor et al., “Overview of Energetic Particle Hazards During Prospective Manned Missions to Mars,” Planetary and Space Science 63–64 (2012): 123–32, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2011.06.017.