WHEN SCIENCE STOOD STILL

A 19-year-old astrophysicist’s idea about the formation of black holes was long scorned by the scientific establishment before it eventually earned general acceptance.

Rao doesn’t directly claim that racism played a role when Indian math prodigy Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar’s theory was greeted with mockery when he first proposed it in 1935—even by his previously supportive white sponsor, Sir Arthur Eddington—but the implication is clear enough. In this matter-of-fact profile, Rao takes “Chandra” from childhood in Madras to a Britain-bound ship where the insight first came to him (“BOOM!”), and from there to a long and distinguished career in America. For over 30 years, however, “the science of stars stood still” when it came to black holes, until at last the science caught up with him and could continue “leaping forward.” In Srinivasan’s illustrations, the brown-skinned, bright-eyed lad grows to dignified adulthood amid images of laughing (but ultimately applauding) white colleagues and swirling celestial clouds. The author closes with expanded biographical details, a list of sources, and a timeline, plus a lucid explanation of how stars form and die for readers who are a bit hazy on the details.

A brisk tribute to a thinker who was ahead of his time.