The Sun's Heartbeat: And Other Stories from the Life of the Star That Powers Our Planet [Hardcover]

Bob Berman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 13, 2011 | ISBN-10: 0316091014 | ISBN-13: 978-0316091015 | Edition: 1

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.

What, exactly, are the ghostly streaks of light astronauts see-but can't photograph-when they're in space? And why is it impossible for two people to see the exact same rainbow? Why are scientists beginning to think that the sun is safer than sunscreen? And how does the fluctuation of sunspots-and its heartbeat-affect everything from satellite communications to wheat production across the globe?

Peppered with mind-blowing facts and memorable anecdotes about spectral curiosities-the recently-discovered "second sun" that lurks beneath the solar surface, the eerie majesty of a total solar eclipse-THE SUN'S HEARTBEAT offers a robust and entertaining narrative of how the Sun has shaped humanity and our understanding of the universe around us.

Editorial Reviews

Review

PRAISE FOR THE SUN'S HEARTBEAT:

"This might be the last book you ever read-afterward, you can't help but stare, in wonder, directly into that fiery ball in the sky. From ancient sun worship to the latest in Sol science, Bob Berman makes THE SUN'S HEARTBEAT shine." (author of The Disappearing Spoon Sam Kean )

"Bob Berman's The Sun's Heartbeat glitters and skips with the joy and excitement of science at its best. He explains things I always wondered about without diminishing the star-gazer's sense of awe." (Author of Salt and Cod Mark Kurlansky )

"Berman directs your attention to our neighborhood ball of nuclear fire, telling its story with charm and wit....He makes a compelling case for putting on a wide-brimmed hat, stepping outside, and giving a second thought to the star that illuminates and powers our planet." (Discover Magazine )

"Berman shakes readers out of a complacent understanding of his subject with startling facts conveyed in companionably witty prose....He finds much that is surprising in the relatively commonplace....making this common sight mysterious again, remind[ing] us of questions we had forgotten to ask." (Columbus Dispatch )

"Berman's pitch-perfect book goes a long way to answering the questions you thought were too dumb to ask, but it does much more than simply provide facts....Berman is a master storyteller, whose passion and enthusiasm for astronomy has served the public well for decades....Read this and you will never look at the sun in the same way again." (New Scientist )

"A good read....light-hearted....[and] fun...Above all, the author's enthusiasm for science shines through." (Wall Street Journal )

"A deeply enjoyable book...[Berman] comes across as the world's most enthusiastic science teacher....[who] writes 'everything about the sun is either amazing or useful.' It's hard not to enjoy a book when someone says that and does their cheerful best to back it up." (Washington Post )

"We won't take the Sun for granted any longer if astronomy popularizer Berman...has anything to say about it....'Everything about the Sun is either amazing or useful,' Berman writes, and then proves it, without a doubt." (Publisher's Weekly )

"A quick, smart and colorful biography of 'yon flaming orb.'" (Kirkus Reviews )

"An engaging consciousness-raiser that entertains as it informs about our neighborhood nuclear furnace." (Booklist )

About the Author

Bob Berman is one of America's top astronomy writers. For many years, he wrote the popular "Night Watchman" column for Discover magazine. He is currently a columnist for Astronomy magazine and a host on NPR's Northeast Public Radio, and he is the science editor of the Old Farmer's Almanac.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (July 13, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316091014
• ISBN-13: 978-0316091015
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #502,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Solar Truth September 9, 2011

By Taylor McNeil

Format:Hardcover

In some ancient cultures, the Sun was one of the central deities, if not the deity: I'm thinking of the Incas and the ancient Egyptians, for starters. After reading Bob Berman's The Sun's Heartbeat, you get a sense that they might have been on to something. Berman collects many facts from many angles about the Sun, mostly about how it makes all good things possible on Earth--and a few bad ones, too.

Let's start with a Sun-related factoid: not just the planet we're on, but everything we are made of, is the result of stars bursting and spilling forth through the universe, until those random wandering atoms collected together enough of their kind to form a gravitational pull, and thus gather more of their floating brethren, eventually making the planet Earth and all the atoms on it, including you and me. (Which brings up another question, the really hard question, of how material can be conscious of itself; but that's for another review, of Soul Dust by Nicholas Humphrey.)

Berman marches through science history, as humans slowly doped out what the Sun is made of and what it does. It was often the story of people ahead of their time, mocked for their wacky beliefs, which turned out to be much closer to the truth than that which came before. Berman details, for instance, Edward Walter Maunder, and his wife, Annie, who kept decades of lonely vigils for sunspots, and proposed the solar origin of terrestrial magnetic disturbances, spot on in their conjectures.

As the chapters whiz by, more and more bewitching information flows our way, like the magnetic particles that make up the solar wind that smothers our outer atmosphere and occasionally leads to the spectral display of auroras. He makes the case for tossing some of your savings away to be able to experience a total eclipse; I'd read of others' obsessions about total eclipses, but only Berman convinced me it would be worth the trouble. Likewise, for a summation of global warming--more accurately, anthropogenic climate forcing--Berman provides the clearest account I've ever read, showing how the Sun's variability in output of solar energy plays an important role in global warming and global cooling, but not enough to explain the changes causing the warming of our northern winter nights. The key point is that Berman can untwist the factors he cites in global warming, unraveling the different causes and effects.

Not all is up to those standards: his chapter on the positive health implications of the Sun--all that vitamin D our skin makes thanks to UV rays, mostly in the summer for us folks in northern latitudes--is strong on rosy optimism, and weak on facts. He pooh-poohs a National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine meta-study that was cautious about claims for the efficacy of vitamin D in cancer fighting, mainly on the grounds that it didn't say what he wanted it to say. He also trumpets a doctor who claims that the rise in autism is due to lack of vitamin D, without much more than coincidence to back the claim.

And yes, Berman is in love with his own sometimes goofy sense of humor. At one point, I counted a wisecrack in every paragraph for several pages. It's something that could annoy some people, but I found it mostly either mildly amusing or innocuous. It keeps the book from being too dry--though he's such a good writer, he should realize that he really doesn't need use humor as a crutch, if that's what it is.

Overall, a very strong and enjoyable book. Would that more science writers knew how to make their material as compelling as this.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Magical Mystery Tour July 22, 2011

By Michael Mah

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is delightful. I found myself discovering things I never knew, and with each turn of the page I felt like a wide-eyed child experiencing the wonder of the universe for the first time. Bob's writing style alternates between delightful entertainment and brilliant science. He captures your imagination with storytelling and revelation. Ever since "Secrets of the Night Sky" and "Cosmic Adventure," I've been a fan. Buy this book. Give it to your friends and family for birthdays or just for fun. They'll love you for it! I bought ten copies :)

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening, frightening, fascinating! July 30, 2011

By Frank Coulon

Format:Hardcover

Rarely in my 96 years have I come across a book that is so entertaining on so many fronts! Everyone on Earth should understand this stuff, and yet it is new and strange and fascinating and a little disturbing to learn we are bound to a star so powerful that even small fluctuations in the solar wind and flares can have devastation consequences for us. Berman's funny quips and easy style makes for entertaining and educational reading about a subject we should all know. Everyone should read this book.