The Age of the Earth in the Twentieth Century

1989 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Brush
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Molten State ◽  
Expanding Universe ◽  
New Science ◽  
Upper Limit ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Age Determinations

At the end of the nineteenth century, Lord Kelvin's upper limit of only 20 or 30 million years for the age of the Earth was challenged by the American geologist T. C. Chamberlin, who showed that Kelvin's model of an Earth gradually cooling from an initial molten state was not the only possible one. Kelvin's limit was soon afterwards repealed by the new science of radioactivity, which yielded ages of a few billion years. While some geologists resisted this expanded time-scale, Chamberlin was the only one who could provide a comprehensive cosmogonical theory that did not submit to the epistemological superiority of physics and astronomy. In the 1940s, as radiometric age determinations improved in accuracy, they came into conflict with the expanding-universe cosmology — a conflict which the cosmologists eventually avoided by expanding their distance and time scales. In 1953, Patterson announced the result 4.5 billion years, which is still accepted as the best estimate for the age of the Earth. But geologists, liberated from Kelvin's limit, define the epoch of the Earth's formation as being outside the scope of their science, and their textbooks rarely give credit to the person who established the number that once seemed so important to accounts of the Earth's history.

The Nineteenth-Century Perspective

Impact! ◽  
1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerrit L. Verschuur
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Chemical Signature ◽  
The Earth ◽  
John Herschel ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Difficult Issue

If comets and asteroids have a habit of wandering dangerously close to the earth, why wasn’t the danger recognized a long time ago? It was. In fact, before the beginning of the twentieth century the threat of comets was taken for granted (asteroids had not yet entered the picture). Most astronomers in the nineteenth century accepted that the danger of collision was so obvious that it hardly warranted argument. How they elaborated on the danger varied from the understated, as in the case of Sir John Herschel who in 1835 said that the experience of passing through a comet’s tail might not be “unattended by danger,” to the dramatic, as we shall see. In 1840, Thomas Dick, a well-known popularizer of astronomy, wrote a wonderful book entitled The Sidereal Heavens. In it he reviewed all that was known about the heavens, and did so from a theologian’s perspective. This meant that he repeatedly reminded his readers that the splendor of the night skies was largely the responsibility of the “Divine.” But then, if the existence of planets, comets, nebulae, stars, the sun and moon could be attributed to God, this raised a difficult issue for Dick. If comets were also part of God’s plan, why did the threat of impact exist? Surely God would never allow his creation to be destroyed. Dick did not shy from his predicament and began to search for an answer by conceding that little was known about the nature and origin of comets. At the time it was thought that the head of a comet probably consisted of “something analogous to globular masses of vapor, slightly condensed towards the center, and shining either by inherent light or by the reflected rays of the sun.” The reason he could not be sure as to why the head glowed was because the means to study the properties of light had not yet been invented. That required the development of the spectroscope decades later, a device that breaks light into its various colors, which, when examined closely, can reveal the chemical signature of the object from which the light arrives.

A Significant Component of Unforced Multidecadal Variability in the Recent Acceleration of Global Warming

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 909-926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy DelSole ◽  
Michael K. Tippett ◽  
Jagadish Shukla
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation ◽  
Warming Trend ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The Past ◽  
Climate Simulations ◽  
Internal Component ◽  
Long Time

Abstract The problem of separating variations due to natural and anthropogenic forcing from those due to unforced internal dynamics during the twentieth century is addressed using state-of-the-art climate simulations and observations. An unforced internal component that varies on multidecadal time scales is identified by a new statistical method that maximizes integral time scale. This component, called the internal multidecadal pattern (IMP), is stochastic and hence does not contribute to trends on long time scales; however, it can contribute significantly to short-term trends. Observational estimates indicate that the trend in the spatially averaged “well observed” sea surface temperature (SST) due to the forced component has an approximately constant value of 0.1 K decade−1, while the IMP can contribute about ±0.08 K decade−1 for a 30-yr trend. The warming and cooling of the IMP matches that of the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation and is of sufficient amplitude to explain the acceleration in warming during 1977–2008 as compared to 1946–77, despite the forced component increasing at the same rate during these two periods. The amplitude and time scale of the IMP are such that its contribution to the trend dominates that of the forced component on time scales shorter than 16 yr, implying that the lack of warming trend during the past 10 yr is not statistically significant. Furthermore, since the IMP varies naturally on multidecadal time scales, it is potentially predictable on decadal time scales, providing a scientific rationale for decadal predictions. While the IMP can contribute significantly to trends for periods of 30 yr or shorter, it cannot account for the 0.8°C warming that has been observed in the twentieth-century spatially averaged SST.

