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| Astronomy & Geophysics 47 (1) 1.35 | | |||||
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| A short history of cosmologyOn the Shores of the Unknown: a Short History of the Universe by Joseph Silk, CUP, 2005, £19.99, 250pp, ISBN 0521836271.
It is written by one of the greats of the field, Joseph Silk, and it shows. The great pleasure of this book is that it does not read like an abridged version: it is written with precision, confidence and a sure eye for the essentials. In a way it is the antithesis of a textbook; here are no worthy-but-dull expositions of basic techniques. For spectroscopy, for example, Silk takes two short paragraphs to pick out how spectroscopy provides useful information about the really interesting problems, and moves on. This is the gist of his very readable style: he focuses on the ideas, experiments and people that drove the science on, narrating the story with a clear-eyed awareness of dead ends and fallacies. His sharp observations remind the reader of what, for example, has and has not been observed, what concepts remain untested or untestable. He also does not shy away from theology, so closely allied to cosmology in so many people's minds, but concentrates on those elements of the problem “on which scientific tools can be brought to bear”. In all, this is a book for students of astronomy, old and new: it puts together so many pieces of the cosmological jigsaw in a neat pattern, highlighting the missing pieces but showing enough of the overall picture for readers to feel enlightened and informed. And it's a page-turner – a really compelling read. One reason for this is the confidence of Silk's style. There are no footnotes, no references and no digressions: all that you need to follow the plot is here, and the rest is easy to look up elsewhere. The other reason is that the history of the universe is so fascinating – and this is a book that illuminates both that story and the way that scientists have unravelled it so far. Sue Bowler |
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| Starring roles in solar and stellar astrophysicsA Concise History of Solar and Stellar Physics by Jean-Louis Tassoul and Monique Tassoul, Princeton University Press, £26.95, ISBN 069111711X
This is a scholarly and thorough account of the development of the field and, in passing, of the growth of so many of the fundamental physical concepts necessary to understand the workings of stars. The authors cover the development of ideas and theories – and their rejection – through time, by considering the work of the key people involved. The book is enhanced by the many photographs of scientists, with informative captions, often short pen-portraits. The emphasis on the people involved and the problems they tackled gives the reader a path through the often complex ideas presented here, without over-simplifying the physics involved. As a result, the book is a useful summary of the development of some of the most fascinating ideas in modern astrophysics. It is enhanced by extensive footnotes, often citing particular papers, a useful bibliography and an index of names. This last feature reflects most strongly the authors' underlying theme, that science is as much about the people who ask and answer questions as it is about the world they are exploring. Sue Bowler |
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| Biography of a survivorA History of the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford: The Biography of a Building by Jeffery Burley and Kristina Plenderleith, Green College, £14.50, pbk, ISBN 0950939412. This slim but well-illustrated volume does exactly what it says on the cover: through scholarly contributions it illuminates the construction, architecture and restoration of the building and grounds of the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford, and the contributions to astronomy, medicine and Oxford college life made there. The observatory buildings are now the home of Green College and have recently been restored to show the glories of the original 18th-century building – this book is part of the fundraising efforts. The original Radcliffe Observatory changed from a building dedicated to astronomical observation to solve, initially, navigation problems, to a research base for Oxford astronomy. University politics and competition from better instruments, better sited, led to a slow decline in its astronomical status, until closure in 1934. But this was not the end: meteorological observations continued and in 1935 the Radcliffe Observatory became the home of the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research. There is an entertaining section in this book on the medical research at the Observatory, including cineradiology: films of the living body in X-rays, notably subjects drinking beer while suspended by the ankles, and in the process of sword-swallowing. By 1977, the Nuffield Institute moved out and the buildings became the home of Green College, a postgraduate college principally for students of clinical medicine. And, thanks to the thorough restoration, the extensive allegorical carvings and reliefs of the original Radcliffe Observatory remain as a testament to its splendid origins and convoluted history. Sue Bowler  Above: Green College, the former Radcliffe Observatory. Inset: One of the astrological carvings on the building's exterior. (Michael Greenhalgh, http://rubens.anu.edu.au/) |
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| Do you review? A&G is seeking working scientists to review books and software for this section. Although I cannot promise to find books in your field, if you are keen to write reviews that intrigue and inform your fellow researchers across the disciplines covered by A&G, and you are prepared to meet reasonable deadlines of a month or two, please contact the Editor (s.bowler@leeds.ac.uk) and tell me who you are and what areas you are most interested in. | |||
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The Influence of Active Galaxies on the Universe at Large X-ray image of the hot-gas environment of the radio galaxy 3C 66B, with radio contours superimposed to show the striking relationship between the radio and X-ray structure. The recent great increase in multi-wavelength observations has changed our picture of the universe, not least for objects such as active galactic nuclei. The state of play can be summed up in a compact paperback The Influence of Active Galaxies on the Universe at Large, the proceedings of a Royal Society Discussion Meeting held in 2004 (Royal Society, 2005, £100, available from http://www.royalsoc.as.uk). It is a compact volume covering many key issues discussed by the cream of researchers in the field and includes points raised in the discussion, often the most interesting parts of such a meeting. The format is the sort of thing you could carry on the train to read, or keep in your bookshelves; the content makes it admirably suited for either, but the price makes either option an unlikely choice for most researchers. (Image: J H Croston, University of Bristol, and ESA) |
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This is a book, in the author's words, “for the lay cosmologist”, a concise and authoritative tour of cosmological thought stripped of unnecessary complexity. Necessary complexity it has in abundance, of course, because cosmology entangles so many different fields. But in these 240 pages you will find a pared-down story that covers the essentials, starting with fundamentals such as the scale of the universe and how astronomers measure it, and finishing in the realms of brane theory, warm dark matter and the future of the universe.
The Sun's central role in human life has made it a topic of wonder and speculation from earliest times. Stories of the origin of life tend to feature the Sun as a powerful god; more sophisticated speculations had the Sun as a body radiating or concentrating light on Earth, and moving through the skies. Jean-Louis Tassoul and Monique Tassoul start their enjoyable book with a summary of these early ideas about the Sun and stars, before moving through relevant astronomical history from 1610 onwards, and concentrating on the past century or so. This is when solar and stellar physics became the significant scientific field that it is today, as observations and physical theory grew together.