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The Hunt for Vulcan: . . . And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe Hardcover – November 3, 2015

4.5 out of 5 stars 412

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The captivating, all-but-forgotten story of Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and the search for a planet that never existed

For more than fifty years, the world’s top scientists searched for the “missing” planet Vulcan, whose existence was mandated by Isaac Newton’s theories of gravity. Countless hours were spent on the hunt for the elusive orb, and some of the era’s most skilled astronomers even claimed to have found it.

There was just one problem: It was never there.

In
The Hunt for Vulcan, Thomas Levenson follows the visionary scientists who inhabit the story of the phantom planet, starting with Isaac Newton, who in 1687 provided an explanation for all matter in motion throughout the universe, leading to Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier, who almost two centuries later built on Newton’s theories and discovered Neptune, becoming the most famous scientist in the world. Le Verrier attempted to surpass that triumph by predicting the existence of yet another planet in our solar system, Vulcan.

It took Albert Einstein to discern that the mystery of the missing planet was a problem not of measurements or math but of Newton’s theory of gravity itself. Einstein’s general theory of relativity proved that Vulcan did not and could not exist, and that the search for it had merely been a quirk of operating under the wrong set of assumptions about the universe. Levenson tells the previously untold tale of how the “discovery” of Vulcan in the nineteenth century set the stage for Einstein’s monumental breakthrough, the greatest individual intellectual achievement of the twentieth century.

A dramatic human story of an epic quest,
The Hunt for Vulcan offers insight into how science really advances (as opposed to the way we’re taught about it in school) and how the best work of the greatest scientists reveals an artist’s sensibility. Opening a new window onto our world, Levenson illuminates some of our most iconic ideas as he recounts one of the strangest episodes in the history of science.

Praise for The Hunt for Vulcan

“Delightful . . . a charming tale about an all-but-forgotten episode in science history.”
The Wall Street Journal

“Engaging . . . At heart, this is a story about how science advances, one insight at a time. But the immediacy, almost romance, of Levenson’s writing makes it almost novelistic.”
The Washington Post

“Captures the drama of the tireless search for this celestial object.”
Science
 
“A well-structured, fast-paced example of exemplary science writing.”
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A short, beautifully produced book that tells a cautionary tale . . . Levenson is a breezy writer who renders complex ideas in down-to-earth language.”
The Boston Globe

“An inspiring tale about the quest for discovery.”
—Walter Isaacson

“Equal to the best science writing I’ve read anywhere, by any author. Beautifully composed, rich in historical context, deeply researched, it is, above all, great storytelling.”
—Alan Lightman, author of The Accidental Universe

“Levenson tells us where Vulcan came from, how it vanished, and why its spirit lurks today. Along the way, we learn more than a bit of just how science works—when it succeeds as well as when it fails.”
—Neil deGrasse Tyson

“Science writing at its best. This book is not just learned, passionate, and witty—it is profoundly wise.”
—Junot Díaz

The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Delightful . . . a charming tale about an all-but-forgotten episode in science history.”The Wall Street Journal
 
“Engaging . . . At heart, this is a story about how science advances, one insight at a time. But the immediacy, almost romance, of [Thomas] Levenson’s writing makes it almost novelistic.”
The Washington Post
 
“Captures the drama of the tireless search for this celestial object.”Science
 
“Levenson’s narrative is a well-structured, fast-paced example of exemplary science writing. A scintillating popular account of the interplay between mathematical physics and astronomical observations.”
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

The Hunt for Vulcan is a short, beautifully produced book that tells a cautionary tale. . . . Levenson is a breezy writer who renders complex ideas in down-to-earth language . . . and colorfully illustrates the limits of scientific theory as it faces new data and even more persuasive theories.”The Boston Globe
 
“Thomas Levenson wonderfully tells the story of Vulcan. . . . Looping through science history from Isaac Newton onwards, Levenson elegantly reveals the evolutionary nature of scientific thought, and the marvel of the revolution that Einstein wrought.”
Nature
 
“An essential read . . . a compelling story that successfully portrays how science deals with ambiguity . . .
The Hunt for Vulcan succeeds spectacularly at displaying the intricate, confusing, and sometimes quirky way science progresses.”Ars Technica

