A Thin Cosmic Rain

Enigmatic for many years, cosmic rays are now known to be not rays at all, but particles, the nuclei of atoms, raining down continually on the earth, where they can be detected throughout the atmosphere and sometimes even thousands of feet underground. This book tells the long-running detective story behind the discovery and study of cosmic rays, a story that stretches from the early days of subatomic particle physics in the 1890s to the frontiers of high-energy astrophysics today.

Writing for the amateur scientist and the educated general reader, Michael Friedlander, a cosmic ray researcher, relates the history of cosmic ray science from its accidental discovery to its present status. He explains how cosmic rays are identified and how their energies are measured, then surveys current knowledge and theories of thin cosmic rain. The most thorough, up-to-date, and readable account of these intriguing phenomena, his book makes us party to the search into the nature, behavior, and origins of cosmic rays—and into the sources of their enormous energy, sometimes hundreds of millions times greater than the energy achievable in the most powerful earthbound particle accelerators. As this search led unexpectedly to the discovery of new particles such as the muon, pion, kaon, and hyperon, and as it reveals scenes of awesome violence in the cosmos and offers clues about black holes, supernovas, neutron stars, quasars, and neutrinos, we see clearly why cosmic rays remain central to an astonishingly diverse range of research studies on scales infinitesimally small and large.

Attractively illustrated, engagingly written, this is a fascinating inside look at a science at the center of our understanding of our universe.

Michael W. Friedlander is Professor of Physics at Washington University in St. Louis.

[ A Thin Cosmic Rain] is a useful popular introduction to contemporary understanding of the nature of cosmic rays and to the realms of the universe that produce and modify them.

Friedlander offers general readers and amateur scientists a historical survey of our understanding of cosmic rays and what they reveal about the solar system and the universe. He discusses the origins of these high-energy particles, how they are detected, and their effects on Earth and its organisms.

In this expanded and completely revised edition of his earlier book, Cosmic Rays, Friedlander incorporates new data amassed over the past decade. The result is a compelling account of our understanding of cosmic rays. He considers the many ways these rays have an impact on our planet and its inhabitants...[and] the place of cosmic rays in several continuing mysteries of astrophysics.

Michael Friedlander, a physicist of international stature, has understandably chosen to concentrate on the area of cosmic radiation research that he knows best: the nuclear physics of particle interactions. In an excellent survey of the complex and fascinating history of the subject, he gives a blow-by-blow account of the discoveries and the details of what he calls 'a disproportionately large number of Nobel prizes' in this field. His readers, and he deserves to have many, will learn about increasingly elegant detection techniques, about cosmic rays from the sun, the energy spectra of the particles and details of the tiny--but important--flux of gamma rays.

Cosmic rays have been an energetic arena for astrophysics research for the past century, which history physicist Friedlander traces. A theme of his story is the technology of detection, for snaring a proton moving nearly at light speed is 'no mean trick'...Mysterious as well is what creates [cosmic rays] (supernovas are strong candidates), and the drive to find out makes comic rays most productive of Ph.D.s and Nobel Prizes...A detailed, informative survey of the topic.

Many people think of "cosmic rays" as mysterious extraterrestrial radiation...Actually, as Friedlander explains, cosmic radiation comprises a bestiary of rather ordinary subatomic particles...Friedlander reviews the many different kinds of radiation in comprehensive detail, interspersing throughout his technical taxonomy fascinating examples of how research into these visitors from distant stars has yielded many useful terrestrial applications...Friedlander writes very fluidly for the nonspecialist...The book will appeal to science buffs interested in cosmology, particle physics, archeology, even nuclear medicine. It should establish itself as a standard work in the field of cosmic radiation, so it will be a must-buy for libraries with broad science collections.

A complete account of the phenomena and participants involved with unravelling the mysteries of the cosmic rays--from their early key role in particle physics, to the current quest for the astrophysical origins and nature of the highest energy particles known in nature.

In his engaging description of energetic particles from outer space, Professor Friedlander has brought the exotic cosmic rays down to earth. He has shown how the galactic cosmic rays are intimately connected to a wide variety of natural phenomena, ranging from elementary particles to stellar explosions.