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In the Center of Immensities
The scope of this book is vast. Lovell deals with the earliest known works on astronomy down to the most controversial insights of the early 1970's.
171 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
About the author
Bernard Lovell
31 booksSir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell (born 31 August 1913, Oldland Common, Bristol) OBE, FRS is an English physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first Director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980.
He studied physics at the University of Bristol, obtaining a Ph.D. in 1936. At this time he also received lessons from Raymond Jones, a teacher at Bath Technical School and later organist at Bath Abbey. The church organ was one of the main loves of his life, apart from science. He worked in the cosmic ray research team at the University of Manchester until the outbreak of World War II, during which he worked for the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) developing radar systems to be installed in aircraft, among them H2S, for which he received an OBE in 1946.
He attempted to continue his studies of cosmic rays with an ex-military radar detector unit, but suffered much background interference from the Electric trams on Manchester's Oxford Road. He moved his equipment to a more remote location, one which was free from such electrical interference, and where he established the Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Goostrey in Cheshire. It was an outpost of the University's botany department. In the course of his experiments he was able to show that radar echoes could be obtained from daytime meteor showers as they entered the Earth's atmosphere and ionised the surrounding air. With University funding he constructed the then-largest steerable radio telescope in the world, which now bears his name - the Lovell Telescope. Over 50 years later, it remains a productive radio telescope, now mostly operated as part of the MERLIN and European VLBI Network interferometric arrays of radio telescopes.
In 1958, Lovell was invited by the BBC to deliver the annual Reith Lectures - a series of six radio broadcasts, titled The Individual and the Universe, in which he examined the history of inquiry into the solar system and the origin of the universe.
He was knighted in 1961 for his important contributions to the development of radio astronomy, and has a secondary school named after him in Oldland Common, Bristol, which Sir Bernard Lovell officially opened. A building on the QinetiQ site in Malvern is also named after him.
In 2009, Lovell spoke of a claimed assassination attempt in Deep-Space Communication Center (Eupatoria) during the Cold War where the Soviets allegedly tried to kill him with a lethal radiation dose. At the time, Lovell was head of the Jodrell Bank space telescope that was also being used as part of an early warning system for Soviet nuclear attacks. Lovell has written a full account of the incident which will not be published until after his death.
The first name of the fictional scientist Bernard Quatermass, the hero of several BBC Television science-fiction serials of the 1950s, was chosen in honour of Lovell.
Now in his 99th year, Sir Bernard, physically very frail, lives in quiet retirement in the English countryside. He is surrounded by music, his books and a vast garden filled with trees he himself planted many decades ago and which he has loved so long.
He studied physics at the University of Bristol, obtaining a Ph.D. in 1936. At this time he also received lessons from Raymond Jones, a teacher at Bath Technical School and later organist at Bath Abbey. The church organ was one of the main loves of his life, apart from science. He worked in the cosmic ray research team at the University of Manchester until the outbreak of World War II, during which he worked for the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) developing radar systems to be installed in aircraft, among them H2S, for which he received an OBE in 1946.
He attempted to continue his studies of cosmic rays with an ex-military radar detector unit, but suffered much background interference from the Electric trams on Manchester's Oxford Road. He moved his equipment to a more remote location, one which was free from such electrical interference, and where he established the Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Goostrey in Cheshire. It was an outpost of the University's botany department. In the course of his experiments he was able to show that radar echoes could be obtained from daytime meteor showers as they entered the Earth's atmosphere and ionised the surrounding air. With University funding he constructed the then-largest steerable radio telescope in the world, which now bears his name - the Lovell Telescope. Over 50 years later, it remains a productive radio telescope, now mostly operated as part of the MERLIN and European VLBI Network interferometric arrays of radio telescopes.
In 1958, Lovell was invited by the BBC to deliver the annual Reith Lectures - a series of six radio broadcasts, titled The Individual and the Universe, in which he examined the history of inquiry into the solar system and the origin of the universe.
He was knighted in 1961 for his important contributions to the development of radio astronomy, and has a secondary school named after him in Oldland Common, Bristol, which Sir Bernard Lovell officially opened. A building on the QinetiQ site in Malvern is also named after him.
