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THE DEFINITIVE VISUAL GUIDE



science



EDITOR-IN-CHIEF A DA M H A RT- DAV I S

science

THE DEFINITIVE VISUAL GUIDE

LONDON, NEW YORK, MELBOURNE,
MUNICH, AND DELHI

Senior Art Editors Senior Editors First American Edition, 2009
Stephen Knowlden, Vicky Short Janet Mohun, Kathryn Wilkinson
Published in the United States by
Section Designers Section Editors DK Publishing
Vivienne Brar, Paul Drislane, Mandy Earey, Ann Baggaley, Kim Dennis-Bryan,
Clare Joyce, Mark Lloyd, Heather McCarry, Jemima Dunne, Martha Evatt, 375 Hudson Street
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08 09 10 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designers Editors
Keith Davis, Supriya Sahai, Silke Spingies Katie John, Patrick Newman, Anna Osborn, [ID042—October 2009]
Frank Ritter, Nikki Sims, Sarah Tomley,
Illustration Visualizer Angela Wilkes Copyright © 2009 Dorling Kindersley Limited
Peter Laws All rights reserved

Jacket Designer US Editor Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of
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retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means
Production Controller Production Editors (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise),
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without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and
Picture Researchers Associate Publisher the above publisher of this book.
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Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited
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Editor-in-Chief Adam Hart-Davis
Main Consultants
Adam Hart-Davis is a writer, broadcaster, and photographer, and one of the world’s most
popular and respected “explainers” of science. His TV work includes What the Romans,
Victorians, Tudors and Stuarts, and Ancients Did For Us, Tomorrow’s World, Science Shack,
The Cosmos: A Beginner’s Guide, and Just Another Day. He is the author of more than 25
books on science, invention, and history.

John Gribbin Jeremy Cherfas Marty Jopson David Bradley

Physics Biology Biology Chemistry

Popular science writer, astrophysicist, and Writer and broadcaster in biological subjects, Science communicator and TV broadcaster, Science writer and editorial consultant,
Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University with a PhD in animal behavior. with a PhD in plant cell biology. chartered chemist and member of the Royal
of Sussex, UK. Society of Chemistry, UK.

Douglas Palmer Iain Nicolson Barry Lewis

Earth Sciences Astronomy and Space Math
Technology
Science writer and lecturer for the University Formerly Director of Maths Year 2000 and
of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Formerly Principal Lecturer in Astronomy at now President of the Mathematical
Education, UK, specializing in earth science the University of Hertfordshire, UK; writer, Association, UK.
and paleontology. lecturer, and occasional broadcaster on
astronomy and space science.

Contributors David Hughes Astronomy Other contributions Ann Baggaley, Hayley
Giles Sparrow Physics and Space Birch, John Farndon, Andrew Impey, Jane
David Burnie Biology and Medicine McIntosh, Sally Regan, Frank Ritter, Mark
Jack Challoner Physics Technology Steer, Amber Tokeley, Martin Toseland, James
Robert Dinwiddie Earth Sciences and Carole Stott Astronomy Urquhart, Diana Vowles.
Marcus Weeks Math and Technology
Physics
Derek Harvey Biology and Chemistry



1Contents Greek Mathematics 234
and Geometry
36
t ARISTOTLE 38
THE DAWN OF 40
SCIENCE Ancient Ideas of
the World 42 RENAISSANCE &
PREHISTORY TO 1500 12
Simple Machines 44 ENLIGHTENMENT
46 1500–1700
How Gears Work 64
48
t ”EUREKA!”
Introduction and 14 50 Introduction and Timeline 66
Timeline 16 Floating and Sinking
Fire Power 18 52 Birth of Experimental 68
Early Metalworkers 20 Algebra 54 Science
Evolution of the Wheel 22 70
Elements of Life Water and Wind Power Renaissance Medicine 72
Early Medicine 24 and Surgery
and Surgery 26 Alchemy 74
The First Astronomers 30 t56 The Human Body Revealed
Ancient Number Systems 32 t ZHANG HENG
58 THE SUN-CENTERED
t PYTHAGORAS Gunpowder and 60 UNIVERSE
Fire Weapons
62 Planetary Motion 76
The Printing Revolution

