The Magic Furnace: The Search for the Origins of Atoms - Hardcover

Chown, Marcus

4.3

230 ratings by Goodreads

9780224042062: The Magic Furnace: The Search for the Origins of Atoms

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224042068 ISBN 13: 9780224042062

Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1999

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THE MAGIC FURNACE tells of how astronomers and nuclear physicists deduced where the elements in our bodies come from is one of the greatest detective stories in the history of science. In fact, it is two stories intertwined: the story of atoms and the story of stars. Neither story can be told without the other. For the stars contain the key to unlocking the secret of atoms and the atoms the solution to the puzzle of the stars.

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Review:

If only because of its grand scale cosmology can bring out the worst in science writers. But The Magic Furnace is as unputdownable as any thriller as it unifies the very big and the very small in a single coherent vision of Creation.

In a cosmos dominated by hydrogen and helium all the other elements make up a mere two percent of the universe's mass. It was not always so. There was a time when those other elements did not even exist. The stuff which we're made from was not fully formed by the Big Bang. So where did it-- where did we--come from?

Chown dovetails two histories: the story of how we came to know how stars are born, grow old and die, and the story of how we investigated the atom and came to appreciate how different elements are related. This is no contrived juxtaposition. The elements from which we are made were assembled by stars and distributed by supernovae. We are--literally--stardust.

All scientific histories are simplifications after the event but Chown, in something of the spirit of Local Heroes' Adam Hart-Davis, brings a biographer's eye to those--from Greek philosopher Democritus onwards--who brought us to our present understanding.

By Chown's account, the universe seems uncannily friendly to the formation of organics and ultimately, life. Chown's take on this "anthropomorphic" (and quasi-religious) version of the world is a model of balanced and responsible speculation and provides the fitting conclusion to this fascinating account. --Simon Ings

Review:

"A clear introduction to a fascinating area of physics and astronomy. Chown is to be congratulated on a beautifully crafted book." - "New Scientist"An eminently readable piece of science history dealing with the quest to discover the nature of matter, recounted with a novelist's eye for character and suspense." - "New Statesman "From the Trade Paperback edition.

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