Index

A

Abbasids 26, 29, 31, 38, 40, 50
‘Abd al-Mu’min, Almohad Caliph (1094–1163) 33
Aberdeen 97, 125
Abū Ma‘shar (Albumasar) (787–886) 42, 50
academies, ancient 4, 15
academies of science 85, 87–8, 91
accelerators 125–6; see also cyclotrons
action-at-a-distance, see distance forces
adiabatic demagnetization 131
Aepinus, F.U.T. (1724–1802) 85
aeronautics 120
Agricola, Georg (1494–1555) 67, 68
agriculture 91
air pressure 76, 85
air pump 75, 88
airs 8, 21, 85
Albertus Magnus, Saint (c.1200–80) 53
Alcuin of York (735–804) 49
Alexandria 4, 17, 20
Algarotti, Francesco (1712–64) 90
algorithm 39
Alhazen (ibn al-Haytham, 965–1040) 36–9, 42, 48, 50, 58
Alpher, Ralph (1921–2007) 140
Ambrose, Saint (c.340–397) 49
American Physical Society 117
Americanization 133–43
Ampère, André-Marie (1775–1836) 96
Amsterdam 108
Anaxagoras (500–428 bce) 6–7
Anderson, Carl David (1905–91) 130
animal electricity 89
anthropic hypothesis 146
antimatter 138, 148
aqueducts 21
Aquinas, Thomas, Saint (1225–74) 53–4
Arabic numerals 36
Archimedes (d.212 bce) 16, 31, 48, 57, 59, 64–5
specific gravity 20, 39–40
Archytas (428–347 bce) 16
argon 102
Aristotelian physics 4–5, 7–10, 14, 30–1, 51
Aristotle (384–22 bce) 51, 65, 70, 93, 147
in Islam 28, 31, 33
(pseudo), Mechanica 21, 28, 39, 57
Meteorologica 72
Organon 24, 26, 28, 32
on physici 3, 7
Politics 27–8
tides 49
Aristotle’s wheel 21
Arrhenius, Svante (1859–1927) 106
Assassins 37
astrolabe 43, 47
astrology 35, 40–2, 50, 58, 60; see also grand conjunctions
astronomy, see mathematics, mixed
Aswan 20
Athens 4, 15
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) 136
atomic number 108–9, 121
atomic weight 102, 108
atomism, ancient 6, 9, 13, 63, 72
Boscovichian 91
Daltonian 85
Augustine, Saint (354–430) 23
Augustus Caesar (63 bce–14) 11
aurora borealis 129
autarky 119
Avempace (ibn Bājja 1095–1138) 33, 50, 57, 65
Avempace’s rule 56
Averroes (ibn Rushd 1126–98) 33, 50, 60
physica 33, 41, 53, 55, 62
Avicenna (ibn Sīnā, 980–1037) 32, 33, 37–9, 41–2, 50
The cure 32
Avogadro’s number 109

B

Bacon, Francis (1561–1626) 48, 70
Bacon, Roger (1214–94) 57–8, 70
Baconian method 70
Baghdad 26–7, 30–2, 38, 39, 42
House of Wisdom 27, 30–1, 34, 42, 43
balance 20, 39–40
Balmer formula 102, 111, 121
Balmer, Johann Jakob (1825–98) 102
Banū Mūsā (Mūsā brothers, ninth century) 43
Bardeen, John (1908–91) 135–6
barometer 75–6
Basil, Saint (329/30–79 bce) 49
Basra 27
battery 89, 98
Becquerel, Henri (1852–1908) 107, 113
Bede, The Venerable (672/3–735) 48–9, 54
Bell Telephone Labs 113, 135, 140–1
Bell, Jocelyn (1943– ) 140
Berkeley 126, 127, 131, 134, 136, 138
Berlin 85, 96, 104, 110–11, 115, 127, 129
Bern 105
Bessarion, Johannes (1403–72) 59
Bethe, Hans Albrecht (1906–2005) 128, 132
big bang 140, 146
big physics 138
Biot, JeanBaptiste (1774–1862) 87
Birmingham 91
al-Bīrūnī (973–1048) 36–7, 39–40, 42, 43, 47
Bjerknis, Vilhelm (1862–1951) 120
Black, Joseph (1728–99) 85
blackbody radiation 105–6, 109, 113
Blackett, P.M.S. (1897–1974) 130
Bloch, Felix (1905–83) 132
Boethius (c.480–524) 24
Bohr, Niels (1885–1962) 111, 121–3, 127, 134–5
and Einstein 123–4
Feynman 135
Sommerfeld 122 see also complementarity
Bohr atom 111–12, 122
Bologna 51, 86, 89
Boltzmann’s constant k 99–100, 109
Boltzmann, Ludwig (1844–1906) 99, 106, 110, 123
Bonaventure, Saint (1221–74) 58
Bondi, Hermann (1919–2005) 141
Bonn 96, 98
Born, Max (1882–1970) 123–4
Boscovich, Roger (Ruđer Bošković, 1711–87) 91
Bothe, Walther (1891–1957) 129
Boyle, Robert (1627–91) 75–6
Boyle’s law 76
Bradwardine, Thomas (1290–1349) 55–7
Bragg, William Henry (1862–1942) 121
Bragg, William Lawrence (1890–1971) 121
Brahe, Tycho (1546–1601) 66, 70
Brattain, Walter (1902–87) 136
Braun, Werner von (1912–77) 134
Bridgewater, 8th Earl of (1756–1829) 145
Bristol 136
Broglie, Louis de (1892–1987) 123–5
Brookhaven 138
Brownian motion 109
Brussels 110
bubble chamber 138
Bukhara 32
Bunsen, Robert (1811–99) 101
Bureau international des poids et mesures 116
bureaucracy and science 28, 63, 90, 92
Buridan, Jean (1295–1358) 55, 57
Buridan’s ass 56
Byzantium 22, 28, 59

C

Cairo 34
calendrics 48
caloric 85, 97–8; see also heat
Caltech 128, 130, 134, 140
Cambridge 77, 97, 101, 102, 106, 121, 124–5, 127–8, 130, 140–1, 146
Cameralwissenschaft 92
Canadian Geological Survey 143
capillarity 85
Carnegie Institution 115, 130
Carnegie, Andrew (1835–1919) 114
Carnot cycle 98
Carnot, Sadi (1796–1832) 98
Carolingian Renaissance 49
Carter, Brandon (1942– ) 146
Cassiodorus (c.485–c.585) 24
cathode rays 106
causality 110
Cavendish, Henry (1731–1810) 85, 88
celestial mechanics/spheres 18, 19, 55, 69–70
celestial/sublunar dichotomy 8, 14, 42, 79
census 92
CERN (Centre européen pour la recherche nucléaire) 139, 143, 148
Chadwick, James (1891–1974) 127
Chamberlain, Owen (1920–2006) 138
charge-to-mass ratio 106–7
charity and physica 54
Charlemagne (c.747–814) 49
Charney, Jule (1917–81) 142
Chicago 104, 109, 115
Christianity and Antiquity 24–5
Cicero (106–43 bce) 4, 23
Clarke, Samuel (1675–1729) 82
classical physics 93, 103, 105, 108, 110, 111
Clausius, Rudolf (1822–88) 98
Clement xii, Pope (1652–1740) 90
Cleveland 104
climate change 142
cloud chamber 130
Cockcroft, John (1897–1967) 125
Columbia University 141
complementarity 124, 145
composition of velocities 68, 79
Compton effect 123
Compton, Arthur Holly (1892–1962) 129
computers 133, 142
computus 49
continental drift 143
Coolidge, William David (1873–1975) 113
Cooper, Leon (1930– ) 136
Copenhagen 86, 96
Copernicus, Nicholas (1473–1543) 60, 61, 66–8
anticipated 38
condemned 65
De revolutionibus 61
Cordoba 33
Cornell 128
Corning Glass 113
Cornu, Marie Alfred (1841–1902) 100
corpuscle, see electron
corpuscularism 72
correspondence principle 111, 121
cosmic rays 129–31, 136
cosmogony, ancient 10–11, 117
modern 140–1
Coulomb, Charles-Augustin (1736–1806) 83, 87, 122
Council of Trent 63
courts 26–8
Cracow 60
creation myths 3, 73, 80
cryogenics 131–2, 138
cumul 113
Curie, Irène (Irène Joliot-Curie 1897–1956) 127
Curie, Marie Skłodowska (1867–1934) 107, 112, 127
Curie, Pierre (1859–1906) 101, 107, 112
Curie’s law 101
cyclotrons 126–7, 136, 138

