Richard Dawkins - The Magic of Reality

liquids, 83–4, 89

Lourdes, 218

Lowell, Percival, 191

luck, 223–6

lunar cycles, 121

magic: poetic, 19, 21; stage, 19, 20; supernatural, 19, 20, 25, 238

Magic Circle, 20

mammals, 49–50, 51–3, 60, 72, 107–8, 233

Maori myths, 204

Mars, 129, 136, 190

mass, 91–2

Maya religion, 124, 126

Mayr, Ernst, 57

memories, false, 183, 185

Mendel, Gregor, 16–17, 18

mercury, 79, 85

metals, 79

meteors, 136–7

methane, 85

Mexican Wave, 174

mice, 51, 52, 71

microscopes, 18, 86, 95, 96, 230

migration, 107–8

Milky Way, 14, 35, 148–9, 165–6, 172

miracles: definition, 244; examples, 244–5, 251–5; Fatima, 247–9; Jesus’s, 239, 252–4; playing cards, 25, 251–2; photographs of fairies, 245–6; rumours and traditions, 239–41; supernatural magic, 19, 238; technology and, 255–7; witch trials, 247

mirrors, 90

models, 15–18, 22, 86–8, 164, 177

molecules: atoms in, 80; Buckyballs and Buckytubes, 94–5; colours, 171; diamond crystal, 80, 88; fossils, 44; immune system, 233; miracles, 253; movement, 83–4; waves, 173–4

molybdenum, 79

monkeys, 48–9, 52, 60

moon, 121, 124, 128, 189, 192–3

multiverse, 165

myoglobin, 95

naphthalene, 94

natural selection, 30–1, 68, 70, 75, 193, 227–9

Navajo people, 57

neutron star, 193

neutrons, 91–3

New Guinea, 57, 205

New Zealand: earthquake myths, 204; earthquakes, 201

Newton, Sir Isaac, 109, 151–3, 154, 168–9

newts, 28–30, 31, 50

Nigerian myths, 124, 163

Noah’s Ark, 147–8

Norse myths, 37, 127, 149

North American myths, 57, 102

nucleus, nuclei, 87–9, 91–2, 171, 193

oases, 58, 66, 69, 71

octane, 94

orbits: comets, 115–16, 117; Earth’s orbit, 103, 108–9, 115, 118–19, 134, 166–7, 188, 191; ellipses, 113–14, 117; planets, 109–11, 117, 129, 130–1, 134–5, 187–9; satellites, 111; space station in, 106, 111–12

original sin, 36–7

ozone, 80

Pan Gu myths, 162–3

parallax method, 166–8

paranoia, 229–30

parasites, 140, 228, 230–2, 234

peat, 140–1

Penn and Teller, 20

perihelion, 116, 117, 118, 120

Persephone, 102–3

photons, 90, 121

pilgrimage, 218

Pink Panther, The , 226

planets: detecting, 187–9; distance from star, 191; extra-solar, 187, 189–90, 191; gravitational pull, 129, 192–3; life on other planets, 186–7, 193–8; mass, 192; orbits, 109–11, 117, 129, 130–1, 134–5, 187–9; size, 129, 192; temperature, 85, 191

plate tectonics, 205, 208–11, 223

Pluto, 115, 117, 118, 135

Pollyanna’s Law, 222, 229

Pompeii and Herculaneum, 214

potential energy, 142

predators, 228–9, 230

pregnancy, 232–3

Presley, Elvis, 239, 241

prisms, 151–3, 154, 168–9

protons, 91–3, 171

Proxima Centauri, 14, 128, 130

Pueblo people, 57

pyramids, 126–7

quarks, 93

Quetzalcoatl, 125

radar, 197–8

radio telescope, 13, 15, 158

radio waves, 13, 158, 196–7; modulated, 197

radioactive clocks, 45–6

rainbow: myths, 147–9; real magic, 150–1; spectrum, 152–3, 154–6, 156–9, 168

raindrops, 153–6

Randi, James ‘The Amazing’, 20

red: dwarf, 191; giant, 132; shift, 173, 176, 188

relative movement, 103–5

reptiles, 50

rivers, 141

rocks: age of, 44–5; hardness, 88–9; igneous, 43–4; opacity, 90; pointy, 223; sedimentary, 43–4, 82; types, 43–4

