In August 1930, on a voyage from Madras to London, a young Indian looked up at the stars and contemplated their fate. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar--C...
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reviews
Feb 27, 2010
This pop science book tells the story of the life cycle of stars and the discovery of black holes. In particular, it focusses on the feud between Sir Arthur Eddington and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (Chandra). Chandra had concluded that white dwarves have a maximum mass, leading to the conclusion that a star above that mass would contract infinitely into a black hole. When he delivered a paper on this to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1935, Eddington subjected him to public humiliation and rid
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May 13, 2007
Raghu
rated it: 
This book is a sort of history of Astrophysics in the 20th century, centered on a seminal theory proposed by Dr. Subramanyam Chandrasekhar in 1930, which later came to be the theory of black holes. But the young 21-year old Indian is ridiculed publicly in Cambridge by the eminent Sir Arthur Eddington. This ridicule damages Chandra's psyche for good, for life in fact. The book is the story of intrigue, racism in scientific circles in Britain in the mid 20th century and its effect on Chandra. Late
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Sep 28, 2010
Converse
rated it:
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (nicknamed Chandra) in 1930 discovered that stars exceeding a certain mass would evolve into a black hole. This solution seemed preposterous to the leading astrophysicist of the time Arthur Eddington, who publicly scorned the idea. Chandra went on to other topics in astrophysics, only to see the idea revived several decades later. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1983 for his pioneering work.
Oct 18, 2011
Beatrice
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I found it extremely interesting even though I only understood about 80% of it.
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