“This delightful and enlightening drama tells the story of the hunt for a planet that did not exist and how Einstein resolved the mystery with the most beautiful theory in the history of science.
The Hunt for Vulcan is an inspiring tale about the quest for discovery and the challenges and joys of understanding our universe.”—Walter Isaacson
 
The Hunt for Vulcan is equal to the best science writing I’ve read anywhere, by any author. Beautifully composed, rich in historical context, deeply researched, it is, above all, great storytelling. Levenson gives a true picture of the scientific enterprise, with all its good and bad guesses, wishful thinking, passion, human ego, and desire to know and understand this strange and magnificent cosmos we find ourselves in.”—Alan Lightman, author of The Accidental Universe
 
“The forgotten story of Vulcan could no longer remain untold. Tom Levenson tells us where it came from, how it vanished, and why its spirit lurks today. Along the way, we learn more than a bit of just how science works—when it succeeds as well as when it fails.”
—Neil deGrasse Tyson
 
“Thomas Levenson’s brilliance as a writer is in setting the evolution of scientific ideas into their appropriate historical contexts, allowing us to see their wider implications. In this engaging, informative book, laced with lovely anecdotes, Levenson elegantly teaches us about both the laws of physics and the less law-abiding ways in which physics advances occur.”
—Lisa Randall, professor of physics, Harvard University, and author of Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs
 
The Hunt for Vulcan is science writing at its best. As Levenson unravels the history, the drama, and, yes, the physics behind the now-forgotten Vulcan, he also shows how science actually advances in our world and, in the process, reveals how none of our endeavors—even our most empirical—are immune to our penchant for self-deception. This book is not just learned, passionate, and witty—it is profoundly wise.”—Junot Díaz
 
“Thomas Levenson tells the tale of Newton, Einstein, and the missing planet Vulcan with verve, showing how observations and calculations clashed in a battle that decided the fate of the universe.”
—Sean Carroll, author of The Particle at the End of the Universe
 
“Scorched and blackened by the fires of the Sun, Vulcan is the innermost planet that never was. Thomas Levenson illuminates the untold story of a world concocted to explain a planetary anomaly whose existence heralded a shocking new picture of space and time. Packed with colorful anecdotes, this is a vivid, well-paced, thoroughly enjoyable tale of human delusion and ultimate scientific triumph.”
—Marcus Chown, author of Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You

“Levenson deftly draws readers into a quest that shows how scientists think and argue, as well as how science advances: one discovery at a time.”
Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Thomas Levenson is a professor at MIT and head of its science writing program. He is the author of several books, including Einstein in Berlin and Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist. He has also made ten feature-length documentaries (including a two-hour Nova program on Einstein) for which he has won numerous awards.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House; First Edition (November 3, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0812998987
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0812998986
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.9 x 7.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 412

About the author

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Thomas Levenson
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My day job has me professing science writing at MIT, where I teach in the Institute's Graduate Program in Science Writing.

I continue to do what I did before I joined the professoriat: write books (and the occasional article), and make documentary films about science, its history, and its interaction with the broader culture in which scientific lives and discoveries unfold.

I've written six books. "Money for Nothing" explores the connection between the revolutionary advances in science of th 17th century with the birth of financial capitalism by retelling the story of the first great stock market boom, fraud and crash: the South Sea Bubble of 1720. "The Hunt For Vulcan" tells the story of the planet that wasn't there -- and yet was discovered over and over again. It is both a tale of scientific undiscovery and breakthrough, and an investigation into how advances in science really occur (as opposed to what they tell us in high school). My previous books include "Newton and the Counterfeiter" -- which is a great story from a little-known corner of Isaac Newton's life -- and "Einstein in Berlin," which is, I have reason to hope, on the verge of reissue.

Besides writing, film making and generally being dour about the daily news, I lead an almost entirely conventional life in one of Boston's inner suburbs with a family that gives me great joy.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
412 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2015
This is popular science at its finest.

This is a very engrossing story bookended by two of the greatest triumphs of the human intellect, Newtonian mechanics and general relativity. The book deals with attempts to square the former with observations (the precession on Mercury's perihelion) that appeared to contradict it. This led to the hypothesizing of an intra-Mercurial planet, Vulcan, to explain them. Despite claims of discovery it became clear that Vulcan did not exist and it was left to Einstein and general relativity to explain the observed precession.