D

D’Alembert, Jean Le Rond (1717–83) 89
Dalton, John (1766–1844) 85, 97, 102
Damascene steel 42
Damascus 26, 32, 38
Dante Alighieiri (1265–1321) 53–4
dark matter 147
Darwin, Charles (1809–82) 103
Davy, Humphry (1778–1829) 91
Deluc, Jean-André (1727–1817) 85, 88
Demiurge 10, 23
Democritus (460–370 bce) 6, 9
Desaguliers, John Theophilus (1683–1744) 82
Descartes, René (1596–1650) 69, 75, 77–8, 82, 93, 100
Discourse and Essays 72–3
Followed 73–5
and Galileo 73
Newton 80
Opposed 77
Principia 72
Revived 100
Descriptionism 101
Deuterium 127
Deuteron 127
Dicke, Robert Henry (1916–97) 140
Diderot, Denis (1713–84) 89
Dirac equation 124–5
Dirac, Paul Adrien Maurice (1902–84) 124
distance forces 83–6, 96
dīwān 28
Dominicans 51, 53
Donne, John (1572–1631) 69
Drude, Paul (1863–1906) 111
dualism, Cartesian 73, 74; see also wave-particle duality
Dulong-Petit law 101, 110
Dulong, Pierre Louis (1785–1838) 101
dynamical theory of gases 99–100, 106

E

Earth sciences 139, 141–3; see also geodesy
Earth, age and constitution 103, 129, 142–3
as magnet 68, 129, 143
size and shape 20, 25, 30, 45, 80
spin 14, 36
Earthshine 24
Eastman Kodak 113
Eccentric 19
Eclipse 20, 121
Ecliptic 34, 35
Edinburgh 139
Einstein, Albert (1879–1955) 105, 111, 115, 120, 128, 134, 141
and Bohr 122, 124, 146
Brownian motion 109
quantum theory 110, 124
electrical discharges in gases 106–7
electricity 76, 79, 83–5, 91, 107
and agriculture 91
heat 101
electrolyte 106
electromagnetism 96–7
electron 107–9, 124
pair production 125
theory of metals 111, 132
elementary particles 117, 139
elements 6–7, 9, 11–12, 41, 121, 127
origin of 128
table of, see periodic table
elephant clock 46–4
Elizabeth I, Queen of England (1533–1603) 70
Émigrés 128, 133, 135, 138
Empedocles (490–430 bce) 6–7
Energetics 104
Energy 99, 100, 108
and matter 105
negative 124
nuclear 117
radiant 105
engineering schools 87, 93, 101
ENIAC 133
Enigma code 133
Enlightenment 69, 92
Entropy 99, 100, 108
heat death 102
Epicurus (341–270 bce) 9–11, 72
Epicycle 19
Equant 18–19, 60
equinoxes, precession of 34
equipartition 99–100, 103–4, 105, 110–11
Eratosthenes (d.194 bce) 20, 30, 45
Ether 79, 105, 110
and light 95, 97, 104–5
ethics, and natural philosophy 1, 10, 11–14
Eucharist 63
Euclid (fl. 300 bce) 20, 48, 64
Eudoxus of Cnidus (408–355 bce) 18
European Space Agency 143
Ewing, James Alfred (1855–1935) 101
exclusion principle 122, 132
Exner, Franz Serafin (1849–1926) 110
experimental natural philosophy 68, 75, 82, 83
experimental spaces 88
experiments, crucial 70, 82

F

falling bodies 54, 61
falsafa 27, 29–34
al-Fārābī (872–950) 31–2, 50
Faraday, Michael (1791–1867) 96–7, 106
Fatima 29
Fermi, Enrico (1901–54) 138
Fermilab 117, 148
Feynman, Richard (1918–88) 135
Ficino, Marsilio (1433–99) 59
field theory 96–7
First Principle 13, 31, 69, 72, 77–8
Newtonian 81–2
Florence 59, 64, 129
Accademia del Cimento 75
fluid (electric, magnetic), see imponderable fluids
forces 68, 86, 131, 140
“foreign sciences” 34
forestry 92
Franciscans 51, 57
Franklin, Benjamin (1706–90) 83, 129
Franz, Rudolf (1826–1902) 101
free fall 55, 65
free will 10, 13, 145
French Physical Society 100
French Revolution 87
Fresnel, Augustin-Jean (1788–1827) 65, 98
Frisch, Otto Robert (1904–79) 127
fundamental constants 109, 148
fuzzy physics 6, 111

