Great Discoveries : An Amazing Journey Through Space and Time

by Editors of Time Magazine

• ISBN13: 9781929049332
• ISBN10: 1929049331
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-09-01
• Publisher: Time Home Entertainment Inc

Summary

In the span of a single lifetime, we have moved from the Model T to supersonic jets, from AM radios to digital cameras, from outer space to cyberspace. Now you can join the editors of TIME as they bring together the 100 most significant and compelling discoveries of our time. Youll marvel at the treasures of King Tut's tomb, explore the depths of the ocean with Jacques Cousteau. Youll witness the first nuclear chain reaction, travel with polar explorers to the ends of the earth, gaze in awe at the wonders of space only recently revealed by the Hubble Telescope.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Discoveries on Your Doorstep	vi
Diane Ackerman explores the science of everyday life
TIME
On the Trail of a Lost Dinosaur	4	(2)
A long-lost species is unearthed in Egypt in 2001
The Thing with Feathers	6	(2)
In search of a link between dinosaurs and birds
Sightings: The Dinosaur Hunters	8	(2)
Taking to the field with a passel of paleontologists
Profile: First Family of First Families	10	(2)
The exploits of archaeology's groundbreaking Leakeys
Sightings: Talking Heads	12	(2)
Digging for the signs of early man
Profile: One Scientist's Evolution	14	(2)
Stephen Jay Gould struggles to unify science and belief
Wool Gathering	16	(2)
A Siberian boy finds a well-preserved mammoth
Vibrant Art from an Age of Stone	18	(2)
The prehistoric caves of Lascaux are found by accident
Gallery: Prehistory's Picassos	20	(4)
Stone Age art from Lascaux and Chauvet
The Iceman	24	(2)
An ancient hunter was frozen in a glacier-and in time
Crete's Heroic Age	26	(2)
Sir Arthur Evans unearths the Minoan civilization
A Boy King's Wondrous Things	28	(2)
Howard Carter discovers King Tut's burial chamber
Gallery: The Boy in the Golden Mask	30	(2)
The riches of Tut's tomb
Gallery: A Family Affair	32	(2)
A Pharaoh's family plot is found
Gallery: A Donkey's Find	34	(2)
Uncovering Egypt's valley of gold-clad mummies
Goatherd's Find	36	(2)
A young Arab stumbles upon the Dead Sea scrolls
An Eye in Space Finds a Lost City	38	(2)
Imaging radar reveals old trade routes under desert sands
Buried Treasure	40	(2)
An ancient terra cotta army is found in China
Maya Sunset	42	(2)
A great civilization disintegrated-Why?
Gallery: Ebb Tide of a Culture	44	(4)
Probing the mysteries of the Maya
Soaring City	48	(2)
Howard Bingham finds a lost city-the wrong one
Sacrificial Lambs	50	(2)
Inca mummies are found preserved in the Andes
American Vikings	52	(2)
Tracing the voyages of North America's first explorers
Dead Ends: Time Out!	54	(4)
Revealed: hoaxes and frauds that rewrote the past
SPACE
Profile: The Rocket Scientist	58	(2)
Robert Goddard, prophet without honor
Snowballs of Dirt	60	(2)
Fred Whipple deciphers the nature of comets
Is Pluto a Planet?	62	(2)
Astronomers ponder a mysterious body
Radiant Message	64	(2)
How the Van Allen radiation belts got their name
Man on the Moon: Science or Show?	66	(2)
What did the Apollo missions discover?
Milestones: Historic Moments in Spaceflight	68	(4)
From Sputnik to the death of Mir
Profile: Wrong End of the Scope?	72	(2)
Charismatic Carl Sagan's controversial career
Saturn Encounter	74	(2)
American probes fly by the ringed planet
Venusian Volcano	76	(2)
Magellan discovers lava fields on the second planet
Two Stars on Mars	78	(2)
Pathfinder (and a roving friend) visit the Red Planet
Destination: Mars	80	(2)
A sneak preview of NASA's Odyssey mission
Bang!	82	(2)
Learning about the dangers of meteors-the hard way
White Elephant?	84	(2)
The International Space Station attracts controversy
Sightings: Wonders of the Solar System	86	(2)
Comet rain and other puzzlements
Profile: A Lever to Move the Stars	88	(2)
Edwin Hubble enlarges our view of the cosmos
The Orbiting Eye	90	(2)
The flawed Hubble Space Telescope is saved
Gallery: The Discovery Machine	92	(6)
Remarkable pictures from the Hubble's orbiting eye
Beyond Hubble	98	(2)
Meet the next generation of earthbound scopes
Bang!	100	(2)
A monster supernova delights stargazers
Earth's Eardrum	102	(2)
The Arecibo radiotelescope tunes into the universe
Sightings: Wonders of Deep Space	104	(2)
Quasars, pulsars and other stellar subjects
Profile: In the Realm of Singularities	106	(2)
The restless mind of physicist Stephen Hawking
Dead Ends: Spaced Out!	108	(4)
When science meets fiction-Guess who wins?
EARTH
Milestones: Race to the Poles	112	(4)
Polar explorers chase primacy-and publicity
Sink Tank	116	(2)
Barton and Beebe explore the deep in a bathysphere
Probing the Abyss	118	(2)
A graphic timetable of the evolution of undersea craft
Profile: Columbus of the Silent World	120	(2)
Jacques Cousteau, poet and pioneer of the deep
Full Fathom Five	122	(2)
A nautical archaeologist finds a bronze-age shipwreck
Tragedy's Trove	124	(2)
Robert Ballard locates the wreck of the Titanic
Floating a Theory	126	(2)
The Kon-Tiki's voyage illuminates ancient travel routes
Profile: To the Ends of the Earth	128	(2)
The ups and downs of Auguste Piccard
Getting the Drift	130	(2)
The origin of the mind-boggling theory of plate tectonics
Thar She Blows!	132	(2)
How scientists are learning to predict eruptions
Warm-up Act	134	(2)
Watch out! Why hurricanes are getting stronger
Just Hanging On	136	(2)
Understanding the science of global warming
Dead Ends: What on Earth Were They Thinking?	138	(4)
Atlantis, El Dorado and other mythical realms
LIFE
Ancient Creatures in a Hidden World	142	(2)
Three new mammals are found in Southeast Asia
Meet the Dinofish	144	(2)
A 60 million-year-old ``fossil fish'' is captured alive
Gallery: Mysteries of the Deep	146	(2)
Strange fish thrive in a little-known environment
Profile: Seeker of Cetacean Serenades	148	(2)
Roger Payne decodes humpback whale songs
Close Encounters	150	(2)
Two scientists uncover the secrets of primate life
Brave New World	152	(2)
Exploring-without violating-the rain-forest canopy
Gallery: Potions from Poisons	154	(2)
How scientists are turning venom into medicine
Profile: Chronicler of Great Divides	156	(2)
Margaret Mead brings anthropology to the masses
Better Lost than Found	158	(2)
The ancient wisdom of tribal peoples is imperiled
Regal Retreat	160	(2)
Solving the mystery of monarch butterfly migration
Gallery: Death Row	162	(2)
Man's family tree joins the endangered list
Dead Ends: It's Alive-Or Is It?	164	(2)
Yeti, Bigfoot and other farfetched beasts
Index	166