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Isaac /.ASIMOV Isaac Asimov. IL LIBRO DI FISICA. Titolo originale: "Asimov's New Guide to Science". Traduzione di: Carla Sborgi. Copyright 1984 by Basic Books, Inc. Copyright 1986 Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. NOTA SULL'AUTORE: ISAAC ASIMOV, nato in Russia nel 1912, è il più celebre narratore americano di fantascienza, oltre che affermato biologo e docente di biochimica all'Istituto Medico della Boston University. Tra le sue opere ricordiamo: "Neanche gli Dei", "Il collasso dell'universo", "Civiltà extraterrestri", "Passato e futuro", "Catastrofi a scelta", "Le grandi storie della fantascienza", "Esplorando la terra e il cosmo", "Le parole della scienza", "Il vagabondo delle scienze", "Fondazione", "Tutti i miei robot". SOMMARIO. PRIMO VOLUME. Prefazione Capitolo 1. COSA È LA SCIENZA? Il desiderio di sapere; I greci; La geometria e la matematica; Il processo deduttivo; Il Rinascimento e Copernico; Sperimentazione e induzione; La scienza moderna. Capitolo 2. L'UNIVERSO: Dimensioni dell'universo; Le prime misurazioni: - Misurazione del sistema solare - Le stelle più lontane - Misurazione della luminosità di una stella - Determinazione delle dimensioni della galassia - L'universo si ingrandisce - Galassie a spirale - Ammassi di galassie; La nascita dell'universo: L'età della terra - Il sole e il sistema solare - Il big bang; La morte del sole: Novae e supernovae - L'evoluzione delle stelle; Le finestre sull'universo: Il telescopio - Lo spettroscopio - La fotografia - La radioastronomia - Al di là della nostra galassia; I nuovi oggetti: Le quasar - Le stelle di neutroni - I buchi neri - Lo spazio «vuoto». Capitolo 3. IL SISTEMA SOLARE: Nascita del sistema solare; Il sole; La luna: Misure relative alla luna - Viaggi verso la luna - I razzi - Esplorazione della luna - Gli astronauti e la luna; Venere e Mercurio: Misure relative ai pianeti - L'esplorazione di Venere per mezzo di sonde - L'esplorazione di Mercurio per mezzo di sonde; Marte: Mappe di Marte - L'esplorazione di Marte per mezzo di sonde - I satelliti di Marte; Giove: I satelliti di Giove - Forma e superficie di Giove - La composizione di Giove - L'esplorazione di Giove per mezzo di sonde; Saturno: Gli anelli di Saturno - I satelliti di Saturno; I pianeti più esterni: Urano - Nettuno - Plutone; Gli asteroidi: Asteroidi al di là dell'orbita di Marte - «Earth grazers» e oggetti Apollo; Le comete. 1 Capitolo 4. LA TERRA: Forma e dimensioni: La terra è una sfera - Misurazioni del geoide - Il peso della terra; Struttura della terra: I terremoti - I vulcani - Formazione della crosta terrestre - Il nucleo liquido - Il mantello terrestre - L'origine della luna - La terra è stata liquida?; L'oceano: Le correnti - Le risorse dell'oceano - I fondali oceanici e le trasformazioni dei continenti - La vita negli abissi marini - Immersioni a grande profondità; Le calotte polari: Il polo nord - Il polo sud - L'Antartide - L'Anno Geofisico Internazionale - I ghiacciai - Cause delle glaciazioni. Capitolo 5. L'ATMOSFERA Capitolo 6. GLI ELEMENTI La tavola periodica: Le prime teorie - La teoria atomica - La tavola periodica di Mendeleev - I numeri atomici; Gli elementi radioattivi: Identificazione degli elementi - Alla ricerca degli elementi mancanti - Elementi transuranici - Elementi superpesanti; Gli elettroni: La periodicità della tavola periodica - I gas nobili, o inerti - Gli elementi della serie delle terre rare - Gli elementi di transizione - Gli attinidi; I gas: Liquefazione - Il carburante per i razzi - Superconduttori e superfluidi - Criogenia - Alte pressioni; I metalli: Ferro e acciaio - I nuovi metalli. SECONDO VOLUME Capitolo 7. LE PARTICELLE. L'atomo nucleare: Identificazione delle particelle - Il nucleo dell'atomo; Isotopi: Mattoni uniformi - Sulle tracce delle particelle - La trasmutazione degli elementi; Nuove particelle: Il neutrone - Il positrone - Elementi radioattivi - Acceleratori di particelle - Lo spin delle particelle - I raggi cosmici - La struttura del nucleo; I leptoni: Neutrini e antineutrini - La caccia al neutrino - L'interazione nucleare - Il muone - Il tauone - La massa del neutrino; Adroni e quark: Pioni e mesoni - Barioni - La teoria dei quark; I campi: L'interazione elettromagnetica - Le leggi di conservazione - Una teoria unitaria dei campi. Capitolo 8. LE ONDE. La luce: La natura della luce - La velocità della luce - Il radar - La propagazione delle onde luminose attraverso lo spazio - I monopoli magnetici - Moto assoluto; Relatività: Le equazioni di Lorentz- FitzGerald - La radiazione e la teoria dei quanti di Planck - Einstein e il dualismo onda- particella - La teoria della relatività - Lo spazio-tempo e il paradosso degli orologi - La gravità e la teoria della relatività generale di Einstein - Verifiche della teoria della relatività generale; II