Armageddon Science (30 page)
Read Armageddon Science Online
Authors: Brian Clegg
Information on the spread of the ARPANET worm is from Charles Schmidt and Tom Darby,
The What, Why, and How of the 1988 Internet Worm
,
http://snowplow.org/tom/worm/worm.html
.
Information on the etymology and first uses of “cybernetics” is from the
Oxford English Dictionary
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989).
The small-scale examples of cyberterrorism are taken from Dan Verton,
Black Ice: The Invisible Threat of Cyber-terrorism
(Emeryville, California: McGraw-Hill, 2003).
The research showing how failure of a subnetwork with a low load could be better at taking out the U.S. West Coast grid than failure of a subnetwork with a high load is at Jian-Wei Wang and Li-Li Rong,
Cascade-Based Attack Vulnerability of the US Power Grid,
Safety Science, 47, 1332, 2009.
Ian Fells’s comment about using Semtex near a power station is from Paul Marks, “How to Short-Circuit the American Power Grid,”
New Scientist,
September 12, 2009.
The 1997 cyberattack exercise is described in Dan Verton,
Black Ice: The Invisible Threat of Cyber-terrorism
(Emeryville, California: McGraw-Hill, 2003).
The July 2009 cyberattack on U.S. computers is described on the BBC Web site at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8139821.stm
.
The number of serious cyberattacks on energy companies and the suggestion that many are organized from the Middle East features in Dan Verton,
Black Ice: The Invisible Threat of Cyber-terrorism
(Emeryville: McGraw-Hill, 2003).
The threat from access to wireless networks, such as the American Airlines curbside check-in, is described in Dan Verton,
Black Ice: The Invisible Threat of Cyber-terrorism
(Emeryville, California: McGraw-Hill, 2003).
Chapter 8
No Longer Human
The assertion that the urge to enhance ourselves is part of what makes us human is from Brian Clegg,
Upgrade Me
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2008).
Road traffic accident mortality rates from
Wolfram Alpha,
www.wolframalpha.com.
Ray Kurzweil predicts the coming of the Singularity, merging human and technology to produce a new form of life, in Ray Kurzweil,
The Singularity Is Near
(London: Duckworth, 2005).
The prediction of posthuman evolution via robots from BT’s labs is from Ian Pearson, Chris Winter, and Peter Cochrane,
The Future Evolution of Man
(Ipswich, UK: BT Labs, 1995).
Information on Neanderthal man is from Clive Finlayson,
The Humans Who Went Extinct
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
Damien Broderick’s example of the growth curve of speed of transport is cited in Bill McKibben,
Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age
(New York: Henry Holt, 2003).
Chapter 9
Future Fears and Natural Pitfalls
John Michell’s early ideas on earthquakes are described in Florin Diacu,
Megadisasters
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
The use of muons to probe the interior of Japanese volcanoes is described in “Cosmic Rays Reveal Volcano’s Guts,”
New Scientist,
October 3, 2009.
Information on the Yellowstone supervolcano is from Bill Bryson,
A Short History of Nearly Everything
(New York: Broadway Books, 2003).
Details of Archimedes’ weapons are from Brian Clegg,
Light Years
(London: Macmillan, 2007).
Bulwer-Lytton’s vril is described in P. D. Smith,
Doomsday Men
(London: Penguin Books, 2007).
For more on the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest see
www.bulwer-lytton.com/
.
Enrico Fermi’s wondering where the aliens were is described in Marcus Chown,
We Need to Talk About Kelvin
(London: Faber & Faber, 2009).
Ice Nine appears in Kurt Vonnegut,
Cat’s Cradle
(London: Penguin, 1965).
The impact of the rising of the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau is described in Clive Finlayson,
The Humans Who Went Extinct
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
The most recent glacial period and the move into an interglacial one, with their impact on humanity, are described in Steven Mithen,
After the Ice
(London: Phoenix, 2004).
Chapter 10
Cautious Optimism
Eve’s taking the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is from the New English Bible (London: Oxford and Cambridge University Presses, 1970).
Information on the autistic spectrum, the extreme male brain, and its frequency of occurrence in the sciences is from Simon Baron-Cohen,
The Essential Difference
(London: Penguin, 2004).
