A Brief History of Creation (47 page)

Arrhenius, Svante, 216

artificial insemination, 70

atheism, 65, 66, 68, 69, 132

and evolution, 106, 155

government repression of, 29, 120

and origin of life, 78–79, 120, 253, 255–56

Athenaeum,
112, 113

Atlantis Massif, xii–xiii

atomic bomb, 271n

atoms:

coining of term, 7n

Needham's studies of, 58

Atum (Egyptian god), 3

Augustine of Hippo, Saint, 12–14, 81, 254

Literal Commentary on Genesis,
12–13

Australia:

last universal common ancestor in, 224

Murchison meteorite, 220, 222, 250

prehistoric era in, 223–24

Yalgorup National Park,
225

autotrophs, 238

Avery, Oswald, 202

Babbage, Charles, 89

Babylonians, 5–6

bacteria, 27, 228

airborne, 138, 139, 142–43

and antibiotics, 235n

bacterium eater, 166

boiling to kill, 126

dead, genes scavenged from, 236

discovery of, 38, 40

lunar, 190–91

reproduction of, 182

superbugs, 236

bacteriophages, 166, 248

Bakh, Aleksei Nikolaevich,
Tsar-Golod
(“Tsar of Hunger”), 156

Balzac, Honoré de, 122

Barnard, George, 141–42

Barre, Jean-François de la, 45, 46, 47, 48, 71

Barre, Joseph-Antoine de la, 45

basalts, 237

Bastian, Henry Charlton, 133–35, 139–41, 157, 256, 258

on aphasia, 134

and archebiosis, 134–35, 141

The Beginnings of Life,
135, 141, 143

and consciousness, 133, 200, 245

and miasmatic theory, 138

recipes for microbes, 259

and spontaneous generation, 134–35, 137, 138, 139, 141, 143–44, 148

Bayle, Peter,
Dictionnaire historique et critique,
46, 51

Becquerel, Henri, 159

bees:

recipe for creation of, 18–19

studies of, 31, 34, 37

Beilstein's Handbook of Organic Chemistry,
178

Bergmann, Max, 197

Berkelse Mere, 25–26, 27, 38

Bernard, Claude, 126

Berthelot, Marcellin, 217

Bertrand, Alexandre, 83

Bible:

and creation stories, 102, 107, 147

and literalists, 255

see also
religion

Big Bang theory, 148, 206, 218–19

biochemistry, 242

biology:

lines of descent, 60;
see also
tree of life

molecular, 255

synthetic, 253

biomarkers, 214

biotechnology, 247

Blackburn, Elizabeth, 244–45

black smokers, xiii

Bletchley Park, 206

body fluids (“ferments”), 20

Bohr, Niels, 174

Boltwood, Bertram, 159

Bonaparte, Louis-Napoleon, 127

Bonaparte, Napoleon, 120–21, 124, 127

Bonnet, Charles, 54n

Bosch, Hieronymus, 27

Boulanger, Nicolas, 67, 68

Boyle, Robert, 32, 35–36

Bragg, William Lawrence, 201

brain, studies of, 133–34

Brenner, Sydney, 242

British Association for the Advancement of Science, 86, 130–31, 148

Brock, Thomas, 237

Brouncker, William, 35

Bryan, William Jennings, 172, 182

Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de, 56–60, 67

and age of Earth, 147, 158

and Jardin du Roi, 51, 58, 61

and Lamarck, 120

and materialism, 54, 59

Natural History,
51–52, 56, 58, 59–61, 96, 121, 223

and Needham, 56–60,
57
, 71–72

and origin of life, 52, 56, 59, 61, 119

on reproduction, 60

and Voltaire, 60–61, 66

Buffon's needle, 51

Burnet, MacFarlane, 182

Bynoe, Benjamin, 92

Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 76–77

California Institute of Technology (Caltech), 192, 197

Calvin, Melvin, 175–76, 184

camera obscura, 33–34

carbon dioxide, isolation of, 20

Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, 201, 203

Cech, Thomas, 241–42, 243–44, 245

cell membrane, lack of, 238

cells:

building from scratch, 245–46, 247, 249, 260

elements of, 196–97

and genetic code, 206

naming of, 196

nature of, 195–97

precursors of, 198–99

cellular metabolism, 166, 178, 195, 197, 242

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 180, 182

Chambers, Robert,
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation,
88–91, 101, 106–7, 109, 112, 255

