WalkerBooks.com

Tycho & Kepler
The Unlikely Partnership That Forever Changed Our Understanding of the Heavens
Kitty Ferguson

Reviews of Tycho & Kepler

Untitled Document

"Ferguson skillfully weaves it all together.... Science teachers, most specifically teachers of mathematics and astronomy, will find it a rich source of cultural background and anecdotes that will enable them to help students appreciate at what cost the basic knowledge of their disciplines was gained. Superb science biography."         —Kliatt

“No small amount of subtlety, insight and inventiveness seems to have gone into Ferguson's book. Her skill in explaining complex astronomical problems and procedures clearly and succinctly is nothing short of amazing. Lots of books have been written about Tycho and Kepler, but Ferguson's focuses specifically on the peculiar and uneasy partnership the two formed. Her subject is one of the more important and interesting legs on the long and winding journey of intellectual progress, and she proves an engaging, trustworthy guide.“         —Phildelphia Inquirer

“Ferguson's intellectual and cultural biography of these two seminal scientists provides a delightful, detailed look into the ways that each man developed his ideas about the universe...Ferguson paintes her picture of Brahe and Kepler in broad strokes, placing them amoung the political intrigues of their times and the conflict between religion and science.“         —Publishers Weekly

“The history of science often involves brilliant minds in conflict with tyrannical religious and political powers-that-be, clashes that fascinate Ferguson. Such contention is the overarching theme of her savvy and animated paired portraits of two pioneering astronomers, the nonconformist Danish nobleman Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) and the striving German genius Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). Ferguson's chronicling of the forces that brought these two stargazing mathematical wonders together in an uneasy yet ultimately fruitful alliance makes for highly dramatic reading and offers an arresting perspective on the practice of science in an era of capricious royal patronage and potentially fatal church interference. Tycho and Kepler's scientific achievements were nothing less than paradigm altering, and Ferguson's meticulous blend of biography, history, and science anchors their cosmic discoveries within a vital social context.“         —Booklist, starred review

“Ferguson continues to wield her gift as a popular science writer in this double biography of Renaissance astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. As with her earlier books, Ferguson has a wonderful ability not only to explain her topic and its significance but also to render the historical background in such a way that the participants do not seem to be either incredibly farsighted prophets or quaint characters fumbling for explanations.“         —Library Journal, starred review

“Science writer Ferguson fully illuminates a 17th century collaboration that launched a true understanding of the solar system...With intimate knowledge of both the great Dane and the obscure Lutheran, the author masterfully follows each across the turbulent stage of northern Europe after the Reformation to their common destiny.“           —Kirkus Reviews

"Taken separately, as many earlier biographers have done, the stories of the two astronomers seem merely eccentric....but Ferguson's approach, enlivened with the dramatic pacing of a mystery novel, shows beautifully how the obsessions of the pragmatic, imperious Brahe meshed perfectly with the obsessions of the idealistic, pensive Kepler."  —Laurence A. Marschall, Natural History

"Ferguson has a wonderful story to tell. There is political intrigue, religious persecution, academic plagiarism�even a cameo for the real-life Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two of Brahe's real-life fellow nobles."  —qDavid Propson, New York Sun

About Kitty Ferguson