[Review of the book Looking for Earth: The Race to
Find New Solar Systems]
Isis
2000
Doel, Ronald E.
Department of History (and Department of Geosciences), Oregon State University
*Reviewing Author
Originally published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society
and can be found at: http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=isis
Citation: Doel, R. E. (2000, September). [Review of the book Looking for Earth: The Race to Find New Solar
Systems]. Isis, 91(3), 621-622. Available from JSTOR website: http://www.jstor.org/stable/237973
BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 91 : 3 (2000)
621
does not attemptto present a complete or balanced history of nuclear physics. His arrangement of the text accordingto topics standardfor
scientific review papersoften tends to obliterate
the genuine historical connections between nuclear physics and neighboringfields, especially
elementary particle and cosmic-ray physics.
Thus, for example, Hideki Yukawa's meson theory, of central importanceto an understanding
of nuclear forces, is mentioned only once, in
passing. On the formal side, apartfrom the publications Mladjenovichas not used any firsthand
sources such as letters and manuscripts.
Despite these limitations,interestedhistorians
of science will welcome Mladjenovi' s work for
its clear and systematicorganizationof the topics
it highlights. And they should be able to make
LEWISPYENSON good use of it in formulatingtheir own accounts
of a subject that, because of the promises and
dangersthe applicationof nuclearphysics holds
for
daily life, has both fascinated and terrified
M. Mladjenovic. TheDefining Yearsof Nuclear
for many decades.
people
Physics: 1932-1960s. xx + 442 pp., figs., taHELMUTRECHENBERG
bles, indexes. Bristol, England/Philadelphia:Institute of Physics, 1998. $150, ?85.
A bitter edge leads Stern's straightforward
prose. His scientists and technologists quoted
classical authorsas well as modernphilosophers,
and they certainly spoke freely about big issues
that concerned ordinarypeople, but artists and
writers sensed more clearly "the shakiness and
hypocrisy of the established, repressive order"
and gave voice to "an intuitionof some coming
cataclysm"(pp. 202-203). Stem's depiction of
flawed character(encomiumis reservedonly for
Weizmann, whose personal life escapes scrutiny) is unsettling for scholars with family responsibilitywho wake every morningin the provincial academicsetting devastatinglyportrayed
by Max Weber (p. 73) to wonder how they will
make ends meet while still generatingworks of
inspiration.
In this book M. Mladjenovicdocumentsthe major developments in the three great decades of
nuclear physics. Mladjenovic offers his readers
a sense of the scope of these developmentsprimarilyby presentingcondensedversions of a selection of original publications. He has organized his material into four parts (and twenty
chapters)under the following headings: "From
the Discovery of the Neutron to Nuclear Fission," "Nuclear Instruments,""Nuclear Models," and "NuclearReactions."Part 1 covers discoveries up to 1940 (neutron, positron,
P+-radioactivity,etc.); Part2 deals with nuclear
accelerators(up to the large protonsynchrotrons
of the late 1950s), the various counter methods
used in nuclear physics, and the properties of
gamma decay, internalconversion, and beta decay processes. Part3 reviews the nuclearmodels
(shell, collective, individual-particle),and Part4
concentrateson observed nuclear reactions and
the theoreticalmodels createdto describe them.
Mladjenovic's presentation of the original
publications, supported occasionally by a few
later statementsof their authors,providesaccess
to one of the most important(if not the most
important)areas of physical researchin the second thirdof the twentiethcentury.His book addresses scientists, althoughnot only the narrow
community of nuclear physicists, and its contents offer an authenticrecord of the fermentof
intellectualand creative activity that markedthe
advances in this field. Mladjenovic, however,
Alan Boss. Lookingfor Earth: TheRace to Find
New Solar Systems. xii + 240 pp., illus., figs.,
app., bibl., index. New York/Chichester,England: John Wiley & Sons, 1998. $27.95, Can
$39.50.
In 1935 Henry Norris Russell, America's most
eminent astronomer,declared that the origin of
the solar system posed "the greatest unsolved
problem in astronomy."A major challenge he
and fellow astronomersfaced was determining
whetherthe solar system was a unique, isolated
occurrence or one instance of a phenomenon
common throughoutthe stellarrealm. Efforts to
discover remote planetarysystems yielded only
false hopes throughmuch of the twentieth century. But in 1995 a pair of Swiss researchers
based at the Geneva Observatoryidentified a
planet roughly half the size of Jupiterorbiting
the star51 Pegasi. In more recentyears the number and variety of known planetarysystems has
greatly multiplied, reinvigoratingdebates over
the pluralityof worlds and the likelihood of life
elsewhere in the universe.