Charles II, king of England, 35

Charles Island prison colony, 96, 97

Charles X, king of France, 121

Charlotte, Queen (George III's wife), 80

Châtelet, Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du, 61–63, 71

chemistry:

organic and inorganic, 83

prebiotic, 177

chicken-or-egg paradox, 195, 240

Child, Julia, 153n

chirality, 228

cholera (
Vibrio cholerae
), 135–37,
136
, 166

chromosomes, 195, 198, 244, 247

Chuaria
algae, 163

Churchill, Winston, 208

Cicero, 4

cilia, 243

Clairaut, Alexis, 63

Clark, Ronald,
JBS: The Life and Work of JBS Haldane,
269n

Clarke, Arthur C., 153

Claus, George, 217

Cleaves, H. James II, 177–78n

Clinton, Bill, 215

clones:

and binary fission, 224

first use of term, 153

coacervates, 165

codon, 206

Cohn, Ferdinand, 144

cold fusion, discovery of, 91n

Cold War, 180–82,
181
, 183, 185, 271n

Collins, Michael, 188

common ancestor, 116, 196

Darwin on, 97, 225, 228, 236

LUCA, 224–25,
225
, 234, 237, 240

consciousness, 104, 133, 200, 207, 245

Constantine VII, Emperor, 18

Copernicus, 14, 266

Corynebacterium diphtheriae,
234–35

Cosimo III of Tuscany, 23–24

Cosimo II of Tuscany, 17–18

Cowley, Ambrose, 93

creation stories, 1–4, 14

biblical, 102, 107, 147

divine process of creation, 3, 120, 126, 145

frogs of the Nile, 2–3,
2

life from nonlife, 3

naturalistic, 79

nonbiological, 141

science fiction, 77

Crick, Francis, 200–207, 229, 242

and consciousness, 200, 245

and DNA structure, 200–204,
205
, 226

funeral of, 254

and genetics, 205, 206, 209, 227, 241

Life Itself,
240

and panspermia, 218

and religion, 208–9

reputation of, 208

and RNA, 206–7

Crick, Michael, 254

Crosse, Andrew, 74–76, 79, 84–91, 140

Acarus crossii,
87,
87
, 88, 90, 91n

and crystals, 74, 86, 87, 123

electrical experiments of, 74–75, 83, 84–85, 86, 87

sensational newspaper stories about, 75–76, 77, 86–87, 88, 90

and spontaneous generation, 75, 76

and
Vestiges,
88–91

Crosse, Richard, 83

Cryptozoon,
161–62, 163, 213

crystallography research, 201, 203

crystals:

aperiodic, 195

aragonite, 85

and chirality, 228

electromagnetic properties of, 138

formation of, 74, 86, 87, 123–24

magnetosomes, 214

Cuvier, Georges, 120–23, 127

cytoplasm, 196

Dalí, Salvador, 204

Darwin, Charles, 88, 187, 200

autobiography of, 102, 108

at Cambridge, 105

on common ancestor, 97, 225, 228, 236

comparison with, 226

critics of, 112–13, 114, 115

The Descent of Man,
115

and evolution, 97–98, 106–8, 129, 155, 157–59

and fossils, 94, 95, 96, 99, 100, 101, 160–61, 163

on Galápagos, 9–10, 91, 93–98, 100

and HMS
Beagle,
92–98, 105, 110

and Huxley, 130

influence of, 114–16, 155

on life from nonlife, 113–14, 145

and Lyell, 98–99, 107–9

on natural selection, 60, 107, 108, 158–59, 167, 228, 235

and “one primordial form,” 225, 228

On the Origin of Species,
10, 107–14, 118, 126, 127, 130, 155–56, 158, 160–61, 224, 228

and origin of life, 98, 134–35, 147, 157, 161, 224

reputation of, 98–99, 110,
111
, 113, 130

time as enigma for, 157–58, 216

and transmutation, 97, 102, 103, 106, 110

and tree of life, 228–29,
233

Voyage of the Beagle,
100–101

“warm little pond” of, 153, 198, 225

Darwin, Emma Wedgwood (wife), 105–6

Darwin, Erasmus (brother), 101–2

Darwin, Erasmus (grandfather), 93, 104–5, 114

The Temple of Nature,
78

and transmutation, 77–78, 102, 103

Darwin, George (son), 158

Davy, Humphrey, 86, 118, 151

Dawkins, Richard, 253, 256–57

deists, 65, 66, 67

della Molera, Count Bruto, 18

della Rovere, Vittoria, 17–18, 23

Democritus, 7n

dental plaque, 39–40

Descartes, René, 59, 61, 66, 82

De la formation de l'animal,
53–54

Diderot, Denis, 15, 68

Encyclopedia,
67

Dinosauria, coining of term, 98

diphtheria, 234–35

disease:

