The beating heart of the sun is the very pulse of life on earth. And from the ancients who plotted its path at Stonehenge to the modern scientists who unraveled the nuclear fusion reaction that turns mass into energy, humankind has sought to solve its mysteries. In this lively biography of the sun, Bob Berman ranges from its stellar birth to its spectacular future death with a focus on the wondrous and enthralling, and on the heartbreaking sacrifice, laughable errors, egotistical battles, and brilliant inspirations of the people who have tried to understand its power.

Informative and entertaining in a somewhat frivolous manner*. Too bad there aren't any diagrams/ graphs/ illustrations/ coloured photographs etc.

*Selected quotes from The Sun's Heartbeat by Bob Berman:

" Atoms have substantial, chewy centers made of protons and neutrons stuck together by the most powerful force in the universe, which, in the great poetic tradition of physics, is officially called the strong force."

"As the first humans acquired tools and an appreciation of minimalist cave art, they turned their attention to improving their lives and understanding the cosmos. Homo erectus erected the first blazing fire 500 000 years ago. After burgers went from raw to medium-well, a truly long time elapsed before the next human milestone: the bun. The first planting of grains and other crops, which occurred just 12 000 years ago, ended our million-year low-carb diet and freed us from being hunters. No longer plagued by the frustration of trying to sneak up on animals with bigger ears and faster legs, humans started staying put. Our nomadic days were ending."



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In The Sun’s Heartbeat, Bob Berman shares with us his enthusiasm for our friendly neighborhood star by sharing factoids, anecdotes, and other miscellaneous information. The title refers to the solar cycle, with the Sun changing its magnetic polarity and sunspots. For the longest time, very little was known about the Sun. It was only within our recent memory that we were even able to pry into the Sun’s mysteries. This was especially the case with Spectroscopy and other such indirect methods.

Now, I think little of the Sun when it is doing its job, as I suppose is the case with most people. The Sun is just so ubiquitous that it is difficult to think otherwise. If something were to happen to the Sun, we would not know of it for approximately eight minutes and twenty seconds. We didn’t even know the precise distance of the Sun to the Earth until the 1960s or so. Even the story of how that was achieved was interesting. Now any scientist can tell you the precise composition of the Sun, right down to the fraction of a percent. We know approximately how long the Sun has “lived” and how long it will continue to shine. We know how the Sun came to be, and that the Sun is a third-generation star. As far as other stars go the Sun is unremarkable.

Some of the information was really wild and specious. Take the idea that people thought it was possible to live on the Sun, and that it was inhabited by people of some other variety. Where did the heat and light of the Sun come from? Well, from the clouds on the Sun of course. There is a ton of other interesting stuff in this book, along with the science that lies behind it.

So this book was fantastic. I really enjoyed learning a lot of things that I didn’t really know before. I knew about Mass Spectroscopy, but I didn’t know exactly how they figured out how long an Astronomical Unit was. This book talked about all of that and more, with Berman’s enthusiasm being infectious. ( )

This is a highly readable account of the science of our nearest and most important star, and the stories behind how we have learned all that we know about it. Berman starts with such basics as how we tracked the Sun's movement through our sky and how it governs our agricultural year, to figuring out that it was Earth, not the Sun, that moved, to the latest very startling and disquieting observations of changes in the Sun and how those changes affect us.


And he does it all with stories, stories of the people making the discoveries and creating the new theories, and stories of the events that affected them. He also does it with humor, and had me chuckling, or snickering, or smiling, every few pages.

Granted, his humor won't do that for everyone. It's both irreverent and bone-dry. Some examples:
Nothing outside of a birth or an IRS audit can produce such sobbing or reverential silence like a total solar eclipse or the fabled northern lights.
And:
Every rainbow is an arc, meaning part of a circle. And every circle has a center. Well, what occupies the center of every rainbow? Think about it, and don't say a pot of gold. (That's located at the end of the rainbow.)
Concerning what to do if you see the beginnings of an aurora borealis appearing:
If you see this, phone everyone you know no matter the hour--a 2:00 AM aurora call may even be appreciated by your ex and her new spouse. (Then again, maybe not.)
Regarding the pervasiveness of neutrinos, and how long it took to detect them:
Neutrinos from the Sun are far and away the most prevalent things in our lives; nothing else even comes close. And yet they remained undetected until 1968, the year the Beatles went to India (although the two events are generally regarded as unrelated.)
If these don't get even a hint of a smile from you, you might not enjoy this book as much as I did. Nevertheless, it would be a fascinating and enjoyable read even without that.

Berman doesn't just cover the science of the Sun itself, in isolation. He covers the medical implications (why we worry too much about sunlight exposure, use "sunscreen" that's useless, and need to take more vitamin D), why seeing a total eclipse of the Sun will change your life (and why the fact that they happen is one of the freaky strange coincidences of the universe), and the complicated relationship between the Sun, the current shape of Earth's orbit, and climate change (the Sun's behavior doesn't explain our current global warming, but it has helped to mask the effect and make it harder to convince people there's a problem.)

This is an altogether excellent book, that covers an enormous subject--the Sun and our relationship with it--in clear, readable, enjoyable terms.

Highly recommended. ( )

Extremely well written book on the Sun. It delves into the historical and factual with the witty and funny Bob Berman. Berman makes reading a science book fun. He discloses a lot of little known facts on the Sun that are rather startling. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and plan to re-read it often. It's an easy enough read for middle grade on up. I haven't had this much fun reading a science book in many, many years. Well done, sir! ( )