Word: birkelandã
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...fitting, in an ironic sense, that BBC journalist Lucy Jago chose Kristian Birkeland for the subject of her first book. Birkeland unlocked the secrets of the aurora borealis, and it was the British that scoffed at Birkeland??s theories and dismissed his work in the early 1900s. The Northern Lights recounts Birkeland??s life-long journey through the still-fledgling fields of electromagnetism and solar astronomy. Jago’s book, although well-written and interesting, fails to rise to the level of “thrilling” that the publisher touts...
...lights. At the end of the nineteenth century, the setting of Jago’s account, the northern lights were still a mystery—heralded by some as messages from the gods and by others as signals from the dead. Jago manages to successfully transport the reader to Birkeland??s world, where adventurers still dreamed not of faraway planets, stars and moons, but of uncharted mountains, desolate frozen poles and the Dark Continent of Africa. Birkeland??s native Norway was “chafing” under the rule of Sweden and electrical engines were...
Jago digs deep into Birkeland??s life in a narrative style made classic by VH1’s “Behind the Music.” As the young professor’s academic work took off, his personal life fell apart, resulting in a drinking and drug problem, a wrecked marraige, lost friends and, finally, after several paranoid episodes, a sad death caused by a drug overdose half-a-world away from home...
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