Bill Bryson - A short history of nearly everything

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

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

Taming the Atom (von Baeyer)

Tasmanian tiger

Tattersall, Ian

taxonomy; animal world, categories; class; classification of bacteria; classification of plants; disagreements, arbitration of,; family; field of; genus; humans, classification of; life; Linnaean system; magnitude of classifying; number of taxonomists; order; phylum; primates, classifying; species; works of

Taylor, Frank Bursley

telescope

temperature; Earth’s changes of; Fahrenheit and Celsius

Terrible Lizard (Cadbury)

Theory of the Earth with Proofs and Illustrations, A (Hutton)

thermodynamics; entropy; Gibbs and; laws of; Second Law of

Thomson, J. J.

Thorne, Alan

Thorne, Kip S.

Thorstensen, John

time, general theory of relativity and

Time’s Arrow (Gould)

tin

titanium

Titans of the Deep (film)

Tombaugh, Clyde

Trans-Neptunian Objects

Trefil, James

triangulation .

trilobites,

Trinkaus, Erik

Tryon, Edward P.

tsunami

Tsurutani, Bruce

Turkana, Lake, Kenya

ulcers

Uncertainty Principle

U.S. Naval Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona

universe: age of; birth of (Big Bang theory); cosmic background radiation; curvature of space; dark energy (vacuum energy, quintessence); dark matter; edge of; emptiness of; end of; expanding; Goldilocks effect; gravity in; inflation theory; ordered self-assembly in; parsec (vs. light-years); planets in, number of; planets, life-sustaining; theory of many universes; size of; visible

uranium; decay rate into lead

Uranus

Urey, Harold

Ussher, James

Valéry, Paul

Varuna

Venus: conditions on; lack of tectonic activity; transits of

Vermeer, Jan

Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (Chambers)

Vine, Fred

viruses

Vogel, Shawna

volcanoes: Ashfall Fossil Beds, Nebraska, and; Bruneau-Jarbidge, Idaho; climatic consequences,; Deccan Traps; Galeras, Colombia; caldera; hypertrophic pulmonary osteodystrophy; Krakatau, Indonesia; lack of preparedness; predicting; pyroclastic flow; St. Helens, Washington; supervolcanoes, superplumes; Tambora; Unzen, Japan; Vesuvius, Italy; Yellowstone Park

von Baeyer, Hans Christian

Voorhies, Mike

Voyager 1 amp; 2 craft

Vreeland, Russell

Walcott, Charles Doolittle

Walker, Alan

Wallace, Alfred Russel

Walsh, Don

water; chemical formula for; fresh; frozen, qualities of; humans, percentage; lake or ocean, length of time in; molecules; molecules, as rain; oceans, percentage of Earth’s water in; seawater; surface tension; weight of, pressure of,. See also oceans

Watson, James .

Watt, James

weather and climate; cloud types . ; evaporation; Holocene period; hurricane; ice ages; lightning; jet streams; meteorology; Milankovitch cycles; oceans and; rain; storm cloud, anvil shape; Tambora eruption, 1816; temperature, measuring; thunderstorms, energy; variables of climate; weight of air in front; wind. See also ice ages

Wegener, Alfred

Weinberg, Samantha

Weinberg, Steven,

Weitz, Charles

whales; ambergris

Whewell, William

White Cliffs of Dover

White, Nathaniel

Whittaker, R. H.

Whittington, Harry

Wickramasinghe, Chandra

Wilberforce, Samuel

Wilford, John

Wilkins, Maurice

Wilkinson Microwave Anistropy Probe

Williams, Stanley

Wilson, Allan

Wilson, Edward O.

Wilson, Robert

Winchester, Simon

wind

Windows into the Earth (Smith amp; Siegel)

Wisdom of Bones, The (Walker)

Wistar, Caspar

wisteria

Witzke, Brian

Woese, Carl

Woit, Peter

Wonderful Life (Gould)

Wren, Christopher

X-ray crystallography

X rays

Yakima, Washington

Yellowstone Park; earthquakes,; Emerald Pool; geysers; Hebgen Lake quake; hydrothermal explosions; rockfall, Gardiner Canyon

Yellowstone Volcanic Observatory

Zwicky, Fritz

Bill Bryson is the author of numerous works of travel literature. In addition to his bestselling books for Broadway, including A Walk in the Woods, I’m a Stranger Here Myself, In a Sunburned Country , and Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words , he is the author of Mother Tongue, The Lost Continent, Notes from a Small Island , and Neither Here Nor There . He lives in Hanover, New Hampshire, with his wife, Cynthia, and their children.