Science of Discworld III

travel
    Pelger, Suzanne 45, 46
    Penrose, Roger 107
    petunias 275, 276–7
    phlogiston 298
    phocomelia 266–7, 271–2
    photons 77, 78
    physics 183–8, 192
    Newtonian 75–6, 78–80, 95
    quantum 75, 81–4, 100, 105–7, 184–9, 191, 195–201, 303
    pi 182
    pigeons 155, 156
    Pius XII, Pope 22
    Planck length 106, 184, 197–8
    plankton 217
    Platonia 80–4
    pogroms 318
    Poincaré, Henri 76, 236
    point singularities 96, 97, 100
    Poland 318
    Polchinski, Joseph 195
    politics 299
    polydnaviruses 273–4
    Polypan multinarrans 323–4
    population growth, exponential 127–8, 147–8, 159
    position 83
    present 77, 81, 212
    see also future; past; time travel
    pressure cookers 243
    principle of least action 186–7
    privatives 297–8
    probability 82–4, 194
    probability mists 81, 83
    projective geometry 174
    proteins 275–9
    heat shock 267–8, 270
    proviruses 274
    pseudoscientific movements 15–16
    Q
    Quakers 311, 318
    qualitative theories 19
    quantitative theories 19
    quantum foam 106, 191
    quantum gravity 105
    quantum mechanics 75, 81–4, 100, 105–7, 184–9, 191
    parallel worlds 106–7, 184–5, 187–95
    superimposition of states 106
    time travel 105–7
    unification with relativity theory 105, 195–201, 303
    quantum numbers 196
    Quantum Platonia 81–2
    quasars 79
    quasi-sciences 291
    R
    radiation 270–1
    radiuses, Schwarszschild 96
    Ramsay, Marmaduke 120
    reification 184–5
    relativity theory 75–81
    general 18, 75–6, 78, 93–6, 98–102, 104
    special 75–6, 236
    unification with quantum mechanics 105, 195–201, 303
    religion 15–17, 22, 49, 291–2, 293, 299–302
    beliefs 298–303
    Buddhism 302
    and evolution 11–13, 291–2
    faith 50–1
    fundamentalism 11–13, 156–7, 291–2, 299
    heterogeneous societies 318
    Hinduism 94
    Islam 291–2
    see also Christianity
    resources, linear growth 127–8, 147–8, 159
    retina 40
    retroviruses 278–80
    revolutions, scientific 236–8, 251–2
    ribonucleic acid (RNA) 276–9
    ring singularities 101
    Rivault, Florence 241
    RNA interference 277, 279
    rocket technology 314–16
    Roman Catholicism 15
    Royal Geological Society 125
    Royal Society 243–4, 311
    Ruse, Michael 17
    Russia 313, 317, 318, 319
    S
    St Jago island, Cape Verde Islands 123, 140, 142
    Savery, Thomas 243–4, 246
    Schrödinger, Erwin 298
    Schwarszschild, Karl 95–6
    Schwarszschild radius 96
    science 14–23, 228
    beliefs of 302, 302–3
    facts 289–90
    research 14–16
    theories 18–20, 289–92
    unanswerable questions of 50–1
    university study of 320
    Science of Discworld, The 228, 296, 297, 314–15
    Science of Discworld II, The 213, 214, 215, 228, 289, 314–15, 323
    science fiction 294–5
    scientific revolutions 236–8, 251–2
    secularism 22, 323
    Selfish Gene, The (Dawkins) 266, 275
    sergeants 321–2, 324
    sets 178–80, 181, 183
    sex 144
    Shelley, Mary 71
    shema 300
    Silverberg, Robert 63, 64
    singularities
    point 96, 97, 100
    ring 101
    Sirens 220, 229
    Skinner, B.F. 290
    Snyder, Hartland 96
    social class 319
    middle classes 311, 313, 320
    working classes 316–17
    social heterogeneity 317–19, 323–5
    Somerset, Edward (Marquis of Worcester) 242
    space
    Newtonian 76
    and time 62, 66–7, 72–3, 83
    see also spacetime
    space elevator 314–16
    space travel 314–16
    space-bolas 314–16
    spacetime 76–80
    asymptotically flat 80, 93–5, 97–8
    and black holes 97
    metric of 79–80, 94
    Minkowski’s 76, 77–8, 80, 93–5
    and quantum foam 191
    as ten dimensional 105
    species
    changeability of 152–6, 158–60, 247–51
    extelligent 252
    transmutation 124, 127, 144, 145, 152, 247–8
    Spence, William 117
    Spencer, Herbert 251, 319, 322
    sphere, volume of 172–3
    Spinoza, Baruch 302
    stars
    gravitational lensing 79–80
    origins of 14–15
    see also black holes
    steam engine time 236–7, 243–4, 246
    steam technology 238–47
    Stokes, Pringle 120–1, 142
    Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein) 295
    string theory 50, 105, 195–201
    sum, never-ending 173
    sum-over-histories technique 185, 187
    Sun
    eclipses 79
    escape velocity 95
    Schwarszschild radius 96
    superimposition of states 106
    superluminal highways 103
    Supreme Being (deist) 301–2
    survival of the fittest 251
    T
    Taoism 302
    technomancy 55
    tectonic plates 36–7, 126
    Tegmark, Max 189, 190–5
    Telford, Thomas 314
    Tenniel, Sir John 297
    Tennyson, Alfred 148
    terrorism 299, 300, 301
    thalidomide 266–7, 271–2
    theists 299–301
    authoritarian 299–300
    theories 18–20, 289–92
    Theory of Everything