Under The Microscope

COMING OF AGE IN THE MILKY WAY, by Timothy Ferris; Vintage books, 1990; 495 pages; $24.95

It has taken Timothy Ferris 12 years to write this book which explores the evolution and eventual merger of elementary particle physics and cosmology. Coming of Age... is much more than a popular history of scientific discovery, of the progress we have made towards understanding our universe. With almost 100 pages of notes, references and appendices, the book could be described as scholarly, yet the prose shines and the anecdotes delight. At times, caught up in the chase for some scientific titbit, we seem to be acting out an exciting piece of fiction.

The history of science is littered with cul-de-sacs which Ferris has resisted the urge to explore. He has concentrated on the people who, in hindsight, formed the main flow of the acquisition of our knowledge about space and time. Included are not only the giants like Galileo, Newton and Einstein, but lesser-known individuals such as Le Gentil, Antonia Maury and Carlo Rubbia. Their triumphs and disasters are described with a colourful, yet sympathetic, pen.

We read of Le Gentil's expedition to India in 1760 to time the transit of Venus, and the personal mishaps that caused a planned trip of months to last 11 years. On finally arriving home, he found that he had been declared dead and his estate had been frittered away by relatives. Not surprisingly, he promptly gave up the study of astronomy.

We also read of the tens of thousands of hours worked by the 'computers' of Harvard College Observatory early this century --  "spinsters, most of them, employed as staff members at a university where their sex barred them from attending classes or earning a degree". Antonia Maury indexed the spectra of over 500,000 stars to provide a data base of lasting importance.

Carlo Rubbia, the driving force behind the CERN particle accelerator, traveled so incessantly in his efforts to promote the project that his friends were said to have worked out his lifetime average velocity. It came to just over forty miles per hour.

As the author says, relativity, quantum mechanics and cosmology look as different to scientists and lay people as a sea cruise does to the boiler room stokers and the passengers. Coming of Age in the Milky Way allows us all to eat at the same table and, what's more, to enjoy the meal.

Russell Dear