The Light of His Life

The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, once inspired myth and terror. Aristotle described them as "jumping goats." The Vikings thought they were Valkyries, sent by the gods to mark out those who would be killed in battle. The Lapps believed they were the vengeful spirits of the "unhappy dead." But to Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland, a contemporary of Einsteins, they were simply the result of the interaction between the earths magnetic field and electrically charged particles emanating from the sun.

In The Northern Lights: How One Man Sacrificed Love, Happiness and Sanity to Unlock the Secrets of Space...