Empire of the Stars : Friendship, Obsession and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes

by Unknown

• ISBN13: 9780349116273
• ISBN10: 034911627X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2007-09-28
• Publisher: Little Brown Uk

Summary

In August 1930, on a voyage by boat from Bombay to England, the young Indian scientist Subrahmanyan ChandrasekharChandra, as he was calledlooked up at the stars and contemplated their fate. He calculated that certain stars would suffer a violent death, collapsing almost to nothing. This extraordinary claim, the first mathematical description of black holes, rankled one of the foremost astrophysicists of the day, Sir Arthur Eddington. When Chandra expounded his theory in front of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1935, Eddington subjected him to humiliating public ridicule, setting into motion one of the greatest scientific feuds of the 20th centuryand hindering the progress of astrophysics for nearly 40 years. In its clash of personalities, epochs, and cultures, this story reveals the deep-seated psychological and philosophical prejudices at work in the acceptance and rejection of new scientific ideas.

Author Biography

Arthur I. Miller is the author of several books that explore the intersection of science and creativity, including Einstein and Picasso, Imagery in Scientific Thought, and Insights of Genius.

 

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	xi
PROLOGUE	1
PART I
1 Fatal Collision	11
2 A Journey Between Two Worlds	24
3 Rival Giants of Astrophysics	45
4 Stellar Buffoonery	72
5 Into the Crucibles of Nature	90
6 Eddington's Discontents	125
7 American Adventure	144
8 An Era Ends	165
PART II
9 How Stars Shine and How They Die	181
10 Supernovae in the Heavens and on Earth	209
11 How the Unthinkable Became Thinkable	235
PART III
12 The Jaws of Darkness	253
13 'Shuddering Before the Beautiful'	271
14 Into a Black Hole	287
APPENDIX A	307
APPENDIX B	311
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES	319
GLOSSARY	327
NOTES	336
BIBLIOGRAPHY	376
INDEX	391