t ALHAZEN

East Meets West

Magnetic Fields 80

t GALILEO GALILEI 82
84
Exploring the Skies

Motion, Inertia, and Friction 86 3 t JOSEPH BLACK 148 The Fossil Record 186

Methods of Calculating 88 Organic Chemistry t150 FINDING 188
190
Circulation of the Blood 90 Plant Life Cycles 152 ARCHAEOPTERYX 192
92 How Plants Work 154 Dating the Earth 196
t ROBERT HOOKE 94
t THE FIRST Shaping the Landscape 198
Microscopic Life 200
VACCINATION 156 Probability and Statistics 202
Discovery of the Vacuum 96 THE INDUSTRIAL Static Electricity 204
98 t158 DARWIN’S THEORY 206
t ROBERT BOYLE 100 REVOLUTION BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 208
1700–1890 160 OF EVOLUTION
The Behavior of Gases tt THE FIRST BATTERY 210
162 How Evolution Works 212
Graphs and Coordinates 102 124 Electric Current 214
Electromagnetism t164 CHARLES DARWIN 216
Newton’s Laws of Motion 104 tIntroduction and Timeline 126 The Electric Motor 218
106 THE NEWCOMEN 166 Laws of Inheritance 220
t NEWTON’S IDEA OF ENGINE 130 t MICHAEL FARADAY 222
168 Atmospheric Movement
GRAVITY Steam Power to 132 Accurate Measurement
Calculating and 170 Predicting the Weather
Gravitational Force 108 tSteam Engine 134 Computing
110 HARRISON’S 136 Energy Conversion 172 Structure of
t ISAAC NEWTON 112 CHRONOMETER 138 The Nature of Heat the Atmosphere
Navigating the Oceans 140 Laws of Thermodynamics
Speed and Velocity 144 174 Studying the Oceans
The Nature of Matter 146 The Solar System 176 Animal and Plant Cells
The Nature of Light 114 178 Digestion
States of Matter How Rocks Form 180 Food and Health
Splitting and 116 Liquids under Pressure 182 The Nervous System
Bending Light The Discovery of Gases
184 The Brain
Comets and Meteors 118

Measuring Time 120

Classification of Species 122

Muscles, Bones, t 4The Nature of Sound 256 How Cells Divide 306
and Movement 308
224 Electromagnetic Spectrum 258 Chromosomes and 310
Human Reproduction Inheritance 312
226 Telegraph to Telephone 260
Safer Surgery t THE DISCOVERY OF
228 Photography 262
t MENDELEEV’S TABLE PENICILLIN
230 THOMAS EDISON 264
The Periodic Table The Development
232 Capturing Sound 266 THE ATOMIC AGE of Medicines
Chemical Reactions
234 Radio and Radio Waves 268
Speeding Up Reactions 1890 –1970236 Breathing and Respiration 270 280 Quantum Revolution 314
THE EXPANDING 318
Acids and Bases t238 The Five Senses
272 Introduction and Timeline 282 UNIVERSE
Mass Production
of Chemicals Regulating the Body 274 Structure of the Atom 286 The Big Bang 320
240 Animal Behavior 276 Chemical Bonds t288 THE FIRST ATOM BOMB 322
The Spread of Disease
242 Cycles in the Biosphere 278 Taking Flight 290 Fission and Fusion 324
Bacteria and Viruses 244 Vacuum Tubes 326
t292 RICHARD FEYNMAN
Natural Defenses The Discovery of X-rays 294 The Life Cycle of Stars 328
t246
Immunization and MARIE CURIE 296 Ecology and Ecosystems 332
Vaccination
248 Radiation and Conservation Biology 334
Artificial Light
Radioactivity 298 The Age of Plastics
Generating Electricity t250 336
EINSTEIN’S EQUATION 300 Rocket Propulsion
The Internal 252 338
Combustion Engine
tTheories of Relativity 302 Galaxies, Clusters,

