Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy by Kip S. Thorne

Abstract

208 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE in Segre’s account, like politics of any organization—sometimes dirty, often unfair, almost always pragmatically self-interested. Taking a cue from Pierre Duhem: one thinks one is entering the tranquil halls of learning, and one finds oneself in a beer hall. Stanley Goldberg Dr. Goi.dberg is preparing a biography of General Leslie R. Groves, head of the Manhattan Project. Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’ s Outrageous Legacy. By Kip S. Thorne. New York: W. W. Norton, 1994. Pp. 619; illustrations, glossary, notes, bibliography, indexes. $30.00. Kip Thorne is one of the most imaginative theoretical astrophysicists of our time. His book may have been intended for a lay audience, but it provides the historian and social scientist an unparalleled insider’s view of how one of science’s most esoteric areas has evolved. The sole focus of the book is black holes. Now black holes, for all one knows, do not even exist. We have tantalizing evidence that certain astrophysical sources might indeed be black holes. But the very nature of the objects, namely, that they can only swallow up anything that falls in, while emitting essentially—one used to think absolutely—nothing at all, makes them hard to detect. Their existence has to be determined through circumstantial evidence, which tends to be equivocal. Thorne divides his attention between explaining the physics of black holes and writing about the researchers and groupings of researchers who pursue them. With painstaking detail he describes the fractal path of progress. Where others might see only anecdotal evidence, a comprehensiveness of detail—made available through the personal involvement ofThorne with those who brought about the advances, and by his introspection on his own contributions to the field—provides an overwhelmingly convincing picture of how scientists work and advance their field. A thirty-five-page prologue introduces the physics through a science fiction fable. This chapter may not be Thorne’s strongest suit. But from there on, the book becomes 600 pages of lucidity on the physics of black holes, elucidation of how scientists work and interact, and insights into the ways in which a discipline is erected over years and decades, as it is handed down from professor to student, with the formation of new familial lineages and fiefdoms from which a new social structure emerges, dedicated to a new astrophysical edifice. One might think that the mathematical physicists drawn to such esoteric topics as black holes would be the most impractical of scientists and philosophers. But here we have Robert Oppenheimer and his students publishing papers on the subject in 1939, only to take up work on an atomic bomb within three years. And Oppenheimer is not alone. TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 209 Unbeknownst to each other, John Archibald Wheeler in the United States and Yakov Borisovich Zel’dovich in the Soviet Union carry out some of the most detailed design calculations required for constructing hydrogen bombs and then, again independently, realize that the newly gained equation of state for matter at high density and temperature can lead them to insights on how a massive star might collapse to form a blackhole. Many others, includingAndrei Sakharov and Vitaly Ginzburg in the Soviet Union and Stirling Colgate in the United States, similarly divided their efforts between the practical design of nuclear weaponry and abstruse theoretical astrophysics. Most of the black hole lineages have sprung from three sources: Wheeler at Princeton, Dennis Sciama at Cambridge, and Zel’dovich in Moscow. Thorne, a student of Wheeler’s, subsequently set up a new school at Caltech, which in turn has spawned further schools in Canada and the United States. In contrast, the Soviet schools remained mono­ lithic; disciples stayed in the master’s circle. Each system, as Thorne points out, has its advantages and shortcomings, and these lead to the formulation of quite distinct styles of work. Most interesting is the close interaction between groups from these fiefdoms. Thorne himself repeat­ edly spent extended periods in the Soviet Union during much of the Cold War to work on black hole problems ofjoint interest. The book is thoroughly researched and includes a detailed bibliog­ raphy that can serve...