scholarly journals Multidecadal Trends in Instrumental SST and Coral Proxy Sr/Ca Records

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 1017-1033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert B. Scott ◽  
Christina L. Holland ◽  
Terrence M. Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Warming Trend ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Seasonal Effects ◽  
Factors Affecting

Abstract Historical ship observations of sea surface temperature (SST) from 1850 to present were used to compute linear 40-yr trends for all 5° latitude by 5° longitude grid cells with sufficient data. Trends from throughout the twentieth century were centered about a 7 mK yr−1 warming trend with standard deviation 14 mK yr−1. Although different with high statistical significance from a distribution with zero mean, the warming trends were not unusual in amplitude compared to the available nineteenth-century trends. Trends at the same grid points from the latter half of the nineteenth century were distributed about near-zero mean with standard deviation 17 mK yr−1. The shift in mean is robust to accounting for the biases arising from differing observational methods prior to 1942. The 40-yr trends from the latter half of the twentieth century were centered about 10 ± 4 mK yr−1 and more clearly distinct from earlier trends. Linear 40-yr trends were computed at different locations and times from all publicly available coral skeleton records of the concentration ratio of Sr to Ca. The pre-twentieth-century distribution of 40-yr trends in the Sr/Ca ratio was significantly different from the twentieth-century trends, consistent with the warming found in the instrumental SST. The interpretation of the coral Sr/Ca 40-yr trends cannot yet be reduced to a single factor. Major uncertainties were due to (i) the correlation of modern Sr/Ca records with instrumental SST being dominated by seasonal effects, with correlations on time scales longer than the annual cycle much lower, and (ii) the poor quality instrumental SST on long time scales in remote locations. Based on the NOAA extended reconstructed instrumental SST dataset since 1870 and 499 yr of Sr/Ca data from 13 different coral records, the authors found a Pearson correlation coefficient r = −0.77 for 40-yr low-pass-filtered times series. Interpreting the change in distribution of trends in Sr/Ca will require further study of the factors affecting Sr/Ca on time scales longer than seasonal.

Extra-Terrestrials and the Heavens in Nineteenth-Century Theology

2019 ◽  
pp. 390-403
Author(s):  
Colin Kidd
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
Scottish Literature ◽  
New Science ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth

The discoveries of late eighteenth-century astronomy bequeathed certain theological problems to nineteenth-century theologians, especially in Scotland where the Kirk’s ministers were exposed in their arts training to natural science. If other planets—as seemed likely—were inhabited, then were their populations also fallen and, if so, redeemed by Christ’s atonement on earth? Or were other divine arrangements necessary? Astronomical and soteriological questions were closely intertwined throughout the century. Scots physicists were also at the cutting edge of the new science of energy, which had implications for Christian metaphysics, including the doctrine of the afterlife. In general, however, the findings of physics and astronomy were accommodated within the existing parameters of theology. The interconnection of theology and astronomy would survive as a trope of twentieth-century Scottish literature.

Sunt altera nobis sidera, sunt orbes alii: Imagining Subterranean Peoples and Places in Medieval Latin Literature

Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-118
Author(s):  
Scott G. Bruce
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Speculative Fiction ◽  
Film Adaptation ◽  
Latin Literature ◽  
Medieval Latin ◽  
American Science ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Earth's Crust

Owing to the enduring popularity of Jules Verne’s science fiction story Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), modern readers have taken for granted a hollow, habitable core beneath the earth’s crust as a time-honored, though scientifically implausible, setting for speculative fiction.1 Verne’s fantastic tale of Professor Otto Lidenbrock’s descent into the Icelandic volcano Snæfellsjökull and his perilous adventures underground featuring forests of giant mushrooms and prehistoric monsters remains the most widely read work of nineteenth-century “subterranean fiction.” In 1926, the story was reprinted in a three-part serial in the widely-read American science fiction magazine Amazing Stories (Fig. 1). Throughout the twentieth century, it spawned a host of imitators, from Edgar Rice Burrough’s Pellucidar series (1914‐1963) to C. S. Lewis’ Narnian chronicle The Silver Chair (1953), as well as a successful 1959 film adaptation starring James Mason and Pat Boone.

Putting Down the Steady Pen for the Natural World

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ka’mal McClarin ◽  
Mike Antonioni
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Frederick Douglass ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Global Understanding

Much of the scholarship on Frederick Douglass in the past twenty years has focused on his public contributions to society at large: numerous comprehensive biographical treatments detail his interactions with political, religious, civil, and social movements. However, there has been little discussion of his interactions with the natural world. This article explores Douglass as a man of many seasons who demonstrated over the course of his life many passions, nature being among the most prominent. Along with Douglass’s staunch commitment as a universal reformer, we argue, Douglass carried a lifelong love for the environment, engaging with it physically, intellectually, and as a source of leisure. By the time of his death, he had become a Victorian gentleman farmer and a naturalist who possessed a global understanding of his natural environment. In fact, he often merged his appreciation for nature with his broad range of activism. These actions worked in harmony with one another. This aspect of his life was an equally important aspect of his character as a man who came of age during the nineteenth century and whose soul departed from the earth on the eve of the twentieth century.

Nascere diseguali: considerazioni su eugenetica ed ereditarismo in Italia

2009 ◽  
pp. 113-137
Author(s):  
Terenzio Maccabelli
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
New Science ◽  
Corrado Gini ◽  
Francis Galton ◽  
Keywords Eugenics

At the end of the nineteenth century, Francis Galton founded the new science of «eugenics», with the aim of improving the «racial qualities of future generations». His intent was to create a new discipline integrating the themes of biological heredity, natural selection, and social stratification. This survey discusses recent literature on the spread of eugenics in early twentieth-century Italy, showing the peculiarities of Italian practitioners.Keywords: Eugenics; Racism; Italy; Social Stratification; Francis Galton: Corrado GiniParole chiave: eugenetica; razzismo; Italia; stratificazione sociale; Francis Galton; Corrado Gini

Songs of the spirit from Dufftown

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-54
Author(s):  
Shelagh Noden
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Church Music ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Liturgical Music

Following the Scottish Catholic Relief Act of 1793, Scottish Catholics were at last free to break the silence imposed by the harsh penal laws, and attempt to reintroduce singing into their worship. At first opposed by Bishop George Hay, the enthusiasm for liturgical music took hold in the early years of the nineteenth century, but the fledgling choirs were hampered both by a lack of any tradition upon which to draw, and by the absence of suitable resources. To the rescue came the priest-musician, George Gordon, a graduate of the Royal Scots College in Valladolid. After his ordination and return to Scotland he worked tirelessly in forming choirs, training organists and advising on all aspects of church music. His crowning achievement was the production, at his own expense, of a two-volume collection of church music for the use of small choirs, which remained in use well into the twentieth century.

Scottish Missionaries, ‘Protestant Hinduism’ and the Scottish Sense of Empire in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-century India

2007 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Constable
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Western India ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Free Church ◽  
Intellectual Engagement ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
The Church

This article examines the Scottish missionary contribution to a Scottish sense of empire in India in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Initially, the article reviews general historiographical interpretations which have in recent years been developed to explain the Scottish relationship with British imperial development in India. Subsequently the article analyses in detail the religious contributions of Scottish Presbyterian missionaries of the Church of Scotland and the Free Church Missions to a Scottish sense of empire with a focus on their interaction with Hindu socioreligious thought in nineteenth-century western India. Previous missionary historiography has tended to focus substantially on the emergence of Scottish evangelical missionary activity in India in the early nineteenth century and most notably on Alexander Duff (1806–78). Relatively little has been written on Scottish Presbyterian missions in India in the later nineteenth century, and even less on the significance of their missionary thought to a Scottish sense of Indian empire. Through an analysis of Scottish Presbyterian missionary critiques in both vernacular Marathi and English, this article outlines the orientalist engagement of Scottish Presbyterian missionary thought with late nineteenth-century popular Hinduism. In conclusion this article demonstrates how this intellectual engagement contributed to and helped define a Scottish missionary sense of empire in India.

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