Book Description
With An Explanation Of The Method Of Integration Employed In Constructing The Tables Which Give The Theoretical Forms Of Such Drops. ... Read more

Amazon.com
In 1841, while browsing in a Cambridge bookshop, a young English student named John Couch Adams happened upon a perplexed remark in an astronomical report on the erratic behavior of the planet Uranus. A gifted mathematician, Adams set about arriving at an explanation, commenting to a fellow student, "You see, Uranus is a long way out of his course. I mean to find out why." Eventually, he did, using not direct observation but, controversially, mathematical modeling of a sort that has become commonplace today. Adams's work, built in a close race against rival French scientist Urbain Le Verrier, eventually established that Uranus's path was influenced by the gravitational pull of the then unseen planet of Neptune; Standage credits both Adams and Le Verrier with its discovery.

Drawing on long-forgotten archives, including a scrapbook by the author of the remark that fired Adams's imagination, science correspondent Tom Standage serves up a fine tale of discovery. His story begins with the earliest scientific descriptions of Uranus, an annoyingly wayward planet whose "position in the sky obstinately refused to match up with the position predicted by theory"--the classical theory, that is, of a regular, clockwork universe, which obtained in Adams's day and would not quite be laid to rest until Einstein's time. Standage's story continues to the present, an era when astronomers are, it seems, discovering new planets at every turn. Thanks to Adams and Le Verrier, Standage writes at the end of this graceful book, "Uranus lit the way to Neptune--and Neptune now points the way to the stars." --Gregory McNamee Book Description
The bizarre orbital patterns of Uranus had for years been an nsolved astronomical puzzle. But when English mathematician John Crouch Adams came across them in 1841, he discovered that there was one very important piece missing: The gravitational pull of another planet-a planet no one had ever seen before. If Adams was able to see in the sky what he was able to deduce on paper, he would not only have discovered a new planet, but also a revolutionary ability to gain knowledge of worlds we cannot see through the power of mathematics.

Unfortunately for him, he had a rival. The French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier calculated the planet's position shortly after Adams-and the international race to spot Neptune began.

"Standage has dug out some fascinating new information, greatly enlivened by the stories of acrimonious fighting." (Sir Arthur C. Clarke)

"An enterprising book that deals adeptly with both the astronomical theory and the human passions." (The Economist)

"It's wonderful to realize that scientists of 150 years ago were chasing fame and glory just as they do today." (Cliff Stoll, author of The Cuckoo's Egg and High Tech Heretic)

"Extraordinary...colorful...both astronomy buffs and armchair explorers will revel in his tale." (Publishers Weekly)

"This is science writing at its best, broadening the mind even as itentertains." (The Oregonian) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

A fun read for astronomy fans
I read this to my son a couple years ago (when he was 10), and we both really enjoyed it. I had been reading it myself, but decided to read the opening chapter to him and he was hooked. The process of "finding" Neptune gave perspective to our own backyard endeavors with a simple refractor telescope.

INTERESTING VIEW
The field of science has long been a habitat for entrenched older types who do not want to shake the fundamental assumptions of its own field. It takes visionaries to do such a thing. The Neptune File chronicles the attempts and successes of planet hunters who had to work against the inertia of the belief that were no other planets to be found beyond Jupiter and Saturn. It begins with the discovery of Uranus by William Herschel in the 1700's and all the skepticism he had to fight against. Once it was accepted as a fact, it opened up a new can of worms because the orbit of the planet did not make sense. It seemed to be irregular, as though some force was operating on it, a force with enough mass to cause that might just be another planet, so the whole thing starts over again. Of course, we would find that there was another planet, Neptune. This book tries to show how much adventure, luck, and just plain persistance leads to great scientific discoveries. Some of the scientists are motivated by fame, others by simple curiosity. It does start to drag by the end, but for the most part is an engaging and entertaining read.It also shows how one discovery settles nothing, but simply leads to more.

History of mathematical planetary astronomy
I devoured this book in three big bites. From the shockingly superior optics of William Herschel to the elegant mathematics of John Couch Adams to the extra-solar planets discovered in the late 1990s to the techniques being now developed to find planets orbiting other stars -- its all fascinating. In the end, most of what you thought watching Star Trek had taught you about distant worlds is sacked. "The idea that planetary systems around other stars will be broadly similar to our own solar system is no longer tenable. Indeed, as more planets are discovered, it is our solar system itself that starts to seem more and more unusual."
If you don't read science books and don't know why anybody would, this book might change your mind. Highly recommended.

