Authors: Michio Kaku,Robert O'Keefe
8
. Quoted in John Gribben,
In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat
(New York: Bantam, 1984), vi.
9
. Quoted in Heinz Pagels,
The Cosmic Code
(New York: Bantam, 1982), 113.
10
. Quoted in E. Harrison,
Masks of the Universe
(New York: Macmillan, 1985), 246.
11
. F. Wilczek and B. Devine,
Longing for the Harmonies
(New York: Norton, 1988), 129.
12
. Pagels,
Cosmic Code
, 155.
13
. Quoted in David Freedman, “Parallel Universes: The New Reality—From Harvard’s Wildest Physicist,”
Discover Magazine
, July 1990, 52.
14
. Ibid., 48.
15
. Ibid., 49.
16
. Ibid., 51.
17
. Ibid., 48.
1
. Paul Davies,
Superforce: The Search for a Grand Unified Theory of Nature
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984), 168.
2
. Freeman Dyson,
Disturbing the Universe
(New York: Harper & Row, 1979), 76.
3
. Freeman Dyson,
Infinite in All Directions
(New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 196–197.
4
. Dyson,
Disturbing the Universe
, 212.
5
. Carl Sagan,
Cosmos
(New York: Random House, 1980), 306–307.
6
. In fact, aeons ago it was even easier to self-destruct. In order to make an atomic bomb, the fundamental problem facing any species is to separate uranium-235 from its more abundant twin, uranium-238, which cannot sustain a chain reaction. Only the uranium-235 will sustain a chain reaction. But uranium-235 is only 0.3% of naturally occurring uranium. To sustain a runaway chain reaction, you need an enrichment level of at least 20%. In fact, weapons-grade uranium has a 90% or more enrichment rate. (This is the reason why uranium mines do not suffer from spontaneous nuclear detonations. Because naturally occurring uranium in a uranium mine is only 0.3% enriched, it contains far too low a concentration of U-235 to sustain a runaway nuclear chain reaction.)
Because uranium-235 is relatively short-lived compared with its more abundant twin, uranium-238, aeons ago, the naturally occurring enrichment rate in our universe was much larger than 0.3%.
In other words, it was far easier then for any civilization to fabricate an atomic bomb because the naturally occurring enrichment rate was much larger than it is today.
7
. Heinz Pagels,
The Cosmic Code
(New York: Bantam, 1982), 309.
8
. Sagan,
Cosmos
, 231,
9
. Quoted in Melinda Beck and Daniel Glick, “And If the Comet Misses,”
Newsweek
, 23 November 1992, 61.
1
. Quoted in John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler,
The Anthropic Cosmological Principle
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 167.
2
. Quoted in Heinz Pagels,
Perfect Symmetry: The Search for the Beginning of Time
(New York: Bantam, 1985), 382.
3
. Ibid., 234.
4
. Astronomers John D. Barrow of the University of Sussex in England and Joseph Silk of the University of California at Berkeley see some hope in this dismal scenario. They write, “If life, in any shape or form, is to survive this ultimate environmental crisis, then the universe must satisfy certain basic requirements. The basic prerequisite for intelligence to survive is a source of energy.
“The anisotropies in the cosmic expansion, the evaporating black holes, the remnant naked singularities are all life preservers of a sort…. An infinite amount of information is potentially available in an open universe, and its assimilation would be the principal goal of any surviving noncorporeal intelligence” (
The Left Hand of Creation
[New York: Basic Books, 1983], 226).
5
. Ibid.
6
. Gerald Feinberg,
Solid Clues
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), 95.
1
. Quoted in Heinz Pagels,
The Cosmic Code
(New York: Bantam Books, 1982), 173–174.
2
. Edward Witten, Interview, in
Superstrings: A Theory of Everything?
ed. Paul Davies and J. Brown (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 102.
3
. Quoted in John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler,
The Anthropic Cosmological Principle
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 185.
4
. Pagels,
Cosmic Code
, 382.
5
. James Trefil,
The Moment of Creation
(New York: Macmillan, 1983), 220.
6
. John Ellis, Interview, in
Superstrings
, ed. Davies and Brown, 161.
7
. Quoted in R. P. Crease and C. C. Mann,
The Second Creation
(New York: Macmillan, 1986), 77.
8
. Quoted in Anthony Zee,
Fearful Symmetry
(New York: Macmillan, 1986), 122.
