Customer Reviews

Coming of Age in the Milky Way

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When Timothy Ferris decided to write a history of Cosmology he very nearly ended up with a book the size of the Cosmos itself. But for the final product, the result of twelve years of work, he pared three volumes of material down to a more manageable 500 pages. In so doing he has given us what must surely be one of the best books of popular science ever written.

Science writing, if it is to appeal to us unwashed masses, must achieve two very difficult things : it must render difficult concepts comprehensible to the laymen and it must be exciting enough to hold the reader's interest. Coming of Age... succeeds brilliantly on both grounds. Mr. Ferris tells his story as if it were an adventure tale, the adventure being man's continuing quest to understand the world around him, which has pushed the age of the Earth and the physical boundaries of the Universe back further and further, at the same time that the basic matter that makes up the Universe has been perceived to be smaller and smaller than we first believed. And yet, even as we've come to realize how much more complex things are than we first realized, we've nonetheless made extraordinary progress in understanding them.

Meanwhile, Ferris goes beyond the mere theories and gives us a rich set of portraits of the often odd men who made the discoveries : Tycho Brahe with his lead nose; Newton practicing alchemy; Einstein with his various foibles; etc. Though there must surely be some temptation to demonstrate how remarkable these men's' discoveries were by presenting them in all their complexity, Ferris mercifully presents their ideas in terms that we can usually grasp. If things get a little dicey towards the end of the book, and the theories become increasingly obscure and difficult to understand, perhaps it is because they are so new that they have not been thoroughly tested yet. Perhaps their ugliness is an indicator that they are simply untrue. So many of the great physicists have intuitively believed that when it is finally given to us to understand everything about the universe, the answers will be so simple that we will wonder how we could have missed them for so long.

At any rate, this is a terrific book, filled with the thrill of discovery and the often amusing stories of the discoverers. If you are one of the millions who gave up on Stephen Hawking's book, but want to know what was in it, try this much easier read. It's got all the same info, but it's actually geared towards those of us who may not already know it all.

GRADE : A

Timothy Ferris is a well-known and unusually gifted non-fiction writer dealing in astronomy. This book, The Coming of Age in the Milky Way, is the book that earned him his famous name.

The problem with so many non-fiction books dealing in the so-called "hard sciences" is that the fields change so rapidly that the works very quickly become obsolete. One need look no further than Cosmos by Carl Sagan and even A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking to realize how quickly cutting edge theory becomes yesterday's news. This book is different. Coming of Age is a classic that will withstand the obsolescence of many other books because, rather than promulgating unified theories and multi-universe dimensions, it instead takes an historical approach. It is quite literally the human race coming of age in the field of astronomy beginning with the ancient peoples and the first notions of a round earth, through the classic Greek and Arabian astronomers, through the dark ages to Galileo, Copernicus, and Newton; following through with Einstein and finally the quantum-state theories we have today.

Rather than a boring litany of discoveries that one might find in an encyclopedia, Ferris makes his book a rousing discussion of scientists flailing at the unknown and chronicling in detail all the misunderstandings and missteps taken in the drunken, ambling path of cosmic discovery. It's that fallibility in understanding matched with the insatiable curiosity of the human race that makes the work so enlivening and so breathtaking. It becomes impossible not to become entranced with this brotherhood spanning so many ages seeking no more than a deeper understanding of the stars. For many, it will become an historical study in how people think and even why people reach to discover.

For anyone who has never heard of Timothy Ferris, this is a terrific book in which to begin.

More importantly, for the science-fiction fan who becomes impatient with non-fiction material, Coming of Age reads as quickly and as exciting as any well-written novel in the speculative fiction field. Even better, it provides a solid basis of understanding in physics, astronomy, cosmology, and even some philosophy by the end of the book. Because it's historical, it treats much more the mentality of discovery and tracing the paths of the human race than trying to commit to future theories and, as such, should earn a place in the historical annals many decades from today just as Herodotus and Thucydides are still read today as studies in classical history. It is the one non-fiction book that any strong adherent of science-fiction must read in order to bring new life to their own curiosity and imagination while grounding them firmly in reality.

