cover image Hidden Attraction: The History and Mystery of Magnetism

Hidden Attraction: The History and Mystery of Magnetism

Gerrit Verschuur. Oxford University Press, USA, $30 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-19-506488-9

Verschuur ( Interstellar Matters ) properly includes the lodestone and quantum electrodynamics in the 400-year lineage of the electric light bulb. Most of Verschuur's history has fueled millons of middle-school science reports: Galvani, Oersted and Ampere coax out of magnetic phenomena the invisible genie of electricity; Farady, Maxwell and Hertz make a theoretical harness for it. But taking matters one step further, Verschuur reveals his larger theme: that simple curiosity about magnetism has led us to equations that can express truths about some aspects of nature itself. Verschuur provides more than bookends of familiar science history, with flourish and style demonstrating the hidden attraction that pulls us ever closer to the central mystery of the universe. (Mar.)