Customer Reviews

The Northern Lights: The True Story of the Man Who Unlocked the Secrets of the Aurora Borealis

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Words fail to describe the Aurora. Photographs cannot capture their essence. Science wrestled with an adequate explanation. At the turn of the century, Kristian Birkeland used the latest technology to observe and measure auroral phenomena. His theories so astonished the scientific community that they were rejected outright. Not until fifty years later did satellite data confirm that Birkeland had gotten it mostly right.

Kristian Birkeland was a bright and driven man, not afraid to implement his ideas, and persuasive enough to gather backing for them. He developed a number of industrial processes. Members of his team died & became disabled, battling the elements to extract knowledge.

Lucy Jago tells his story well. She puts the reader into blizzards and hardship. She amazes us with the bull-headed denial of the British scientists who refused to consider Birkeland's theories, in spite of the evidence he provided. She helps us feel the growing isolation of this driven man.

The book is based on primary historical sources, as well as secondary works. Jago opted not to clutter the text with footnotes, but provided a solid bibliography.

Jago's book reminds us of an era when science was dangerous and uncertain. Research didn't take place in multi-billion dollar government laboratories. Funding was even more uncertain then than now. Kristian Birkeland had tremendous drive, courage and charisma--and Jago makes this available to us.

At a deeper level, Birkeland's story challenges readers to examine their own lives. Birkeland's theory, one paid for in blood, was rejected by scientific peers because they could not open their minds wide enough to accept surprising information. Today we call this denial. We are left to ponder which truths we deny because they would disrupt our comfortable status quo.

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A delightful read - Jago has found a comfortable balance between the educational and the entertaining. While paying homage to the great mind of Birkeland, The Northern Lights provides an inside view of both science at the turn of the century and Norway's push for independence.

Starting the book, I was expecting a depressing tale. Instead, I found myself awed by Birkeland's brilliance and inspired by his passion for discovery. The book follows step-by-step through his quest for answers and his struggle to prove the theories which he knew to be true. One can't help but feel sorry for Birkeland, who was certainly a victim of circumstance. Yet, 80+ years after the fact, the harsh details of his final days seem to be overshadowed by the splendor of the years preceding them. During that time, Birkeland proposed and defended prophetic pictures of the solar system. Like many great ideas, it took time for mankind to digest them. This book is proof that, in the grander scheme of things, his labors have been acknowledged.

It was only in the 1960s that satellites and scientists had given a full scale explanation of why the northern lights occurred. It comes as a surprise to learn, then, that they were essentially confirming the work of a scientist of the early twentieth century, the first to study the aurora and to get the explanation right. It was a stunning scientific achievement, accomplished with the sort of icy adventure one associates with polar explorers, and he accomplished a good deal of other original work, too, but the name of Kristian Birkeland is almost unknown. It is a good thing that we now have _The Northern Lights: The True Story of the Man Who Unlocked the Secrets of the Aurora Borealis_ (Knopf) by Lucy Jago.

Jago starts with a harrowing description of Birkeland's expeditions to northern observatories to get data, told with a novelist's skill. He needed the data to confirm his intuitions that the lights were due to the magnetic activity of the sun. If this weren't enough, Birkeland then went to the lab to design a series of vacuum chambers which could reproduce in miniature the solar system and could demonstrate the aurora artificially. His work, however, was barely mentioned in England, and then unfavorably. Birkeland's ideas confounded a unanimous opinion of British scientists, and the Royal Society, that space was a vacuum and nothing more; Lord Kelvin himself had decreed that the sun could have no effect on geomagnetic activity. Jago speculates that the slowness of acceptance of Birkeland's ideas set back auroral and geomagnetic physics by fifty years. Confirming his ideas so that even the British scientific establishment would have to accept them set Birkeland to thinking of a grand plan of several observatories around the Arctic which could do such things as triangulation to get a better picture of where the lights were. Such a plan would take a great deal of money. One of the strengths of Jago's biography is that she has told a good deal about Birkeland's drive for finance. He was granted various patents, including the one for pulling nitrogen out of the air to make fertilizer, the one that made him rich.

Birkeland's dedication to his work took its toll on his health and his personal life. A late marriage was short-lived, and he descended into paranoia, probably fueled by overuse of alcohol and barbiturates to calm some sort of mania. He was successful in his financial dealings, but they brought him into conflict with the director of Norsk Hydro, who may have betrayed Birkeland out of a Nobel Prize. However, Birkeland was a likeable absentminded professor, drifting on walks between his tram stop and his office in a preoccupation of technical dreams. He was unable to keep a diary, remember appointments, or attend to accounting principles. He had the admirable trait of knowing how scientific knowledge was gained: "You learn more from your mistakes than your victories," he once said cheerfully, after being thrown through the air by an unexpected massive spark. He died in 1917, a minor scientific hero to his own Norway, but since his ideas have been confirmed by space exploration, his scientific stature has risen. A crater on the Moon is named for him, and "Birkeland Current" is now the proper name for the vertical flow of electrical particles which cause the auroras. He also finally has a fascinating and full biography to tell us about his unique genius.

I couldn't put this wonderfully readable book down. The story of how Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland a hundred years ago unlocked the riddle of the famous Northern Lights, discovered almost as a by-product the industrial process to make artificial nitrogen fertilizer, and was at the center of scientific, commercial and political intrigue, is brilliantly told by Lucy Jago. It is part the story of scientific discovery, part biography, part detective thriller. The science is explained in as simple terms as possible - without compromising the complexities involved (no footnotes, but a good bibliography for those who want to explore further).