In 2009, Lovell spoke of a claimed assassination attempt in Deep-Space Communication Center (Eupatoria) during the Cold War where the Soviets allegedly tried to kill him with a lethal radiation dose. At the time, Lovell was head of the Jodrell Bank space telescope that was also being used as part of an early warning system for Soviet nuclear attacks. Lovell has written a full account of the incident which will not be published until after his death.
The first name of the fictional scientist Bernard Quatermass, the hero of several BBC Television science-fiction serials of the 1950s, was chosen in honour of Lovell.
Now in his 99th year, Sir Bernard, physically very frail, lives in quiet retirement in the English countryside. He is surrounded by music, his books and a vast garden filled with trees he himself planted many decades ago and which he has loved so long.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 10, 2016
Originally published on my blog here in October 2001.
Now sadly out of date, Bernard Lovell's wonderful popular science book was an inspiration to me in my teens. It tells a familiar story, the history of human understanding of the cosmos and our species' place in it, but stands out because of the excellence of Lovell's writing and a slightly unusual viewpoint.
Most popular science books seek to make the reader wonder at the marvels of the universe, particularly the paradox that the best descriptions currently available are not intuitively obvious. There is a subtext to this, though, which is that science is wonderful for having discovered so much out about the universe and for describing things in such a subtle way.
Lovell is interested in the wonders of the universe, but he is also concerned with the way in which changing perceptions of the universe have affected our species' view of itself. A considerable proportion of the book, including the whole last chapter, is about morality, something which it has become fashionable for scientists to ignore completely with the argument that scientific research is morally neutral. The problem with this is that the application of research is not neutral, and there is certainly some scientific work which is so tightly tied to a particular application that it can itself hardly be termed neutral (biological weapons work, for example).
The foregoing perhaps overstates the importance of this aspect of In the Centre of Immensities. It is this, though, which makes it different from most histories of cosmological speculation, and it is this which made it such an important book to me.
Now sadly out of date, Bernard Lovell's wonderful popular science book was an inspiration to me in my teens. It tells a familiar story, the history of human understanding of the cosmos and our species' place in it, but stands out because of the excellence of Lovell's writing and a slightly unusual viewpoint.
Most popular science books seek to make the reader wonder at the marvels of the universe, particularly the paradox that the best descriptions currently available are not intuitively obvious. There is a subtext to this, though, which is that science is wonderful for having discovered so much out about the universe and for describing things in such a subtle way.
Lovell is interested in the wonders of the universe, but he is also concerned with the way in which changing perceptions of the universe have affected our species' view of itself. A considerable proportion of the book, including the whole last chapter, is about morality, something which it has become fashionable for scientists to ignore completely with the argument that scientific research is morally neutral. The problem with this is that the application of research is not neutral, and there is certainly some scientific work which is so tightly tied to a particular application that it can itself hardly be termed neutral (biological weapons work, for example).
The foregoing perhaps overstates the importance of this aspect of In the Centre of Immensities. It is this, though, which makes it different from most histories of cosmological speculation, and it is this which made it such an important book to me.
December 23, 2011
Although this book is well out of print and quite hard to get hold of it, is an interesting attempt to pose and answer the questions which drive a scientist to study the universe. Sir Bernard Lovell was the founder of the Jodrell Bank Radio Astronomy Observatory and good at writing about the complex matters which inspired him as a scientist in terms which are easy to read. He carries his scholarship lightly and ranges over the whole history of man's attempts to understand the lights which appear in the sky above us.
The scope of this book is vast. Lovell deals with the earliest known works on astronomy down to the most controversial insights of the early 1970's and he ends with some startling predictions for his future, which is now our past. In particular he worries about the discharge of too much carbon into the atmosphere and what the result of such an action might be.
Although some of the science is dated, in particular where he speculates about the possibility of space based telescopes and the future prospects of the US space shuttle, the is well worth reading for the insight it gives into the mind and thinking processes of a great scientist.
The scope of this book is vast. Lovell deals with the earliest known works on astronomy down to the most controversial insights of the early 1970's and he ends with some startling predictions for his future, which is now our past. In particular he worries about the discharge of too much carbon into the atmosphere and what the result of such an action might be.
Although some of the science is dated, in particular where he speculates about the possibility of space based telescopes and the future prospects of the US space shuttle, the is well worth reading for the insight it gives into the mind and thinking processes of a great scientist.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews