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Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer's Reviews > 15 Million Degrees
15 Million Degrees
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Fascinating book by an astrophysicist (and also apparently first female presenter of “The Sky at Night”) in her real area of academic expertise - the Sun and particularly one area in which she further specialises - so called “coronal mass ejections” and the changes in the Sun’s magnetic field which causes them.
The book being written by an academic (rather than a “popular science” writer) gives the book a lot of authenticity - while occassionally straying a little too far into the auto-biographical (scientists she has worked with, her own areas of interest and involvement). I also think it was quite an omission to have just black and white photos in the text - this felt like a book which needed a series of colour plates to bring it to life.
The first part of the book explains the basic make up of the sun and the way in which it produces the light we see on earth. This part is particularly fascinating for the way in which it relies on two (in probability terms) incredibly rare happenings (but taken from an enormous sample so that there are in fact lots of instances). This is explained well in this Guardian review of the book (https://amp.theguardian.com/books/201...).
Some of the subsequent sections I found rather heavy going - particularly those around flux rope formation - my lack of love for Physics (despite successfully taking an A Level in it), and particularly my lack of interest in magnetic fields was not a great match for the areas which both most interest the author and which I think are naturally the most complex to understand (even for scientists).
However sections on solar flares and solar wind were interesting (if also complex at times) and I particularly enjoyed the chapter on sunspot cycles (sunspots themselves having been covered in an earlier and relatively easy to follow chapter). What I found interesting here were her conclusions (given I would say slightly reluctantly given her views on the importance of the sun) that fluctuations in earth’s temperature due to sunspot cycles are completely swamped by the impact of man-made influences.
Later she goes on to discuss how it is becoming clear that the period over which scientific solar observations have been made has actually been an historically anomalous one with high solar activity and that actually more needs to be done to understand longer term solar cycles.
Finally at the start of the sunspot cycle chapter she quotes x(with no further detail at all as to who wrote it or where it was published) a headline from 2010 from a newspaper quoting an observer of sun-spot activity who claimed the sun was entering a period of reduced sun spot activity and (more controversially and less correctly) that a mini ice age would follow.
Now my antennae were alerted at this point - around 2010 I was involved in industry and professional working groups on the then emerging science on climate change/global warming, including working with a number of leading climatologists. Now I recall a certain attendee at some conferences who spoke on this topic (from the audience if not permitted a place on stage) - and I quickly Googled the topic to confirm who I thought the article was written by - correctly identifying it as Piers Corbyn (the then slightly better known eccentric brother of a relatively little known Labour MP - now of course rather better known for his anti-lockdown protests brother of an extremely well known ex-Labour MP). Even better though the first link that came up (https://amp.smh.com.au/environment/we...) was written by a then Mayor of London now known for his lack of compliance with his own laws.
The book being written by an academic (rather than a “popular science” writer) gives the book a lot of authenticity - while occassionally straying a little too far into the auto-biographical (scientists she has worked with, her own areas of interest and involvement). I also think it was quite an omission to have just black and white photos in the text - this felt like a book which needed a series of colour plates to bring it to life.
The first part of the book explains the basic make up of the sun and the way in which it produces the light we see on earth. This part is particularly fascinating for the way in which it relies on two (in probability terms) incredibly rare happenings (but taken from an enormous sample so that there are in fact lots of instances). This is explained well in this Guardian review of the book (https://amp.theguardian.com/books/201...).
Some of the subsequent sections I found rather heavy going - particularly those around flux rope formation - my lack of love for Physics (despite successfully taking an A Level in it), and particularly my lack of interest in magnetic fields was not a great match for the areas which both most interest the author and which I think are naturally the most complex to understand (even for scientists).
However sections on solar flares and solar wind were interesting (if also complex at times) and I particularly enjoyed the chapter on sunspot cycles (sunspots themselves having been covered in an earlier and relatively easy to follow chapter). What I found interesting here were her conclusions (given I would say slightly reluctantly given her views on the importance of the sun) that fluctuations in earth’s temperature due to sunspot cycles are completely swamped by the impact of man-made influences.
Later she goes on to discuss how it is becoming clear that the period over which scientific solar observations have been made has actually been an historically anomalous one with high solar activity and that actually more needs to be done to understand longer term solar cycles.
Finally at the start of the sunspot cycle chapter she quotes x(with no further detail at all as to who wrote it or where it was published) a headline from 2010 from a newspaper quoting an observer of sun-spot activity who claimed the sun was entering a period of reduced sun spot activity and (more controversially and less correctly) that a mini ice age would follow.
Now my antennae were alerted at this point - around 2010 I was involved in industry and professional working groups on the then emerging science on climate change/global warming, including working with a number of leading climatologists. Now I recall a certain attendee at some conferences who spoke on this topic (from the audience if not permitted a place on stage) - and I quickly Googled the topic to confirm who I thought the article was written by - correctly identifying it as Piers Corbyn (the then slightly better known eccentric brother of a relatively little known Labour MP - now of course rather better known for his anti-lockdown protests brother of an extremely well known ex-Labour MP). Even better though the first link that came up (https://amp.smh.com.au/environment/we...) was written by a then Mayor of London now known for his lack of compliance with his own laws.
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