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daed's review against another edition
2.0
Su mayor virtud (que es estar minuciosamente documentado) es también su peor defecto, ya que la cantidad de datos y anotaciones llega a ser bastante abrumadora, quitandole ritmo a la narración.
jklbookdragon's review against another edition
5.0
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Inpired by a challenge Edmund Halley, of comet fame, had set a few decades earlier, the astronomers of the world cooperate on a series of adventures to reach far-flung places around the world to measure the transit of Venus across the Sun. They have two chances, in 1761 and 1769, to take accurate measurements (no easy task at that time) -- then it will be 115 years before this happens again. From their data, they hope to be able to calculate for the first time the distance to the sun. And voila - the scientific expedition is born! Andrea Wulf spins a fascinating tale as she follows an unlikely collection of intrepid adventurers from Britain, France, Germany, Russia, America and other countries as they strive to reach remote outposts in Siberia, South Africa, Tahiti, Lapland, and more -- despite war, weather, and disease -- to be in time for the transits. I enjoyed learning about new scientists, and also finding familiar names in unexpected places. I'm also very glad that my husband and I showed the 2012 transit of Venus to our son's boy scout troop... I just wish I'd read this beforehand so I could truly appreciate what we were seeing.
alundeberg's review against another edition
4.0
If you're looking for a book about the actual science of how to measure the heavens, this isn't it. Wulf does a great a job of giving the reader just enough math to have the process make sense, but this narrative is about the coming together of scientists in the 18th century amid warring nations to gain knowledge of the universe and science. She tracks the various scientists and their often long, precarious routes to track Venus's trajectory across the sun. They faced great hardships in the name of science for very uncertain reward. Ultimately, this is a well-written adventure tale of those often unknown men who risked all to calculate the measurement of the universe.
septan's review against another edition
4.0
Reading about people all over the world coming together in the name of science really restored my faith in humanity a bit, and Andrea Wulf is an excellent non-fiction writer.
maldeadora's review against another edition
4.0
Impresionante la forma en que Andrea Wulf recopila las experiencias de tantos científicos y lo presenta como una historia. Me quedé con ganas de más detalles. Habría que leer las miles de referencias que tiene el libro sobre todos los diarios de los científicos.
charmander19_'s review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
jonwood's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
3.0
A well told history of the international effort of scientists in the 1700s to determine the size of the universe by observing Venus crossing the sun. The book covers many teams that went into this international effort, informing about the state of the science across many European countries and the American colonies. While this covered many aspects and personalities of the historical science community I never heard before (and going into anecdotes about various setbacks experienced by the scientists), I didn't find the prose all that gripping and the historical figures never came alive for me as characters, they were hard for me to keep track of at times. Also, this book is purely historical, it does not go into details about how the calculation is done or explain the actual process, don't read this expecting to learn about the actual mathematics.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death and War
dajna's review
4.0
Too short!
Well, I understand that a chronicle is a chronicle and a good essayist is not going to novelize the facts, but I wish I could read more about these scientists who fought against the elements to measure the universe. For the first time in history the scientific community connected all over the world, oblivious of wars and grudges between nations. They managed to build up a competition made of the finest instruments and calculations instead of firearms and claiming of distant lands. They persuaded kings and queens to open their wallets and sponsor expeditions all over the world, adding anthropologists, botanists, geologists etc to the leading astronomers. Even when they failed to see Venus they come home with new knowledge to share with the world. They fell into icing waters and slept with Polynesian women, they met pirates and were accused of doing bad magic, few of them even died in pursuing the passage of Venus. But they never gave up.
Reading about them it's been a travel for me as well, a very good one. After this, Andea Wulf is definitely one of my favourite author.
Well, I understand that a chronicle is a chronicle and a good essayist is not going to novelize the facts, but I wish I could read more about these scientists who fought against the elements to measure the universe. For the first time in history the scientific community connected all over the world, oblivious of wars and grudges between nations. They managed to build up a competition made of the finest instruments and calculations instead of firearms and claiming of distant lands. They persuaded kings and queens to open their wallets and sponsor expeditions all over the world, adding anthropologists, botanists, geologists etc to the leading astronomers. Even when they failed to see Venus they come home with new knowledge to share with the world. They fell into icing waters and slept with Polynesian women, they met pirates and were accused of doing bad magic, few of them even died in pursuing the passage of Venus. But they never gave up.
Reading about them it's been a travel for me as well, a very good one. After this, Andea Wulf is definitely one of my favourite author.