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Synopsis
Every atom in our bodies has an extraordinary history. Our blood, our food, our books, our clothes - everything contains atoms forged in blistering furnaces deep inside stars, which were blown into space by those stars' cataclysmic explosions and deaths. From red giants - stars so enormous they could engulf a million suns - to supernova explosions - the most violent events in the universe - the birth of every atom was marked by cosmic events on an enormous scale, against a backdrop of unimaginable heat and cold, brightness and darkness, space and time. But how did we discover the astonishing truth about our cosmic origins THE MAGIC FURNACE is Marcus Chown's extraordinary account of how scientists unravelled the mystery of atoms, and helped to explain the dawn of life. It is one of the greatest detective stories in the history of science. In fact, it is two puzzles intertwined, for the stars contain the key to unlocking the secret of atoms, and the atoms the solution to the secret of stars.
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About the Author
Marcus Chown is New Scientist's cosmology consultant. He is the author of Afterglow of Creation, which was the runner-up for the Rhône-Poulenc Science Book Prize, and was the winner of the 1994 Glaxo Wellcome ABSW Science Writers' Award.
From Booklist
At the intersection of nuclear and astrophysics lie the clues to the origin of atoms, and the observed abundance of the elements was triumphantly explained in a landmark 1957 paper colloquially called "B2 FH," after the initials of its four authors. Nucleosynthesis also was John Gribbin's subject in Stardust: Supernovae and Life--The Cosmic Connection [BKL O 1 00], but Chown differs by dwelling more closely on the physical experiments, particularly the logic behind them, that intimated atomic structure. That atoms were likely to be agglomerations of hydrogen was boldly asserted in 1815 by a chemist named William Prouts, whose hunch took a century for experimental vindication in the apparatuses of Henri Becquerel and the Curies (radioactivity), J. J. Thomson (electron), Ernest Rutherford (proton and nucleus), and James Chadwick (neutron). Meanwhile, Chown relates the elements astronomers had been discovering through the spectra of star- and sunlight, then introduces the theorists, such as Robert Oppenheimer and Hans Bethe, who calculated the sorts of nuclear reactions stars and supernovae can sustain. A lucid history. Gilbert Taylor
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- PublisherVINTAGE (RAND)
- Publication date2000
- ISBN 10 0099578018
- ISBN 13 9780099578017
- BindingPaperback
- LanguageEnglish
- Number of pages240
- Rating
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Condition: Aceptable. : Every atom in our bodies has an extraordinary history. Our blood, our food, our books, our clothes - everything contains atoms forged in blistering furnaces deep inside stars, which were blown into space by those stars' cataclysmic explosions and deaths. From red giants - stars so enormous they could engulf a million suns - to supernova explosions - the most violent events in the universe - the birth of every atom was marked by cosmic events on an enormous scale, against a backdrop of unimaginable heat and cold, brightness and darkness, space and time. But how did we discover the astonishing truth about our cosmic origins? THE MAGIC FURNACE is Marcus Chown's extraordinary account of how scientists unravelled the mystery of atoms, and helped to explain the dawn of life. It is one of the greatest detective stories in the history of science. In fact, it is two puzzles intertwined, for the stars contain the key to unlocking the secret of atoms, and the atoms the solution to the secret of stars. EAN: 9780099578017 Tipo: Libros Título: The Magic Furnace: The Search for The Origins of Atoms Autor: Chown, Marcus Editorial: Vintage Formato: Libro de bolsillo. Seller Inventory # Happ-2024-08-21-16ff210a
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Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Every atom in our bodies has an extraordinary history. Our blood, our food, our books, our clothes - everything contains atoms forged in blistering furnaces deep inside stars, which were blown into space by those stars' cataclysmic explosions and deaths. From red giants - stars so enormous they could engulf a million suns - to supernova explosions - the most violent events in the universe - the birth of every atom was marked by cosmic events on an enormous scale, against a backdrop of unimaginable heat and cold, brightness and darkness, space and time. But how did we discover the astonishing truth about our cosmic origins THE MAGIC FURNACE is Marcus Chown's extraordinary account of how scientists unravelled the mystery of atoms, and helped to explain the dawn of life. It is one of the greatest detective stories in the history of science. In fact, it is two puzzles intertwined, for the stars contain the key to unlocking the secret of atoms, and the atoms the solution to the secret of stars. Seller Inventory # ABE-1707241529239
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