These references are for outside reading assignments in introductory Astronomy classes. The references date back to 1990 (with exceptions made for "classic" papers). To return to the Astronomical Teaching Resource home page, click HERE.

Francois Jacob - Evolution and Tinkering (6p)

• Review of the general theory of evolution and current problems to be resolved in the field.
• June 1977 - Science

Freeman J. Dyson - Time Without End: Physics and Biology in an Open Universe (14p)

• Very technical discussion of entropy and the consequences of living for a very long time in an open Universe. An interesting time-line is set up and eschatology is discussed.
• July 1979 - Reviews of Modern Physics

Marvin Minsky - Communication with Alien Intelligence (12p)

• Discusses what we might have in common with a completely alien civilization, and it relates this topic to computer intelligence by talking about general principles of intelligence.
• April 1985 - Byte Magazine

Michael J. Harris - On the Detectability of Antimatter Propulsion Spacecraft (7p)

• It is shown that the NASA Gamma-Ray Observatory will be able to detect large interstellar spacecraft at distances up to 300 pc by the gamma-ray emission from the propulsion system alone. The distance limit is set by the possibility of recognizing such objects by their proper motions.
• January 1986 (v 123, p 297) - Astrophysics and Space Science

Roger W. Sinnott - The Wandering Stars of Allegheny (4p)

• Building and utilizing a lens to study very small proper motions in the hopes of detecting stellar motions due to planetary companions.
• October 1987 - Sky and Telescope

Walter Alvarez et al - What Caused the Mass Extinction? (17p)

• Sixty-five million years ago the world changed abruptly. The reptiles that had dominated the landscape vanished. So did more than half of all species of plants and land and marine animals. Because a species can survive even if its numbers are greatly reduced, the fact that so many species died out at the end of the Cretaceous period (the KT boundary) suggests that for a while the earth was an extremely inhospitable place. Mammals somehow survived the hard time. Spreading into ecological niches that the dinosaurs had vacated, they became the dominant kind of large animal. One species eventually began to investigate the fossil record of its distant origins. That record is rich in clues of all kinds.

  In addition to dinosaur bones--relatively rare--there are traces of many other microorganisms, including abundant microscopic fossils of foraminifera and other marine life. The thickness and chemical composition of the strata also have a tale to tell. The substance of the tale, however, seems to depend on who is reading it. Walter Alvarez and Frank Asaro of the University of California at Berkeley see traces of a huge impact from space hidden in layers of sedimentary rock in the Apenines of Italy and elsewhere around the globe. Vincent E. Courtillot of the Institute of Physics of the Earth in Paris sees evidence of a world wracked and polluted by the enormous volcanic erupotions that formed the Deccan Traps in India. On the following pages they present their arguments. The vanished saurians, meanwhile, keep their silence.

• October 1990 - Scientific American

Paul Davies - Everyone's Guide to Cosmology (4p)

• General summary of the basics of cosmology, including redshift, Hubble's law, inflation, etc.
• March 1991 - Sky and Telescope

Jeffrey S. Levinton - The Big Bang of Animal Evolution (8p)

• Almost 600 million years ago animal evolution demonstrated an unmatched burst of creativity. Has the mechanism of evolution altered in ways that prevent fundamental changes in the body plans of animals?
• November 1992 - Scientific American

Janet G. Luhmann et al - The Pioneer Mission to Venus (6p)

• This multipart spacecraft spent 14 years scrutinizing the atmosphere, clouds and environs of the nearest planet. The results clarify the stunningly divergent evolutionary histories of Venus and the earth.
• April 1994 - Scientific American

John W. Hardy - Adaptive Optics (6p)

• Technology developed during the cold war is giving new capabilities to ground-based astronomical telescopes.
• June 1994 - Scientific American

G. Jeffrey Taylor - The Scientific Legacy of Apollo (8p)

• The retrieved lunar rocks have helped settle questions about the moon's origin, its composition and even the early conditions that affected life on the earth.
• July 1994 - Scientific American