9
. Ibid., 274.
10
. Heinz Pagels,
Perfect Symmetry: The Search for the Beginning of Time
(New York: Bantam, 1985), xiii.
11
. Stephen Hawking,
A Brief History of Time
(New York: Bantam, 1988), 175.
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Bell, E. T.
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Calder, N.
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. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
Davies, P.
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Feinberg, G.
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New York: Doubleday, 1977.
French, A. P.
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Gamow, G.
The Birth and Death of Our Sun
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Interactions
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In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat
. New York: Bantam, 1984.
Hawking, S. W.
A Brief History of Time
. New York: Bantam, 1988.
Heisenberg, W.
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. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1971.
Henderson, L. D.
The Fourth Dimension and Non-Eudidean Geometry in Modern Art
. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983.
Kaku, M.
Introduction to Superstrings
. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1988.
Kaku, M., and J. Trainer.
Beyond Einstein: The Cosmic Quest for the Theory of the Universe
. New York: Bantam, 1987.
Kaufmann, W. J.
Black Holes and Warped Space-Time
. San Francisco: Freeman, 1979.
Lenin, V.
Materialism and Empiro-Criticism
. In K. Marx, F. Engels, and V. Lenin,
On Dialectical Materialism
. Moscow: Progress, 1977.
Pagels, H.
The Cosmic Code
. New York: Bantam, 1982.
Pagels, H.
Perfect Symmetry: The Search for the Beginning of Time
. New York: Bantam, 1985.
Pais, A.
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. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Penrose, R.
The Emperor’s New Mind
. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Polkinghorne, J. C.
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Rucker, R.
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Rucker, R.
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Sagan, C.
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Silk, J.
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. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Freeman, 1988.
Trefil, J. S.
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. New York: Scribner, 1980.
Trefil, J. S.
The Moment of Creation
. New York: Macmillan, 1983.
Weinberg, S.
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. New York: Basic Books, 1988.
Wilczek, F., and B. Devine.
Longing for the Harmonies
. New York: Norton, 1988.
IndexZee, A.
Fearful Symmetry
. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
Abbot, Edwin, 55–58
Alvarez, Luis, 296
Alvarez, Walter, 296
Antheil, George, 22
Anthropic principle, 257–259
Antimatter, 122–123, 126
Aristotle, 34
Asimov, Isaac, 5, 279, 310
Askey, Richard, 176
Astrochicken, 280–281, 309
Averaged weak energy condition (AWEC), 250–251
Aztecs, 285–286, 299, 305
Banchoff, Thomas, 11
Barrett, Sir W. F., 53
Barrow, John D., 306, 308–310, 350n.4
Bayeux Tapestry, 63–64
Bell, E. T., 31
Big Bang theory, x, 27, 180, 195–197, 213, 218, 303, 310
Big Crunch, 28, 303, 307
Binding energy curve, 218–219
Blackbody radiation, 197
Black holes, 22, 217–218, 222–227, 245, 253, 306
Blake, William, 124
Bohr, Niels, 137, 260
Bolsheviks, 65, 67–68
Bolyai, János, 377n.4
Bond, Nelson, 75
Borges, Jorge Luis, 262
Borwein, Jonathan, 176
Borwein, Peter, 176
Bose, Satyendra, 144
Boson, 144
Bronowski, Jacob, 81
Buller, A. H. R., 233
Bush, Ian D., 186
Capra, Fritjhof, 319
Carroll, Lewis (Charles Dodgson), 22, 42, 62, 124
Casimir, Henrik, 250
Casimir effect, 250
Causality, 234–235
Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan, 94, 226
Chew, Geoffrey, 324
Clifford, William, 337n.6
Closed time-like curve (CTC), 240, 248
Coleman, Sidney, 266–268
Compactified dimension, 105, 158–159
Compte, Auguste, 186
Conrad, Joseph, 22
Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)
, 199–202
Cosmic rays, 184–185
Cosmological constant, 267–268
Cosmological proof of God, 192–194
Crookes, William, 50, 339n.l3
Curvature, 40
Dali, Salvadore, 70
Dark matter, 304
Darwin, Charles, 28, 131, 302
Davies, Paul, 273
DeWitt, Bryce, 144, 262
Dirac, P. A. M., 112, 147, 189, 327
Dirkson, Everett, 182
Dixon, L., 347n.3
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 22, 65–67
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, 167
Drake, Frank, 283–284