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December 30, 2011 - May 25, 2012
next layer, ten to fifty kilometers above the surface of the earth, is called the stratosphere. It contains 90 percent of the world’s ozone (O3),
For every two million oxygen molecules, there are only three ozone molecules. But the ozone layer absorbs 97 to 99 percent of the harmful ultraviolet (UV) light that comes from the sun.
When ultraviolet radiation hits an ozone molecule, it splits into an oxygen molecule (O2) and an unstable single oxygen atom. The single oxygen atom quickly binds to an oxygen molecule, forming another ozone molecule.
CFCs are so stable that they can survive for over 200 years in the atmosphere. When CFCs reach the stratosphere, ultraviolet radiation breaks down the molecules. This releases chlorine, which binds to ozone, destroying it.
1987 Montreal Protocol, which officially banned the use of CFCs in developed countries.
chlorine from swimming pools, sea salt, and volcanoes cannot reach the stratosphere.
Before the 1700s, music served one of three functions: chamber music (played by small ensembles in the salons and drawing rooms of the aristocracy), church music (masses, motets, anthems, and hymns), or theater music (incidental music played between acts of a play, or opera).
Ballet d’action, a style of public dance performance that was dominant in Paris
René Descartes’s cogito, ergo sum—I think, therefore I am—appears
Descartes’s famous conclusion came at the end of a project to subject all of his beliefs to radical doubt.
He explained that obeying the Ten Commandments alone was not good enough for salvation.
asked his audience to “turn the other cheek”
The sermon also includes the Golden Rule, the Lord’s Prayer, and famous sayings such as, “Judge not, that ye not be judged.”
“I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.” —Martin Luther
The Renaissance challenged traditional Christian teachings. And the venality and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church itself dismayed many of its most ardent believers.
In 1517, a frustrated German clergyman named Martin Luther (1483–1546) tacked a document to the doors of the cathedral in Wittenberg. The document contained Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, a
scathing indictment of the pope’s leadership and the general state of the...
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practice of selling forgiveness to the highest bidder deeply offended Luther.
Luther’s followers became Protestants, rejecting the traditional authority of the pope in a religious movement known as the Reformation.
In 1522, Luther produced a German translation of the New Testament in only eleven weeks, giving Germans their first chance to read the holy book in their own language.
the poem mixes tenets of the old Germanic warrior code with elements of Christianity,
Beowulf is written in Old English, the heavily Germanic forerunner to Middle English and modern English.
Nine scenes from Genesis run down the center of the ceiling. The first three are devoted to the Creation, the next three to the story of Adam and Eve, and the final three to the story of Noah.
Scientists look for levels of carbon-14, a rare form of carbon that begins to decay and disappear as soon as an organism dies.
All living organisms on earth are based on carbon.
If a dead object has half the ratio of a living object, then it is approximately 5,730 years old, because carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 years.
If an object is much older than 60,000 years, there isn’t enough carbon-14 left to be used scientifically.
Radioactive uranium has a half-life of 704 million years and can be used to date objects on a geologic scale.
Potassium-40, which is naturally found in the human body, has a half-life of 1.3 billion years. It has been used to date the beginning of life on the planet.
classical period of music, which immediately followed the baroque period and directly preceded the romantic period,
Age of Enlightenment,
what exactly is the pain you feel?
mind/body problem remains a lively debate in philosophy because it raises important questions about psychology and neuroscience.
poses serious obstacles in the effort to develop artificial intelligence.
In 1550, Ferdinand and Isabella’s grandson, King Charles V, summoned two prominent scholars to the country’s main university at Valladolid for a far-reaching debate about his foreign policy. The bloodshed in the Americas worried the king. Was it right to continue expanding Spain’s empire at such a cost in human lives?
las Casas pleaded for a more humane Spanish policy in the Americas.
Spanish had a duty to “Christianize” the American Indians by whatever means necessary.
To Sepúlveda, native tribes like the Aztecs were barbarians who practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism.
Within two generations, the Spanish had destroyed the great Aztec and Inca empires.
Einstein was asked to be the second president of Israel, but he declined, saying he lacked the people skills.
Marranos, Jews who had once secretly practiced their religion in Spain before being expelled.
1656, he was excommunicated from the Jewish community
In 1670, he published the Theological-Political Treatise, in which he argued that the Bible, like all scriptures, should be interpreted as a document produced by human beings, and not by God.
real content of religion was not concerned with the nature of God but rather with guiding people to do what is morally right through stories and precepts. Thus, religion is a system of moral and political control, and all religions are equally valid,
his magnum opus, Ethics,
Spinoza presented a systematic account of God, nature, the mind, and the attainment of happiness.
Working for much of his life as a lens-grinder, Spinoza died at The Hague in 1677.
Spinoza called the state of happiness beatitude.
The twelve apostles were, in effect, the first missionaries.