254 ALBERT EINSTEIN 304 and Superclusters 340

t 5The Genetic codeCodes and Ciphers342 How Cloning Works 390
Nanotechnologies 392
t THE STRUCTURE OF DNA 346344
ALAN TURING Inside the Solar System 394
Space Probes and
348 Telescopes 396 REFERENCE
Dark Universe
Chaos Theory 350 THE Grand Unified Theory 398
String Theory 400 Measurement
The Structure of the Earth352 Body Imaging 402 Astronomy 420
354 Modern Surgical 404 Earth Science
INFORMATIONMOVING CONTINENTS356 Procedures 422
Disease Challenges Biology 424
t AGEPlate Tectonics The Human Genome 406 Chemistry 434
408 Physics 440
Active Earth 358 1970 ONWARD 374 t JAMES LOVELOCK 410 Mathematics 454
412 Who’s Who 462
Agriculture 362 Global Warming 414 Glossary 470
Renewable Energy 416 Index 476
Lasers and Holograms Introduction and Timeline 376 Tackling Climate Change 418 Acknowledgments 486
364 494
Microchip Technology 510
366 The Internet 378
Artificial Satellites
Artificial Intelligence 380
t MOON LANDING 368 and Robotics

Manned Space Travel 370 Subatomic Particles 382
384
t372 DOROTHY HODGKIN 386
Gene Technology
t IN VITRO 388
FERTILIZATION (IVF)

Foreword

I have always been fascinated by science, and for the last 15 years by
the history of science; so when I was asked to take part in the
preparation of this book I jumped at the chance.

And here it all is; this superbly illustrated book paints a broad picture of
the whole of science and its history. Arranged in chronological order,
according to when a scientific principle was first laid out or when a
process became technically possible, it begins with the ancient
Babylonians, Chinese, and Greeks, with the idea of the four elements,
and goes all the way through to string theory and space telescopes.

Science is not just a collection of answers, but an ongoing search for the
truth about how the Universe works; it is not merely about the facts, but
also about the struggle to discover them. One scientific idea often leads to
another, and then another. This was especially true of the vacuum:
theories and inventions followed one another rapidly in the mid-17th
century; steam engines were a natural consequence in the 18th, cathode-
ray tubes in the 19th, and today we have many more pieces of vacuum
technology. The book is divided into five chapters, from the dawn of
science through to the present day. Each chapter has its own timeline to
help you find the various threads that make up that particular period.

Scientific ideas often occur to more than one person at a time, which has
led to some disputes—over the invention of calculus, for example, or the
discovery of oxygen. All these events are included. Alongside the ideas
and theories in this book are the people who dreamed them up, from
Pythagoras and Aristotle to Einstein and Marie Curie. There are double-
page biographies of 19 major characters, and around 100 features on
other great pioneers, from Eratosthenes to Richter. At the end of the book
is a 54-page reference section, including brief biographies of all the major
scientists, past and present, plus a plethora of scientific facts.

Because of its sheer size and complexity, this is the toughest book I have
ever worked on, and it would never have been completed without a small
army of writers, editors, designers, artists, and picture researchers. I thank
them all, but particularly Janet Mohun and her team in the DK office.

Adam Hart-Davis

10





1

THE DAWN OF SCIENCE

PREHISTORY TO 1500

The ancient world saw the first breakthrough moments in science,
as the coming of age of great civilizations from Egypt to Babylon
proved a decisive spur to invention, people learned to write,
and scholars from Aristotle to Zeno had time and space to
think deeply about the world around them.

