#mike-brown

Being in my early thirties I consider myself to be lucky enough to remember taking pictures using a 35mm film camera. I started photography with an old Minolta SLR and a 50mm lens. On a saturday morning I would head down to town and buy a Kodak 35mm ISO 200 film with 36 exposures, I would then proceed to spend the rest of the weekend photographing things. Preperation for photos could take...

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown My rating: 5 of 5 stars Confession: I somehow missed the announcement of Pluto’s demotion from being a “real” planet and only heard about it’s reclassification something like two years after the fact. (Seriously — where the heck was I?) Even my husband has made fun of me for that. I’ve been set straight as of a few years ago, though I never actually bothered to find out just what it meant for Pluto to not be a planet, or why it happened. When I saw Mike Brown’s How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming, I was curious enough to pick it up, and am I ever glad I did. Mike Brown takes us through his journey from becoming interested in planets, to setting his professional goal of discovering a new planet, to the events of several years while he led teams in discovering large objects beyond Pluto and the subsequent controversies over his discoveries. During these exciting times, he also manages to fall in love, marry and start a family, and the author shares these events as well. I'm impressed by how Mike Brown presents the science, without requiring his audience to be scientists to understand. Not only was I able to follow, but I was very much drawn in. How I Killed Pluto... goes beyond the science and is above all else a love story -- love for his wife, love for his daughter, love for the science and for maintaining its integrity. This was an excellent read that I'd recommend to anyone. View all my reviews