G

galaxies 140, 146
Galen (130–200) 26
Galilei, Galileo (1564–1642) 15, 21, 40, 48, 64–6, 68, 70, 72, 88, 104, 140
Dialogue 65, 66
Discourses 66
followers and opponents 73–5
on motion 65–6, 68
Saggiatore 72
Galileo’s rule 66, 80
Galvani, Luigi (1737–98) 89
galvanism 89
Gamow, George (1904–68) 125, 128, 140
gas constant R 99
Gassendi, Pierre (1592–1655) 72
Gay-Lussac, Joseph-Louis (1778–1850) 99
Geiger counter 130
General Electric 113
Geneva 139
Gesellschaft deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte 116
al-Ghazālī (Algazel, 1058–1111) 32–3, 38
Ghazna 36
Giauque, William Francis (1895–1982) 131, 133
Gilbert, William (1544–1603) 68, 70, 73
Glasgow 89, 91, 97
gluino 148
gluons 140
God 15, 16, 145–6; see also First Principle
gods, in physics 3
Gold, Thomas (1920–2004) 141
Göttingen 103, 115, 123
Goudsmit, Samuel Abraham (1902–78) 124
grand conjunctions 40–1, 50
’sGravesande, Willem Jacob (1688–1742) 83
gravity 76, 79, 80, 82
cause of 80, 148
geometrized 79, 120
Graz 99
Gregory IX, Pope (1145–1241) 53
Gross, David (1941– ) 148
Grossetetse, Robert (1175–1253) 57
Guericke, Otto von (1602–86) 75–6
Guillaume, Charles Edouard (1861–1938) 116
Gutenberg, Beno (1889–1960) 103

H

H-theorem 100
Haarlem, Teyler Foundation 88
Haber, Fritz (1868–1934) 121
Hahn, Otto (1879–1968) 127
Hai Eb’n Yockdan 33
al-Hakīm (985–c.1021) 34, 35, 37
Harun al-Rashid (763–809) 30
Harvard University 128, 130
Hauksbee, Francis (1666–1713) 82
heat 85, 88, 97, 99, 101; see also caloric; thermodynamics
Heidelberg 101
Heisenberg, Werner (1901–76) 123–4, 132
helium 102, 131–2
Helmholtz, Hermann von (1821–94) 96–7
HEP (High Energy Physics) 139
Hermes Trismegistus 60, 61, 63
Hero of Alexandria (10–70) 21, 45
Herschel, William (1738–1822) 88
Hertz, Heinrich (1857–94) 97, 110
Hess, Henry Hammond (1906–69) 142
Hess, Victor (1883–1964) 129
Hexaemeron 23, 49; see also creation myths
Higgs, Peter (1929– ) 139
Holy Office, see Inquisition, Roman
Hooke, Robert (1635–1703) 75, 76, 78
Hooke’s law 76
houses of wisdom 27, 30–1, 34, 42, 43, 50
Hoyle, Fred (1915–2001) 141
Hubble, Edwin Powell (1889–1953) 128
Hubble’s law 128
Hūlāgū Khan (1218–65) 34, 38
humanism 59, 61
Hume, David (1711–76) 90
Huygens, Christiaan (1629–95) 75, 95
hydrogen bomb 133, 138
hydrostatics 21, 83; see also Archimedes; balance
hysteresis 101

I

ibn al-Shātir (1304–75) 38
ibn Yūnus (c.950–1009) 35, 37
impetus 54, 55
imponderable fluids 83, 85, 93, 96–7
Index of Prohibited Books 63, 77, 90
industrial research labs 113
inertia 79
ingenious devices 21–2, 45–7, 67, 83–4
Inquisition, Roman 63–4
Institute of Electrical Engineers 115
instruments 64, 75, 76, 89
astronomical 35, 38, 43–6
physical 86–8
International Congress of Physics 100, 112
International Geophysical Year 141
internationalism 116
intromission 58
inverse-square law 79
ion 93, 106–7
irrationality 105–6, 110–12
Isfahan 37, 43
“Islamic sciences” 34
isotopy 108

J

Jeans, James Hopwood (1877–1946) 106, 111
al-Jazarī (1136–1206) 45
Jehovah 16
Jerome, Saint (347–420) 62
Jesuits 63, 70, 77, 91
Joliot-Curie, Frédéric (1900–58) 127
Jordan, Pascual (1902–80) 123, 145
Jordanus Nemorarius (fl. 13th century) 57–8
Joule, James Prescott (1818–89) 97–8
Journal des sçavans 80
Jundishapur 26

K

Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft 114
kalām 32, 34, 51
Kamerlingh Onnes, Heike (1853–1926) 131
Kant, Immanuel (1724–1804) 86, 90–1, 102
Kapitza, Peter (1894–1984) 133
Karlsruhe 97
Kepler, Johannes (1571–1830) 15, 48, 68, 70
Kepler’s laws 79–80
al-Khayyāmī (Omar Khayyam, 1048–1141) 33, 36–7, 39
al-Khāzinī (fl. 1115–30) 39
al-Khujandī (940–1100) 35
Khurāsān 37, 40, 42
Khwārazm 36, 39
al-Khwārizmī (780–850) 39
al-Kindī (801–73) 30–1, 33, 42, 50
kinematics 65–6, 68
Kirchhoff, Gustav (1824–87) 101
Kohlhörster, Werner (1887–1945) 129–30
Königsberg 96
Kramers, Hendrik Anthony (1894–1952) 121, 135
Kufa 30

L

La nature 115
Lamont Geophysical Laboratory 143
Landau, Lev (1908–68) 133
Langmuir, Irving (1881–1957) 113
Laplace, Pierre Simon de (1749–1827) 85, 102
Larmor, Joseph (1857–1942) 102
laser 141
Last Judgment 32
latitude of forms 55–6, 65
Lattes, C.M.G. (1924–2005) 136
Laue, Max von (1879–1960) 121
Lavoisier, Antoine–Laurent (1743–94) 90
Lawrence, Ernest (1901–58) 126, 131, 134, 136
laws of physics 15, 77, 79–80, 82
Leeds 121
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646–1716) 69, 82
Leipzig 104, 115, 132
Lemaître, Georges (1894–1966) 128, 129
leptons 148
Leucippus (fl. 5th century bce) 6
Lewis, William (c.1709–81) 88
Leyden 68, 104, 108, 124, 131, 135
liberal arts 25
light 57, 85
and sound 95
speed 97, 105
wave theory 95–7
light particle, see photon
lightning 8, 14, 17, 129
LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) 148
Locke, John (1632–1704) 90
London, Fritz (1900–54) 97, 133
London, Royal Institution 96
Royal Society 75, 78, 82, 91, 145
longitude 68
Lorentz transformations 105
Lorentz, Hendrik Antoon (1853–1928) 104, 108
Los Alamos 135
Louis XIV, King of France 87
Lovell, Alfred Charles Bernard (1913–2012) 140
low temperature, see cryogenics; quantum theory
Lucretius (c.99–c.55 bce) 11, 13, 62
Lunar Society 91
Lund 102
lux and lumen 57
Lyceum 4

M

Mach, Ernst (1838–1916) 101
macro/micro worlds 99–100
Macrobius Theodosius (early 5th century) 23–4
madrasas 34
Magdeburg 75
magnetism 68, 70, 75, 79, 83, 101
reversal of 143
magnetostriction 101
Mahmud 36
Malebranche, Nicolas (1638–1715) 77
Malik-Shāh (1055–92) 37
al-Mamūn (786–833) 30, 31, 42, 45
Manchester 85, 94, 111
Manchester–Jodrell Bank 140
Manhattan Engineer District 136
MANIAC 133
Marāgha 38
Marburg 143
Marshak, Robert (1916–92) 135, 136
Martianus Capella (early 5th century) 25
Marum, Martinus van (1750–1837) 88
maser 141
Māshā’ Allāh (c.740–815) 40–2, 50
mathematics, medieval 48–9
mathematics, mixed 16–22, 34–8, 63, 91
mathematics/physics dichotomy 15, 18, 33, 37–8, 61, 73, 77–82, 90, 93, 99, 104, 112
Matthews, Drummond (1931–1997) 143
Maxwell, James Clerk (1831–79) 97, 99
Maxwell’s equations 97, 104
Mayer, Robert Julius (1814–78) 98
Mecca 35
mechanical reduction 103–4, 112
mechanics, analytical 101
Medici, Cosimo I de’ (1519–74) 59
medicine 42
Meitner, Lise (1878–1968) 127
Mertonian rule 55–6
Merv 40
meson 130, 136–7
mesotron 130–1; see also meson
metempsychosis 10–11, 13, 15, 24
meteorology 8, 17, 72, 85, 102, 114, 119, 129
Stoic 13–15
weather front 120, 142
earth science 141–2
Metropolitan Vickers 125
Mézières 87
Michelson, Albert Abraham (1852–1931) 104
microwave background 140
microwave technologies 133
microworld 106, 109, 112
Milan 92
Miletus 3, 6
Milky Way 23–4, 64
Millikan, Robert Andrews (1868–1953) 109, 129
MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 129, 132, 142
Mohorovičić, Andrija (1857–1936) 103
Momentum 68
Montreal 108
Moon 14–15, 42, 64
as apple 79
rocks from 141
and tides 49
moons, Jupiter’s 64, 68
Morley, Edward Williams (1838–1923) 104
Morley, Lawrence (1920–2013) 143
Moscow 133
Moseley, Henry Gwyn Jeffreys (1887–1915) 121
Moseley’s law 121
Moses 60, 73
Motion 7, 8, 104
Circular 15, 21; see also composition of velocities
Mu’tazila 28
Muhammad, Prophet 43
multiplication of species 58
Munich 107, 115, 121
Mūsā ibn Shākir (9th century) 43
music of the spheres 13, 24, 122
Musschenbroek, Petrus van (1692–1761) 83
Mussolini, Benito 119

