The Elements: A Very Short Introduction

... this glass tube, evacuated ofair, a negatively charged and heated metal plate emitted a beam - a 'cathode ray" - that could be focused and accelerated by itsattraction ... radiation 'radioactivity'.They found that another heavy element, thorium, was alsoradioactive, and deduced that natural uranium ore (pitchblende)contained other radioactive ... alpha particles faster. Because the particles are electrically charged, electric fields can be used toaccelerate them, just as the gravitational field accelerates a fallingapple....

... On the contrary, he thought it far more important than talk about factual states of affairs. It was just that language could not represent the world as a whole. But though the value and meaning ... Alasdair MacIntyre has observed, is a stranger to love.27 The assumption that the meaning of life is primarily an individual affair is still alive and well. Julian Baggini writes that the ... make it?What we have called love is the way we can reconcile our search for individual fulfi lment with the fact that we are social animals. For love means creating for another the space in which...