Seven Elements That Have Changed the World (55 page)

Nature
,
129

Needham, Joseph,
24
,
34-5
,
218

neutrons,
128

New York,
18-23
,
48
,
57
,
112
,
121

New York Times
,
18
,
176
,
179

New York Tribune
,
18
,
21

Newcomen, Thomas,
219

Newton, Isaac,
98-9
,
157-8
,
171
,
231
,
243
,
248

Niépce, Nicéphore,
234

Nike, goddess of victory,
111

9/11 attacks,
22

nitroglycerine,
47
,
222

Nixon, Richard M.,
57
,
73
,
101
,
152
,
226

North German Confederation,
5

North Korea,
144
,
146

Novoselov, Konstantin,
191-2

Noyce, Robert,
182-4
,
190
,
200
,
251

nuclear energy,
xv
,
69
,
72
,
82
,
135-43
,
146
,
240

nuclear fission,
128-9

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,
144-6

nuclear physics,
127-8

nuclear weapons,
xiv-xv
,
79
,
126
,
129
,
134
,
138
,
143-8
,
198-9

Dead Hand system,
147
,
241

mutually assured destruction,
147-8

see also
atomic bombs

Oak Ridge, Tennessee,
130-2
,
238

Oil Creek,
43
,
51

oil,
xii
,
xiv
,
32-3
,
41-65
,
136
,
188

accidents,
49-50

compared with gas,
71-2
,
225

cost of extraction,
221

crises,
57

and developing nations,
62-3

exploration,
43-7
,
64

and fifty-fifty principle,
55-6

and gas disposal,
69

industry development,
55-6

industry mergers,
58

prices,
47-8
,
57-9
,
66

reserves,
74

see also
‘peak oil’