N

National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) 141–2
National Bureau of Standards 113
National Physical Laboratory 113
Nature 115
Naturphilosophie 86
nebular hypothesis 102
Neoplatonism 15–16, 24, 32–3, 57, 59–61
Nernst, Walther (1864–1941) 110, 133
Nestorians 26, 31, 38
Nestorius (c.386–450) 26
Neumann, John von (1903–57) 133, 142
neutralino 148
neutron 127
Newton, Isaac (1642–1727) 77–84, 89–90
and apple 77, 79
Descartes and Hooke 77–80
Opticks 77–8
popularized 89–90
Principia 77, 79–82
tides 80–1, 102
Nile 37
Nobel Prize 114, 125, 136, 138, 141, 147
noble gases 102
Nollet, Jean–Antoine (1700–70) 83–4, 87
nominalism 54
nuclear physics 108, 136, 141
nucleons, see neutron; proton
Nullius in verba 87

O

observatories 38, 92
occasionalism 77
Occhialini, G.P.S. (1907–93) 130
oceanography 141
Ockham’s razor 55
Operation Paperclip 134
Oppenheimer, Julius Robert (1904–67) 134–5
optical glass 119
optics 20, 38–9, 58, 72, 83–5
Newtonian 77–8
wave 91; see also light; reflection; refraction; vision
Oratorians 77
Oresme, Nicole (1320–82) 56–7
orrery 83
Ørsted, Hans Christian (1777–1851) 86, 96
Osiander, Andreas (1498–1552) 61
Ostwald, Wilhelm (1853–1932) 104
Ovid (43 bce–17 ce) 11–13
Oxford 51, 53, 54, 57, 133

P

Padua 58, 64
Pangaea 143
paper 29, 34
Paris 96, 99–100, 107, 109, 127
Academy of Sciences 74–5, 83
Ecole polytechnique 87, 95, 112
University 51–3, 55–9
Pascal, Blaise (1623–62) 76
Pauli, Wolfgang Ernst (1900–58) 122, 124, 132, 134
Pavia 85, 86, 91
Peltier, J.C.A. (1785–1845) 101
Penzias, Arno Allan (1933– ) 140
perfect gas 99
periodic table 93, 102, 108, 122
Petit, Alexis Thérèse (1791–1820) 101
Peurbach, Georg (1423–61) 59, 60
Philadelphia 83, 133
Philips Eindhoven 113
photoelectric effect 110, 123
photon 123–5, 129
physica 1–4, 10, 17, 23, 53–7
condemnations of 53, 63–5
Copernican 61
Leibnizian 82
Neoplatonism 30
Newtonian 81–2
and religion 28–32, 51, 53–4, 63, 70
skepticism 69
physici 2, 7, 28, 145
physicists as librarians 101–2, 117, 134
physics, general 66, 94, 112–14, 119, 145
Americanization of 1, 132–3
and chemistry 85, 90, 93
and engineering 101, 135
the Enlightenment 83, 89–92
and ethics 1, 10–14, 145
professionalization of 86–7, 91, 93–5, 112–15 see also nuclear physics; theoretical physics
physics/mathematics dichotomy, see mathematics/physics dichotomy
Physikalische Zeitschrifi 115
Piccione, Oreste (1915–2002) 138
piezoelectricity 101
pineal gland 73
Pisa 65
Planck, Max Karl (1858–1947) 104, 115
Planck’s formula 106, 109–10, 140
planets, inferior and superior 19, 23
distances 9, 17, 23, 61
motions 18, 19, 70
qualities 17, 24
plate tectonics 142–3
platinum 88
Plato (c.429–347 bce) 6–7, 12, 59, 61
Platonic solids 11–12
Platonism revived 59–60, 63
Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secondus) (23–79) 21
Natural history 11, 23, 49, 72
Plotinus (204/5–70) 15, 24, 59
Plutarch (45–120) 14–15, 61
pneuma 10, 15, 82
pneumatics, see airs
Poincaré, Henri (1854–1912) 100
poison gas 121
polonium 107
Porphyry of Tyre (c.234–c.305) 15–16
positivism 112
positron 125, 130
Powell, Cecil Frank (1903–69) 136
Priestley, Joseph (1733–1804) 85, 88
Princeton 132–5, 140, 142
printing 63–4
proton 122
Ptolemy (c.100–68) 24, 30, 35–7, 48, 61, 64
Almagest 17–18, 33–6, 59
Hypotheses planetarum 19, 37
Optics 20
Tetrabiblos 17–18
PTR (Physikalisch Technische Reichsanstalt) 113
public lecturers 82–3, 88
pulsar 140
Pythagoras (571–495 bce) 6, 23, 61
Pythagoreanism 4–6, 11–13, 60

Q

QED (quantum electrodynamics) 125, 135
qibla 35, 43
Quakers 85
quantification 77
quantum and probability 124
quantum atom 121–2
jump 111
quantum mechanics 123–5, 128
quantum theory 106, 109–10, 117
quarks 140, 148
quasar 140
quintessence 8, 18, 20, 70, 147
Qur’ān 3, 30, 32
and astrology 41–2
and science 35, 38, 42–3

R

radar 136, 140–2
radio 120
radio-astronomy 140
radioactivity 108, 110, 129
induced 122, 125, 127
random 110 see also rays from radioelements
radium 107
rainbow 9, 57–8, 72
Ramsay, William (1852–1916) 102
Raphael, Archangel 5
Ratcliffe, John Ashworth (1902–87) 140
Rayleigh, John William Strutt, 3rd Baron (1842–1919) 102, 105
rays from radioelements 107, 108–9, 122, 125, 127, 129
Rayy 35
reciprocal effects 101
red shift 140
reflection 15, 20, 39
refraction 20, 78, 95; see also light, wave theory
Regensburg 75–6
Regiomontanus (Johannes Müller von Königsberg) (1436–76) 59–60
relativity theory 105, 117, 120–1, 131
religion and science, see science and religion
renormalization 135
retrogradation 61
Rochester 135
Rockefeller Foundation 115
Rohault, Jacques (1618–72) 82
Rome 15, 53, 91, 127
Röntgen, Wilhelm Conrad (1845–1923) 107, 114
Rossi, Bruno Benedetto (1905–93) 129–30
Royal Society, see London, Royal Institution
Rubidium 102
Rumford, Benjamin Thompson, Count (1753–1814) 91, 97
Rutherford, Ernest (1871–1937) 94, 108–9, 111, 112, 122, 125, 130
Rydberg, Johannes (1854–1919) 102
Ryle, Martin (1918–84) 140

S

Saladin (Salāh ad-Dīn), Sultan of Egypt (1137/8–93) 29
Santa Barbara (California) 148
Schelling, F.W.J. (1775–1854) 86
Schmidt, Maarten (1929– ) 140
Schrieffer, Robert (1931– ) 136
Schrödinger, Erwin Rudolf (1887–1961) 123
Schwinger, Julian (1918–94) 135
science and bureaucracy, see bureaucracy and science
science and religion 16, 23, 50–4, 61–2, 66, 90, 102–3, 145–7
Scientific Revolution 75, 82
Scipio Africanus (236–183 bce) 23
Second Teacher, see al-Fārābī (872–950)
Seebeck, Thomas (1770–1831) 86, 101
Segrè, Emilio Gino (1905–89) 138
seismology 103, 141
Seitz, Frederick (1911–2008) 132
Seljuks 34, 37, 40
semiconductors 136
Seneca (4 bce–65 ce) 13–14
SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) 146
Seven Years War 91–2
Seville 33
Sextus Empiricus (160–210) 69
Shelter Island 134
Shockley, William Bradford, Jr (1910–89) 135
Siegbahn, Manne (1886–1978) 121, 127
Siemens & Halske 113
Siger de Brabant (1240–80) 54
Simon, Franz (Francis Simon, 1893–1956) 133
skepticism 15, 69, 72, 101
Slater, John Clarke (1900–76) 132, 135
Snell, Willebrord (1580–1626) 20, 72
Soddy, Frederick (1877–1956) 108, 110
solar wind 142
Solomon’s House 70
Solvay Council 110, 111
Solvay Institute 116
Solvay, Ernest (1838–1922) 110
Sommerfeld, Arnold (1868–1951) 122–3, 132, 136
Sophocles (c.496–406 bce) 61
space-time description 146
specific gravity 20, 65
specific heat 99, 110, 132
spectra 101–2, 121–2
Sputnik 141
St Louis (Ohio) 123
standard models 85–6, 93, 95, 140
standardization 95
standards labs 113
Stanford 132
stars, constitution of 102, 128
statics 39, 57
stationary states 111, 123
statistical mechanics 100
steady state 141
steam engine 22, 91, 98, 132
Stevin, Simon (1548–1620) 68
stimulated emission 141
Stoa 4, 14
Stockholm 121
Størmer, Fredrik Carl (1874–1957) 129
Strassmann, Fritz (1902–80) 127
string theory 148
studium generale 51
Sufism 32
Sun 8, 70, 80
Sunni/Shia education 34
Superconducting Super Collider 1
Superconductivity 131–2, 136
superfluidity 132
supernovas 70
supersymmetry 148
swerve, atomic 10, 13
Syracuse 16

