Jago, Lucy. The Northern Lights; the true story of the man who unlocked the secrets of the aurora borealis.Random House, Vintage. 297p. illus. bibliog. index. c2001. 0-375-70882-0. $14.00. Kristian Birkeland Kristian Birkeland (December 13, 1867 - June 15, 1917) was born in Christiania (Oslo today) and wrote his first scientific paper at the age of 18. He organized several expeditions to Norway's high-latitude regions where he established a network of observatories under the auroral , who did his work in the late 1800s to 1917, is best known for studying the Earth's electromagnetic field electromagnetic field Property of space caused by the motion of an electric charge. A stationary charge produces an electric field in the surrounding space. If the charge is moving, a magnetic field is also produced. A changing magnetic field also produces an electric field. ; he was the scientist who developed an authentic explanation for the aurora borealis aurora borealis (bôr'ēăl`ĭs) and aurora australis (ôstrā`lĭs), luminous display of various forms and colors seen in the night sky. . It is appropriate that a Norwegian, who would have gazed in awe at the northern lights that flick like magnificent curtains across the arctic winter sky, should be the one to make this breakthrough. But Jago, in this biography, does a good job of seeing Birkeland whole. Constantly challenged by other scientists who questioned his work, Birkeland often could not concentrate on the work that should have been central to his life effort. His theoretical work was also sidelined by the need to make a living and fund his work and to calls on his time by persons who needed more practical things done. Birkeland developed a cannon that could be fired using an electrical charge, and he experimented with the extraction of saltpeter saltpeter or saltpetre: see potassium nitrate. from the air and with hydroelectricity. Yet, despite distractions, the range of his studies of the aurora was impressive. He built four stations, one near the northern tip of Sweden, the others at the islands of Iceland, Spitsbergen, and Novaya Zemlya Novaya Zemlya (nô'vīə zĭmlyä`), archipelago, c.35,000 sq mi (90,650 sq km), in the Arctic Ocean between the Barents and Kara seas, NW Russia. It consists of two main islands (separated by Matochkin Strait) and many smaller ones. , and maintained crews at them during the arctic winter. He constructed a series of vacuum chambers and studied the Zodiacal light zodiacal light or zodiacal band, a faint band of light sometimes seen in the western sky just after sunset in the spring, extending up from the horizon at the point where the sun has just set, or in the eastern sky just before sunrise in the from the deserts of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. He accomplished all this while WW I and Norway's fight for independence from Sweden were taking place. Finally, near the end of his life, he went to the Far East, to Japan. There he did further study and writing, but his health deteriorated and he died in a Tokyo hotel. His family and colleagues carelessly scattered his library and personal effects personal effects n. an expression often found in wills ("I leave my personal effects to my niece, Susannah") personal effects (things) include clothes, cosmetics, and items of adornment. , and only in time would scientists realize the value of his life work. Jago artfully depicts Birkeland as extremely driven to complete his scientific endeavors but also as living in the real world where he had to earn money, negotiate a complex political situation, and deal with people who took advantage of him. Readers attracted to stories of troubled geniuses, scientific breakthroughs, and Norwegian history will be pleased to find this biography of Kristian Birkeland on the shelves. Edna M. Boardman, Bismark, ND |
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