The quest by astrophysiciststo discover extrasolarworlds is the subjectof Alan Boss's account. An astrophysicistat the Carnegie Institution of Washington,Boss himself took partin
this search, and he uses his familiaritywith the
personalities, institutions, and instruments of
contemporary astrophysics to provide a fastpaced, journalisticnarrativeof the international
622
BOOKREVIEWS-ISIS,91: 3 (2000)
race to discover remote planetarysystems. He
addresses not only significant technical issues
that shaped these discoveries (including the requirement of distinguishing planets from very
low-mass, low-luminositystarsknown as brown
dwarfs) but also their professional and disciplinary contexts. Heated debates at Woods Hole
summerinstitutes for astrophysicsand political
squabblingover fundingfor the searchfor extraterrestrialintelligence areno less partof his story
than controversiesover new techniquesin spectrometry and priority disputes among his colleagues.
Boss begins with a recounting of efforts by
astronomersto discover extrasolarplanets from
the nineteenthcenturyforward,includingthe decades-long attempts by Peter van de Kamp of
SwarthmoreCollege to discover them by measuring tiny astrometricwobbles in the motions
of nearby stars. His terse overview of cosmogonal researchthroughthe 1970s, while generally accurate,lacks historicalsensitivity, andhis
story is marredby occasional minorerrors.Russell receives credit for conclusively demonstrating a fundamentalflaw in collisional cosmogony
schemes in the mid 1930s, though in fact this
critical result was achieved later by Lyman J.
Spitzer, Russell's former graduatestudent;important cosmogonal research by the German
physicist Carl-Friedrichvon Weizsiickerin 1943
was not immediately communicatedto American colleagues but remained little known until
nearlythe end of WorldWarII. Boss seems similarly unawareof political and ideological issues
that clouded the reception of cosmological research by the famous Soviet polar explorerand
astrophysicistOtto Schmidt and his colleagues
in the West in the following decade. And while
Boss admirablytouches on a wide range of cosmological and cosmogonal researchdone in Europe, North America, and the Soviet Union in
the latterhalf of the twentiethcenturyand notes
certain works by Stephen G. Brush, he seems
unfamiliarwith recent researchon this topic by
historiansof science such as Steven J. Dick and
RobertW. Smith.
Fortunately,Boss is far more interestingand
insightful when he narratesfrom firsthandexperience.His core chapterspainta broadportrait
of astrophysicalresearchin the 1990s. Boss offers numerousreflectionson the developmentof
late twentieth-centurycosmogony, arguing, for
instance, that its progressdependednot only on
new precision measuringtechniqueslike Doppler spectroscopybut also on the developmentof
ever more powerful computersthat enabled astrophysicists to model the accretion of planets
from clouds of particles surroundingnewborn
stars. But Boss also has a sharp eye for social
factors that influence scientific research,including the intellectual lineage of key researchers
and the complicationsthat attendpriorityclaims
and the attributionof discovery. The discovery
of new solar systems stoked intense public curiosity, and Boss reflectson his experienceswith
reportersand the complex pressuresof publicizing new research.In his extended discussion of
the role of NASA as a patronfor space science,
Boss pays particularattentionto the background
of its chief administrator,Daniel Goldin, arguing
that Goldin's plea for advanced planet-seeking
orbital telescopes partly reflected his previous
experience in building top-secret surveillance
satellites for the Departmentof Defense. Of no
less value are Boss's personal insights into the
social characteristicsof modem astrophysics,including long-standing tensions dividing radio
from optical astronomersand the famously argumentativesubcommunityof meteoriticists.
Readers seeking a serious historical account
of these monumentaldiscoveries will not find it
here. But Boss's contributionis a helpful primary source for contemporarycosmogonal research as well as a worthy autobiographicalaccount.
RONALDE. DOEL
Anthony S. Travis; Harm G. Schroter; Ernst
Homburg; Peter J. T. Morris (Editors).Determinantsin the Evolutionof the EuropeanChemical Industry, 1900-1939: New Technologies,
Political Frameworks,Markets,and Companies.
(Chemists and Chemistry, 16.) xii + 393 pp.,
illus., figs., tables, apps., index. Dordrecht/Boston/London:Kluwer, 1998. $195, ?123, Dfl 360.
Determinantsin the Evolution of the European
Chemical Industry, 1900-1939, edited by a
four-memberteam led by Anthony S. Travis of
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, emerged
from a series of workshopssponsoredby the European Science Foundation's interdisciplinary
program on the evolution of chemistry in Europe. It includes some of the best historicalanalyses of the industryin this period since Lutz Haber's classic work three decades ago-perhaps
even good enough to justify the outrageous
price.
All sixteen contributions, grouped in five
parts, provide useful perspectives, some on the
development of technology and science in relation to industry,others on the political or military ramificationsof the chemical industryand