The 20th Century Science and Technology

    This chapter not only covers all the great theories and discoveries of the human race, but also explores the social conditions, political climates, and individual men and women of genius that brought ideas to fruition throughout history. This chapter describes the smallest as well as the largest things in the universe so far we have known.
     The ancient's atomists had unknowingly discovered the western way of looking at things. When we look at the world we see many confusing things. But there are two ways to make sense of this confusion. In each of them we have to assume that there is something which we con not perceive in its own form, but which are necessary to see patterns in things which are not there unreality, but which are necessary to understand them. To see patterns and to behave as if they were real is a way of describing instinctual behavior. Instinctual behavior guides the behavior of animals, not of human beings. But human beings impose emotional character on nature. We suppose that there is a mind like our own in nature. Even the practical–minded behaviorist scientists cannot be free from anthropomorphism. It is not possible to assume the existence of the world without us. As philosophers tried to find patterns everywhere, so theologians also tried to see God everywhere. But a few arrogant philosophers tried to find a common thing in any two given things. For example, if we went on breaking a spider and a star into pieces, there must be a point where the pieces of both the star and the spider would not be the smallest units, but where the pieces of the matter itself would be the same.

    Einstein was one of the greatest scientists of all time. He is best known for his theory of relativity, which he first advanced when he was only 26. He also made many other contributions to science. Einstein's relativity theory revolutionized scientific thought with new conceptions of time, space, mass, motion, and gravitation. He treated matter and energy as exchangeable, not distinct, in so doing; he laid the basis for controlling the release of energy from the atom. Thus, Einstein was one of the fathers of the nuclear age. Einstein's famous equation, E equals m times c-squared (energy equals mass times the velocity of light squared), became a foundation stone in the development of nuclear energy.On Aug. 2, 1939, Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, explaining that it might be possible to build an atomic bomb. Einstein urged the President to provide governmental help for the study of the release of nuclear energy. Einstein also wanted the President that Nazi Germany might already be trying to build an atomic bomb. His letter helped set the United States on the long, difficult, and costly path that totally led to the production of an atomic bomb in 1945.Einstein published three papers. Each of them became the basis of a knowledge that could be thought of as a stream of tiny particles. Scientists before Einstein had discovered that a bright beam of light striking a metal caused the metal to release electrons, which could form an electric current. They called this phenomenon as long as they assumed that light travelled only in waves showed that when quanta of light energy strike atoms in a metal, the quant, force the atoms to release electrons.In a second paper, Einstein presented the special theory of relativity. In this paper, he showed how the theory demonstrated the relativity of time, a previously unimaginable idea. Einstein's name is most widely known for this theory. In a study published in 1905, Einstein showed the equivalence of mass and energy, expressed in the famous equation E equals m times c- squared. The third major paper of 1905 concerned Brownian motion, an irregular motion of microscopic particles suspended in a liquid or gas. It confirmed the atomic theory of matter.Einstein was an ardent pacifist. After the war, he became an equally determined supporter of word government. He insisted that peace among nations could be maintained in the atomic age only by bringing all people together under a system of world law.Although he was not associated with any orthodox religion, Einstein's nature was deeply religious. He felt that belief in a personal God was too specific a concept to be applicable to the being at work in this universe, but he never beloved that the universe was one of chance of chaos. The universe to him was one of absolute law and order. He once said, "God may be sophiscated, but He is not malicious."Heredity is the passing on of biological characteristics from one generation to the next. The process of heredity occurs among all living thing-animals, plants, and even such microscopic organisms as bacteria. Heredity explains why a human mother always has a human baby and why a mother dog has puppies-not kittens. It is also the reason offspring look like their parents. Through heredity, living things inherit characteristics, often called traits, from their parents. You resemble your parents because you inherited you hair colour, nose shape, and other traits from them. All organisms consist of cells. Tiny biochemical structures inside each cell called genes carry traits from one generation to the next. Genes are made of a chemical called DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). They are strung together to form long chains of DNA in structures known as chromosomes.Genes are like blueprints for building a house, except that they carry the plans of building cells, tissues, organs, and bodies. They have the instructions for making the thousands of chemical building, blocks in the body. These building blocks are called proteins. Some proteins are responsible for the size, shape, and structure of the parts ranking up your chemical reactions that occur constantly in your body and in all other living things. The process by which the cell makes a protein according to the instructions carried by a gene is known as gene expression.Genes have powerful effect, but they do not control all of life. Most characteristics result from a combination of heredity and environment. For example, you may have inherited a talent for playing the piano. But you will not be able to play unless you take lessons and practice. The talent is hereditary. The lessons and practice are environmental.The basic laws of heredity were formulated during the mid- 1800's by an Austrian botanist and monk named Gregor Mendel. Mendel based his Mendel published the results of his experiments in 1866, his work went unnoticed until 1900.Mendel's experiments laid the foundation for the scientific study of heredity-have learned much about why human beings and other living things look and behave the way they do. These scientists have also begun to uncover the causes of hereditary diseases and to develop ways to treat them. Today, genetics has several specialized branches. Molecular genetics, for example, involves the study of the chemical nature and activities of genes.In human being and most other organisms, chromosomes are found in the part of a cell known as the nucleus. Read More...