It's not that Ferris kept the descriptions of Newton and Darwin brief. However, historians must have a hard time reading this book. Considering all the positive aspects of this book, I can see why it received the accolades it did. Adding to that, Ferris keeps each subject brief so that it packs as much information as possible, while remaining fairly uncomplicated. Not too many books provide a summary of biology and physics in tandem. The layout of the book is really great as well. There are some aspects of his stories that are lesser known, which makes them quite enjoyable. Cecilia Payne-Gaposhkin was the first to figure out the puzzle of what stars are truly made of and created what many consider to be the best astronomical thesis ever written.įerris provides his reader with an extremely abbreviated version of discovery from Columbus through now. Henrietta Leavitt basically solved the biggest problem in astronomy - how to measure distances to distant objects - without which Edwin Hubble could not have made his discovery of the expanding universe. Maria Mitchell found a comet, and in so doing single-handedly brought much-needed credibility and prestige to the struggling field of American astronomy and the fledgling Harvard University. It is one of those amazing things - some of the most important discoveries in 19th and 20th century astronomy in this country were made by women, most of whom couldn't get PhDs, barely got recognition for their work, and were often discouraged from thinking about the science. This was particularly noticeable to me because I had just read a biography of Maria Mitchell and was in the middle of a biography of Cecilia Payne-Gaposhkin. The one quibble I would have is that people like Caroline Herschel, Maria Mitchell, Cecilia Payne-Gaposhkin, Henrietta Leavitt, Annie Jump Cannon (got the pattern yet?) didn't get as much attention relative to others as they deserve given their contributions to the field. Ferris does a very nice job of conveying the material more or less accurately, while also making it approachable for the lay audience. The first section on historical astronomy was particularly fun it was very similar to the astronomy class I took in high school that got me into the field in the first place. But I decided recently that, while I spend all day thinking about astronomy (as an astronomy grad student), it might be good to get a "popular science" take on some of these topics so that I can actually speak intelligibly about astronomy with non-astronomy folks.ĭespite the fact that some of the later chapters are out-of-date on the astronomy and physics results, this was a very fun read.
I had always meant to read this book, but somehow I never had gotten around to it.
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