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This is a wonderful book. A fine read, right from the start. Frankly, I am still slightly "giddy" from learning what a quantum leap really is, or at least thinking I have learned. I'm almost 50 but I think this is a wonderful book for younger readers. By younger, I mean older teens and twenty-somethings who will enjoy the entertaining approach to the universe Mr. Ferris provides. I don't currently have the book, it has been loaned to a young friend. I have a few more people in mind to whom I would like to loan the book. Mr Ferris deserves to make a good living (in my opinion), so maybe if you will take my humble word for it and buy this book, you will make up for the fact that I am going to spend the next few years loaning it out to people who won't or can't buy it. I personally read 50+ books a year including 'fatties' like the Ascent of Science by B.Silver. "Coming of Age" is one of my favorites. This book is fun, easy to read, has great stories, and it just kept getting more fun and more interesting right to the end. Buy it. Loan it to someone. Share the fun.

This book is an excellent tour through history of astronomy and astronomers quest to uncover our place (and time) in the universe. Ferris goes into quite a bit of detail and does not treat his readers with kid gloves. There are many interesting anecdotes about various astronomers and Ferris sometimes gives mini biographies of the more interesting/eccentric of them. Ferris starts with the greek astonomers such has hypocratus, goes through copernicus, kepler, galileo, newton, and then onto the astronmers of the last 200 years. But in his final section, he also talks about how the geosciences, and the theory of evolution began to give us a better perspective of where we fit in the universe not just in space but in time. The last chapters are devoted to the cutting edge of science - quantum physics. Ferris reports discoveries up to the point practically that this book was published! All in all, a good read for anyone interested in science and particularly in Astronomy.

There are a lot of glowing reviews here and it feels strange to be the one dissenting voice, but let me explain. First, let's agree this book is for the layperson, not the Physics or Astronomy major, but for the person who simply likes science very much. I work in the auto repair business, but I've always loved science yet have no education in that field. I bought this on the strength of Ferris' DVD's which I've seen 2 of (Life Beyond Earth and Seeing in the Dark), and let me say they were very good (esp. the former).
The majority of this book is good. Tim elaborates on some very interesting details I have not heard before, and in a humorous/interesting way, such as Kepler's letter begging Galileo to borrow his telescope, or the details of Aristarchus's sun-centered universe's only evidence in one of the letters of Archimedes. Carl Sagan in "Cosmos" talks of Aristarchus quite a bit, but he never mentions this information, which prove very interesting.
However, most of this book is a basic re-telling of how mankind learned of his/her place in the universe (as the title says!), BUT this has been done much better by Sagan in the forementioned "Cosmos." Sagan makes the subject come to life much more, shows much more enthusiasm in explaining things. Ferris has a bit of a dry way about him (which was evident in the DVD's), but he's good. He's just not Sagan. Let me also say that Bill Bryson in a "Short History of nearly Everything" gets much more technical than Ferris (in the quantum physics section), BUT again, Bryson does it with more interest than Ferris. I couldn't understand most of that section (Bryson uses the "X-Files" as an example!), but in Bryson's book I WANTED to keep reading and try to understand, with Ferris, after about 5 pages of the "Symmetry" section, I gave up.
I picked up the hardback "Cosmos" when I was 9 years old. Yeah, nine. I read it and although there were vocabulary problems, I "got it." This is not to brag how clever I was, but rather that Sagan does a much better job of "bringing you in" to the subject. The Bryson book is definitely too much for a 9 year old, but when I read that in my 30's I was still "taken in."
If you read my other reviews you will see I love classical music. In music, there's the saying that it's "more than just the notes on the score." In this book, you get the written notes, not the alive, performing symphony. Tim Ferris' book is good... but well, there are better ones to draw you into the world of science.

This book is an excellent tour through history of astronomy and astronomers quest to uncover our place (and time) in the universe. Ferris goes into quite a bit of detail and does not treat his readers with kid gloves. There are many interesting anecdotes about various astronomers and Ferris sometimes gives mini biographies of the more interesting/eccentric of them. Ferris starts with the greek astonomers such has hypocratus, goes through copernicus, kepler, galileo, newton, and then onto the astronmers of the last 200 years. But in his final section, he also talks about how the geosciences, and the theory of evolution began to give us a better perspective of where we fit in the universe not just in space but in time. The last chapters are devoted to the cutting edge of science - quantum physics. Ferris reports discoveries up to the point practically that this book was published! All in all, a good read for anyone interested in science and particularly in Astronomy.