Oily Rocks,
45-6

OPEC,
48
,
56-8
,
62
,
223

Operation Smiling Buddha,
145

Oppenheimer, Robert,
131
,
198

optical fibres,
185
,
190

Ore Mountains,
108

Ott, Viktor,
53

Otto the Rich, Margrave,
109-10

Oviedo, Fernández de,
85

Owls of Athens,
110-11
,
233

Pactolus, River,
94

Pakistan,
144-6

Palomar Mountain,
172

Panama Canal,
8

Paniccia, Mario,
189-90

paper

electronic,
193

invention of,
34

Paris,
5
,
127
,
164-5

Paris Exposition,
168

Parker, William Harwar,
2

Paxton, Joseph,
168
,
246

PDVSA,
59
,
61
,
223

‘peak oil’,
48
,
74

Pearl Harbor,
130

Pearson, Gerald,
174-5
,
249-50

Peloponnesian War,
233

Pérez, Carlos Andrés,
59-60
,
223-4

Persian Empire,
95

Persian Gulf,
120

Peru,
106-8

PetroChina,
38

petroleum (the word),
220

Petronas Towers,
23

Pew Research Center,
141-2

philanthropy,
16-17
,
27-8
,
52-3
,
197-8

photography,
xiii
,
105
,
112-19
,
159
,
167
,
199
,
234

photolithography,
251

photosynthesis,
135

photovoltaic cells,
159-60
,
162
,
174-6
,
244

photovoltaic effect,
174-5

Picasso, Pablo,
90

Pierce, John,
250

pig iron,
9-10
,
24

Pilkington, Alastair,
169

Piper Alpha
disaster,
49-50

Pippard, Brian,
246

pitchblende,
109
,
126-7

Pittsburgh,
13-14
,
17

Pizarro, Francisco,
88

Pizarro, Gonzalo,
88-9
,
106
,
229
,
232

Plato,
170

plutonium,
138
,
145
,
154

Polk, James,
92

polonium,
127

poporos
,
90

Popper, Karl,
76
,
227

Popular Science
magazine,
149

population growth,
32
,
35
,
43
,
74

Portugal,
62

Potanin, Vladimir,
53-4
,
222-3

Potomac, River,
1

Powers, Gary,
150

Price Revolution,
229

printing press, invention of,
34

Prudhoe Bay,
57
,
177

Prussia,
4-5

Puerto Rico,
67

Putin, Vladimir,
70

Qaddafi, Colonel Muammar,
61
,
120
,
144

Qatar,
68

Quebec Iron and Titanium (QIT), viii,
156-7

Quimbaya civilisation,
87
,
90

Quito,
88-9

radiation,
127
,
134-5
,
139-40
,
143
,
239-40

radios,
180
,
187

radium,
127

Raleigh, Sir Walter,
89

Raphael,
164

Ravenscroft, George,
245

regulation,
195-6

religious ritual, origins of,
xii

remote sensing,
44-5

renewable energy,
69
,
80
,
83
,
132
,
143
,
176-7

Rhineland, remilitarisation of,
5
,
212

Ricardo, David,
60

Rio Earth Summit,
75

robber barons,
52
,
55
,
197

Roberts, Colonel Edward,
47
,
71

Rock, Arthur,
181
,
184

Rockefeller, John D.,
16-17
,
22
,
51-3
,
55
,
62
,
197
,
222

Romans,
172

Roosevelt, Franklin D.,
130
,
236

Rosneft,
54

Royal Company of Glass and Mirrors,
165-6

Royal Dutch Shell,
55

Royal Society,
12
,
172

Ruhr, the,
xiv
,
3-6
,
212

Russia,
33
,
69
,
78
,
187
,
196

‘loans for shares’ scheme,
222

oil business,
53-5

see also
Soviet Union

Russian oligarchs,
53-5
,
222

Rutherford, Ernest,
127-8

rutile,
149

Rwandan genocide,
xiii
,
116
,
118

Saint-Victor, Niépce de,
234

Sal, Angelo,
234

Sala, River,
109

Salgado, Sebastião,
102
,
118

salt,
68
,
174

Santo Tomas,
232

Sardis,
xiii
,
94-5

Sarir oilfield,
119-20

satellites,
150
,
175

Saudi Arabia,
57

Savery, Thomas,
219

Saxony,
5
,
108

Schulze, Johann,
113-14

Schuman, Robert,
6

Schwarzenegger, Arnold,
77

Schwerer Gustav cannon,
212

Scott, Thomas A.,
13

Scythia,
229

Second World War,
xiii
,
3
,
5
,
7
,
101
,
117
,
126
,
130
,
143
,
160
,
237

self-improvement,
17
,
53

semiconductors,
159-60
,
175
,
179-81
,
249-51

Sen, Amartya,
27

Serra Pelada,
102
,
231

Sevastopol, siege of,
212

Seven Sisters cartel,
55-6
,
223

Shakespeare, William, vii,
188

shale gas,
47
,
71-3
,
196
,
199
,
249

shale oil (tight oil),
47
,
73
,
221

Shanghai,
23
,
40

Shard, the,
247

shareholder value,
27

Sheffield,
13

Sherman Antitrust Act,
52

Shockley, William,
178-9
,
181
,
185
,
200
,
249-50

Shockley Semiconductor,
181

Shultz, George,
126
,
199
,
237

Shuman, Frank,
173
,
248

Sichuan,
68

Sidanco,
53-4

Sidi Bouzid,
187

silicon, atomic structure,
249

silicon dioxide,
182-3

silicon photonics,
190
,
252

Silicon Valley,
181
,
183
,
186

silver

conductivity,
192

as investment,
120-3

prices,
121-2

value relative to gold,
98-9
,
111-12
,
120-1
,
233

see also
coins, silver

silver nitrate,
112-13

‘Silver Thursday’,
122

SIM cards,
91

Singapore,
115

skyscraper (the word),
215

skyscrapers,
18-23
,
37-8
,
155

smartphones,
186

Smith, Jerome,
120
,
236

Socolow, Robert,
140

Socrates,
170

SoHo,
19

solar energy,
80
,
159
,
173-6
,
199

see also
photovoltaic cells

solar wind,
2

South Africa,
103
,
110

Soviet Union,
133-4
,
187

and arms race,
138
,
146-7

collapse of,
53

submarines,
153-4
,
242

space programmes,
153
,
175
,
182

Spartans,
111
,
233

Spence, Mike,
184

spy planes,
150-3

Stalin, Josef,
118

Standard Oil Company,
15
,
17
,
22
,
51-2
,
55
,
58
,
156
,
196
,
222

Statue of Liberty,
19

steel industry,
13-15

Indian,
24-7

steel production,
5-6
,
9-12

Stieglitz, Alfred,
21

Strassmann, Fritz,
128

Strauss, Levi,
93

submarines,
153-4
,
242

Sudomekh shipyard,
154

Suez Canal,
8
,
152

Sugimoto, Hiroshi,
169

Sunjiawan mine,
38

sunlight,
158

Sutter’s Mill,
91-3

Sviatov, Georgi,
153

Syracuse,
172

Syria,
56

Szilárd, Leo,
129
,
238

Taj Mahal Hotel,
25

tar sands,
47

Tarbell, Ida,
52
,
197

Tata, Dorabji and Ratanji,
25-8

Tata, Jamsetji,
24-5
,
27-8

Tata family,
24-8
,
216-17

Tau Tona gold mine,
103-4
,
110

Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich,
18

telescopes,
170-2
,
247

Terman, Frederick,
181

Texas,
45

Texas City refinery,
50

Thatcher, Margaret,
154

Thomson, Edgar,
13

Thomson, William (Lord Kelvin),
225

Thucydides,
111

Thunder Horse field,
7
,
46
,
178
,
249