Lisa Jardine’s comments on the lack of competence of the ruling classes to make decisions about science and technology are from her C. P. Snow Lecture, delivered at Christ’s College, Cambridge, England, on October 14, 2009.
The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
A. M. Turing’s Ace Report of 1946 and Other Papers
(ed. Carpenter/Doran)
Abelson, Philip
Acheson, Dean
Acheson-Lilienthal report
Adam and the tree in the garden of Eden
aerosols (particles in the air)
AIDS
as potential weapon
airports
radiation detection devices and
wireless systems, vulnerability of
al Qaeda
Algerian army, gas warfare and
Alibek, Ken
alien invasion
Alley, Richard
alpha particle
Alvarez, Luis
Amazon rain forest
decline of
and positive feedback
American Airlines
wireless systems, vulnerability of
American Petroleum Institute global warming, campaign to dismiss
American Physical Society
americium
Anderson, Carl D.
Angels and Demons
(Brown)
and antimatter
FACT section
anthrax
development as a weapon
effect of
postal attacks following 9/11
antihydrogen
antimatter
big bang and
cyclotron (small particle accelerator)
as energy
from natural sources
PET (positron-emission tomography) scanner
storage of
antimatter containers (traps)
antimatter weapon
Antiproton Decelerator
antiquark
antispyware
antivirus
Arabs and Greek philosophers
Archimedes
Ariel (fictional character)
ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency)
ARPANET
Robert Morris’s worm
See also
Internet
artificial intelligence
artificially upgraded humans
artificial intelligence
Homo hybridus
robotic development
Singularity
See also
human beings
Aryan Nations
Asimov, Isaac
Asperger, Hans
Asperger’s syndrome
asteroid collisions
Cambrian/Ordivician event
Devonian event
iridium and
K/Pg (Cretaceous-Paleogene event)
K/T (Cretaceous-Tertiary event)
nuclear weapons, using against
Ordovician/Silurian event
Permian/Triassic event
Triassic/Jurassic event
Tunguska (Siberia) event
atomic bomb.
See under
nuclear weapons
atomic energy.
See
nuclear reactor
Atomic Energy Act
atomic pile.
See
nuclear reactor
atomic weapons.
See
nuclear weapons
atoms
concept of
proof of existence
atoms (manipulating)
and computer chips
and electronic devices
at the molecular level
problems producing new objects
Attlee, Clement
Aum Shinrikyo
Australian bush
and positive feedback
autistic spectrum
Back to the Future
(film series)
Bacon, Roger
and the talking brass head
Bangladesh (East Pakistan)
cyclone deaths
Baron-Cohen, Simon
Baruch, Bernard
Basov, Nikolay
Beijing Olympics
NEST and
Beria, Lavrenty
Berkeley Radiation Laboratory
berkelium
Berners-Lee, Sir Tim
beryllium
beta decay
Bethe, Hans
Bhopal (India) disaster
big bangand
antimatter
energies in
as a theory
See also
particle physics
Bikini Atoll test
fallout from
radiation poisoning
Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
biological weapons
anthrax
anthrax, postal attacks with following 9/11
Canada and
delivery, problem of
diseased corpses
history of
international conventions and inspections
Japan and
kinds of agents
manufacture and acquiring, ease of
potential death from
smallpox-riddled blankets
spread of diseases, difficulty of controlling
terrorists and
testing in the population
United Kingdom and
United States and
USSA and
Western countries and
See also
chemical weapons; infections; terrorism
Biopreparat
Black Death
death from
Feodosia (Ukraine) siege
black holes
event horizon
gravitational fores
Hawking radiation
Large Hadron Collider and
particle-sized
as a theoretical construct
Bock’s Car
(B-29)
Nagasaki bombing
Boden, Vitek
Bohr, Niels
border crossings
radiation detection devices and
Borg aliens (fictional characters)
Boxer, Barbara
Brasenose Collage (Oxford)
and the talking brass head
Broderick, Damien
Brown, Dan
Brown, Doc (fictional character)
Brown, Robert
BT (British telecommunications company)
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward
C-bomb (cobalt bomb)
fallout from
Caldeira, Ken
californium
Cambrian/Ordivician event
Canada
and biological weapons
Canadian forests
and positive feedback
carbon capture
zeolitic imidazolate frameworks
carbon dioxide (CO
2
)
Industrial Revolution and
livestock and
as a nanoparticle
oceans, absorbed by
recycling
Carpenter, B. E.