Birkeland was a driven man. One of those ultimately tragic persons, he took incredible risks. It comes as no surprise to read that his vision and fanatical zeal for scientific discovery cost him his marriage - and his life: he was barely 50 when he apparently committed suicide, alone in Japan in 1917. And it was not until another 50 years after his death that he was vindicated.

Yet this book is also a story of an inspirational life. Reading this book, I was reminded that not only did Birkeland advance scientific understanding of the universe but, through his discovery of the processes to make artificial fertilisers, he played a key role in allowing for the expansion of global food supplies to feed the growing world population.

As reviewer Carter points out, this book is a biography of Kristian Birkeland, not a scientific treatise on the Northern Lights. And as reviewer Hoge points out, the writing style is more mainstream pop than dry academia. Personally, I found it quite readable. I'm not doing serious research on the subject, so I was fine with being entertained while I learned a little more about how the scientific community worked at the dawn of the 20th century. The primary criticism I have is that Jago was rather biased in favor her subject-- maybe justifiably so, but her flag waving was a little too blatant for me at times... Also, she stretched her material a bit, probably could have been a shorter book. Still, if you enjoyed books like Sobel's "Longitude" or Larson's "Devil in the White City," you'll probably enjoy "Northern Lights."

Lucy Jago's "The Northern Lights" was a delight to read. Her work held this reader's attention from start to finish. I highly recommend it to those interested in the Aurora but also for those interested in an amazing human being by the name of Kristain Birkland.

Birkland's resolve to solve the mysteries of the Aurora Borealis is no less than amazing. The man dedicated almost all of his energy to finding scientific answers to one of the more mystic and spiritual wonders on Earth. His drive for money was to conduct study of the aurora and acceptance of his theories.

The story entails not only a tale of aurora science but of nationalism, international relations, venture capitalist business ventures, war, love, and, academic environments. Moreover, the book is a case study in determined human spirit on the cutting-edge of science.

If one is looking for a scientific treatise about the Aurora Borealis, this is NOT your book. However, the book is a great source for gaining knowledge of both the early and profound scientific findings of Kr. Birkland. His work continues to be confirmed by science even today. The confirming evenidence more than a century later speaks to the measure of the man little recognized for his contributions to human knowledge at the time. Birkland was exceedingly ahead of his time in many ways.

I am pleased to now have this book in my library. I must recommend as a MUST read to those seeking a premier on early study of the aurora.

The Northern Lights is a roller coaster ride through the extraordinary life of Kristian Birkeland. Influenced by the great minds of his time, this story recounts the struggles that he endured as an under-appreciated Norwegian scientist. His traveling from the snow-topped mountain of Haldde to the hot dessert of Egypt, is intermixed with a slew of brilliant discoveries showing the true benefit of dedication. This perseverance leads him to make exciting inventions that keep his life exciting because of the treachery and deceit that follow his success. This novel clears the name of this famous scientist in hopes that the world will never again forget the consequences of scientific prejudices.

This book is a very intriguing biography of one of the great minds of the early twentieth century. It tells the story of Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland and his obsession with the aurora borealis. The book starts off with his first expedition in Lappland, observing the Northern Lights from a mountaintop observatory over a winter season. Jago then takes us through the results of the expedition, and Birkeland's dreams for further research, and his inventive projects for funding his research. She follows Birkland through the rest of his life, including his role in starting Norskhydro, his trip to Egypt, and his death in Japan. What struck me about Birkeland's genius was how he turned design failures or accidents into new discoveries and further inventions- -how a high-voltage switch became a magnetic cannon, and how a magnetic cannon was transformed into a fertilizer furnace. Jago's descriptions of Birkeland's expeditions carry the details that are usually only found in travel narratives.

The narration by Michael Cumpsty is quite clear throughout, and I was especially impressed by his ease with pronouncing the Danish, Egyptian, and Japanese names. One of the challenges of listening to a book of this type is following the scientific explanations orally. Although I got a basic idea of Birkeland's theories, I think reading them on paper instead of listening to them on tape would have been a little easier. I also missed the footnotes and biography that must have surely been available in the print version. Nevertheless, the tape was quite enjoyable and very informative.

Dear Lucy Jago,
I really enjoyed this book! I read the complete title so I knew it was about the MAN who unlocked the secrets of the Aurora Borealis... not about the "powerful and mystical Northern Lights". What an amazing man he must have been. Thanks for showing us his human side, strengths and weaknesses. I'm still left wondering what else he might have been able to accomplish if he had lived longer (and had a more healthy life style!)
I thought this book had a good balance between the technical aspects and storytelling. I didn't want a physics book about Aurora, if I did, then I would have gotten one. I wanted a history of science book, I wanted to know the "story", I wanted to meet the people, I wanted to know the community reaction at the time. I got all that and more.
Thanks for your fine work, I had an enjoyable few hours reading it.

Lucys book was such a joy to read.
It is great to find someone who writes with a searing passion that forces the reader to locate the nearest needle and thread and then proceed to frantically sew their eyes OPEN just to finish the entire book in one sitting.
This book was impossible to put down and there was no way something as inconvenient as sleep was going to keep me from finishing it.
The end result being that I now have an insatiable craving for cloudberries, reindeer milk cheese and Glogg. And I want to move to Norway and spend the rest of eternity staring at those lights.
The Northern Lights will take your heart and soul right up into the heavens and force you to question your very existence on mere terra firma.
There is the most wonderful Norwegian saying by Sigbjorn Obstfelder that reminded me of Bierkeland...
"Jeg er visst kommet på feil klode."
(I seem to have come to the wrong planet.)
A Perfect metaphor for the man, who thanks to Lucy Jago is finally a star.

"Norrøna-folket det vil fare, det vil føre kraft til andre." (The Norse will travel, they will give strength to others.)
-Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.