I don't think I've ever written a joint book review here, but since the two under discussion came out right around the same time and cover pretty much the same ground, I'm going to make an exception. Mark Anderson's The Day the World Discovered the Sun: An Extraordinary Story of Scientific Adventure and the Race to Track the Transit of Venus (Da Capo Press, 2012) and Andrea Wulf's Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens (Knopf, 2012) both take as their subject what Wulf calls "the most ambitious scientific project that had ever been planned" (xxv): the international efforts to observe the 1761 and 1769 transits of Venus.
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In the book section this week, we pit brother against brother for your amusement: Bill Savage reviews Dan Savage's new book, and Dan Savage reviews Bill Savage's new book. If Dan's review of Chicago by Day and Night didn't convince ... Read Post
As the closest planet to Earth, Venus is a relatively easy object to observe. However, many mysteries remain, not least the super-rotation of Venus' atmosphere, which enables high altitude winds to circle the planet in only four day... Read Post
It’s a new day. The weather’s nice, Barack Obama is going to be President of the United States, and Jonathan Lethem has written a superb article about Roberto Bolano’s 2666 on the front cover of this weekend’s New York Times Book Re... Read Post