The Second Scientific Revolution

The seventh lecture for a course on science.

Transcript

1. The Second Scientific Revolution Matter and energy in the 19th century George Matthews CC 2018
2. “Nature and Nature’s Laws lay hid in Night: God said, ‘Let Newton be!’ and all was light.” Alexander Pope, 1727
3. The Royal Society meets the Sun King
5. Pittsburgh, 1900
7. some unknowns in 1800
8. some unknowns in 1800 ! What are material objects made of?
9. some unknowns in 1800 ! What are material objects made of? ! How do chemical reactions occur?
10. some unknowns in 1800 ! What are material objects made of? ! How do chemical reactions occur? ! What is fire and why does it release heat?
11. some unknowns in 1800 ! What are material objects made of? ! How do chemical reactions occur? ! What is fire and why does it release heat? ! What are electricity and magnetism?
12. some unknowns in 1800 ! What are material objects made of? ! How do chemical reactions occur? ! What is fire and why does it release heat? ! What are electricity and magnetism? ! Why are some things living and some things not?
13. some unknowns in 1800 ! What are material objects made of? ! How do chemical reactions occur? ! What is fire and why does it release heat? ! What are electricity and magnetism? ! Why are some things living and some things not? ! Why does time go in only one direction?
14. 1750’s: Jean-Antoine Nollet builds electrostatic generators, shocks 800 monks in demonstration.
15. 1750’s: Benjamin Franklin shows that lightning is the same as static electricity by charging Leyden jar with kite in electrical storm.
16. 1780’s: Luigi Galvani accidentally discovers that nerves are activated by electrical impulses.
17. 1780’s: Galvani believes he has discovered “vital essence” of life, when frog legs twitch without an apparent source of electric charge.
18. 1800: Alessandro Volta constructs voltaic pile – first battery, source of continuous electric current and proves Galvani wrong.
19. 1803: Giovanni Aldini demonstrates “animal electricity” by making a newly dead human corpse twitch, and inspires Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein.
20. 1804: Humphry Davy uses electric currents to isolate sodium, potassium, lithium and other elements.
21. 1831: Michael Faraday discovers electrical induction – conductor moving in magnetic field generates electric current; electric current generates moving magnetic field.
22. 1861: James Clerk Maxwell formulates set of equations describing electric and magnetic fields and their relationships.
23. 1869: Dmitri Mendeleev formulates periodic table of the elements
24. 1838: Theodor Schwann and Matthias Schleiden formulate cellular theory of life
25. 1859: Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species
26. connections
27. connections ! Electricity is moving electrons.
28. connections ! Electricity is moving electrons. ! Chemical reactions involve the sharing or exchange of electrons between atoms.
29. connections ! Electricity is moving electrons. ! Chemical reactions involve the sharing or exchange of electrons between atoms. ! Heat is the average kinetic energy of the atoms of a substance.
30. connections ! Electricity is moving electrons. ! Chemical reactions involve the sharing or exchange of electrons between atoms. ! Heat is the average kinetic energy of the atoms of a substance. ! Mechanical, thermal, electrical and chemical can all be converted into one another, though always at a loss.
31. connections ! Electricity is moving electrons. ! Chemical reactions involve the sharing or exchange of electrons between atoms. ! Heat is the average kinetic energy of the atoms of a substance. ! Mechanical, thermal, electrical and chemical can all be converted into one another, though always at a loss. ! Biological cells are biochemical machines.
32. connections ! Electricity is moving electrons. ! Chemical reactions involve the sharing or exchange of electrons between atoms. ! Heat is the average kinetic energy of the atoms of a substance. ! Mechanical, thermal, electrical and chemical can all be converted into one another, though always at a loss. ! Biological cells are biochemical machines. ! Animal nervous systems function electro-chemically.