Carteret Islands
abandonment of
Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio)
Casimir effect
Cavendish Laboratory (Cambridge, England)
cell phones
Commwarrior (worm)
viruses, trojans, and worms
chain reaction
Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan
chemical weapons
international conventions and inspections
nerve gases
terrorists and
World War I, gas warfare in
World War II, gas usage in
See also
biological weapons; gas warfare; nerve gases; terrorism
Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997
Chernobyl accident
commercial impact of
death from
environmental impact of
Chicago
heat wave, casualties from
child mortality
China
economic growth
global warming and
and nuclear weapons
SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak
water supply
China Syndrome
chlorine gas
effects of
Christiansen, Bob
Churchill, Winston
and gas warfare
and the “iron curtain,”
cities, sea-level rises and
Clarke, Arthur C.
climate change (global warming)
aerosols and
agriculture, major changes in
carbon capture
carbon dioxide (CO
2
) and
coniferous forests, decline of
conservatives and
droughts
food, access to
greenhouse effect
greenhouse effect and positive feedback
ice, disappearance of
impacting with changes
long-term investments and
methane output, livestock and
as a mistaken theory
normal services, disruption of
ocean, seeding with iron filings
ocean conveyor system, collapse of
oil companies and
organized resistance to
power, price of
power outages
skeptics and deniers
sea-level rises
sea-level rises, and storm surges
Siberian permafrost, melting of
solar shield and
UN and
and urban heat waves
water shortages
and the weather
wildfires
clouds, and the climate
cobalt 60
and the Korean war
Cochrane, Peter
Cockroft, John
cold war
and the arms race
the iron curtain
Coming Race, The
(Bulwer-Lytton)
Committee on the Medical
Preparedness for a Terrorist
Nuclear Event
computer chips
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
computers
antivirus, firewalls, and antispyware
viruses, trojans, and worms
Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures
coniferous forests, decline of
Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN)
and antimatter
Antiproton Decelerator
Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
See also
particle physics
cosmic rays
antimatter emissions from impact of
Crichton, Michael
Cuban missile crisis
Curie, Marie
Curie, Pierre
cyberterrorism
and addressing computers
denial-of-service attacks
microchips, sabotaging
viruses, trojans, and worms
wireless connections, vulnerability of
cyclones
death and destruction from
See also
hurricanes
cyclotron (small particle accelerator)
Da Vinci Code, The
(Brown)
Dalian University (Liaoning, China)
Dalton, John
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)
Day After Tomorrow, The
(film)
death camps
cyanide gas and
death ray
Dehmelt, Hans
Democritus
Denver
background radiation level
Department of Homeland Security radiation detection devices, installation of
deuterium
Devonian event
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)
dinosaurs
extinction of
dirty bombs
disaster movies, popularity of
diseased corpses as
biological weapons
ease of acquiring
Donne, John
doomsday weapon.
See
C-bomb Doran, R. W.
Dresden
firebombing raids on
Drexler, K. Eric
droughts
See also
water shortages
e-mail
viruses, trojans, and worms
E = mc
2
nucleus, splitting of
Earth
escaping from
size relative to the Sun
earthquakes
asteroid collisions and
death from
predicting
Ebola fever
development as a weapon
Edwards, Bradley
Edwards, Kenneth
Einstein, Albert
appearance
and atoms
E = mc
2
general theory of relativity
and nuclear fission
and stimulated emission
Eisenhower, Dwight D.
electromagnetism
and attempts to separate uranium 235
electrons
Elugelab (Eniwetok Atoll) test
Empedocles
Engines of Creation
(Drexler)
Enigma cipher machines, breaking
Enola Gay
(B-29 bomber Victor 82)
Hiroshima bombing
environmental-modification techniques
UN ban on
Eocene epoch
carbon dioxide levels