The Day We Found the Universe in Science and Inquiry

Jan 20, 2012 Cassandra Kay Silva rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science

I can't even imagine what it would have felt like to have seen some of these early images of the expanding universe during this time but it must have been completely inspiring, and if any book gives you a glimpse into what this must have felt like this book is it. It contains an assortment of well known and less well known but equally important contributors to Astronomy in the early 1900's leading towards today. It really makes you look differently at the giants of this time such as Edwin Hubble ...more

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Feb 27, 2015 Rusty rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science, prose, non-fiction, history

I don't think there is a word for this in english, but I'm pretty sure there is in some other language. But it's the thing where you've had some sort of impossible to articulate epiphany about something. Wait, maybe that's an epiphany. Dammit. Words are so hard.

Whatever the case may be, I recall with great clarity the moment that I realized that some little piece of trivia I'd picked up in passing was probably the entire life's work of a brilliant man or woman at one time, and quite possibly, w I don't think there is a word for this in english, but I'm pretty sure there is in some other language. But it's the thing where you've had some sort of impossible to articulate epiphany about something. Wait, maybe that's an epiphany. Dammit. Words are so hard.

Whatever the case may be, I recall with great clarity the moment that I realized that some little piece of trivia I'd picked up in passing was probably the entire life's work of a brilliant man or woman at one time, and quite possibly, was the result of several lifetime's worth of work by numbers of people.

And for me, it's 30 seconds with Google, and I've got the problem licked.

This book, it's about one of those things. In the broadest of brushstrokes, it's about how we came to view the modern view of the universe as we do today. I don't mean stars and planets, which has been discussed endlessly, but the cosmos at large. You know, galaxies and the large scale structure of the universe we live in.

It's hard to imagine that we're not that far removed from a time when all we had to figure out the universe was our naked eye, and maybe a holy book to put things in perspective. It's really a giant feat of ingenuity that we know as much as we do. That people are smart enough to figure out so much about how the world works, and our world's place in the cosmos, it why I vehemently disagree with the notion that pyramids or whatever ancient structures we have had to have built by aliens... or for that matter, for the modern belief by many that computers and jet airplanes are technologies pilfered from crashed alien vessels.

That sort of thinking is an insult to the things we've accomplished.

Whatever, that's more of a general rant I have anyway, I guess I was looking for an excuse to share it, or at least that teeny part of it.

And getting back to my kinda sorta narrative here, the events of this novel go back to around the turn of the 20th century up until the 1930's and show us the state of knowledge about physics and astronomy at the time. And how within a few short decades we completely upended our previous notions of the universe.

Loved this book. And seeing the struggles that these people were going through, racing to make discoveries and to build better equipment. That things we take for granted now, were altogether unheard of then (like the idea that building a telescope at altitude, in a dry, non-cloudy climate, might help). About how the reflector telescope might be superior to the refractor, and especially, how the science of spectroscopy really changed everything. I mean, reading about how the transition from sketches made by the observer to photographic plates allowed pictures to be formed a photon at a time over the course of multiple viewings (20 or 30 hour exposures weren't uncommon) was inspiring. Inspiring because keeping a region pinpointed in the sky over several nights meant the observer would climb up into the scope, on a mountaintop, in frigid temperatures, and be forced to keep the crosshairs of the scope centered on whatever they were observing the entire time. Constant adjustments had to be made to keep they constantly moving sky centered for those long exposures.

I don't know how astronomers didn't regularly get hypothermia.

This book lays out the work of several luminaries in the field, what inspired their work, and how their stories overlapped with one another and really culminates with Edwin Hubble putting everything together and eventually probably getting more credit than he deserves for his role in discovering that so many of those 'nebulae' that many believed were star forming regions within the Milky Way were actually independent galaxies, and were flying away from us at unthinkable speeds.

Great read, a must read, probably, if the history of science is of interest to you at all. Many of the names and stories might be familiar if you've read a lot about the field anyway, but there was still tons of stuff brought up that I'd never known before. Great stuff.

Although I still don't know how to rate a non-fiction book. Still, I was quite intrigued by the subject matter, and it was well written. So four stars. ...more

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Mar 07, 2014 Daphne rated it it was amazing

Gave this five stars even though I didn't find it engrossing in many parts. Purely for the information it provided me. It did its job as an educational historical science book. ...more

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