Many thanks to Tim Ferris for bringing forth a concise, clear, unpretentious, and indeed magical notation of the advent and evolution of scientific thought in the Western world. This narrative, in it's lucid and practical treatment of ideas that oftentimes seem protected beneath a veil of academic elitism (ideas such as relativity, particle physics, and the like), is unsurpassed by any such writings in its genre. Many thanks again to Mr. Ferris in his efforts to bring us this book. I would recommend it to anyone who is involved in science to any degree. Whether a student of newly developing scientific curiosity, or a weathered professional, this book promises to open doors to yet unseen cognitive vistas, and blaze trails over yet unknown conceptual wildlands.

What a story! And yes, I said story because the author has taken subjects most of us take for granted (the size of the heavens, the age of the Earth, the intricacies of the atom) and turned these into a wonderful almost joyous tale of intellectual achievement. I am still stunned at the depth of scholarship, the vast research and the almost magical manner in which Ferris manages to make what appears to be an arcane dry topic into an intriguing saga.

Ok, I admit it. I love science books written for the educated layman - from "The Singularity is Near " to "Wonderful Life" to the philosophical tomes of Pagels and Hardison. But this is more than science - it is also a history of who we are and our physical, mental and dare I say it, spiritual evolution. In this sense it reminds one of "The Discoverers" by Boorstin with its chronological structure, emphasis upon individual genius and captivating storyline. Beginning with the ancients, we see how our ideas fashion our intellectual quests. The overwhelming success of Western culture depended on our ability to break with age-old traditions, to absorb ideas from the outside and most importantly, to challenge the traditional religious beliefs. Very few cultures have been able to accomplish this and their lack of scientific prowess is evidence.

The individual tales could occupy a volume themselves - mind-boggling examples of thought that are so rare we have trouble believing them. Not only are Darwin (Evolution challenged the prevailing age of the Earth) and Newton (the greatest human who ever lived?) are found but all the unknown heroes of the ages are given their due. The author has an uncanny way of simplifying tremendously dense concepts into language for the layman. This was never truer than his discussion on the weird world of quantum physics with its seemingly magical and nonsensical qualities. I would say that this should be required reading for all high school graduates except that a vast number would be bewildered by the concepts presented, unaware that science has a history of more than video games and cars. My grade - A+++

Timothy Ferris's book presents us with a very interesting and sweeping account of those events in our history which shaped and modified our understanding of our world, our solar system and the cosmos and our place in this mind boggling expanse of our universe. Of course these developments were made possible by the men of sciences, explorers, inventors and the discoverers whose curiosities and determination led the human race to wonder and understand our world of the very large(cosmology) and the very small(quantum physics).

2,400 years back Aristotle thought of the universe as earth-centered and the planets and stars embedded in crystal spheres. This geocentric model of universe by Aristotle/Ptolemy remained unchallenged for almost 2,000 years until Copernicus offered us the more correct heliocentric model which was somewhat flawed in the sense that the planets' orbits were circular and not elliptic and the sun being at THE centre of the whole universe. Later on it was corrected by Kepler (greatly helped by Tycho Brahe's observational data) and proved by Galileo through his telescope.

This book then takes us to further developments in cosmology - the discovery that there are myriad more galaxies in our universe than just our Milky Way as previously understood, the study of the origin of our universe i.e. cosmogony, the expanding universe, big bang, inflationary universe, astrophysics, other stellar objects like nebulae, quasars, pulsars, black holes etc.. Mr. Ferris will also take the readers on a brief tour of relativity theory, quantum theory, standard model/gauge theory and superstrings.

The writing style is interesting and easy to understand and meant for general readers as well as cosmology enthusiasts. This is definitely one of the few popular books to deal with the history of sciences especially cosmology. Very enriching!!

This is Timonthy Ferris' best book, although "The Red Limit" is quite good, too. In "Coming of Age in the Milky Way," however, Ferris had a very simple yet very intriguing thought: To tell the history of scientific thought not by the "ideas" but by the "people." Sure, the ideas are here too, but the heart of this book is the many colorful characters who have contributed to science, from the ancient Greeks to modern times.

A fun book to be sure, but be warned: After reading "Coming of Age..." you will never again drink a glass of beer without thinking of poor old Tycho Brahe.