Customer Reviews
Mind-blowing Narrative - By: A Reader, 20 Apr 2008 
The first section of THE MAGIC FURNACE describes the history of the discovery of the atomic world. It is satisfying sweeping narrative, taking in events such as the first breath-taking time atoms were 'seen' using Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (STM).
'It was as if lightning flickered from the finger of a god to the ground. If he lifted his finger too high, the lightning died away until he had no sense of the surface; if he moved too close, the lightning grew to a painful intensity. By keeping the lightning crackling at a tolerable level, he was able to follow the ups & downs of the terrain with his finger.'
This up & down movement is converted into a visual image by computer to give 'the most remarkable images in the history of science'.
After that the atom is split to reveal protons & neutrons and, most importantly, 'the extraordinary energy inside'.
This leads on to the second section, which deals with what makes the sun the sun & the stars shine. Here alll sorts of subjects I thought I knew are connected. It is rather like deciding to walk between stations on the underground instead of riding in the dark in between: this is how Trafalgar square leads to the theatres of Soho, & this is how forcing the sun's light through a prism led to the science of spectroscopy. Everything is described simply & clearly. Because he obviously has an excellent understanding of the topic Chown can eliminate the complicated scientific vocabulary & replace it with the vernacular - suns 'vomit' out gases, for instance. This means that even hugely complicated phenomena such a 'tunnelling' by an alpha particle from a nucleus becomes easily understandable.
The section that ends the book gathers together alll the evidence of how the elements are made: it has a complicated history involving the sun, the stars, red giants, supernovae, & the big bang. It makes thrilling reading. Each process is responsible for part of the periodic table & at the end of it I marvelled that we are here at alll. I suppose it is possible to either take the view that everything was designed so that life was able to evolve or it is just because of a series of improbable coincidences & low probabilities that things turned out the way they did - & that there is now a carbon-based life-form staring out from a world composed mainly of iron orbiting around a hydrogen sun. There is an intriguing hint that we could be at the end of things, & the reason that we appear to be alone in the universe is that other intelligent life has come & gone.
It makes a fascinating read for anyone who has ever looked out into a clear starry night, however uneasily, & wondered.
The stardust connection. - By: M. Woodman, 20 Feb 2008 Read this book for any number of reasons. Read it if you want to know more about atoms. Read it to find out how stars work. Read about the creation of elements: a story that that has spanned billions of years. Whatever the reason, once you start you will finish because it is such a good read.
There are three linked narratives. The first, Atoms, starts with the earliest recorded notions (ca 470BC) & touches on alll the strokes of genius & lucky chance by which these initiallly vague entities were found to exist in a profusion of varieties & became the foundations of modern science. The second, Stars, begins at about the same time - with the sun as a balll of hot iron - then makes much slower progress than the atom story, becoming patently a fiction & stallling around the mid-nineteenth century. Fifty years later the two themes merge & the action picks up in an exciting way.
Whether you have a scientific background, or your take on atoms is as sketchy as those of Democritus, you are almost bound to be continuallly fascinated. All the basic physics is introduced here in an effortless way. I found myself reading about discoveries & famous names remembered from school science days, but seeing them now in a fresh light: as a fast-moving history of achievements by some amazing people.
A third story develops in the background: it starts with the Big Bang & takes in the origin of atoms, then of quasars & galaxies, then stars & more atoms, then supernovae & yet more atoms . . . & ends with us. In a conventional textbook it would be recounted in plodding systematic detail, but this is by no means a conventional textbook. You end up knowing alll about this other story. It's just that you get there by a much more compelling route.
If I have a criticism it is that the author's insertion of analogy & simile is not always helpful & can be wearing when overdone. No matter, this is one of the best books I have read for some time.
well worth it - By: Hambletta-Maud, 09 Sep 2007 particle physics is a difficult subject. somehow, chown manages to explain the development of its theories, from ancient times to the present, answering anticipated questions along the way, in a manner that is both entertaining, informative & easily understandable.
i think you will enjoy this book as much as i did.
Reads like a detective novel - By: Jairus Sway, 24 Jun 2007 I completed a physics degree at Leeds University 22yrs ago. They taught us astrophysics. I could do the equations, but couldn't see a big picture. This book gives the picture of how our atoms were made, why we know how they were made, inspite of the billions of years & light years we are from the atomic furnaces. It starts with Democritus, & ends with supernovae. In between, Marcus Chown takes the reader through alll the significant scientific discoveries. He gets down into the personal details of the researchers, what they were up against, what they had at their disposal. He makes clear the bizarre connection between particle-physics & astrophysics. Each sub-chapter is headed by a snappy title, a bit like the scene-descriptions in silent movies. For me, two of the crucial facts he got across are: the significance of Iron-56; & Fred Hoyle's bold but crucial claim of the existence of a yet undiscovered excited state of ionised Carbon-12. Read this & you will know why scientist reallly do know much of what is going on inside of stars.
A must for those of us find physics impossible!! - By: L. Roberts, 07 Jan 2007 I am a science teacher. My specialist subjects are Chemistry & Biology & I find physics very difficult to grasp. This obviously poses a problem when I have to answer challlenging questions from students.
However, this book has given me an insight into alll those theories that seemed so weird, especiallly those relating to atoms. I thoroughly recommend this book for non-physics specialists. It is an easy & fun read. I actuallly enjoy physics now & frequently quote sections to my class!
