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The Northern Lights: How One Man Sacrificed Love, Happiness and Sanity to Solve the Mystery of the Aurora BorealisSnagging.org In association with Amazon.co.ukOnline Shop | Property Guides | Kitchen & Home | Garden Tools | Power Tools | Consumer Electronics Get the Snagging Checklist Here! The Northern Lights: How One Man Sacrificed Love, Happiness and Sanity to Solve the Mystery of the Aurora Borealis by: Lucy Jago  EAN: 9780140290158 Edition: New Ed ISBN: 014029015X Label: Penguin Books Ltd Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd Number Of Pages: 320 Publication Date: February 05, 2002 Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd Studio: Penguin Books Ltd Related Items:
Editorial Review: Amazon.co.uk Review: The Northern Lights is Lucy Jago's compassionate account of the lonely and ultimately tragic life of Kristian Birkeland, the pioneer of our understanding of the Aurora Borealis. The cost of scientific advancement should not be measured in purely financial terms--illumination did not come cheaply to Birkeland, who experienced poor health, heavy solitary drinking, a failed marriage, resentment from colleagues and lack of international respect. In fact, it took until nearly 50 years after his death in 1917 for his theories to be substantiated, a delay which slowed the advance of geomagnetic and auroral physics. As well a scientific biography, The Northern Lights is also the story of a small nation trying to come out from the shadow of larger ones, to be accorded respect scientifically and to gain political independence. Birkeland led expeditions to the freezing wastes of northern Norway to prove that the phenomenon Aristotle had called "jumping goats" and Galileo had termed boreale aurora, was caused by a flow of electric particles from the sun. He also went to Africa to study the Zodiacal Light, which he believed to be similarly derived but by then his mental and physical health were deteriorating fast, paranoia convincing him that the British, whose scientific fraternity had so stubbornly disdained his work, were spying on him. Unintentionally eccentric, as a university professor he wore a red fez and red leather Egyptian slippers and his idea of courtship involved sending a female admirer a sack of potatoes or perhaps some dried flatfish. As side-projects, he was also the inventor of the world's first commercial fertiliser maker and a more sinister electro-magnetic cannon. This is splendid, alleviating stuff for a biographer and former documentary producer Lucy Jago breathes commendably thawing air into a potentially icy subject. Fastidiously researched and recounted with unbounded vigour, the obvious comparison is with Dava Sobel's Longitude but perhaps the more pertinent one is with Richard Panek's history of the telescope, Seeing and Believing, for its concise science and accessible narrative. Either way, Jago's assured debut does great credit to an obsessive inquirer who sacrificed his life, too literally, for celestial enlightenment. --David Vincent Average Rating:
 Rating:  - The Northern LightsLucy Jago's account of the hitherto mysterious and belittled achievements of the eccentric scientist Norwegian Kristian Birkeland is one of collective joy and despair. Under extreme conditions and in the most politically unsure of times, Birkeland toiled endlessly for the ultimate gain - scientific recognition. It is a story of ultimate sacrifice that he did not achieve this in his own lifetime, and his findings are only retrospectively being acknowledged, thanks to the works of authors such as Jago. Her depiction of the harsh Norwegian mountainscapes, the arid North African deserts and the isolated Russian arctic islands are the settings for Birkeland's aim to understand the magical and revered aurora borealis. He undertook years of meticulously planned research with often more data than was physically possible to review, despite the scorn and rejection of his more stoic academic colleagues. Yet his unique brand of field research is testament to his own prophetic belief that the vastly influential magnetic field of the sun and the subsequently projected solar winds cause the beautiful northern lights all across the globe. In tandem with this tale are adventures involving Birkeland's nitrate experiments, his creation of an electro-magnetic canon and his work at the Norsk hydro-electric dams. His research, although callously and shamelessly plagiarised by his less talented contemporaries such as Eyde, resulted in some of the most successful business ventures and areas of discovery in all of Scandinavian history. All of this is told against the backdrop of the fierce determination of Norway to establish itself against the centuries-long oppression of the occupying Swedish nation of the pre-1900s. Ultimately, this is also a tale of doomed love in Birkeland's often enforced absence from the side of his wife Ida. Jago's success is in her ability to combine all of these elements together into a part historical narrative, part romance, part adventure tale that reads almost like fiction. Birkeland's history rivals the achievements of his fellow countrymen Roald Amundsen and, latterly, Thor Heyerdahl. In summary, a great read. Rating: - A Great DebutThe Northern Lights is an excellent biography of Kristian Birkeland, a great physicist and inventor who was the first person to understand the true nature of the Aurora Borealis. Lucy Jago has researched the book so thoroughly she writes as though she were there besides Birkeland a lot of them time, such are the small details she intersperses throughout the text like what people wore and ate. The book often feels more like a novel than a non-fiction work. Birkeland was a classic eccentric scientist, driven above all else to get to the bottom of his great obsession, to the detriment of his career and personal life. Like so many great thinkers, the Norwegian's contribution to science was only fully appreciated after his death, but with hindsight this book allows us now to appreciate his genius. Rating: - Superbly ResearchedHard to believe this is the first book by Lucy Jago. She appears to write with such ease and lucidity. She brilliantly selected a story so few of us had heard of, and yet so many of us should know about. She researched it thoroughly, visiting many of the places concerned and reviewing primary sources, and finally she set it out in perfect style. The story of Kristian Birkeland, outstanding Norweigian physicist and his myriad adventures in climes from the arctic to the equator as he sought to unravel the mystery of the aurora borealis. On his intellectual odyssey he encounters unscrupulous investors, bickering engineers and even enters the world of soldiers and armaments. Jago successfuly develops Birkeland not as a historical figure and subject of narrative, but as someone you almost feel you know or, more tragically, wish you had known. She succeeds where few authors do: in generating genuine empathy between reader and subject. Kristian Birkeland deserved this book to be written; Lucy Jago deserves it to succeed. Rating: - Fascinating, insightful, and inspiringHaving no formal scientific education I often find myself giving up on books that, by necessity, touch on complex scientific issues, after plodding through the first fifty-or-so pages. Not so this one. No, the science is presented in such a way as to be accessible to all with the added bonus that it is as compelling a story of obsessive compulsive behaviour as I've yet read. It is also historically informative (despite the fact that I have lived with a Norwegian for 14 years this book gave me the clearest insight in to the history of Norwegians at the turn of the last century yet). A good, compelling, easy to follow, read. I'm already looking forward to the next one. Rating: - Fascinating, insightful, and inspiringHaving no formal scientific education I often find myself giving up on books that, by necessity, touch on complex scientific issues, after plodding through the first fifty-or-so pages. Not so this one. No, the science is presented in such a way as to be accessible to all with the added bonus that it is as compelling a story of obsessive compulsive behaviour as I've yet read. It is also historically informative (despite the fact that I lived with a Norwegian for 14 years this book gave me also gave me a clear insight in to the history of Norwegians at the turn of the last century too). A good, compelling, easy to follow, read. I'm already looking forward to the next one.  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