Theories
A light bulb goes off in head. An apple bops you in the head. Whatever the cause, theories involve the head. More specifically, they involve the imagination. Each of these nominations below required its author to make a novel intuitive leap. Some of those leaps landed on firm ground. Other fell into the void of history. Regardless, they each represent a stepping stone to further discovery.
Nominations
Consider nominating any of the following candidates under the Theories category. Highlighted candidates have already been nominated. To view the nominees, place your cursor anywhere over the text of the nominee and click (pop-ups must be enabled on your browser):
Geocentric – Ptolemaic View (circa 100AD)
Heliocentric – Copernican Revolution (1543) - On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres (De revolutionibus orbium coelestium)
Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion (1609) - The New Astronomy (Astronomia Nova) and (1619) - Harmonies of the World (Harmonices Mundi)
Galilean Mechanics (1632) - The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo)
Newton’s Laws [Universal Law of Gravitation; Escape Velocity] (1687) - The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica)
Titius-Bode Law (1772)
Black Holes (1783)
Kant-Laplace Nebular Hypothesis (1796)
Doppler Effect (1842) - On the Coloured Light of Double Stars and Certain Other Stars of the Heavens
Olbers’ Paradox (1823/1826)
Electromagnetic Field Theory (1864)
Relativity (1905/1915)
Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram (circa 1910)
Big Bang Theory (1927-1931: Lemaître)
Hubble’s Law (1929)
Thermonuclear Fusion (1938: Hans Bethe)
Steady State Theory (1948)
“Dirty Snowball” Comet Theory (1949: Fred Lawrence Whipple (1906-2004))
Do you have a favorite image or imaginative leap that you wish to nominate? If so, please submit your nomination under one of the eight categories on the left to the following e-mail link no later than March 31, 2009: