The Northern Lights

August 13, 2001
Crackling with Arctic adventure, this biography of the brilliant Norwegian physicist Kristian Birkeland (1873-1917) is set in the early 20th century and cast against the driving spirits of the Edwardian Age. Freewheeling capitalism, imperialism, industrialization and a near reverence for the growing myth of science informed Birkeland's cerebral and adventurous life. A stolid Scandinavian with a wide-ranging imagination, he undertook the first scientific studies of the aurora borealis, which had previously been explained by a range of theories that included the supernatural. Detailed descriptions of his expeditions to the far polar reaches of the earth are filled with scientific wonder and life-threatening hazards. Through his short life, Birkeland continued his studies of the northern lights. He evolved a theory, proven after his death, that the origin of this natural phenomenon is in the electromagnetic energy of the sun and its profound influence on the earth. At the same time, he also developed a financially successful method of extracting nitrogen, for fertilizer, from the air and performed seminal work on the military applications of electricity. Birkeland also traveled to romantic places for research: Russia, Egypt, Sudan and Japan. Yet beneath the apparently successful surface of Birkeland's life were deep strains. He abused alcohol and barbiturates, lost friends and colleagues, destroyed his marriage and died alone and paranoid in a foreign country, yielding a bittersweet story capably told by British TV journalist and BBC producer Jago. Illus.