The Northern Lights

Lucy Jago

Dec 2007 · Sold by Vintage

About this ebook

  Science, biography, and arctic exploration coverage in this extraordinary true story of the life and work of Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland, the troubled genius who solved the mysteries of one of nature’s most spectacular displays.  
   Captivated by the otherworldly lights of the aurora borealis, Birkeland embarked on a lifelong quest to discover their cause.  His pursuit took him to some of the most forbidding landscapes on earth, from the remote snowcapped mountains of Norway to the war-torn deserts of Africa.  In the face of rebuke by the scientific establishment, sabotage by a jealous rival, and his own battles with depression and paranoia, Birkeland remained steadfast.  Although ultimately vindicated, his theories were unheralded—and his hopes for the Nobel Prize scuttled—at the time of his suspicious death in 1917.
   The Northern Lights offers a brilliant account of the physics behind the aurora borealis and a rare look inside the mind of one of history's most visionary scientists.

Ratings and reviews

This is an absolutely astonishing story! Between the biography and the science, Birkeland's tenacity and his resultant discoveries, I couldn't get enough of the story. And it was fascinating to learn about the behavior of reindeer on his first northern Norway expedition, wintering as far north as he could to gather astronomical data - reindeer are not domesticated, but only tamed, and as sources of transportation, made for a wild ride. Whodathunk anyone could capture and recreate an aurora borealis in a glass tank for the public's entertainment and enlightenment? But this man did this. And to think he then applied his learnings to observe and explain the pillar of fire (referred to in the Bible's Exodus) which occurs in Egypt and environs. This is an excellent read, and I think I need to get another copy for myself, having given away my copy to a college-student friend going into electricity.

the best book i have ever read ,know one i know hasn't read it!!!!!

About the author

Lucy Jago is a former documentary producer for Channel 4 and the BBC. She has been awarded two academic scholarships and a Double First Class Honours Degree from King's College, University of Cambridge, and a master's degree from the Courtauld Institute, London. She lives in Dorset, England.