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Empire Of The Stars: Friendship, Obsession and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes
by Miller, Arthur I
- Used
- Near Fine
- first
- Condition
- Near Fine /Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0316725552
- ISBN 13
- 9780316725552
- Seller
-
east Sussex, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
Item Price
A$24.99A$20.00
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About This Item
London England: Little, Brown & Company. Hardcover First Edition Empire Of The Stars: Friendship, Obsession and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes In August 1930, on a boat trip from Bombay to England, the young Indian scientist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar calculated that certain stars could end their lives by collapsing indefinitely to a point -- to nowhere. This idea brought Chandra into conflict with Sir Arthur Eddington, the grand old man of British astrophysics, who publicly ridiculed the idea. EMPIRE OF THE STARS will tease out the major implications of this infamous event, setting it against the backdrop of the turbulent growth of astrophysics and providing a unique window on our unfolding view of the cosmos. In its clash of personalities, epochs and cultures, the story reveals the deep-seated psychological and philosophical prejudices at work in the acceptance and rejection of new scientific ideas. Beautifully written, artfully constructed, EMPIRE OF THE STARS is a serious book but one which also deals with classic themes -- a lone man struggling against the establishment, intellectual rivalry and the highs and lows of great individuals set against the broader sweep of ... tiny nick on edge of D/J We carry a wide selection of titles in The Arts, Theology, History, Politics, Social and Physical Sciences. Academic and Scholarly books and Modern First Editions ,and all types of Educational Reference Literature.) . Near Fine. Cloth. First Edition. 2005.
Synopsis
In August 1930, on a voyage from Madras to London, a young Indian looked up at the stars and contemplated their fate. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar--Chandra, as he was called--calculated that certain stars would suffer a strange and violent death, collapsing to virtually nothing. This extraordinary claim, the first mathematical description of black holes, brought Chandra into direct conflict with Sir Arthur Eddington, one of the greatest astrophysicists of the day. Eddington ridiculed the young man's idea at a meeting of the Royal Astronomy Society in 1935, sending Chandra into an intellectual and emotional tailspin--and hindering the progress of astrophysics for nearly forty years. Empire of the Stars is the dramatic story of this intellectual debate and its implications for twentieth-century science. Arthur I. Miller traces the idea of black holes from early notions of "dark stars" to the modern concepts of wormholes, quantum foam, and baby universes. In the process, he follows the rise of two great theories--relativity and quantum mechanics--that meet head on in black holes. Empire of the Stars provides a unique window into the remarkable quest to understand how stars are born, how they live, and, most portentously (for their fate is ultimately our own), how they die. It is also the moving tale of one man's struggle against the establishment--an episode that sheds light on what science is, how it works, and where it can go wrong. Miller exposes the deep-seated prejudices that plague even the most rational minds. Indeed, it took the nuclear arms race to persuade scientists to revisit Chandra's work from the 1930s, for the core of a hydrogen bomb resembles nothing so much as an exploding star. Only then did physicists realize the relevance, truth, and importance of Chandra's work, which was finally awarded a Nobel Prize in 1983. Set against the waning days of the British Empire and taking us right up to the present, this sweeping history examines the quest to understand one of the most forbidding phenomena in the universe, as well as the passions that fueled that quest over the course of a century.
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Details
- Bookseller
- thelondonbookworm.com
(GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 107217
- Title
- Empire Of The Stars: Friendship, Obsession and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes
- Author
- Miller, Arthur I
- Format/Binding
- Cloth
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0316725552
- ISBN 13
- 9780316725552
- Publisher
- Little, Brown & Company
- Place of Publication
- London England
- Date Published
- 2005
- Size
- 8vo - over 7¾" - 9&f
- Keywords
- Empire Of The Stars: Friendship, Obsession and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes Astromony Physics
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