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Astronomy and space

Astronomy and space

The quest for the Northern Lights

01 Sep 2001

The Northern Lights: How One Man Sacrificed Love, Happiness and Sanity to Unlock the Secrets of Space
Lucy Jago
2001 Hamish Hamilton/Knopf 320pp £14.99/$24.00hb

Beautiful truth

The Northern Lights is a well researched biographical tale of the Norwegian physicist and genius Kristian Birkeland, whose life was spent exclusively in pursuit of the scientific goal of understanding solar-terrestrial relationships. The author, Lucy Jago, has turned his life into a highly compelling story that keeps the reader interested, and also learning, as the tale unfolds.

Ahead of his time in terms of his scientific thinking – and unflinchingly focused on achieving his scientific goals – Birkeland found little time for his wife, friends or even his own health as he engaged in a continual battle to overcome the next scientific hurdle. The scientific details in the book are well presented: readers with only a high-school background in physics will understand them, while university-trained physicists will also find them acceptable and accurate.

Most great scientists of the past and present have found that persistence is an important ally in the pursuit of the next breakthrough towards a verifiable understanding of their area of study. Jago’s book shows that Birkeland (1867-1917) certainly had that quality. His persistence, however, extended to raising funds by exploiting his genius as an engineer.

Denied funding through the normal processes of the day, Birkeland co-founded one of the great Norwegian companies of the past century, Norsk Hydro, which began as a producer of artificial fertilizer. More concerned with using the company to support his academic work, Birkeland was less interested in its political and commercial affairs – and was prey to being cheated by his business partner.

In the book we learn how Birkeland was a contemporary and friend of fellow Norwegian adventurers Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen. The lives of all three men were bound up in the national movement to put Norway on the international map, having in 1905 been freed from many years of Swedish rule. It is only from the perspective of the scientific research of the past 30 years that we can now appreciate how Birkeland’s pioneering work matches the achievements of his more celebrated national scientific colleagues.

Birkeland essentially believed that the Northern Lights were caused by electrically charged particles from the Sun interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field. Although supported by his own observations and by his laboratory simulations of the aurora, Birkeland’s theories failed to gain widespread acceptance until the were confirmed by evidence from satellites in the late 1960s.

He was a man of great energy and focus. In the early pages of the book, Jago tells with the pace of a novelist how he planned and undertook a risky winter climb and over-winter stay at the Haldde Observatory in northern Norway – which he had founded in 1899 – even though he was not an experienced mountaineer. To make his venture successful, Birkeland selected and motivated several young men to come and work with him. His personal magnetism was sufficient to do that, even though those he recruited were well aware of the risks involved in over-wintering at the top of a mountain north of the Arctic Circle.

Another dramatic event in Birkeland’s life – in which his personal persuasion of others led to support and success – occurred when he was challenged to increase the productivity of his nitrogen-fixation process operated through Norsk Hydro. His clarity of insight was his ally, but Jago also weaves into the tale the cost of his personal commitment in terms of his health.

There was no doubt that Birkeland thought himself worthy of the highest accolades for his work in unravelling the complexities of solar-terrestrial relations and electromagnetic coupling through the solar wind. He was, however, frustrated by the rejection from his peers in Britain and his subsequent failure to become a fellow of the Royal Society. He also aspired to a Nobel prize for his plasma technique for nitrogen fixation. Although he came close to winning, he was denied because of the political opposition organized by his partner in Norsk Hydro, who wanted to claim the prize for himself.

Birkeland’s social and family life were relegated to secondary status, seemingly never having priority above his scientific and engineering activities. The author tells of Birkeland’s increasing interest in the daughter of one of his close friends and how the relationship slowly blossomed. His fiancée had recognized his preoccupation with his scientific work, but had expected that he would change and pay more attention to her once they were married. She was to be disappointed. Eventually, the marriage broke up, more because Birkeland practically abandoned his wife than due to any other cause. His only long-term relationships were those with his collaborators.

In summary, this is a somewhat tragic but compelling story of a scientist and engineer who had brilliant insights and seemingly boundless energy. Jago tells the tale with a well judged balance between the scientific background to his life, the excitement of carrying out his projects and his experience of life as a human being. His work on solar-terrestrial relations is now hailed for its vision, pointing the way towards a correct understanding of the influence of the Sun on the planets in the solar system. This book, coming about a century after this prime discovery, is a carefully crafted biography and a very good read.

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