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Blind Watchers of the Sky: The People and Ideas that Shaped our View of the Universe
Theoretical astrophysicist Rocky Kolb presents a popular history of astronomy and scientific cosmology from Tycho Brahe to the second half of the 20th century. In a style touched with humor and honed through numerous lectures to audiences ranging from third graders to Ph.Ds, Kolb introduces the pantheon of cosmologists, while offering a wonderfully proportional rendering of science and biographical sketches.
352 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 5, 2021
This surprisingly readable book covers the history of humanity’s understanding of the universe beyond our planet. Roughly chronological, the book follows the discoveries and difficulties of the most important scientists in the field. It is well written in a narrative style, clearly showing the humanity of those who made such important discoveries.
Some understanding of physical science and/or historical background knowledge would be helpful but not necessary for those considering reading this. I would put it at high school level and up.
One of the big things I pondered while reading this was how people see what they want to see. They look for what they are hoping to find and often “find” it, only for it to be disproved some time in the future. This has interesting correlations to the young Earth/old Earth, creation/evolution debates.
I have assigned my high schoolers to read this alongside their chronological study of world history, and I think it is going to help them have a more thorough understanding of how science and history connect.
4 stars - and that’s pretty darn high considering science is not at all my area of interest. I’m trying to develop a love for the subject by reading books like this, though!
(For those who care, the author is obviously not a Christian but isn’t too antagonistic towards the Christian worldview. Just a few comments here and there.)
Good quotes:
Although the significance of a discovery is often impossible to discern immediately, it is a simpler matter to tell how hard the discovery was to make. The most difficult thing to discover is something you are not looking for, and the easiest thing to discover is something you are looking for. "Seek and ye shall find," may have been intended as solace for the spiritually deprived, but it must be interpreted as a serious warning by the scientist. For it is human nature that if you look hard enough for something, you want very much to find it, and you work at the very edge of the limit of your instruments, you have to try very hard not to find it--whether or not it is there. Many scientists have seen things that they were looking for but that weren't really there.
...
The Shapley-Curtis debate illustrates the difference between the scientific method and the process of science Ultimately experiment and observation is the arbitrator in the confrontation of theory and nature, but the process of science does not always involve carefully and impartially weighing the evidence. Science does not proceed like a cookbook recipe in the making of a hypothesis, comparing its predictions with observations and either accepting or rejecting the hypothesis. There is always confusion at the leading edge of research, and there are always a few discrepant and contradictory pieces of information that can't be explained.
...
One can represent nature in many ways. A Joseph M.W. Turner painting of a storm-tossed sea is a depiction of the beauty and power of the wind and waves, but so are the equations of hydrodynamics. The painting can be appreciated by a wider audience, but the equations can express something that can't be put on canvas. Mastery, or at least an understanding, of the equations gives us poor, pitiful humans some degree of comprehension of the forces of nature. What a wonderful world, where we can enjoy both an artistic interpretation and a mathematical description of the same scene!
...
The progression in our view of the universe has not been characterized by a slow monotonic increase in knowledge, but our understanding has grown in spurts in a series of small steps, giant leaps, and false starts. When advances have occurred, they have not come easily. In fact, when looking back over the history of cosmology, I am struck by the one common attribute shared by all who have looked at the sky: confusion at the edge of knowledge. No astronomer, not even Kepler or Newton, ever grasped the true enormity and diversity of the universe. It is folly to believe we do now.
Some understanding of physical science and/or historical background knowledge would be helpful but not necessary for those considering reading this. I would put it at high school level and up.
One of the big things I pondered while reading this was how people see what they want to see. They look for what they are hoping to find and often “find” it, only for it to be disproved some time in the future. This has interesting correlations to the young Earth/old Earth, creation/evolution debates.
I have assigned my high schoolers to read this alongside their chronological study of world history, and I think it is going to help them have a more thorough understanding of how science and history connect.
4 stars - and that’s pretty darn high considering science is not at all my area of interest. I’m trying to develop a love for the subject by reading books like this, though!
(For those who care, the author is obviously not a Christian but isn’t too antagonistic towards the Christian worldview. Just a few comments here and there.)
Good quotes:
Although the significance of a discovery is often impossible to discern immediately, it is a simpler matter to tell how hard the discovery was to make. The most difficult thing to discover is something you are not looking for, and the easiest thing to discover is something you are looking for. "Seek and ye shall find," may have been intended as solace for the spiritually deprived, but it must be interpreted as a serious warning by the scientist. For it is human nature that if you look hard enough for something, you want very much to find it, and you work at the very edge of the limit of your instruments, you have to try very hard not to find it--whether or not it is there. Many scientists have seen things that they were looking for but that weren't really there.
...
The Shapley-Curtis debate illustrates the difference between the scientific method and the process of science Ultimately experiment and observation is the arbitrator in the confrontation of theory and nature, but the process of science does not always involve carefully and impartially weighing the evidence. Science does not proceed like a cookbook recipe in the making of a hypothesis, comparing its predictions with observations and either accepting or rejecting the hypothesis. There is always confusion at the leading edge of research, and there are always a few discrepant and contradictory pieces of information that can't be explained.
...
One can represent nature in many ways. A Joseph M.W. Turner painting of a storm-tossed sea is a depiction of the beauty and power of the wind and waves, but so are the equations of hydrodynamics. The painting can be appreciated by a wider audience, but the equations can express something that can't be put on canvas. Mastery, or at least an understanding, of the equations gives us poor, pitiful humans some degree of comprehension of the forces of nature. What a wonderful world, where we can enjoy both an artistic interpretation and a mathematical description of the same scene!
...
The progression in our view of the universe has not been characterized by a slow monotonic increase in knowledge, but our understanding has grown in spurts in a series of small steps, giant leaps, and false starts. When advances have occurred, they have not come easily. In fact, when looking back over the history of cosmology, I am struck by the one common attribute shared by all who have looked at the sky: confusion at the edge of knowledge. No astronomer, not even Kepler or Newton, ever grasped the true enormity and diversity of the universe. It is folly to believe we do now.
January 18, 2013
An inspiring book that introduces us to the greats of history that has helped influence our progression and understanding of the universe. A very interesting read and a book that I would recommend to others.
May 13, 2009
Fun to read with an aspect of the Watchers that was a bit unexpected (gamblers, con men and the like! Heaven forfend!)
May 10, 2021
Highly readable and extremely informative.
July 31, 2015
Accessible and fun for non-physics types. Clever references thoughout. Found myself a little "spaced out" during the star section, but laughed aloud on page 195. Also, loved the trivia that "Hubble shared the limelight and the prize money ($500) with the other winner, the author of a paper on the digestive tracts of termites" (197). Anyone who has lived in Southern California (the land of homes covered in circus-looking tents filled with termite-murdering potions) knows it was an award well-shared...on Earth, anyway.
June 7, 2015
One of the best history of science books I've read, he's good at making clear the odd bumps (and odd people) involved in the progress of understanding; and good at explaining the tricky bits. It was a classroom book for Elizabeth and she found the humor a bit lame but I enjoyed it
February 4, 2016
This is a fascinating book! I was lucky enough to take one of Dr. Kolb's courses at the University of Chicago. He is such an engaging lecturer, and that comes through the printed page just as vividly.
February 8, 2008
Great book to begin cosmology
August 15, 2013
Loved the book -- loved the class.
June 26, 2014
Fine book. No great science background required, but if you have one, you are not talked down to.
May 11, 2015
witty and engaging read
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews