| Description |
332 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-307) and index. |
| Contents |
Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1: Ancient Atomism: -- Defining atomism -- Leucippus and Democritus -- Atoms and Gods -- Atoms and the senses -- Late night with Lederman -- Atomism in ancient India -- Epicurus -- Differences with Democritus -- Post-epicurean atomism -- Lucretius -- Antiatomists -- 2: Atoms Lost And Found: -- Atomism in early Christianity -- Atomism in the Middle Ages -- Poggio and Lucretius -- Gassendi -- 3: Atomism And The Scientific Revolution: -- New world of science -- Galilean relativity -- Principia -- Particle mechanics -- Mechanical philosophy -- Primary and secondary qualities -- Other atomists -- More antiatomists -- 4: Chemical atom: -- From alchemy to chemistry -- Elements -- Chemical atoms -- Chemical opposition -- Philosophical opposition -- 5: Atoms Revealed: -- Heat and motion -- Heat engine -- Conservation of energy and the first law -- Mechanical nature of heat -- Absolute zero -- Second law of thermodynamics -- Kinetic theory -- How big are atoms? -- Statistical mechanics -- Arrow of time -- Energetic opposition -- Positivist opposition -- Evidence -- 6: Light And The Aether: -- Nature of light -- Aether -- Fields -- Electromagnetic waves -- Demise of the aether -- Time and space in special relativity -- Defining time and space -- Matter and energy in special relativity -- Invariance -- Symmetry -- Source of conservation principles -- 7: Inside The Atom: -- Anomalies -- Light is particles -- Rutherford atom -- Bohr atom and the rise of quantum mechanics -- Are electrons waves? -- New quantum mechanics -- Spin -- Dirac's theory of the electron -- What is the wave function? -- Heisenberg uncertainty principle -- Building the elements. |
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8: Inside The Nucleus: -- Nuclei -- Nuclear forces -- Atomic energy -- Nuclear fusion -- Nuclear fission -- Poisoning the atmosphere -- Nuclear power -- Liquid fluoride thorium reactors -- 9: Quantum Fields: -- Physics in 1945 -- More hydrogen surprises -- QED -- Fields and particles -- 10: Rise Of Particle Physics: -- Pion exchange and the strong force -- Fermi theory of the weak force -- Particle explosion -- New conservation principles -- Broken symmetries -- Nuclear democracy and The Tao of physics -- 11: Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of: -- Quarks -- Particles of the standard model -- Gauge symmetry -- Forces in the standard model -- Higgs Boson -- Making and detecting the Higgs -- Hunting the Higgs -- Higgs confirmed! -- Mass -- Grand unification -- Supersymmetry -- 12: Atoms And The Cosmos: -- After the bang -- Inflation -- Stuff of the universe -- What is the dark matter? -- Dark energy -- Cosmological constant problem -- Before the bang -- Matter-antimatter puzzle -- Eternal multiverse -- Something about nothing -- 13: Summary And Conclusions: -- They had it (mostly) right -- Matter -- Materialism deconstructed? -- Field-particle unity -- Wave-particle duality -- Reduction and emergence -- Role of chance -- Cosmos -- Mind -- No higher power -- Notes -- Bibliography -- About the author -- Other books by Victor J Stenger -- Index. |
| Summary |
Overview: This history of atomism, from Democritus to the recent discovery of the Higgs boson, chronicles one of the most successful scientific hypotheses ever devised, making the case that in the final analysis, atoms and the void are all that exists. Originating separately in both ancient Greece and India, the concept of the atom persisted for centuries, despite often running afoul of conventional thinking. Until the twentieth century, no direct evidence for atoms existed. Today it is possible to actually observe atoms using a scanning tunneling microscope. The book begins with the story of the earliest atomists--the ancient Greek philosophers Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus, and the Latin poet Lucretius. As the author notes, the idea of elementary particles as the foundation of reality had many opponents throughout history--from Aristotle to Christian theologians and even some nineteenth-century chemists and philosophers. While theists today accept that the evidence for the atomic theory of matter is overwhelming, they reject the atheistic implications of that theory. |
| Subject |
Atomism.
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Religion and science.
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Cosmology.
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Science -- Philosophy.
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Atomic theory.
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Atomic theory. (OCoLC)fst00820636
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Atomism. (OCoLC)fst00820644
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Cosmology. (OCoLC)fst00880600
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Religion and science. (OCoLC)fst01093848
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Science -- Philosophy.
(OCoLC)fst01108336
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| ISBN |
9781616147532 (cloth : alk. paper) |
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1616147539 (cloth : alk. paper) |
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9781616147539 (ebook) |
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