Synopses & Reviews
Science, biography, and arctic exploration coverage in this extraordinary true story of the life and work of Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland, the troubled genius who solved the mysteries of one of nature’s most spectacular displays.
Captivated by the otherworldly lights of the aurora borealis, Birkeland embarked on a lifelong quest to discover their cause. His pursuit took him to some of the most forbidding landscapes on earth, from the remote snowcapped mountains of Norway to the war-torn deserts of Africa. In the face of rebuke by the scientific establishment, sabotage by a jealous rival, and his own battles with depression and paranoia, Birkeland remained steadfast. Although ultimately vindicated, his theories were unheralded—and his hopes for the Nobel Prize scuttled—at the time of his suspicious death in 1917.
The Northern Lights offers a brilliant account of the physics behind the aurora borealis and a rare look inside the mind of one of history's most visionary scientists.
Review
"Crackling with Arctic adventure....[A] bittersweet story capably told by British TV journalist and BBC producer Jago." Publishers Weekly
Review
"[A] satisfying attempt at rehabilitation even score-settling....Birkeland's story is a fascinating one, evoking the manic, punishing era of polar exploration as it overlapped with early-20th-century atomic physics....In the feat of fact gathering, though, Jago has flattened out some of the drama." Annette Kobak, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Jago's lucid and captivating blend of biography, physics, and cultural history adds a vital chapter to the annals of science and finally gives Birkeland his due." Donna Seaman, Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"Jago is a taut, imaginative writer. Her description of the winter Birkeland and his young protégés spent huddled by the stove makes one gasp at the old, reckless days of science....The pleasure of the biography is Jago's gossipy, emotive interest in Birkeland's character and disappointments....Entertaining, provocative." The Times Literary Supplement (London)
Review
"In The Northern Lights, Jago uncovers a subject that has been all but buried: the true story of Kristian Birkeland, a man more than half a century ahead of his time in his scientific pursuits....Jago deftly paints a historical background for some of the most important concepts in electromagnetic theory today, breathing life into a subject traditionally presented with a drab countenance." Scientific American
Review
"In a narrative style that makes even the most confusing science easily understood, Lucy Jago has not merely researched and written the incredible story of one man's total and ill-respected dedication to science, but the story of many creative people: those who give the world so much at the expense of their one most valuable commodity their minds." Providence Sunday Journal
Review
"A page-turner. Jago makes Birkeland's contributions intimately fascinating. She has taken an interesting life and told it with pacing and excitement. Northern Lights doesn't get bogged down in the minutiae that so often make reading a biography an insurmountable task. It's a 19th-century life, told with streamlined 21st-century élan." The Austin Chronicle
Review
"Lucy Jago has written a fascinating nugget of history in The Northern Lights. Birkeland died alone and uncelebrated in Japan. But, as is often the case, a sad life makes for a fascinating story." Chicago Tribune
Review
"Instead of a stiff, scholarly biography, British journalist Jago has written a poignantly human story filled with minute, extensively researched details, from a description of the wallpaper in Birkeland's observatory to his courtship and married life. In readable prose, she relates complex scientific concepts and places Birkeland's discoveries and contributions in a place of prominence." Library Journal (Starred Review)
Review
"[A] somewhat tragic but compelling story....Jago tells the tale with a well judged balance between the scientific background to [Birkeland's] life, the excitement of carrying out his projects, and his experience of life as a human being. This book is a carefully crafted biography and a very good read." Physics World
Review
"Lucy Jago's account of [Birkeland's] heroic and horrifying expedition...is as gripping as a Conan Doyle adventure." Harper's Magazine
Review
"Fascinating and accomplished....[A] heartbreaking biography....Jago manages to present her chemistry and physics with clarity as well as compassion. Her poignant illumination of [Birkeland's] difficult life and brilliant work bestows belated recognition." The Seattle Times
Synopsis
Combining popular science, biography, and arctic adventure in a book that reads lika a cross between
Longitude, A Beautiful Mind, and
Into Thin Air, Lucy Jago presents a riveting acount of the life and work of Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland, the visioinary who solved the mysteries of the aurora borealis.
Here is the true story of an eccentric genius held captive by the allure of celestial splendor; of brushes with death on the remote snowcapped mountains of Norway and in the unforgiving, wartorn deserts of Africa; of the rival who cheated Birkeland of a Nobel Prize; and of the brilliant discoveries Birkeland made before his suspicious death in Japan in 1917. Meticulously researched and passionately wrought, The Northern Lights offers an enlightening account of the science behind one of nature's most spectacular displays and a revealing glimpse into the mind of one of history's most passionate and ill-fated scientists.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 283-288) and index.
About the Author
Lucy Jago is a former documentary producer for Channel 4 and the BBC. She has been awarded two academic scholarships and a Double First Class Honours Degree from King's College, University of Cambridge, and a master's degree from the Courtauld Institute, London. She lives in Dorset, England.