Terrific Discovery.(And I'm talking about the book!)
I actually picked up this book in a used bookstore and read the back cover.The facts surrounding the discovery of the planet were new to me.(Kind of embarrassing really that I had never heard it before.Remind me to contact the secondary school I attended!!)In any event, I was enamored by the discriptions on the back cover and bought it for around four or five bucks.I read it in less than a day, which for me is an extreme rarity.I usually spend my time in the "shallow end" of the literary pool, reading books that can only be described as "easy" reads.This is one of the most entertaining books I've read in years.Unfortunately, I lent the book to someone who had more of a background in astronomy who must have known the book's true value and I haven't seen the book (or the guy) since.So I'm back here to purchase another copy.This time I am much more certain of my investment.

Great story but not much new info...
The story of the discovery of the planet Neptune is one of the most fascinating in the era of modern astronomy. Kepler's laws of planetary motion and Newton's unprecedented mathematical description of the law of universal gravitation allowed predictions of planetary positions to an accuracy of arcseconds.

In view of this successful mathematical description, Uranus' misbehavior was so bad that it was proving to be a continual embarrassment to astronomers, and the drive to find a solution was strong in the early to mid 19th century. The story of Adams in England, Le Verrier in France, and Galle in Germany has been told many times, and will be familiar to fans of the history of astronomy. Standage's retelling of the story is a good read, but probably adds little to Grosser's 'The Discovery of Neptune' (1962). An interesting facet Standage adds to the picture has to do with the title of his book. The 'file' in question belongs to George Airy (a notoriously fastidious record keeper). It contained correspondence, news clippings, etc., on the issue of the discovery of Neptune. Conspiracy theorists abounded in the years after the discovery, and some made the claim that Airy was in cahoots with Le Verrier in suppressing Adams' work to ensure that the credit would go to the Frenchman. Apparently Airy's file disappeared at some point during the last 20 years or so, renewing the conspiracy theorists' energies. Standage informs us late in his book that the file eventually turned up among the papers of a recently deceased former astronomer of the Greenwich Observatory. Examination of the file proved that there was no collusion.

This incident deserves further mention. Standage does not name the astronomer who had the file, nor the circumstances under which it was 'borrowed.' Nor does he elaborate on what was found there, other than exonerating Airy of the charge of conspiracy to suppress Adams' findings. Just who did have the file, and for how long? My own brief research revealed that an historian of science named Dennis Rawlins has written several articles about this situation, claiming a cover-up on the part of English astronomers, and alleging that the Neptune file contains a copy of Adams' original paper in which his position prediction is off by more than 12 degrees, and that a faction of 'Cambridge' astronomers is conspiring to keep the contents of the file suppressed.

I contacted two historians of science, one at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and one at Harvard. Neither knows of any evidence as to the truth of these allegations, and both attest that Rawlins tends to gravitate toward farfetched notions that mainstream science regards with suspicion. In fact, Rawlins doesn't publish his papers in mainstream journals, but in his own self-published journal 'Dio.'

At any rate, Standage's treatment of the issues was disappointingly brief and left me wondering if he was unable to dredge up any additional info himself.

Standage doesn't end the story with the discovery of Neptune and the international fallout over credit that ensued. He goes on to add the modern planet seekers, those who look for - and find - planets around other stars. Their challenge may be technically greater - to discern the minute wobbles of distant stars and infer the existence of planets, but they also have superior tools. Standage draws the parallel between their task, and the way Adams and Le Verrier inferred the existence of Neptune mathematically long before it was seen by astronomers. The comparison is perhaps valid, but the modern search for extrasolar planets certainly carries none of the intrigue of the Neptune story, where the search was carried out with paper and pencil and little more.

Standage's book is a good read, particularly for those unfamiliar with the details of the story. However, I would still recommend Grosser's book as the better account (minus the modern info), but I would even more highly recommend Richard Baum and William Sheehan's excellent 'In Search Of Planet Vulcan: The Ghost In Newton's Clockwork Universe,' a book which retells the Neptune story, possibly better than either Grosser and Standage, and adding the historical context of the planet Vulcan search as well.

I was frustrated upon finishing this book. I wished Standage had done the digging necessary to really tell the story behind the "file." Hopefully more will come to light of the contents of Airy's Neptune File, and will be published in some still unwritten account. ... Read more