PREHISTORY TO 1500

THE DAWN OF SCIENCE

PREHISTORY TO 1500

14000 BCE 3000 BCE 2000 BCE 1000 BCE

14000 BCE c.3000 BCE c.2000 BCE c.670 BCE
First pots created in Acupuncture needles First wheels with Hippocrates
Japan. first used in China. spokes made. Baked establishes medical
Babylonians create a bricks used for school on the Greek
number system based important public island of Cos.
on 60; it survives in buildings in
the way hours and Mesopotamia. c.600 BCE
minutes are Oldest known world
measured today. map drawn by M ap by Herodotus,
Babylonians. c.450
Early acupuncture chart
Ziggurat of Ur, Iraq

A ncient Egyptian
astronomical calendar

Egyptian figurine Pythagoras of Samos

c.5500 BCE Jomon bowl c.2700 BCE 16th-century abacus 1500 BCE 500 BCE
Copper smelting Abacus first appears Oldest known Babylonian
begins in the Balkans in Mesopotamia and astronomical calendar astronomers note an
and West Asia. becomes widely used created in Egypt. eclipse cycle known
for calculations. as the Saros.
c.3500–3200 BCE
In Mesopotamia solid 495 BCE
wheels used for Pythagoras introduces
transportation. the concept of
mathematical
proof.

M esopotamian chariot
on the Standard of Ur

c.1300 BCE c.400 BCE c.350 BCE
Vertical obelisks used Empedocles states Aristotle provides
as clocks and that all matter is scientific evidence
compasses in Egypt. composed of four that Earth is a sphere.
Egyptians making elements: fire, earth,
objects in faience water, and air.
(ceramics).
c.3400 BCE
Ring of standing Early plank wheel Earth’s curved shadow
stones erected and C allanish stones cast on the Moon
used as an
astronomical calendar
at Callanish, Scotland.

c.2500 BCE c.1100 BCE Chinese bronze vessel
Chariots with solid Bronze cast in
wheels used in battle furnaces in China.
in Mesopotamia.

14

THE DAWN OF SCIENCE

As empires rose and fell, from Egypt to China, the practical demands of everything from accurate calendars to tax and land inheritance calculations
the first great cities and armies stimulated a wave of inventions—bronze prompted the first great stirrings of science. At the same time early
for making tools and weapons, wheels for moving loads and milling grain, stargazers such as Hipparchus were mapping the night sky with
gears for making machines, and the water and windmills to power those astonishing precision, and brilliant scholars such as Euclid and
machines. Meanwhile, the administrative needs of the new rulers for Al-Khwarizmi were laying the foundations of mathematics.

300 BCE 100 CE 700 CE 1000

c.300 BCE c.200 BCE c.100 c.700
The idea of longitude Hindu–Arabic Sculpture of Atlas The alembic for
put on a map by numerals and decimal shows the oldest distillation invented
Dicaearchus of system evolve into a known representation in Persia.
Messana. Euclid recognizable ancestor of the celestial globe.
establishes the basic of our modern
principles of geometry numerals.
in The Elements.

W oodcut depicting Chinese map of
Archimedes’ discovery the constellations

D iagram of eye from 1279
the Book of Optics Pierre de Maricourt
records the basic facts
c.1011–21 of magnetism.
Alhazen writes his
Book of Optics.

