When Galaxies were Born - Richard Ellis ***

There's a strong indicator of the emphasis of this book in the chapter titles, which are based not on scientific discoveries, but on technologies - we get, for example, Palomar, La Palma, Hubble Space Telescope and Keck, each referring to a next generation telescope or telescopes. Richard Ellis has an approachable, conversational manner when introducing the chapters and the book as a whole, such as the one that begins 'In 1977 I cut out a full page advertisement that appeared in the Financial Times...', but the vast bulk of the content is reasonably heavy going unless you are a fully paid up astronomical enthusiast.

We get an awful lot of detail on the telescopes, on the people involved using the telescopes, and on the technical detail of the discoveries (I don't think I've ever seen so many redshift z's on a single page). But though the underlying thrust of the book feels like it should be helping the reader to understand galaxy formation and the 'cosmic dawn', when the universe became transparent to light as what's now the cosmic microwave background started to cross space, there's actually very little on the underlying science. This is largely, in Rutherfordian terms, about stamp collecting. Don't get me wrong, these are very important stamps - essential for developing an understanding - but they are stamps nonetheless.

If you consider yourself part of a general audience with an interest in science (as I do), this is, then, quite hard work to read. If the nitty gritty of astronomy is your thing and you have posters of the Keck telescopes on your wall on the other hand, this is genuinely an essential read and highly recommended.

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Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free here

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