Along the way we are treated to the very human stories of the principals in this saga. Newton, Halley, Laplace, le Verrier, Einstein, and others become real people with real flaws along with enormous talents. I made a number of notes to follow up on a number of points raised which were tangential to the thread of the book.

A few things appear to have changed since I last read of the events covered in this book. Adams seems to no longer be considered the co-discoverer of Neptune. Also, I was under the impression that the alternative names for Uranus (Herschel or Georgium Sidus) were proposals only but apparently they had proponents and persisted for some decades.

The book has an extensive bibliography if the reader wants to pursue any point further. The only issue I had with the book proper was the overindulgence in Einstein's antiwar sentiments. I got the impression that author Levenson was using Einstein to express his own antiwar sentiments.

The Kindle edition was first rate. Especially gratifying was that all the illustrations were high resolution. I am glad that publishers are beginning to recognize that they are not limited in this regard. There are only two equations in the book (the famous mass energy equivalence and the general relativity field equation) but equations in general continue to be an issue on Kindles. They weren't graphics and they weren't text and they continue to be hard to read. Other than that the only quibble is with the sparse progress bars where only book parts are marked, not individual chapters.

This book is highly recommended. The author wove a compelling narrative around a scientific problem and how science and scientists responded. Very well done.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2017
Readable, insightful history of physics / astronomy, telling the story of how our understanding of the solar system developed from Newton to Einstein. How the hypothesis of a planet Vulcan in our solar system came to be invented and then debunked.

There are some very insightful thoughts about the nature of scientific thought and method presented in a very readable way. I particularly liked the author's treatment of how stories and scientific thinking relate to each other.

Four stars instead of five, because a little too light on the math for my taste, general relativity needing a bit more explanation, and the ending a bit abrupt -- it could have given us a bit more about Einstein's unsuccessful attempts at a unified field theory, which would have added some additional context that I think is a significant part of this story.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2021
For they lay reader this is a fantastic explanation of why they thought there a planet Vulcan, and the reason Einstein managed to prove that there was relativity instead.

From the observations of Copernicus to the math of Newton which brought the new cosmology people studying the heavens with new tools. With Newton’s tools they found new planets. The math wasn’t always 100 % but it made predictions easier. Which meant that Vulcan had to be there, but it wasn’t. Einstein’s math solved the problem and created new ones.

This book is a fantastic read. It is a detective novel that is also a delight
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Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2016
I just finished The Hunt for Vulcan. It deserves awards for lots of things, like being a great read, and providing a clear explanation of not only how the hunt for Vulcan took place but also how Science is done. It drew a timely moral, brought in an intriguing Einstein quote, and wrapped with a great last line.

But what will stay with me longest may be something quite different. The story told here was almost exclusively about men. Yet, by using “she” and “her” in his everyday examples, Mr. Levenson lets the girl or young woman reading his book put herself into the story, see herself as a trainspotter or eclipse watcher, as an astronomer or mathematician or theoretical physicist — as a scientist. Well done, and thanks.
4 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2016
Fascinating blend of history and science, told by a writer with the skill of looking through the science to the people doing the work. Told with just the right blend of humor and intelligence and just enough detail so the reader can grasp the concepts
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Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2015
I love this book. My only criticism of it was that it was too short.

The other reviews describe the book pretty well. I will say that I like how the book really helps the reader understand a few key themes about science, such as:
- Individual scientists, and the scientific consensus, sometimes gets stuff wrong. But, eventually (and sometimes it takes awhile), thanks to the scientific method, which takes nothing on faith, the errors get discovered and corrected. Reading about the search for Vulcan did remind me to be more of a skeptic (the real kind).
- Newtonian physics works really well, most of the time. The small (but noticeable) impact of relativistic effects on Mercury's orbit help the reader get a sense for how Newton's physics are usually a really, really good approximation.
- The process of science is hard. This was true even for Einstein, who, after his MVP run in 1905, struggled for years to expand from Special Relativity to General Relativity.