1000
Windmills with vertical
sails first used to drive
machinery.

c.240 BCE 132 2 nd-century sculpture 705 Wooden post mills
Archimedes discovers Zhang Heng invents of Atlas holding Map of the
how to measure the the first seismometer, the globe constellations drawn 1154
volume of irregular- which could not only in China. Earliest known
shaped objects. detect a distant mechanical clock built
Eratosthenes earthquake but also in Damascus, Syria.
formulates a system indicate in which 1202
for finding prime direction it occurred. Fibonacci publishes
numbers, known as Liber Abaci, proposing
the sieve of World map by Ptolemy Early Chinese rocket calculations using
Eratosthenes. zero to nine and
c.160 BCE place value.
230 BCE Hipparchus maps the
Earliest evidence of positions of about Fibonacci
geared mechanisms 1,000 stars and 1321
being used in China. calculates how far Mondino de Liuzzi
Earth is from the Sun. performs the world’s
C hinese chariot first public dissection.
with early gearing c.1440
mechanism Johannes Gutenberg
creates the first
150 c.800 c.900 Western European
World map drawn by Gunpowder invented Abulcasis develops printing press.
Ptolemy. He also in China. Hindu the ligature technique
divides the stars into symbol for zero in surgery. Gutenberg Bible
48 constellations. adopted in the Middle
East. Persian
c.300 mathematician
Mayans develop a Al-Khwarizmi invents
number system based algebra and the rules
on the numbers five for solving equations.
and 20, with symbols
that include zero.

15

PREHISTORY TO 1500

F ire is a chemical reaction between a and discolor are visible as flames and Making fire
fuel, such as wood, coal, or oil, and smoke. A fire generally sustains itself Heat is needed to start
oxygen in the air; it usually gives off until it has exhausted the supply of a fire. One common
energy in the form of heat and light. fuel or oxygen. method of creating
This can be harnessed and used to heat is by friction:
positive effect. The reaction starts Early humans and fire here, a stick is being
when the fuel is ignited, either rotated fast on a piece
naturally or by human effort by Charcoal and burned bones from of wood until a
another fire, a spark, or heat. Particles several African sites suggest people glowing ember
of burning materials and ash that glow may have controlled and used fire as is created.
early as 1.5 million years ago and
BEFORE certainly by 400,000 years ago. For the controlled burning to clear vegetation,
last 100,000 years fire has been in facilitating hunting and the growth of
In certain circumstances fire occurs common use. Control over fire brought useful plants.
naturally. Humans in prehistory saw its many benefits, including the ability to
potential and learned to control its power. live in colder regions and protection Fired clay
against predators. People’s diet was
TECHNOLOGY improved by eating cooked food, Using clay in domestic hearths
By 2.5 million years ago, when they began roasted over a fire or baked in the led people to discover the
making stone tools, early humans had embers. Fire also provided a social transformative power of fire on
understood that they could alter the natural focus. Some groups used torches clay. This knowledge was used
world to their own advantage. By employing or lit fires to stampede animals to create figurines of baked clay.
tools they could extend their abilities. into places where they could be
trapped and killed. Later, the technology was
FIRE’S POTENTIAL developed further, to produce
When early humans encountered naturally From the earliest times
occurring bush fires, they came to appreciate not when open fires were lit, pottery. Prepared clay was
only fire’s power to destroy the landscape and people began to develop mixed with a temper, such as
everything in it, but also its potential as a source hearths, often ringed by
of heat, light, and defense, and as a tool for stones. After 40,000 BCE Dolni Vestonice Venus
shaping the world. more efficient hearths with The Palaeolithic inhabitants of the Czech site of
clay surrounds and air- Dolni Vestonice produced many human and
intake channels were animal figurines c.20,000 years ago, including this
invented to control and example, modeled from a mixture of clay and
increase heat. Simple lamps carbonized bone before being baked.
were made from stones with a
natural hollow: in this animal fat
was burned, using a plant-fiber
wick. Some groups began

Fire Power

Fire is a terrifying and potentially devastating natural phenomenon. Early mastery of fire
offered many benefits to humankind including protection against wild animals, heat that
enabled them to spread into cooler regions, and the ability to cook food.

IN PRACTICE

FIRED BRICKS

Clay, as daub or sun-dried bricks, was an
important ancient building material. For
more durable and impressive structures, the
technology of ceramic production was used
to make baked bricks. Hand- or mold-
formed, the bricks were allowed to dry, then
fired in large stacks encased in fuel.
Fired-brick buildings and walls defended
people from enemies and the elements. In
the 3rd millennium BCE, the Harappans in
the Indus Valley used baked bricks to protect
against flooding, and for wells and bathroom
floors, while the Mesopotamians used them
for public buildings such as the ziggurat
(stepped temple-mound) of Ur, Iraq (right).

