Origins : the scientific story of creation

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COVER ORIGINS: THE SCIENTIFIC STORY OF CREATION COPYRIGHT DEDICATION CONTENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF FIGURES PREFACE THIS THING CALLED SCIENCE THE STORY IN OUTLINE (SPOILER ALERT!) 1: IN THE ‘BEGINNING’: The Origin of Space, Time, and Energy THE NATURE OF SPACE AND TIME MASS AND ENERGY GRAVITY AND GEOMETRY THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE TIME, SIZE, AND TEMPERATURE THE PLANCK EPOCH: ‘ZERO’ TO 10−43 SECONDS THE GRAND UNIFICATION EPOCH: 10−43 TO 10−35 SECONDS COSMIC INFLATION: 10−35 TO 10−32 SECONDS REHEATING 2: BREAKING THE SYMMETRY: The Origin of Mass THE NATURE OF QUANTUM PARTICLES QUANTUM FIELDS AND FORCES SPIN THE ELECTRO-WEAK EPOCH: 10−32 TO 10−12 SECONDS SPONTANEOUS SYMMETRY-BREAKING THE HIGGS MECHANISM AND THE ‘GOD PARTICLE’ THE STANDARD MODEL OF PARTICLE PHYSICS DARK MATTER THE QUARK EPOCH: 10−12 TO 10−6 SECONDS THE HADRON EPOCH: 10−6 SECONDS TO 1 SECOND THE LEPTON EPOCH: 1 TO 10 SECONDS 3: THE LAST SCATTERING SURFACE: The Origin of Light PRIMORDIAL NUCLEOSYNTHESIS ALPHER, BETHE, GAMOW RECOMBINATION THE COSMIC BACKGROUND RADIATION ANISOTROPY AND THE ORIGIN OF STRUCTURE HEISENBERG’S UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE COBE, WMAP, AND PLANCK THE Λ-CDM MODEL 4: SETTING THE FIRMAMENT ALIGHT: The Origin of Stars and Galaxies DARK MATTER HALOS THE FIRST STARS STELLAR NUCLEOSYNTHESIS THE SHORT BUT SPECTACULAR LIVES OF POPULATION III STARS THE FATES OF POPULATION III STARS POPULATION II STARS: THE HERTZSPRUNG–RUSSELL DIAGRAM ATOMIC ORBITALS AND ENERGY LEVELS REDSHIFT, STANDARD CANDLES, AND HUBBLE’S LAW REDSHIFT SURVEYS GALAXY TYPES, ROTATION CURVES, AND DARK MATTER THE COSMIC EVENT HORIZON 5: SYNTHESIS: The Origin of Chemical Complexity THE MILKY WAY CHEMICAL ELEMENTS ASTROCHEMISTRY INTERSTELLAR MOLECULES HYBRID ORBITALS AND LONE PAIRS STARDUST GIANT MOLECULAR CLOUD THE ACCELERATING UNIVERSE AND THE RETURN OF THE COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT 6: SOL: The Origin of the Sun and its Planets NEITH, THE ‘MOTHER CLOUD’ EVIDENCE FOR A SUPERNOVA THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS ON THE HAYASHI–HENYEY TRAIL MEANWHILE, ON THE PROTOPLANETARY DISK PLANETESIMALS AND PROTOPLANETS THE RISE OF THE GAS AND ICE GIANTS BUILDING THE TERRESTRIAL PLANETS IGNITION 7: TERRA FIRMA: The Origin of a Habitable Earth THE IRON CATASTROPHE MANTLE AND CRUST ATMOSPHERE MOON WATER, OCEAN, AND CLIMATE MAGNETOSPHERE THE NICE MODEL PLATE TECTONICS 8: THE COSMIC IMPERATIVE: The Origin of Life LIFE’S BUILDING BLOCKS EXOGENOUS DELIVERY: BUILDING BLOCKS FROM SPACE THE PRIMORDIAL SOUP AND THE MILLER–UREY EXPERIMENTS HYDROTHERMAL VENTS THE EMERGENCE OF A PRIMITIVE METABOLISM THE IRRESISTIBLE RISE OF RNA THE RNA WORLD THE GENETIC CODE THE INVENTION OF DNA THE BIRTH OF LUCA 9: SYMBIOSIS: The Origins of Complex Cells and Multicellular Organisms THE EVOLUTION OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS EVIDENCE FOR EARLY LIFE FORMS THE DOMAINS OF BACTERIA AND ARCHAEA THE GREAT OXIDATION EVENT ENDOSYMBIOSIS AND THE RISE OF THE EUKARYOTES SIZE MATTERS FROM ONE TO MANY LET US PREY SEX AND DEATH THE GROWTH OF DIVERSITY THE EDIACARAN RADIATION AND THE FIRST ANIMALS 10: A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE: The Origin of Species THE CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION THE WEIRD (BUT WONDERFUL) DENIZENS OF THE BURGESS SHALE MASS EXTINCTIONS: THE ‘BIG FIVE’ THE GREENING OF THE WORLD THE RISE OF THE TETRAPODS PANGAEA: THE LAST SUPERCONTINENT THE GREAT DYING THE AGE OF THE DINOSAUR THE CRATER AT CHICXULUB 11: THE HUMAN STAIN: The Origin of Humanity DARWIN’S FINCHES AND THE RADIATIONS OF THE MAMMALS MEET THE PRIMATES PLANET OF THE APES FOOTPRINTS ON THE SANDS OF TIME ECCE HOMO ON THE TRAIL OF THE WISE MAN OUT OF AFRICA 12: COGITO ERGO SUM: The Origin of Human Consciousness THE HARD PROBLEM THE MIND–BODY PROBLEM NEURAL CORRELATES BUT WHERE DO I FIND ‘ME’? ON THE PATH TO THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD FOXP2 AND THE LANGUAGE INSTINCT OTHER MINDS, INTENTIONALITY, AND THE SOCIAL BRAIN ARE WE STILL EVOLVING? EPILOGUE APPENDIX: Powers of Ten NOTES CHAPTER 1: IN THE ‘BEGINNING’ CHAPTER 2: BREAKING THE SYMMETRY CHAPTER 3: THE LAST SCATTERING SURFACE CHAPTER 4: SETTING THE FIRMAMENT ALIGHT CHAPTER 5: SYNTHESIS CHAPTER 6: SOL CHAPTER 7: TERRA FIRMA CHAPTER 8: THE COSMIC IMPERATIVE CHAPTER 9: SYMBIOSIS CHAPTER 10: A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE CHAPTER 11: THE HUMAN STAIN CHAPTER 12: COGITO ERGO SUM EPILOGUE BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX