North Pole, South Pole, Gillian Turner
North Pole, South Pole, Gillian Turner
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North Pole, South Pole
The Epic Quest to Solve the Great Mystery of Earth’s Magnetism

Author: Gillian Turner

Narrator: Cat Gould

Unabridged: 8 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/16/2019


Synopsis

This "fantastic story" of one of physics' great riddles takes us through centuries of scientific history (Simon Lamb, author of Devil in the Mountain).

Why do compass needles point north—but not quite north? What guides the migration of birds, whales, and fish across the world's oceans? How is Earth able to sustain life under an onslaught of solar wind and cosmic radiation? For centuries, the world's great scientists have grappled with these questions, all rooted in the same phenomenon: Earth's magnetism.

Over two thousand years after the invention of the compass, Einstein called the source of Earth's magnetic field one of greatest unsolved mysteries of physics. Here, for the first time, is the complete history of the quest to understand the planet's attractive pull—from the ancient Greeks' fascination with lodestone to the geological discovery that the North Pole has not always been in the North—and to the astonishing modern conclusions that finally revealed the true source.

Skillfully told, North Pole, South Pole unfolds the human story behind the science: that of the inquisitive, persevering, and often dissenting thinkers who unlocked the secrets at our planet's core.

About Gillian Turner

Gillian Turner is the author of North Pole, South Pole. She is a senior lecturer in physics and geophysics at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. The winner of numerous awards for excellence in teaching and science communication, Turner has published over fifty articles in scientific journals.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mark on November 30, 2023

I’ve said it before, but I’m happy to repeat it: thank goodness for scientists! Furthermore, thank goodness for scientists who are also accomplished writers such that they can unravel, with what appears to be effortless ease, the knottiest of subjects into polished, lucid prose. Case in point: autho......more

Goodreads review by George on July 26, 2023

This reviewer knows precious little about geophysics, so will not be complaining, as others have, that this book was directed at a generalist audience. I will complain however about the back cover. I realize this is out of the control of the author, and the blame rests with the publisher, but it is......more

Goodreads review by Jeremy on September 29, 2019

A kind of book I love, which takes a body of knowledge that most of us experience as a bare statement of fact in our education - the Earth has a magnetic field that explains how compasses work and protects from radiation from outer space, and by the way it has flipped end for end multiple times in t......more

Goodreads review by John on March 03, 2024

The earth is a magnet. This book describes the history and elaboration of that idea, from the ancient discovery of lodestone (a naturally magnetic rock) and its development into a compass, to the discovery that the direction a compass points wanders (in 40 years the compass in London wandered from 7......more

Goodreads review by Peter on February 20, 2019

Great example of interesting science and history combined into a compelling story.......more