16

FIRE POWER

BREAKTHROUGH

FAIENCE AND GLASS

Jomon pot Before 4000 BCE people in western Eurasia
The world’s first pots were created in Japan around began producing faience objects, such as
14,000 BCE and soon developed into a well-made this Egyptian figurine (c.1300 BCE). This
product, Jomon ware, of which this pedestaled bowl precursor to glass was made with silica, such
is a late example. as quartz sand, mixed with a stabilizer (lime)
and an alkaline flux (often soda). The paste,
sand, to toughen it. After shaping, pots colored with copper oxide, was shaped,
were left to dry and then were fired in then heated to about 1500–1800º F
a clamp (bonfire kiln). The pots were (850–1000º C), causing the grains inside
stacked on and covered with a layer the paste to sinter (adhere) and the object’s
of fuel, then sealed by a layer of clay. surface to fuse as a thin glaze.
Holes in the top and around the sides
allowed air to circulate so the fuel From c.1600 BCE, furnaces reaching higher
would burn. More permanent kilns temperatures enabled a similar mixture to
appeared from c.6000 BCE in western be melted into a viscous liquid, true glass.
Asia. A fired vessel’s color depended During the first millennium BCE in the Levant,
on the type of clay and the firing glassblowing was invented, revolutionizing
conditions: circulating air produced the production of glass.
reddish hues, while the absence of air
turned the pottery black. “ When the earth was young…
human beings… did not know
The pyrotechnical skills needed to yet how to enlist the aid of fire.”
control kiln temperature and air flow
and to achieve high temperatures, LUCRETIUS (TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS), ROMAN PHILOSOPHER , C.100–C.55 BCE
coupled with a growing knowledge
of other natural materials, were the was cooked in an animal skin or AFTER
prerequisites for the development of skin-lined pit containing water by
other transformational industries, adding heated stones. The invention Mastery of fire has enabled civilizations to
including metallurgy and glassmaking. of pottery made boiling easier: fire transform the world, through technology
could be applied directly to the vessel of and controlled destruction.
Cuisine food and water. Unleavened bread was
cooked on hot stones or pottery dishes DIET
Fire made food easier to chew, more over the fire. Clay ovens appeared Over the last 2,000
digestible and often more palatable, from the sixth millennium BCE, heated years people have
and improved human health by killing by lighting a fire inside. developed ever more
bacteria and parasites. Heat enabled elaborate ways of
foodstuffs to be preserved for later use Through time, people experimented preparing food and
by drying or smoking, and was used to with different ways of cooking. Bread combining ingredients,
remove or neutralize poisons present and cakes were leavened with yeast, using heat in
in foodstuffs. By 40,000 BCE some food which created CO2, causing the increasingly
dough to rise; cooking hardened sophisticated ways.
the risen form.

MEDIEVAL KITCHEN

◁ Controlling fire TRANSFORMING MATERIALS
Harnessing the power of fire was an Heat has been used to transform many
materials, including metal ores 18–19 ❯❯.
important part of the development of Advances in ceramics include metallic glazes
and kilns capable of achieving higher and better
civilization and has influenced every controlled temperatures than before.

part of human life.

Egyptian figure HARNESSING ENERGY
This figurine (c.2500 BCE) A broadening range of fuels, including coal and
shows a servant girl natural gas, have been used to create heat and
grinding grain into flour to power. Applications include sophisticated ways
be baked in bread. of heating, such as Roman hypocausts
(underfloor heating). Steam power brought
about Europe’s Industrial Revolution.

SEE ALSO ❯❯ M SE
pp.18–19 E P
pp.132–33 S

17