Since 300 is the inverse square of 90,000, Adams assumed that the next great leap was happening while he was writing, around 1900 — 300 years after Galileo. Looking about him, he decided this next jump to higher energy was occurring in the researches of the Curies, who had discovered radioactivity. As many commentators have noted, it is impossible to read Adams on this subject without feeling that he is very accurately forecasting the Atomic Age.