P. J. E. Peebles - The Evolution of the Universe (5p)

• Some 15 billion years ago the universe emerged from a hot, dense sea of matter and energy. As the cosmos expanded and cooled, it spawned galaxies, stars, planets and life.
• October 1994 - Scientific American

Robert P. Kirshner - The Earth's Elements (6p)

• The elements that make up the earth and its inhabitants were created by earlier generations of stars.
• October 1994 - Scientific American

Claude J. Allegre et al - The Evolution of the Earth (8p)

• The formation of this planet and its atmosphere gave rise to life, which shaped the earth's subsequent development. Our future lies in interpreting this geologic past.
• October 1994 - Scientific American

Leslie E. Orgel - The Origin of Life on the Earth (7p)

• Growing evidence supports the idea that the emergence of catalytic RNA was a crucial early step. How that RNA came into being remains unknown.
• October 1994 - Scientific American

Stephen Jay Gould - The Evolution of Life on the Earth (7p)

• The history of life is not necessarily progressive; it is certainly not predictable. The earth's creatures have evolved through a series of contingent and fortuitous events.
• October 1994 - Scientific American

Robert W. Kates - Sustaining Life on the Earth (8p)

• Hope for an environmentally sustainable future lies in evolving institutions, technology and global concern.
• October 1994 - Scientific American

William H. Calvin - The Emergence of Intelligence (7p)

• Language, foresight, musical skills and other hallmarks of intelligence are connected through an underlying facility that enhances rapid movements.
• October 1994 - Scientific American

Carl Sagan - The Search for Extraterrestrial Life (7p)

• The earth remains the only inhabited world known so far, but scientists are finding that the universe abounds with the chemistry of life.
• October 1994 - Scientific American

Steven Weinberg - Life in the Universe (6p)

• We comprehend the Universe and our place in it, but there are limits to what we can explain at present. Will research at the boundaries of science reveal a special role for intelligent life?
• October 1994 - Scientific American

Tim Appenzeller et al - The Early Universe (12p)

• The early universe isn't an empty canvas any more. Not long ago, cosmologists could tick off on the fingers of one hand their certainties about how the universe began and evolved. They knew it had started with the big bang, they knew its age within a factor of 2, and they knew that at least some dark matter had influenced its architecture and motions. Most of the rest was the domain of theory. As comologist Craig Hogan of the University of Washington--himself a theorist--puts it, "theory was in such good shape 10 years ago because there were no observations."

  No longer. A battery of new telescopes, led by the Hubble Space Telescope and the 10-meter Keck Telescope--which has just been joined by a twin-- together with new detectors and techniques, are filling in that canvas. By looking back to the most remote times or turning a keener eye on our own neighborhood, astronomers are getting the details about cosmic origins. Theorists must now contend with real measurements of its overall mass, its complements of ordinary and dark matter, and the structures, large and small, that took shape in its early years. There's much more to come. And as the stories in this special report show, reality can be bewildering.

  • 1. Weighing the Universe.
  • 2. Astronomers Probe Creation by Measuring Isotopes.
  • 3. How to Duel with Deuterium.
  • 4. Microwave Wrinkles Promise Vital Statistics of the Cosmos.
  • 5. From Snapshots of Distant Galaxies, a History Emerges.
  • 6. Galaxy Surveys Seek the Architecture of the Cosmos.

• June 1996 - Science

Jeffrey S. Kargel et al - Global Climatic Change (9p)

• Today a frozen world, Mars at one time may have had more temperate conditions, with flowing rivers, thawing seas, melting glaciers and, perhaps, abundant life.
• November 1996 - Scientific American (9p)

Craig J. Hogan - Primordial Deuterium from the Big Bang (5p)

• Nuclei of this hydrogen isotope formed in the first moments of the big bang. Their abundance offers clues to the early evolution of the universe and the nature of cosmic dark matter.
• December 1996 - Scientific American