God and the atom

Preface

Acknowledgments

1: Ancient Atomism:

Defining atomism

Leucippus and Democritus

Atoms and Gods

Atoms and the senses

Late night with Lederman

Atomism in ancient India

Epicurus

Differences with Democritus

Post-epicurean atomism

Lucretius

Antiatomists

2: Atoms Lost And Found:

Atomism in early Christianity

Atomism in the Middle Ages

Poggio and Lucretius

Gassendi

3: Atomism And The Scientific Revolution:

New world of science

Galilean relativity

Principia

Particle mechanics

Mechanical philosophy

Primary and secondary qualities

Other atomists

More antiatomists

4: Chemical atom:

From alchemy to chemistry

Elements

Chemical atoms

Chemical opposition

Philosophical opposition

5: Atoms Revealed:

Heat and motion

Heat engine

Conservation of energy and the first law

Mechanical nature of heat

Absolute zero

Second law of thermodynamics

Kinetic theory

How big are atoms?

Statistical mechanics

Arrow of time

Energetic opposition

Positivist opposition

Evidence

6: Light And The Aether:

Nature of light

Aether

Fields

Electromagnetic waves

Demise of the aether

Time and space in special relativity

Defining time and space

Matter and energy in special relativity

Invariance

Symmetry

Source of conservation principles

7: Inside The Atom:

Anomalies

Light is particles

Rutherford atom

Bohr atom and the rise of quantum mechanics

Are electrons waves?

New quantum mechanics

Spin

Dirac's theory of the electron

What is the wave function?

Heisenberg uncertainty principle

Building the elements

8: Inside The Nucleus:

Nuclei

Nuclear forces

Atomic energy

Nuclear fusion

Nuclear fission

Poisoning the atmosphere

Nuclear power

Liquid fluoride thorium reactors

9: Quantum Fields:

Physics in 1945

More hydrogen surprises

QED

Fields and particles

10: Rise Of Particle Physics:

Pion exchange and the strong force

Fermi theory of the weak force

Particle explosion

New conservation principles

Broken symmetries

Nuclear democracy and The Tao of physics

11: Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of:

Quarks

Particles of the standard model

Gauge symmetry

Forces in the standard model

Higgs Boson

Making and detecting the Higgs

Hunting the Higgs

Higgs confirmed!

Mass

Grand unification

Supersymmetry

12: Atoms And The Cosmos:

After the bang

Inflation

Stuff of the universe

What is the dark matter?

Dark energy

Cosmological constant problem

Before the bang

Matter-antimatter puzzle

Eternal multiverse

Something about nothing

13: Summary And Conclusions:

They had it (mostly) right

Matter

Materialism deconstructed?

Field-particle unity

Wave-particle duality

Reduction and emergence

Role of chance

Cosmos

Mind

No higher power

Notes

Bibliography

About the author

Other books by Victor J Stenger

Index.