Science of Discworld III

323–5
    dinosaurs 261–2, 296
    discovery 237–8
    Discworld novels
    Pyramids 66
    Small Gods 298
    Thief of time 65–6, 68–70, 84
    dodos 296–7
    dogs 155–6, 265
    domestication 155
    double helix 262
    Dumas, Alexandre (Dumas Père) 226–7
    Dyson, Lisa 106
    E
    earth 36–9
    age 50, 118, 157
    escape velocity 95
    magnetic field 158
    Schwarszschild radius 96
    East India Company 311
    eclipses 79
    Eddington, Sir Arthur Stanley 79
    Edis, Taner 17
    education 320–1, 323
    Einstein, Albert 18, 62, 75–80, 94–7, 101–2, 195, 236, 263, 290, 325
    Ellis, Havelock 74
    emotions 221–2, 293
    energy
    dark 19
    negative 100, 103
    vacuum 197–200
    entropy, negative 298
    environment, effect on genetic potential 267
    ERV-3 (Endogenous Retrovirus) 278–80
    escape velocity 95
    eukaryotes 274, 276, 278
    Euler, Leonard 173
    event horizon 96, 97
    Everett, Hugh III 106, 184, 189
    Everything, Theory of 105, 195
    evolution 15, 19–22, 32–6, 39–49, 223–5
    alternative evolutions 215–17, 225
    of birds 296–7
    common interpretations of 260–3
    and competition 128, 154
    consensus regarding 260
    constantly changing nature of 42–4
    Darwin’s early interest in 127–9, 143–51
    driving force behind 41–2
    and genetics 260–80
    impact of the theory of 259
    modification over time 259–60
    Origin of Species 44, 145–55, 235, 246–52, 319, 325–6
    origins of the theory 127–9
    as parallel process 46–7
    purpose 42
    and religion 11–13, 291–2
    summary of Darwin’s thinking on 154
    see also natural selection
    exons 274, 276
    exotic matter 100, 101, 102
    extelligence 252
    eyes 39–40, 44–7
    F
    facts 289–90
    faith 50–1
    see also beliefs
    fascism 318
    Feynman, Richard 185, 187
    fictions, consistent 212–13, 226–7
    finite 171, 173, 175–6, 183–4
    fish 223–4, 225
    Fisher, Sir Ronald 264–6
    FitzRoy, Robert 120–2, 140–1, 142
    flagella 47–9
    flooding 242–4
    Follett, Sir Brian 299
    Fourier analysis 107
    free will 107, 108–9, 219–21, 227–9
    see also determinism
    Freud, Sigmund 290
    frogs 269–71
    fruit flies 272
    fundamentalism 11–13, 156–7, 291–2, 299
    future 93–4, 212, 229
    see also past; present; time travel
    G
    Galápagos islands 41, 43–4, 112, 114, 124, 126, 127
    Galileo 15, 301
    Garay, Balso de 241
    Generalised Continuum Hypothesis 183
    genes 260, 262, 264–8, 270, 274, 277–8
    heterozygous 264–5
    homozygous 264
    selfish 275
    genetic assimilation 272
    genetics 260–80
    alleles 264–5
    deoxyribonucleic acid 260, 262–3, 266–7, 270–1, 274–80
    environmental influences on 267
    eukaryotes 274, 276, 278
    genes 260, 262, 264–8, 270, 274–5, 277–8
    genomes 262, 265, 274, 275–80
    heterozygosity 264–5
    homozygosity 264
    hybrids 156
    mutation 261, 263–5, 268, 270–2
    variation 156, 160, 265, 268
    genomes 262, 265, 274, 275–80
    geodesics 79, 80
    geology 36–9, 41,143, 156–8
    age of the Earth 50, 118, 157
    continental drift 36–7, 126, 157–8
    Darwin on 117–18, 123, 125–6
    Deep Time 118, 156–7, 158, 160, 247
    zircon and 36, 37–9
    geometry
    algebraic 174
    projective 174
    Geroch, Robert 100
    Gerrold, David 64
    ghosts 74
    God
    and creation 12–13, 21–2, 26, 32–3, 39, 42, 126–9, 150, 250, 273, 300
    necessity of 301
    rejection of 302
    relegation of 323
    Goddelson, Joshua 58
    Gödel, Kurt 93–4, 109
    gods 52–3
    googol 169–70
    googolplex 170
    Gould, John 126
    Gould, Stephen Jay 225
    Grand Canyon 158
    ‘grandfather paradox’ 63, 64, 107–8, 223–4
    granite 36, 37
    Grant, Peter 44
    Grant, Rosemary 44
    gravitational fields 95–7, 100
    gravitational lensing 79–80
    gravitons 106
    gravity 18, 78, 79, 80, 314
    magnetic 101
    quantum 105
    group II introns 277
    Guthrie, Thomas Anstey 71
    H
    Haack, Susan 14
    Haldane, J.B.S. 264–5
    Hamilton, Sir William Rowan 68
    Hamiltonian mechanics 68, 83
    Hardy, Thomas 322
    Harry, Owen 321
    Hau, Lene 104–5
    Hawking, Stephen 65, 105–6
    heat shock proteins (HSPs) 267–8, 270
    Heaven 300
    Heinlein, Robert 64, 295
    Hell 300
    heretics 300
    heritable variability 156, 160, 265, 268
    hermaphrodites 144
    Hero of Alexandria 239–40
    Herschel, Sir John 120
    heterozygous genes 264–5
    Hilbert, David 174–7, 180, 183
    Hilbert’s Hotel 175–7, 180
    Hinduism 94
    Hinton, Charles Howard 73–5
    Hinton, James 74
    historical inertia 210, 214
    historical romances 227
    history 82–4, 217–18, 226–9, 311–12
    Hofstadter, Douglas 222–3
    Homes, Sherlock 211–12
    homozygous genes 264
    Hooke, Robert 236
    Hooker, Joseph Dalton