07 February 2003

Filling Cosmic Gaps

Norman Sperling, What Your Astronomy Textbook Won't Tell You. clear, savvy insights for mastery. (San Mateo, CA: Everything in the Universe), 2002. 184 pp., ISBN 0-913399-04-3.

 

Reviewed by Sheldon Greaves

 

Many years ago, my spouse Denise and I took a trip by rail to visit some relatives over the Christmas holidays. The journey itself was one of the more interesting and pleasant aspects of the trip--not to take anything away from my relatives. It just so happens that I love traveling by rail.

One of the nicer aspects of taking a long trip by train is the dining car. The food is (last time I sampled some) much better than on an airliner, and you have the opportunity to sit across from people and actually converse with them while you dine. It happened that Denise and I went to dinner in the dining car, and were seated across from another passenger while we waited for someone to take our order. We struck up a conversation with our table mate and discovered that he was also from California. In fact, he was an astronomer who worked at NASA Ames Research Center, which was practically in our backyard.

When we asked him to tell us about his work, he heaved a clear sigh of relief. "You have no idea," he said, "how refreshing it is to tell someone I'm an astronomer and not have them ask me what my sign is."

 

When I first saw the title of this book, I confess I didn't get what it was about. The title seemed to put astronomers in the same class as stock brokers or IRS auditors or real estate agents, hoarding "secrets" that allow them to make their living from an ignorant public. After reading it through, I get it now.

As custodians of a branch of knowledge, astronomers have the task of refining and expanding our understanding of the cosmos. This is exciting and interesting work. It is so exciting, in fact, that theirs is a branch of science that has tremendous popular appeal. The problem is that astronomy as understood by ordinary people involves many misunderstandings and some outright falsehoods. Because astronomy and cosmology have such a grip on the popular imagination, these ideas tend to propagate and become fixed.

In theory, one would think that professional astronomers would spend more time correcting popular misconceptions and debunking the frauds. But they don't, and I can understand why. That kind of education is difficult, frustrating, and much of the time seems ultimately futile. Why waste your time trying to enlighten hoi polloi when the secrets of the universe await discovery?

But someone has to do it.

Sperling's book takes on many of these miscues which, as he points out in the title, are often neglected by standard astronomical teaching text. In all fairness (and Sperling makes this clear), textbook authors have quite enough to do to keep abreast of current advances without having to spend time on frauds and folklore. In fact, he provides an interesting historical overview of how astronomy has developed over the centuries with short descriptions of standard texts on the subject going back to the early 1700's.

In my opinion, one of the more valuable services this book performs is to provide concise, straightforward answers to some of the things that drive astronomers and informed laypeople to distraction. For instance, the section on astrology describes some simple experiments someone could perform to demonstrate the inability of horoscopes to guide one's future. Although they are not statistically rigorous (and Sperling points this out), they make their point. Another pet peeve of mine that the book discusses are those businesses that purport to name a star after someone, when the naming is not recognized by any meaningful body and usually the location provided on the certificate is insufficient to actually locate the star in question. If you find yourself having to answer questions from people about this and other such irritants, this book will help you.

But this book is not all about debunking. There are plenty of little "Ah-ha!" moments tucked away in this volume. Particularly if you are still somewhat new to astronomy, you will find a lot of conceptual tidbits that can clarify your mindset and assumptions when thinking about astronomy. And it's true; although I have not taken an astronomy class since my freshman year in college (and I don't even want to think about how long ago that was), I have tried to keep abreast of the field by reading popular magazines and picking up the odd popular press book on the subject. The title of this book reflects reality: there really are things that don't get explained, or explained correctly. The material in this book is presented in small, bite-sized pieces. It is that delightful kind of book that you can open at random, start reading or turning pages, and find something short, sweet, and informative. It will fill in some gaps while entertaining you along the way.