(posted on my blog: davenichols.net)

Tim Ferris has a gift for writing history of science books, and many consider Coming of Age in the Milky Way his best. I have to agree. The history of astronomy and physics presented here is fantastic and engaging. Ferris has a great pace and narrative, and offers the reader a well-developed and engrossing look at what other authors have turned into a dry dissertation.

The book takes the reader through a timeline of discovery as humans came to understand various bis about their place in the universe. Early ideas, such as those of Aristole and Ptolemy are explored. The discussion of how scientists such as Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Gallileo, and Newton (among others) came to notice and explore phenomena left unexplained by existing theories. As humans expanded their understanding of the depths and reach of space, the progress from the Ancient Greeks to the notion of an expanding universe takes on a fascinating and is woven by Ferris into an epic tapestry of scientific discovery.

The second part of the book looks at the notions of Time as they progressed from various ancient theories to the modern understanding that the universe as we know it is many billions of years old.

Part Three offers a look at theories of creation, from the quantum nature of things to the concepts which developed into the Big Bang and inflationary theory. The weakest parts of the book are found in Chapters 19 and 20, where the science behind a couple of points in Ferris's narrative has become dated and shown inaccurate (the book was published in 1989). Specifically, the concept of an expanding universe which is slowing down its acceleration has been trumped by modern research (recent discoveries point to an acceleration which is increasing). Also, Ferris describes the nature of the pre-Big Bang singularity first posited by Stephen Hawking and others, a concept which Hawking has vehemently backed away from since Coming of Age was published, and Hawking now no longer supports this theory.

Still, Coming of Age is an enjoyable read for anyone who likes astronomy or history of science books. Ferris is an accomplished author whose work is easily approached by novices and delightful for those with experience. Four stars. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I recommend it to anyone interested in the history of science, the process of science, or general astronomy or physics.

Summary: Coming of Age in the Milky Way tells the story of how humankind came to know its place in the universe. Though the book has three distinct themes (Space, Time, and Creation), the main focus is on Space: how did we learn the size of the Earth, the extent of and laws governing the Solar System, that the Milky Way is a "galaxy" and only one of many, and that the universe is giant and expanding? The other two sections expand on this history of revelations. The Time section discusses how we discovered that the Earth (as well as humans as a species and the universe as a whole) are not unchanging, static and infinite, and the Creation section focuses more on the marriage of quantum physics and cosmology: how did the elements and subatomic particles and, indeed, the universe itself come to be?

Review: As an astronomer, none of the actual science here was new to me, but I can say that, unlike many popular treatments of physics, very little of the descriptions made my inner "but that's not really true ..." voice cringe. (There were maybe two pages like this, and one of them may have actually involved something that was believed to be true in the late 1980s.)

Primarily, though, this is a history book, and I found the history fascinating. Ferris paints a detailed and colorful portait of the personalities and worldly changes (politics, well-timed supernovae, etc.) that led to these revelations (and occasional setbacks). The writing is lyrical, poetic even, and yet detailed and straightforward when need be. The book is stock full of quotes, none of which feel out of place or difficult to read (as thousand-year-old quotations are apt to be). The transition of this writing style into the modern age—when quotes were garnered via interviews instead of meticulous combing of however-the-hell people figure these things out—was seemless. Though published in 1988, Coming of Age in the Milky Way is surprisingly not out-of-date 20 years later; as the views of the 1980s are not treated as The Answer, a 21st century reader will only notice that the story seems to stop a little earlier than expected.

Cross posted at a geocentric view. ( )

Ferris is such an excellent science writer. His history is rife with the personal anecdotes that make history fun, and his science is competently explained. Presenting physics theories alongside their history and associated experiments makes them much more understandable. ( )

A history of cosmology, of humankind's speculation about our place in the universe. It starts with Plato and his students and continues through scientists like Tycho Brahe and Max Planck and into the present age of quantum mechanics and surreal hypotheses such as inflationary theory and quantum genesis.

Two qualities make Coming of Age in the Milky Way shine among scientific literature. One is that it is literature: Timothy Ferris is a prose stylist of the first order. The other is its emotional content. While reading it, I was constantly reminded that studying and speculating about the universe isn't only "what?" and "how?", but "why?", and "why?" And even for people far more learned than I, "why?" is always a poignant question. ( )

Marvelous book about our history, expanding theories and still the mystery of it all. Great science author