Empire of the Stars

Title: Empire of the Stars
Author: Arthur I MillerPublisher: Abacus 2006 (First published 2005)Pages: 318ISBN: 978-0-349-11627-3

We will be hard pressed to categorise this book from Miller. It is neither a biography nor a scientific one, in the strict sense of both classes. True, it is the life story of Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, Nobel laureate of Indian origin and his professional clash with Sir Arthur Eddington, one of the noted physicists of the first half of the 20^th century. Chandrasekhar’s early life is briefly mentioned and the narration really begins with his journey to England for higher studies at the tender age of nineteen.

Chandrasekhar (known as Chandra among his friends) was a prodigy in India. Young Chandra earned reputation among the students and teachers alike and many professors often invited him to speak on their behalf during seminars. Chandra was also the nephew of Sir C V Raman, another Nobel laureate from India. However, when he found himself involved in Cambridge, his confidence began to ebb. He speculated about the end of the life cycle of massive stars and came to the conclusion that stars above a particular mass (which was later known as the Chandrasekhar Limit, which is 1.4 times the mass of the sun), end up as a black hole. This was contrary to the accepted practice at that time in 1935, and Eddington opposed it tooth and nail because such a finding would go against the basic tenets of a theory he was formulating then. The established wisdom suggested that there is no mechanism for a star to become a black hole and they would end up as a white dwarf. At a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society at London in 1935, Eddington made a vicious verbal attack on Chandra, criticizing the theory as well as the person. All scientists, even those who privately believed that Chandra was right couldn’t come openly in his support, because Eddington was very powerful and his friends or students controlled appointments in several institutions in the USA and UK. Chandra suppressed the bitterness and turned to less sensational topics and continued research there. In the 1970s, his assertions were proved correct by astronomical observations and he was awarded the Nobel in 1983.

The book is organized into three parts. The first part concerns with the collision, its background and the emmigration to USA. The author has tried to get at the root of Eddington’s opposition to Chandra, with the assertion that Cambridge was very racist at those times. Professional jealousy is ruled out as the antagonists were not comparable. Chandra was a fresh graduate student from India, while Eddington was a world-wide authority of relativity theory and astrophysics. It was him who conducted the famous solar-lensing experiment in 1919 which furnished the experimental verification of Einstein’s master piece. It is also a sad demonstration of even noted scientists fall prey to their preconceived and selfish notions which go counter to truth or new suggestions. Eddington proved to be impervious to reason, as far as Chandra was concerned.

The author then explains many scientific concepts involved such as relativity theory, white dwarfs, physical theories about the nature of matter, development of the nuclear bomb by USA and the Soviet Union etc. This part is concerned very little with the life of Chandra. The description if often terse and uninteresting to the general reader. It lacks focus at this point and a lot of fields are touched upon. Too many biographical sketches make the reading progress laborious. A brief life story of each person encountered in the text is given which could’ve been avoided. Another irritating drawback is that the stellar distances are given in so and so trillion trillion miles. It is very handy to use light-years instead. It is repeated in almost all places such that the reader might wonder whether the term ‘light-year’ was coined after this was book was published!

The book contains some controversial remarks about Meghnad Saha, a leading Indian astrophysicist. Chandra writes to his father about Saha of ‘his scheming, sneering attitude – an attitude which blurts out when in inviting me to come back to India he asks me to “join the politics”. (p. 149). The death of Chandra due to a heart attack is touching, as ”On 21 August 1995, he was awakened by severe chest pains. He did not want to disturb Lalitha (his wife), so he quitely dressed and slipped out of their bedroom. Perhaps he took a quick glance at the mirror on their dresser, where there was a postcard-sized reproduction of Monet’s painting of a little girl. ‘That’s you’, he often told Lalitha. He took the lift downstairs, got into his car and drove to the university clinic. As he was entering, he collapsed. He had had a massive heart attack. He died later that day, with Lalitha at this side” (p. 286)

Overall rating: 2 Star