COMING OF AGE IN THE MILKY WAY

by Timothy Ferris ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 27, 1988

The title can be taken in two ways--first, as the long view of a historian of science who surveys how the human perspective of the size and age of the universe has expanded over time. Second, as a personal rite of passage of a U.C. Berkeley professor who has spent 12 years in preparing this excellent volume, a fitting successor to his fine The Red Limit (1977). Here again, Ferris focuses on individuals who were the movers and shapers, mincing no words about their personal foibles and idiosyncracies. Did you know that Tycho Brahe died of a burst bladder following a beer-drinking bout at a royal dinner party? Or that Galileo refused to send Kepler a telescope? Ferris tells all in a style geared to general readers and quite prepared to see the humor of a situation: He describes Herschel wandering through the Seven Years War ""in a state of abstraction worthy of Buster Keaton in The General."" Of Lemaitre, whose 1927 paper linked the red shifts of galaxies to the expanding universe of general relativity, Ferris writes, ""Plumply bourgeois in appearance, a homeboy in a priest's collar, Lemaitre was brushed off by the luminaries. . ."" Ferris has clearly plumbed the biographical literature and the cultural as well as the scientific scene, occasionally taking time out to devote a chapter to technology, from astrolabe to chronometer to today's assortment of super accelerators. The later chapters review the status of grand unified theories and the attempts to push back the hands of the big bang clock yet another zillionth of a second. Extensive references, a glossary, bibliography, and a timeline of noteworthy events make the book a useful volume for the more-than-casual reader, who will also appreciate the concluding chapter. There, Ferris comments on the youth of science and the crucial role of error--both as it relates to the lack of perfection (the broken symmetries) that have led to the world of matter and time, and as the goad and corrective in the process of doing science. The moral questions posed by the possession of knowledge are also bruited, as Ferris quotes Sophocles: ""Nothing that is vast enters into the life of mortals without a curse."" So it is with the knowledge of how the stars shine--and nuclear fires are kindled. Overall, a sobering but optimistic outlook concludes this well-wrought work.

Pub Date: July 27, 1988

ISBN: 0060535954

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION