BOOKS CHEMISTRY
tial learner, he changed the way university physics was taught, taking it out of the lec ture hall and into the lab. The downside of Kelvin's ever-chang ing focus was that he never developed his early promise in theoretical physics. Some commentators think it tragic that Kelvin's precocious genius ended in erroneous the ories and distracting inventions. Lindley write anything and am obliged to do near disagrees. ly everything I wish in black and white by Like Kelvin, Lindley sought broader dictation." venues than university research. After po The upside of this constant motion was sitions in astrophysics at the that Kelvin made contributions University of Cambridge and in many fields. He published a at the Fermi National Accel mathematical paper elucidat erator Lab, Lindley turned to ing Fourier's wave series while science writing. His books still in his teens. Kelvin and oth tackle topics from quantum ers formulated the laws of ther mechanics to dinosaur DNA, modynamics. Kelvin used ad demonstrating his talent and vanced geometry to quantify passion for bringing science to Faraday's visual descriptions of the layman. Lindley under electricity He solved problems A IAH Of βΙΝίυΐ stands Kelvin's choice of no of the trans-Atlantic telegraph, INVIMÎlON A*D Ι·ΑβΙΟΤ toriety and excitement over ranging from snapping cables DAVID I I N D I I V introspection and caution. to faint transmissions. When Kelvin moved at full throttle, constantly variable copper cables distorted messages, generating ideas, inventions, and enthusi he pioneered industrial quality controls. asm. He wouldn't have had it any other way He also invented a water tap that didn't leak, a more accurate nautical compass, Beth Tu elle r studied biology and history at and a mechanical calculator to predict Wellesley College andBrigham Young Univer tides. He forged international consensus sity and is a stay-at-home mom in Laie, Hawaii, on the definition and naming of the ohm, withfour daughters and a lucky husband. ampere, volt, and coulomb. An experien
BIOGRAPHIES
HISTORY MADE BY ABSOLUTE ZERO DEGREES KELVIN: A Tale of Genius, Invention, and Tragedy, by David Lindley, Joseph Henry Press, 2004,366 pages, $27.95 (ISBN 0-309-09073-3) REVIEWED BY BETH TUELLER
T
HE PROBLEM WITH BEING BRIL-
liant, prominent, and opinion ated is that sometimes you are wrong—and everybody notices. In 1902, at age 77, William Thomson, ennobled as Lord Kelvin, in sisted that Earth is less than 100 million years old, propounded crazy atomic mod els, denied the process of radioactive decay, and mocked the possibility of travel by air. He was so wrong at the end of his life that the work of his 20s to explore thermody namics and electromagnetism almost was forgotten by his peers. In textbooks, Kelvin's historical legacy is absolute zero, -273.15 °C, which he de fined, and the Kelvin temperature scale that derives from it. How ironic it is that absolute zero, the point where nothing moves, represents the contributions of a man who was in constant motion and was widely regarded by the press as Britain's greatest scientist since Sir Isaac Newton. David Lindley author of "Degrees Kel vin: ATale ofGenius, Invention, andTragedy" admits that he, too,firstsaw Kelvin as a trag ic character who "put his money on all the wrong horses." But Lindley changed his mind. In the end, he convinces his readers that Kelvin's career of vociferous opinions and peripatetic activity was a life of great contributions and personal satisfaction. Kelvin suffered—and profited—from hyperactivity He was always pursuing sev eral goals at once: teaching classes, writ ing, seeking patents, advising the British Admiralty, chasing scientific theories, and traveling incessantly. He abruptly with drew from dinner conversations to jot down equations and ideas in his signature green notebooks. If he had 15 minutes to spare, he worked on proofs for his physics textbook, the first of its kind. He admitted: 'As I have so many en gagements, and so much laboratory work, that I am kept constantly standing and walking about, I can seldom sit down to kl
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CHEMISTRY
BIOGRAPHIES
HOOKE, LINE, AND SINKER THE FORGOTTEN GENIUS: The Biography of Robert Hooke 1635-1703,
by Stephen Inwood, MacAdam/Cage, 2003, 475pages, $28.50 (ISBN 1-931561-567) REVIEWED BY LINDA R. RABER TEPHEN INWOOD S BOOK, THE
S
Forgotten Genius: The Biogra phy of Robert Hooke 16351703," was origin ally published in 2 0 0 2 as "The Man W h o KnewToo Much." Perhaps the latter title was better for this readable and well-referenced biography of a pioneering sci entist who was overshadowed by his contemporaries, such as Sir Isaac Newton, but certain ly not forgotten. In fact, Inwood's book is one of two Hooke biographies released
this year. The other is Lisa Jardine's "The Curious Life of Robert Hooke: The Man Who Measured London," published by HarperCollins. Hooke would have found the attention appropriate, as he was comfortable being "a genius." Inwood paints a vivid picture of Hooke as an eccentric polymath with a fin ger—some would say a fist—in virtually every scientific development of the 17th century Farfrommodest, Hooke was aboor who made sure he claimed credit for his own inventions and those of a few others. It's not too far a stretch to say Hooke believed he invented everything. While he did come up with good ideas and was a great experimentalist, the prob lem Hooke had was that he rarely followed through on de veloping theories. Hooke didn't focus solely on science. His genius was brought HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
to bear on rebuilding London after the great fire of 1666. Hooke and his friend, the noted architect Christopher Wren, were instrumental in rebuilding the city Hooke worked on reconstruction primarily as a surveyor and planner, making a small fortune in this endeavor. Meanwhile, he worked full speed on scientific projects. One wonders how he found the time tofiteverything in. Jardine, by the way, wrote her biography of Hooke as a follow-up to her biography of Wren published by H^erCollinsin2002. Scientists—especially physicists and chemists—will chuckle as they recognize some of their colleagues in the personalities of Hooke and his archrival Newton. Inwood spends many pages on this fre-
Readers will get a kick out of Hooke's role in the intrigue and politics of the infant Royal Society and laugh out loud at Hooke's obsessive record-keeping of his bodily functions. quently personalrivalryover who discovered what and when (C&ENJune 28, page 46). No detail is spared in the discussion of the discovery of the inverse square law of gravity, for example, which most people credit to Newton. In thefinalanalysis, neither Newton nor Hooke is portrayed in a particularly flattering light, but Newton had a sense of focus along with a better knowledge ofmathematics. He also had better publicists. That said, I'm guessing that biographies of better remembered luminaries aren't nearly as funny as Inwood's take on Hooke. Readers will get a kick out of Hooke's role in the intrigue and politics of the infant Royal Society and laugh out loud at Hooke's obsessive record-keeping of his bodily functions. Inwood's description of 17th-century London coffeehouse society is also revealing. The volume is nicely illustrated with 16 pages of Hooke's drawings, inventions, and contemporary illustrations. The index offers the reader many leads to further study of Hooke and his times. Linda R. Raber is C&EN's assistant managing editor for ACS News et Special Features, with an interest in the history ofEngland. HTTP : / / W W W . C E N - O N L I N E . ORG
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