T

Teheran 35
telescope 64, 78
Teller, Edward (1908–2003) 128
Tempier, Etienne (d. 1279) 53, 58
tetractys 6
Thābit ibn Qurra (836–901) 39, 42, 57
Thales of Miletus (626–546 bce) 3, 14, 112
The Commentator, see Averroes (ibn Rushd, 1126–98)
The One, see First Principle
The Philosopher, see Aristotle (384–22 bce)
Theodoric of Freiberg (c.1250–c.1310) 58
Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths (c.454–526) 22–3, 24
theoretical physics 93, 112, 128, 134–5
thermodynamics 99–100, 103, 104, 108
thermometry 85, 92, 97–9
Thirty Years War 75
Thomson, George Paget (1892–1975) 125
Thomson, Joseph John (1856–1940) 106, 109, 111–12, 125
Thomson, William (1st Baron Kelvin, 1824–1907) 96–8, 103, 129
tides, lunar 42, 49, 74
Galilean 66
Newtonian 80–1, 102
Timaeus of Locris (c.420–380 bce) 10, 16, 73
Timur (Tamerlane, 1336–1405) 34
TOE (Theory of Everything) 6, 117, 147
Tokyo 130
Toledo 49–50
Tomonago, Sin–Itiro (1906–79) 135
Torricelli, Evangelista (1608–47) 75
Toulouse 53
Townes, Charles Hard (1915–2015) 141
transistor 133, 136
translations 26–8, 50, 59
trigons 40–1
truth, physical 94; see also fuzzy physics; skepticism; voluntarism
Turing, Alan (1912–54) 133
Turkestan 31
al-Tūsī, Nasīr al-Dīn (1201–74) 37, 60
Tychonic system 66

U

Uhlenbeck, George Eugene (1900–88) 124
Umayyads 26, 29, 49
uncertainty principle 124
universal constants 148
universe, expanding 128, 147
Newtonian 79–81
scary 147
size of 19–20, 61–2
universities 50–1, 53, 86, 95
arts faculty 51, 53, 56–7
experimental natural philosophy 83
and physica 54–7
research 115
Unmoved Mover 8, 30, 32; see also First Principle
Uppsala 106
uranium 107, 127, 141
Uranus 88
Urban VIII, Pope (1568–1644) 64, 66, 69
Ure, Andrew (1778–1857) 89

V

vacuum 8, 19, 56, 73, 76
Vallarta, Manuel Sandoval (1899–1977) 129
Venerable Inceptor 54
Venice 66
Vesuvius 11
Vienna 59, 99, 101, 110, 129
Vine, Frederick John (1939– ) 143
Virgil (70–19 bce) 61
vision 20–2, 39; see also optics
Vitruvius (1st century bce) 17
Viviani, Vincenzo (1622–1703) 65
Volta, Alessandro (1745–1827) 85, 88
Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet, 1694–1778) 89
voluntarism 55, 69, 72,
vortex, Cartesian 73–4, 97, 121

W

Walton, E.T.S. (1903–95) 125
war spinoff 120, 142
Washington, D.C. 114, 128
Washington Conferences 128
Watt, James (1736–1819) 91
Wave-particle duality 110, 121, 123–5, 145
Weber, Wilhelm Eduard (1804–91) 96
Wegener, Alfred (1880–1930) 143
Weinberg, Steven (1933– ) 147
Wheeler, John Archibald (1911–2008) 134
Whewell, William (1974–1866) 102, 106, 139, 144
Wiedemann-Franz law 101, 111
Wiedemann, Gustav (1826–99) 101
Wigner, Eugene Paul (1902–95) 132, 135
William of Ockham (1288–1347) 54, 69
Wilson, C.T.R. (1869–1959) 130
Wilson, Robert Woodrow (1936– ) 140
Witelo, Erazm Ciolek (13th century) 58
World Soul 11, 16
Würzburg 107

X

X–rays 107, 110, 114, 121
Compton effect 123–4

Y

Young, Thomas (1773–1829) 91, 95
Yukawa, Hideki (1907–81) 130, 135
Yukon 130–1, 135, 136

Z

Zagreb 103
Zeeman effect 108
Zeeman, Pieter (1865–1943) 108
zijes 35, 37, 40
Zurich 123