The Magic Furnace - The Search for the Origins of Atoms (Paperback, New edition)

Every atom in our bodies has an extraordinary history. Our blood, our food, our books, our clothes - everything contains atoms forged in bli stering furnaces deep inside stars, which were blown into space by tho se stars' cataclysmic explosions and deaths. From red giants - stars s o enormous they could engulf a million suns - to supernova explosions - the most violent events in the universe - the birth of every atom wa s marked by cosmic events on an enormous scale, against a backdrop of unimaginable heat and cold, brightness and darkness, space and time. But how did we discover the astonishing truth about our cosmic origins ? THE MAGIC FURNACE is Marcus Chown's extraordinary account of how sci entists unravelled the mystery of atoms, and helped to explain the daw n of life. It is one of the greatest detective stories in the history of science. In fact, it is two puzzles intertwined, for the stars cont ain the key to unlocking the secret of atoms, and the atoms the soluti on to the secret of stars.