15
suggest that each element
consisted of unique atoms, and
propose the idea of atomic weights.
Then German chemist August
Kekulé developed the basis of
molecular structure, while Russian
inventor Dmitri Mendeleev laid out
the first generally accepted periodic
table of the elements.
The invention of the electric
battery by Alessandro Volta in Italy
in 1799 opened up new fields of
science, into which marched
Danish physicist Hans Christian
Ørsted and British contemporary
Michael Faraday, discovering new
elements and electromagnetism,
which led to the invention of the
electric motor. Meanwhile, the ideas
of classical physics were applied to
the atmosphere, the stars, the
speed of light, and the nature of
heat, which developed into the
science of thermodynamics.
Geologists studying rock strata
began to reconstruct Earth’s past.
Paleontology became fashionable
as the remains of extinct creatures
began to turn up. Mary Anning, an
untutored British girl, became a
world-famous assembler of fossil
remains. With the dinosaurs came
ideas of evolution, most famously
from British naturalist Charles
Darwin, and new theories on the
origins and ecology of life.
Uncertainty and infinity
At the turn of the 20th century,
a young German named Albert
Einstein proposed his theory of
relativity, shaking classical physics
and ending the idea of an absolute
time and space. New models of
the atom were proposed; light was
shown to act as both a particle
and a wave; and another German,
Werner Heisenberg, demonstrated
that the universe was uncertain.
What has been most impressive
about the last century, however,
is how technical advances have
enabled science to advance faster
than ever before, leap-frogging
ideas with increasing precision.
Ever more powerful particle
colliders revealed new fundamental
units of matter. Stronger telescopes
showed that the universe isexpanding, and started with a
Big Bang. The idea of black holes
began to take root. Dark matter and
dark energy, whatever they were,
seemed to fill the universe, and
astronomers began to discover
new worlds—planets in orbit
around distant stars, some of
which may even harbor life. British
mathematician Alan Turing
thought of the universal computing
machine, and within 50 years
we had personal computers, the
worldwide web, and smartphones.Secrets of life
In biology, chromosomes were
shown to be the basis of inheritance
and the chemical structure of DNA
was decoded. Just 40 years later
this led to the human genome
project, which seemed a daunting
task in prospect, and yet, aided by
computing, got faster and faster as
it progressed. DNA sequencing is
now an almost routine laboratory
operation, gene therapy has moved
from a hope into reality, and the
first mammal has been cloned.
As today’s scientists build on
these and other achievements,
the relentless search for the truth
continues. It seems likely that there
will always be more questions than
answers, but future discoveries will
surely continue to amaze. ■INTRODUCTION
Reality is merely an illusion,
albeit a very persistent one.
Albert Einstein