Chandra : A Biography of S. Chandrasekhar (Centennial Publications of The University of Chicago Press)

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: A must read for any aspiring scientist in any branch of the sciences -- not just astronomy or physics. The book starts with a detailed account of his childhood and sheds light on Chandra's ancestry. Wali reveals the scientist in himself by paying great attention to every detail, and reveals to us the foundations of a genius in the making. An enlightening tale with very little scientific mumbo-jumbo but oodles of history. The book provides insight into the young Chandra's brilliance, and recounts a wizened Chandra navigating the high seas of politics in academia. As a countryman, I am enlightened and inspired.

Rating:
Summary: A great book on the life of an extraordinary scientist
Review: Here is an account of the life of one of the legendary scientific figures of the 20th century. Chandra has often been compared with Lord Rayleigh and Poincare, emphasizing not just the manner in which he conducted research but also that he was a part of the same classical tradition. However, he was a person so private that very little of his life or his work is known outside of the scientific community. The book serves to remedy this. It is also worth reading because of Chandra's connection with names that have now passed into history: Hardy, Rutherford, Dirac, Bohr, Eddington, Raman, Heisenberg, Sommerfield, and even Ramanujan. The tales and connections are a fascinating read. I specially recommend the chapter on his wife Lalitha, a remarkable woman from a remarkable family. Wali's portrayal is both sensitive and revealing. His aim is clear, namely to bring to the public eye a man noted for his reticence and extreme privacy. Don't miss reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: Chandra: The Man who shed a lot of light on Black Holes
Review: The book is an excellent document of Chandra's personal and professional life. It is the only such work available on the Astrophysicist. It could have been made a very interesting read, if it included a technical exposition(At least a Layman's version) of Chandra's work on White dwarf's, Black Holes, Chandra's own analysis of Newton's Principia and more. I mean a book on the lines of Robert Kanigel's "The Man who knew Infinity" which is about the Mathematician S. Ramanujan. I thought the author(who is a physics educator himself) who took so much of pains wandering in the undergrowth of Chandra's Lifestyle did not plough enough into his scientific theories, which would have made the book a great hit. But it does reveal a lot about Chandra's interaction with heavyweights such as Paul Dirac, Eddington, Pauli, Bohr, Born, Russel, John Von Neumann, Novikov, Stromgren and a host of others. I thought the research done in these parts were first rate. On the whole I enjoyed reading the book very much