1. Babbage, Charles, 1 n. 3
2. Bacon, Francis, 1
3. bacteria, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 nn. 5, 6; 14 n. 2, 15 n. 6;
   1. reproduction, 1, 2, 3 n. 3;
   2. structure, 1;
   3. see also archaea bacteria
4. balance, 1, 2
5. balloon, electrically charged, 1, 2 nn. 9, 10
6. balloons, hot-air, 1
7. Bangladesh, 1
8. banking, 1, 2;
   1. assets, 1;
   2. borrowing, 1, 2;
   3. defaulting, 1;
   4. interest, 1;
   5. investment, 1;
   6. lending, 1;
   7. merchant, 1
9. banking crisis (2008), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 n. 2
10. Bardeen, John, 1 n. 9
11. Barings Bank, 1
12. Barry, Dave, 1, 2
13. baryons, 1
14. battery, 1, 2 n. 5
15. BBC, 1, 2
16. Beagle, HMS, 1
17. bees, 1
18. Begley, Sharon, 1
19. Bekenstein, Jacob, 1
20. bell curve, see Gaussian distribution
21. Bell Laboratories, 1 n. 9
22. Bern, 1
23. Berners-Lee, Tim, 1
24. Besso, Michele, 1
25. Bezos, Jeff, 1
26. big bang, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 n. 13, 14 n. 5, 15 n. 2, 16 n. 10, 17 n. 4, 18 n. 5, 19 nn. 14, 16, 18; 20 n. 19;
    1. inflation, 1, 2, 3
27. binary, 1, 2
28. binary pulsar, the, see PSR B1913+16 (binary pulsar)
29. Binnig, Gerd, 1 n. 3
30. biofilms, 1
31. biology and biologists, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 n. 5, 33 n. 11, 34 n. 7, 35 n. 6
32. bipedalism, 1
33. bisexuality, 1
34. bison, 1
35. Black, Jonathan, 1 n. 6
36. black holes, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 n. 4, 8 n. 3, 9 n. 5;
    1. entropy, 1;
    2. singularity, 1, 2;
    3. stellar-mass, 1;
    4. supermassive, 1;
    5. see also Cygnus X-1, Sagittarius A*
37. Blair, Tony, 1 n. 2
38. Blake, William, 1, 2
39. blood, 1, 2 n. 10
40. blood cells, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
41. blood clot, 1
42. blood group, see genes
43. blood vessels, 1
44. Blumenthal, Sidney, 1
45. body temperature, 1
46. Bohr, Niels, 1, 2, 3
47. Bollier, David, 1, 2;
    1. Silent Theft, 1
48. Boltzmann, Ludwig, 1
49. Boltzmann’s constant, 1 n. 9
50. Bondi, Hermann, 1, 2 n. 5
51. bones, 1, 2, 3
52. Boolean logic, 1 n. 5
53. boom and bust, 1
54. boron, 1
55. bosons, 1, 2, 3, 4 n. 15;
    1. spin, 1 n. 15;
    2. vector, 1;
    3. see also Higgs boson
56. Bostrom, Nick, 1 n. 2
57. bottom muscle, see gluteus maximus
58. Boyle’s law, 1
59. Bragg, William, 1
60. brain, human, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7;
    1. brainstem, 1;
    2. cerebellum, 1;
    3. copying, 1 n. 13;
    4. emotion, 1;
    5. energy use, 1, 2, 3;
    6. grey matter, 1 n. 17;
    7. memory, 1;
    8. reptilian, 1;
    9. size, 1;
    10. weight, 1;
    11. white matter, 1 n. 17;
    12. see also limbic system, neocortex
61. brain cells, see neurons
62. brainstem, see brain
63. Brattain, Walter, 1 n. 9
64. breathing, 1, 2
65. breeding, deliberate, 1
66. Britain, 1
67. Brno, 1
68. Broome, Western Australia, 1 n. 9
69. Brown, Robert, 1, 2 n. 11
70. Brunel, Isambard Kingdom, 1 n. 4
71. Buchanan, Mark, 1, 2
72. Bushmen (Kalahari), 1
73. Butler, Samuel, 1
74. butterfly effect, see chaos theory
75. Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 1 n. 3