Another interesting observation is that Einstein was indeed a cool guy, in contrast to e.g. La Verrier, who sounds like a total jerk.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2015
Interesting, but short. I was surprised that about the last 30-40 pages of this pint-size 180-ish page book where either notes, bibliography, or index. While I enjoyed what I read, and learned a lot about astronomy in the 19th century, I guess I felt it was a little short, though I don't know what could have been added
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Top reviews from other countries

Dr Michael Bennett
5.0 out of 5 stars A valuable study of the nature of scientific enquiry
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 18, 2022
I used to lecture on scientific method and used the discrepancy of Mercury's orbit as an example of the strength of Newtonian theory. A proper scientific theory sticks its neck out. It enables precise predictions of phenomena not yet measured. By any measure, Newton's theory of gravity did this (cf. by contrast string theory). Measurement and mathematics predicted the existence and approximate position of Neptune. It accurately predicted the deviation of all but one of the planets from Kepler's laws. And it very nearly got the orbit of the exception, Mercury, correct.
As a child, I was well aware of the anomaly of the miserable 36" arc per century shown by Mercury's orbit. What I only learned as an undergraduate was that the total advance of the perihelion was nearly 600" arc per century. The theory miscalculated by a small anomaly in an already very small correction! This demonstrates the power of Newtonian celestial mechanics.
Levenson is very good in that he shows how, having failed to explain the discrepancy, scientists more of less ignored it for the following 50 years. After all, we all have careers and if the problem was too difficult for earler, very clever, scientists, then there must be more fruitful fields of endeavour for us. The truth will come out eventually.
Premnath
5.0 out of 5 stars The planet that wasn't.
Reviewed in India on December 8, 2018
I had recently come across an article on the planet Vulcan, and was quite surprised that I had not heard of this hypothetical planet before. The article mentioned this book and I got it.

Not only was it extremely informative, it was written in a very easy to digest format.
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Premnath
5.0 out of 5 stars The planet that wasn't.
Reviewed in India on December 8, 2018
I had recently come across an article on the planet Vulcan, and was quite surprised that I had not heard of this hypothetical planet before. The article mentioned this book and I got it.

Not only was it extremely informative, it was written in a very easy to digest format.
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Cristiano
5.0 out of 5 stars very enjoyable
Reviewed in Italy on January 10, 2016
A very fascinating account of how the scientific thought finally came to one of the greatest achievements in science, through the details of a truly unique story that involved a broad range of people, from several top level scientists who wrote important chapters in the history of science all the way to laymen found of astronomy. This story has in itself many possible readings, from the mere historical and scientific content, to how pre-conceived thoughts can affect and misguide the interpretation of the results. The author succeeded in presenting the ebb and flow, the stunning triumphs and frustrations, that the understanding of how gravitation rules the solar system and the entire cosmos required across centuries.
Sudhakar
5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking
Reviewed in India on January 27, 2017
Recommended for all questioning minds!!. A literary work on the process of scientific thought. No wonder that science at its core is akin to philosophy,religion and love - straight from the heart.
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marsha l. reid
4.0 out of 5 stars Delightful history of physics from Newton to Einstein - highly recommend
Reviewed in Canada on March 26, 2016
I found this to be a delightful history of physics from Newton to Einstein.

Newtonian physics upended everyone's understanding of the world and ushered in the age of the scientific revolution. His laws of physics worked so well at explaining the way our universe worked, but with one slight problem - Mercury's orbit wobbled, by just a very tiny, tiny amount and under Newtonian physics that should not happen. You may ask yourself what does it matter if Mercury's orbit is off by a small amount? Well it did matter because it meant either Newton's laws of physics were wrong (which was unthinkable) or something was missing.

One theory that neatly reconciled Mercury's misbehaving orbit with Newtonian physics was that something was missing - there was some other planet or body, yet undetected, whose gravitational force was affecting Mercury's orbit. Thus commenced centuries long search for the mythical planet nicknamed Vulcan.

Levenson does a very good job of tracing and explaining this scientific history, of bringing to life the personalities of the scientists, as well as the amateur astronomers who contributed to the development of physics and astronomy in the hunt for Vulcan. He captures the genuine excitement of scientific discovery. He shows how the theoretical questions that Mercury posed contributed to Einstein's rethinking of Newton's laws and his upending of conventional understanding of physics (at the time) with his Theory of Relativity.

Thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend this book, especially for the general interest reader of science and astronomy.
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