The Magic Furnace

The Search for the Origins of Atoms

Marcus Chown

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Paperback

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English

Vintage
15 August 2000

Mathematics & Sciences; Popular science; Galaxies & stars

'An eminently readable piece of science history dealing with the quest to discover the nature of matter, recounted with a novelist's eye for character and suspense.' New Statesman

Every atom in our bodies has an extraordinary history. Our blood, our food, our books, our clothes - everything contains atoms forged in blistering furnaces deep inside stars, which were blown into space by those stars' cataclysmic explosions and deaths. From red giants - stars so enormous they could engulf a million suns - to supernova explosions - the most violent events in the universe - the birth of every atom was marked by cosmic events on an enormous scale, against a backdrop of unimaginable heat and cold, brightness and darkness, space and time.

But how did we discover the astonishing truth about our cosmic origins? THE MAGIC FURNACE is Marcus Chown's extraordinary account of how scientists unravelled the mystery of atoms, and helped to explain the dawn of life. It is one of the greatest detective stories in the history of science. In fact, it is two puzzles intertwined, for the stars contain the key to unlocking the secret of atoms, and the atoms the solution to the secret of stars.

By: Marcus Chown
Imprint: Vintage
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 170g
ISBN: 9780099578017
ISBN 10: 0099578018
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 15 August 2000
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Marcus Chown is New Scientist's cosmology consultant. He is the author of Afterglow of Creation, which was runner-up for the Rhone- Poulenc Science Book Prize, and was the winner of the 1994 Glaxo Wellcome ABSW Science Writers' Award.

Reviews for The Magic Furnace: The Search for the Origins of Atoms

A clear introduction to a fascinating area of physics and astronomy. Chown is to be congratulated on a beautifully crafted book. - New Scientist <br> An eminently readable piece of science history dealing with the quest to discover the nature of matter, recounted with a novelist's eye for character and suspense. - New Statesman