O

oceans: abyssal plain; Alvin, explorations of; amphipods; Antarctic Circumpolar Current; Atlantic; Beebe and Barton, deep dives; bends; blue whale; carbon absorption and; coral reefs; currents; deepest free dive; depletion of fish in; drop of water, time to travel between oceans; exploration and investigation of; floor, exploration of; giant squid; Gulf Stream; guyots; human body and pressure; lack of underwater research; life, at great depths; Mariana Trench; mid-Atlantic rift; mountain range, most extensive on Earth; oceanography, discipline begun; Pacific; percentage of Earth’s water in; phytoplankton; Piccards, deep sea dives; pressure; radioactive waste dumped in; rising of; salinity of; sea level; seafloor spreading; seawater; sediment, where it goes; species of animals in; thermohaline circulation; undiscovered life in; vents, life near; vents, refreshing of seawater and

Oldham, R. D.

Olduvai Gorge (Great Rift Valley), Tanzania

On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances (Gibbs)

On the Origin of Species (Darwin)

Oort cloud

Oort, Jan.

Oppenheimer, Robert

Öpik, Ernst

Organic Remains of a Former World Parkinson)

Orgel, Leslie

Ostro, Steven

Other Side of Everest, The (Dickinson)

Overbye, Dennis

Owen, Richard

oxygen: abundance; atomic weight; atmospheric, creation of; combustion and.; discovery of; identification of; isotope geochemistry and; oxidation; size of creatures and

ozone; CFCs and

P

paleontology; Age of Dinosaurs; Age of Mammals; Age of Turtles; discovery of dinosaurs; discovery of mammoths; extinction of species; fossils; hunting for bones; iguanodon, discovery of tooth; Megalonyx; opponents to impact theory of extinction; plesiosaurus; pterodactyls; rivalry of Cope and Marsh; rivalry of Owen and Mantell; search for early humans; species, lifespan of. See also fossils; dinosaurs

Paley, William

Parkinson, James

Parkinson’s disease

particle detectors or accelerators; CERN’s; Supercollider

particle physics; discovery of new particles; ekpyrotic process; gravitons; M theory; Standard Model; superstring theory; tachyons. See also neutrino; quarks

Pasteur, Louis

Patterson, Clair

Pauli, Wolfgang

Pauling, Linus

Peale, Charles Willson

Pelizzari, Umberto

Pelletier, P. J.

Penzias, Arno

Perlmutter, Saul

Perutz, Max

phosphorus

photosynthesis

physics; divided between laws for subatomic world and universe at large; general theory of relativity; microphysics; matrix mechanics; particle; quantum leap; quantum mechanics; quantum theory; special theory of relativity; wave mechanics. See also Einstein, Albert; light; Newton, Isaac; Planck, Max; specific individuals

Piazzi, Giuseppi

Picard, Jean

Piccard, Auguste and Jacques

Pillmore, C. L.

Planck, Max

Planet X

planetesimals

plants: appearance of land; Banks and the Endeavor voyage; classification; classification disputes; cloud forests; collecting; identifying new; lichens; medicinal properties; mosses; names of; rain forests

plate tectonics; current effects; Denver, mystery; extinction events; fossils and; future outcomes; Holmes, continental drift theory; ice ages,; ocean floor; opponents to theory; Pangaea; seafloor spreading; subduction; Wegener and. See also earthquakes; volcanoes

Playfair, John

Plutinos

Pluto: characteristics; discovery of; distance from Earth; moon discovered; officially ruled a planet; size

plutoniu

Point Counter Point (Huxley)

Polaris

Pope, Alexander

Popper, Karl

Potting-Shed Papers, The (Elliott)

Priestly, Joseph

Principia (Newton)

Principles of Biology (Spencer)

Principles of Geology, The (Lyell)

Principles of Physical Geology (Holmes)

Prometheans in the Lab (McGrayne)

protein; DNA and creation of; human proteome; types in a cell

proton

Proxima Centauri

Q

quantum leap

quantum mechanics

quantum theory; Exclusion Principle; spin

quarks

R

radio telescopes

radioactivity; dating of Earth’s age and; dump of wastes in the sea; Geiger counter; half-life; hazard of; as health product

radiocarbon dating,; carbon-14

radiometric dating

Raup, David

Ray, John

Reader, John

Realm of the Nebulae, The (Hubble)

Rees, Martin

Reines, Frederick

reptiles; divisions of early; survival during massive extinctions

Richter, Charles

Richter scale

Rickover, Hyman G.

Ridley, Matt

RNA (ribonucleic acid)

Roentgen, Wilhelm

Rothschild, Lionel Walter

Royal Institution (London)

Royal Society (London)

Royal Society of Edinburgh

Rozier, Pilatre de

Rudwick, Martin J. S.

Rumford, Count von (Benjamin Thompson)

Runcorn, S. K.

Ruska, Ernst.

Russell, Bertrand

rust

Rutherford, Ernest

S

Sacks, Oliver

Sagan, Carl

Sagan, Dorion.

St. Helens, Washington

Sandage, Allan

Sandler, Howard

Sceptical Chymist, The (Boyle)

Scheele, Karl (Carl)

Schimper, Karl

Schouten, Peter

Schrödinger, Erwin

Schultz, Gwen

Schwalbe, Gustav

Schwann, Theodor

Schwartz, Jeffrey

sea cow

Seaman’s Practice, The (Norwood)

Sedgwick, Adam

Seven Daughters of Eve, The (Sykes)

sharks

Sheehan, Peter

Shipman, Pat

Shoemaker, Eugene

SHRIMP and SHRIMP II

Siegel, Lee J.

silicon

Silurian System, The (Murchison)

Simpson, George Gaylord

Sinking Ark, The (Myers)

Sirius

Sixth Extinction, The (Leakey amp; Lewis)

Sykes, Bryan

slime molds (myxomycetes)

Slipher, Vesto

smallpox

Smith, A. J. E.

Smith, Anthony

Smith, Robert B.

Smith, William

Snow, C. P.

Sobel, Dava

Soddy, Frederick

sodium; chloride (salt)

solar system; asteroids; birth of Earth’s moon; birth of the sun and planets; elliptical orbit of the planets; moons in; size of. See also specific objects in; specific planets

Somervell, Howard

space. See universe

spacetime

Spencer, Herbert

Sprigg, Reginald

Stages of Evolution, The (Brace)

stars: binary; Cepheid variable; distance between, average,; energy production of; galaxies and number of; Milky Way, number in; neutron,; red giants; “standard candles”; stellar classifications; supernovae; visible. See also Sun; specific stars

Stars Beneath the Sea (Norton)

Steller, Georg

Stephen’s Island flightless wren

Strathern, Paul

Strickland, H. E.

Suess, Eduard

Sulston, John

Sun: birth of; Earth’s atmosphere and; solar flares; solitary, uniqueness of

supernovae; CCD search; danger to Earth of; hunting; 1a type; number found; rarity; visible to naked eye

superstring theory

Surowiecki, James

Surviving Galeras (Williams)

sweating sickness

Swift, Jonathan

Systema Naturae (Linnaeus)

Szilard, Leo