Empire Of The Stars is a book about people, physics, rivalry, jealousy and to an extent motivation. Mostly it is a book about Subramaniam Chandrashekhar also known as Chandra. Chandra won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his lifetime work on Physics. Chandra always felt that the prize should have been about his earliest discovery related to White Dwarfs which he made on a voyage from India to England.

Other than Chandra the second most talked about person is Sir Aurthur Eddington. Eddington as he was known in physics circles was arguably one of the greatest scientist of modern times. Eddington changed the life of many connected to him for better or worse. Eddington’s impact on Chandra was profound. Chandra regarded him as inspiration but at the same time Chandra was disturbed for his entire life by Eddington. This was due to a paper presented by Chandra which he regarded as one of his finest papers. Eddington thought of it the other way and ridiculed Chandra in front of the most elaborate gathering of physicists of that time. After this Chandra felt de-motivated for his entire life and never could let go of what he called Eddington Ghost.

The book also talks about Chandra’s achievements in Physics, his contribution to the study of stars and most importantly what we know today as Chandra Limit. Chandra’s contribution to his field was enormous. NASA in his honour called one of their biggest telescopes Chandra X-ray Observatory. Together Hubble and Chandra telescopes have exposed more about the universe than we could ever imagine.

I enjoyed reading this book. Once in a while I like reading about physics, and astronomy. I will recommend this to anyone who enjoyed reading Brief History Of Time.

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Today I finished reading Guns Germs And Steel by Jared Diamond. I picked up the author’s name few years ago by watching an interview of Bill Gates where he said that he was reading a book by Jared Diamond. I went to Amazon and saw what Diamond was all about. I must say that Guns Germs and Steel has been an informative and at the same time very entertaining work of non-fiction.

Why did we as societies turn up the way we are? That is the question Jared Diamond attempts to address throughout the book. And he does a fabulous job. His in-depth research and convincing arguments present a realistic picture of societies and their evolution. Why is it that some societies adapted farming while others were still hunter gatherers? Why did some invent writing skills while others did without it? Why did Europeans ended up with industrial revolution? Such questions are answered by Jared Diamond throughout the book. The author also does not just present a statement without supporting it. He carries his hypothesis towards logical conclusions and leaves an impression of agreement with the reader.

I enjoyed reading this book. There were pages when I felt the same thing being repeated but overall I could not put it down.

Technorati Tags: Books, Jared Diamond, Guns Germs And Steel