The Magic Furnace: The Search for the Origins of Atoms
by Marcus Chown
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Description
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 show more 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. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
An enjoyable romp through the history of modern nuclear physics, chemistry, and astrophysics. Some very good character sketches of the people involved and how the scientific community built on each other's discoveries to work out where all those elements come from. Nice summary chapter at the end.
History of the sorting out of the details of nucleosynthesis in the Big Bang, fusion in stars, and supernovae.
Elements new star study surprise astronomers Carbon discovery has implications across astrophysics. Stars churn out carbon much faster than previously thought, according to new measurements.
Astronomer Fred Hoyle proposed a solution in 1953 with what science writer Marcus Chown termed this book puzzles intertwined, for the stars contain the key to unlocking the secret of atoms.
Astronomer Fred Hoyle proposed a solution in 1953 with what science writer Marcus Chown termed this book puzzles intertwined, for the stars contain the key to unlocking the secret of atoms.
Atomic theory > History > Popular works/Cosmology > History > Popular works/Matter > Constitution > Popular works/Transmutation (Chemistry) > Popular works/Stars > Evolution > Popular works
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Author Information
37+ Works 2,184 Members
Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Marcus Chown is cosmology consultant of New Scientist. His books include The Ascent of Gravity (named the Sunday Times 2017 Science Book of the Year), What A Wonderful World, Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You, and We Need to Talk About Kelvin.
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Hans Bethe; Marie Curie; Pierre Curie; Albert Einstein; George Gamow; Ernest Rutherford (show all 8); Hans Geiger; Richard Feynman
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- Members
- 124
- Popularity
- 262,889
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (4.22)
- Languages
- Czech, English, German, Polish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 3