and bacteria, 40

germ theory of, 129, 137, 138–39, 141, 142–44

infections, 234–35

miasmatic theory of, 136, 138

nature of, 135–37

transmission of, 137–39, 218

war followed by, 27

Disraeli, Benjamin, 73, 88

DNA:

built in a laboratory, 246

and the cell's “internal fossil record,” 229

and genetic code, 206

and genetic inheritance, 201, 202, 204–5

lingering before decaying, 236

name of, 202

repair of, 244

and RNA, 206–7, 241

role of, 241

structure of, 185, 200–204,
205
, 206, 226

and viruses, 274n

X-ray images of, 203

domains, 231

Doval, Marie, 116

Dumas, Alexandre, 117

Dunn, Max, 192

dust mites, 90

Earth:

age of, 145, 146–47, 148, 157–60, 163, 216

and Big Bang theory, 148, 206, 218–19

biomarkers on, 214

circumference of, 4n

creation of, 146, 148

daily rotation of, 158

early atmosphere of, 145, 164–65, 176–78,
177
, 197

first life on, 157, 160, 178–79, 185

life migration via meteorites, 216

magnetic field of, 213–14

ozone layer of, 165, 223

in space, 7

ultraviolet radiation on, 165

volcanic activity on, 165

Edinburgh Review,
89–90

Edwards, William Henry,
A Voyage up the River Amazon,
109

“eels,” 50–51, 56, 66, 69

egg, life originating from, 23, 24, 40

Egypt:

creation stories in, 1–4

frogs of the Nile, 2–3,
2

Eigen, Manfred, 248

Einstein, Albert, 114, 147, 226

élan vital,
81, 82

electic capacitor, 85

electric battery (voltaic cell), 81

electricity:

“animal,” 79–81

and formation of crystals, 74, 87

as life-giving force, 81

mathematical formula for, 84

roles in the body, 81

and spontaneous generation, 75, 76, 79

studies in, 83–88

electrolysis, 86

electromagnetism, 83, 84, 138

elements:

and CHON, 164, 222

in early atmosphere, 164–65, 176

identification of, 6–7

origins of, 174

Elizabeth I, queen of England, 265n

embodiment, theory of, 52

Engels, Friedrich,
Dialectics of Nature,
169

Enlightenment, 28–30, 36, 46, 67

enzymes, 20, 195

Epicurus, 10, 45

Eratosthenes, 4n

eukaryotes, 196, 229, 231, 232, 235, 243, 244

evolution:

abiogenesis, xvii, 141, 145, 148

acquired characteristics, Lamarck's theory of, 104, 106, 121, 167–68

adaptation, 101

archebiosis, 134–35, 141

beginning of life, 97–98, 113–14, 141

of cells, 229

common ancestor, 97, 116, 224, 228, 234, 236

as continuous process, 135

creation of new species, 102, 103

critics of the theory of, 140, 141

and Darwin, 97–98, 106–8, 129, 155, 157–59

debate on, 131

developers of the theory, 114

evidence of, 115

extinction, 96, 97, 121

and genetics, 153, 227, 238

history of life traced via, 234

and horizontal gene transfer, 235

humans from apes, 115, 131

and molecular clock, 230

and mutation, 194, 207, 235

natural selection, 60, 102, 106, 110, 114, 115, 157–59, 167, 228, 235

origin of life, 97–98, 110–14, 116, 194, 208, 228

pace of, 157

Pasteur on, 118–19

as revolutionary force, 155–56

species similarity, 164

survival of species, 102, 109

survival of the fittest, 167

transmutation, 78, 88, 97, 102–3, 106, 110, 113, 114

variations in species, 96–97, 100–101, 104, 109

and the Vatican, 208, 254

and X Club, 130, 139

exobiology, 184–85, 186, 187, 191, 193, 218, 221, 230

experimentation, observation and deduction, 4, 21, 24

extinction, 96, 97, 121

extraterrestrial life, 184–85, 219, 221