Rowling, J. K., 19

rumours, 239–41, 248

Rutherford, Ernest, 86, 87

Salem witch trials, 247

Salish tribe, 163

salt, 82–3

San Andreas Fault, 201–2, 214

San Francisco earthquake, 201

sand, 82

satellites, 111

Saturn, 85, 116, 136

scallops, 196

scavengers, 140

sea-floor spreading, 210–12

seasons, 102, 108–9, 118–21

selective breeding, 28

Shinto religion, 124

shooting stars, 136–7

Siberian myths, 204

simulation, computer, 16

sleep paralysis, 183–5

sodium: ions, 82; light, 170–2

Sodom and Gomorrah, 202

Sod’s Law, 221–2, 227, 228–9

solar wind, 117

solids, 84–5, 88–9, 90, 175

sonar, 197

sound: speed of, 14; wavelength, 156–7, 158, 175–6; waves, 173–6

space station, 106, 111–13

species, 42–3, 59–61, 64–72, 73–5

spectroscope, 168–9, 171, 178, 187, 188

spectrum, 151–3, 154–9, 168–73, 176

spiders: jumping, 195; webs, 227–8

standard candles, 167–8, 176

stardust, 133–4

starlight, 138, 168–71

stars: distances away, 12, 166–7; galaxies, 14, 165–6; gravitational pull, 129; life story of a star, 131–2; neutron, 193; planetary orbits, 134–5; shooting stars, 136–7; size, 129, 130, 131; supernovas, 133–4; temperature, 129–30

Star Trek , 181, 183

steady state model, 164

steam engines, 141, 142

subduction, 213

succubus, 185–6

sugar, 138–9, 142–3

Sumerian myths, 146–9

summer, 100, 102–3, 107–9, 118–21

sun: day and night, 106–7, 118–20; gravitational pull, 129; importance for life, 137–43; life story of a star, 131–2; myths, 100–3; planetary orbits, 109, 115, 117, 118–19, 134–5, 166; solar wind, 117; star, 128, 130, 131, 165; summer and winter, 103, 107, 118–21; worship, 124–7

supernovas, 133–4, 135

Tahltan people, 102

Tasmanian origin myths, 34–5

tectonic plates, 208–9, 209–11, 223

telescopes: curved mirror, 196; detecting reality, 18; Hubble, 173; observing stars, 132, 188; photographs, 158; radio, 13, 158; as time machines, 14–15; X-ray, 13, 158

Tezcatlipoca, 125

Thomson, J. J., 87

time: beginning of, 164–5; measuring, 44–6, 100

time machine, 14, 46–9, 256

Tiv tribe, 124

Tlaloc, 125

tossing a coin, 222, 224–6

tradition, 241

tsunami, 200–1, 223

universe: alien life forms, 180–1; big bang, 164–5, 177; distances, 166–7; expanding, 177; laws of, 252–3; observable, 164–5; origin myths, 162–4

uranium, 92, 134

uranium-238, 44–5, 46

Utnapashtim, 146–8

vaccination, 232

Venus, 116, 132

Vesuvius, eruption, 214

viruses, 227, 230, 234

Vishnu, 163

vision, 194–7

volcanoes, 43, 67, 69–70, 212, 214

watches, 243–4

water on other planets, 190–2

water wheels, 141–2, 143

Watson, James, 17–18

Wegener, Alfred, 208–9, 210

weightlessness, 111–12

West African legends, 124, 149, 204–5, 217

whales, 18, 58, 72, 157, 197

white dwarf, 133

Wilde, Oscar, 216

Wilkins, Maurice, 18

wind, 90, 173, 213, 229

winter, 100, 102–3, 107–9, 118–21

Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 105

Wright, Elsie, 245–6

X-rays, 18, 157, 158, 167, 196–7

Zulu creation myth, 163

Richard Dawkinswas first catapulted to fame with his iconic book The Selfish Gene , which he followed with a string of bestselling books, including the phenomenal The God Delusion . The Magic of Reality is his first book written for a younger, more general readership and it also became an immediate bestseller in its original, colour illustrated hardback edition. Dawkins is a fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature, and has won numerous awards. He was a professor at Oxford University until 2008 and he remains a fellow of New College. He has also written and presented several television documentaries, including The Genius of Charles Darwin in 2008 and Faith School Menace in 2010.