Through a bizarre (and scientifically unexplainable) fluctuation in the spacetime continuum, a copy of a book titled Iguoonos: How We Evolved appears on your desk.
As you begin to read, you learn that the book describes the evolution of the people living in the star system described above. In the first chapter, you learn that these people evolved from organisms that lived 5 billion years ago. Which of the following statements should you expect to find as you continue to read this book? A) As a result of traumatic experiences of their evolutionary ancestors, they dislike television.
B) Their immediate ancestors were chimpanzees.
C) They found that the presence of two stars in their system was critical to their evolution.
D) They evolved on a different planet in a different star system and moved to their current location.
E) They evolved from primitive wormlike creatures that had 13 legs, 4 eyes, and bald heads, thus explaining why such critters are now considered a spectacular delicacy.
Question 2
Why must the Sun's rate of fusion gradually rise over billions of years?
A) The Sun becomes less efficient and must increase the rate of fusion to produce the same amount of energy.
B) Fusion reactions decrease the overall number of particles in the core, causing the core to shrink, converting gravitational potential energy into thermal energy, and increasing the rate of fusion.
C) The radiation produced by fusion reactions that is trapped in the core gradually raises the temperature, increasing the rate of fusion.
D) The Sun gets heavier as it gets older, and the stronger inward pull of gravity increases the fusion rate.
E) The rate of fusion is not rising; it is actually decreasing over time.
Curved Spacetime and the Path of Light
The Laocoön Group, Roman copy, perhaps after Agesander, Athenodorus, and Polydorus of Rhodes.
Alexander the Great, head from a Pergamene copy.
The Rural–Urban Continuum
Copy-number variants
The fluctuation test of Luria and Delbrück