calore: Misurazione della temperatura - Due teorie del calore - Il calore come energia - Il calore e il moto molecolare; Massa ed energia; Onde e particelle: Microscopia elettronica - Gli elettroni come onde - Il principio di indeterminazione. Capitolo 9. LA MACCHINA. Fuoco e vapore: Tecnologia primitiva - La macchina a vapore; L'elettricità: Elettricità statica - Elettricità dinamica - Produzione dell'elettricità - Prime applicazioni tecnologiche dell'elettricità; Tecnologia elettrica: Il telefono - Registrazione del suono - La luce artificiale prima dell'elettricità - La luce elettrica - Fotografia; Motori a combustione interna: L'automobile - L'aeroplano; Elettronica: La radio - La televisione - Il transistor; Maser e laser: I maser - I laser. Capitolo 10. IL REATTORE. 2 L'energia: Carbone e petrolio: combustibili fossili - Energia solare; Uso bellico del nucleo: La scoperta della fissione - La reazione a catena - La prima pila atomica - L'Era nucleare - La reazione termonucleare; Uso pacifico del nucleo: Navi a propulsione nucleare - Reattori nucleari per la produzione di elettricità - Reattori autofertilizzanti - I pericoli della radiazione - Utilizzo dei prodotti di fissione - Ricaduta radioattiva; Fusione nucleare controllata. BIBLIOGRAFIA. IL LIBRO DI FISICA. A Janet Jeppson Asimov che divide con me gli interessi scientifici e tutti gli altri aspetti della mia vita PREFAZIONE. Il rapido progresso della scienza suscita l'interesse e l'entusiasmo di tutti coloro che sono sensibili al fascino delle indomabili possibilità dello spirito umano e ai continui successi mietuti dal metodo scientifico quale strumento per penetrare le complessità dell'universo. Ma qual è la situazione di una persona che voglia essere continuamente aggiornata su tutte le fasi del progresso scientifico, con lo scopo deliberato di farsene portavoce presso il vasto pubblico? Per tale persona, interesse ed entusiasmo sono temperati da una sorta di disperazione. La scienza non è mai ferma: essa è come un panorama che si dissolve impercettibilmente e si trasforma sotto i nostri occhi. Non è possibile in un momento qualsiasi coglierla in tutti i suoi particolari senza trovarsi immediatamente superati. Nel 1960 veniva pubblicata "The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science", e immediatamente essa era superata dal progredire della scienza; pertanto nel 1965 usciva "The New Intelligent Man's Guide to Science", per poter prendere in considerazione, per esempio, le quasar e i laser (non ancora noti nel 1960, eppure già diventati termini familiari un paio di anni dopo). Ma la scienza proseguiva inesorabilmente: dopo il 1965 con argomenti nuovi, come le pulsar, i buchi neri, la deriva dei continenti, gli uomini sulla luna, il sonno REM, le onde gravitazionali, l'olografia, l'AMP ciclico e così via. Era dunque tempo di procedere a un'altra edizione, la terza. Ma come dovevamo chiamarla? Evidentemente non: "The New New Intelligent Man's Guide to Science"; perciò l'abbiamo chiamata, semplicemente, "Asimov's Guide to Science"; essa è stata pubblicata nel 1972. Ma la scienza si è rifiutata ancora una volta di arrestarsi. Ormai, grazie alle nostre sonde spaziali, se ne sapeva abbastanza sul sistema solare da rendere necessario un apposito capitolo. E ora abbiamo le nuove teorie sull'universo inflazionario, sulla fine dei dinosauri, sui quark, sui gluoni, come pure le teorie unitarie dei campi e quelle dei monopòli magnetici; per non parlare della crisi energetica, degli home computer, dei robot, dell'evoluzione punteggiata, degli oncogeni e di una quantità di altre cose. Era dunque tempo di procedere a un'altra edizione, la quarta; e dato che ho cambiato titolo a ogni nuova edizione, così farò anche questa volta: ecco dunque "Asimov's New Guide to Science". New York, 1984 Isaac Asimov. 3 Capitolo 1. COSA È LA SCIENZA? All'inizio, si può dire, c'era la curiosità. La curiosità, l'intenso desiderio di sapere, non compare nella materia morta, e sembra non essere caratteristica neppure di certe forme di organismi viventi, che, proprio per tale ragione, a gran fatica riusciamo a considerare come viventi. Un albero non mostra curiosità per il suo ambiente, almeno in modo per noi riconoscibile; lo stesso vale per una spugna o un'ostrica: il vento, la pioggia, le correnti dell'oceano apportano loro ciò di cui abbisognano, ed essi ne traggono quello che possono. Se il caso fa sì che ciò che giunge a loro siano il fuoco, un veleno, dei predatori o dei parassiti, essi muoiono stoicamente e tacitamente come sono vissuti. Tuttavia fin dai primi stadi dell'evolversi della vita alcuni organismi svilupparono un moto indipendente; ciò costituì per loro un progresso enorme dal punto di vista del controllo dell'ambiente. Un organismo capace di muoversi non doveva più aspettare in
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