Living within Limits
A Scientific Search for Truth
Published on 1. January 2008
232 pages
978-0-87586-587-4 (ISBN)
Description
The author, a research scientist, explores without jargon or mathematics the scientific search for truth, the nature of life and the future of man.Explaining and appreciating the scientific method and major scientific challenges such as measuring the known universe, the theoretical and experimental underpinnings for theories of evolution, and the unraveling of DNA, he discusses the difference between knowledge and belief. As the only conscious, rational beings on earth, he concludes that humans must take responsibility for our role overseeing the living kingdom on our planet.
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Content
- Intro
- Part I Limits
- Chapter 1. The Limits of Life
- Limits to Growth
- The Collapse of Complex Societies
- Collapse
- Dawn to Dusk on Easter Island
- Limits of a Finite Earth
- Fossil Fuel Limits
- Oil Sands, Oil Shale, and Coal Conversion
- Alternate Energy Sources
- Atomic Fusion
- Global Warming
- Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Chapter 2. Living within Limits
- The Limits of Population
- The Winemakers
- The Limits of Economics
- Human Inventiveness
- Limits of Capitalistic Economics
- Limits of Science
- Societies That Survived
- The Diffusion of Science
- Bibliography
- Chapter 3. Life is Optimism Triumphant
- The Natural
- Our Companions
- The Methods of Science
- Evolution and Natural Selection
- The Gifts of Natural Selection
- Bisexuality and Ethics
- A Rational Life
- Life Is Optimism Triumphant
- Stand in Awe
- Bibliography
- Part II. Aspects of Physical Reality
- Chapter 4. The Search for Truth
- The Limits of Human Truth
- Human Sensory Limits
- The Search for Truth
- The Deductive Method, The Syllogism
- The Nature and Limits of Inference
- The Axiomatic Method
- The Inductive Method, Mendelâ?Ts Peas
- The Scientific Method, The Source of Knowledge
- The Expanding Universe
- The Probable Truth
- The Trial and Error Method
- The Truer Truth
- Authoritarian and Absolute Truth
- Bibliography
- Chapter 5. Believe or Know
- On Uncovering Truth
- The Nature of Knowing
- The Scientific Method
- The Dangers of Scientific Fraud
- The Nature of Believing
- Motives for Belief
- Separating Belief and Knowledge
- Bibliography
- Chapter 6. Time and Events
- Some Views of Time
- Events and Existence
- Present Events â?" Action and Change
- The Ascent of Man
- The Ascent of Homo sapiens Homo sapiens
- Matter, Mass and Energy
- The Nature of the Past
- Revents, Remembered Events â?" DNA
- Duration, Past and Future Events
- Dates in Time
- Bibliography
- Chapter 7. Things Change
- Change in Motion
- The Neutrino
- The Expanding Universe
- Change in Quantity
- Change in Quality
- Coming to Be and Passing Away
- Change and Duration
- The Source of Change â?" Thermodynamics
- First Law of Thermodynamics
- Second Law of Thermodynamics
- Entropy
- Summary
- Bibliography
- Chapter 8. Scientific Reality
- Dual Reality and Reductionism
- Science and Numbers
- Scientific Models
- The Atomic Model
- The Quantum Paradox
- The Photoelectric Effect
- Quantum Waves
- The Flowering of the Two-Slit Experiment
- The Copenhagen Interpretation and EPR Objection
- Bellâ?Ts Theorem
- Aspectâ?Ts Experiment
- Bibliography
- Part III. Aspects of Biological Reality
- Chapter 9. Darwin and Mendel
- The Problem with Time
- Natural Selection and Evolution
- Bacteria and the Prokaryotes
- The Eukaryotes and Symbiosis
- The Evidence for Evolution and Natural Selection
- Embryology, Morphology, and Physiology
- Domestication as Selection
- Bacterial Resistance to Drugs
- Paleontology and the Fossil Record
- Fossils
- Genetics â?" Mendelâ?Ts Peas
- Bibliography
- Chapter 10. Individualism and Evolution
- The Fossil Evidence
- Natural Selection
- The Gifts of Natural Selection
- Species
- Individuals
- The Individual and Reproduction
- Advantages of Bisexuality
- The Emergence of Choice
- Purpose
- Complex Purposes
- Humans in Space
- Alone in the Throes of Change
- The Natural Selector
- Bibliography
- Chapter 11. The Double Helix
- X-Rays Crystal Structures â?" Von Laue and Bragg
- The Watson and Crick Model of DNA, 1953
- On Deoxyribonucleic Acid, DNA
- DNA Replication
- DNA Transcription
- DNA Translation
- Lord Kelvin and the Problem with Time
- Tautology and Falsifiability
- Darwinâ?Ts Problems
- Bibliography
- Chapter 12. The Micro Evolution of Life
- The Emergence of Purpose
- The Facts of Evolution
- Timely Design, Result, or Outcome
- The Measurement of Time
- Major Physical Events
- The Accumulating and Micro Nature of Evolution
- The Meaning of Death and Extinction
- The Meaning of Life
- Conflict between Individuals and Organizations
- The Natural Selector
- Bibliography
- Glossary (Some Facts of Science)
