I owe thanks to the many scientists who helped me with this book. You took me from the birth of the universe to the inner turmoil of our own planet and then back out into space. It’s been a splendid journey. I stand in awe of the passion each of you brings to the task. And the imagination.
Above all, I want to thank Sabine Stanley of Johns Hopkins University. You were the first person I interviewed for The Spinning Magnet (thanks to Harvard’s Jerry Mitrovica for the intro), back when it was just a glimmer of an idea. You have been there ever since, with wisdom, patience, and good humor.
The indomitable Jacques Kornprobst, honorary director of l’Observatoire de Physique du Globe de Clermont-Ferrand, not only explained things to me but also drove me around France, introducing me to Bernard Brunhes as well as to the Romanesque wonders of Orcival and Saint-Nectaire. Merci mille fois. And the same to Jean-François Lénat of l’Université Blaise Pascal, who encouraged me in the democratization of science this book aspires to.
Andrew D. Jackson of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen first guided me through the life of Hans Christian Ørsted and then into the inner workings of atoms and fields. Thank you for helping me understand all that I still needed to learn and for all the work you did on early drafts of the first half of the book.
Conall Mac Niocaill of the University of Oxford spent much of a March afternoon explaining basic concepts of magnetism to me and showing me his experiments. Frank James of the Royal Institute in London carved time out of a busy day to chat about all things Faraday, including taking me into the archives. Michael Winklhofer spent a full day with me at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany to explain how creatures perceive the magnetic field and even bought me lunch and drove me to the train station so I could catch my flight back to London. The enthusiasm of Daniel Lathrop of the University of Maryland, College Park, stays with me still.
Chris Finlay of the Technical University of Denmark has been unfailingly helpful. Thank you so much. And thanks for telling me about the SEDI conference in Nantes, where I had the great good luck to run into Chris Jones, Richard Holme, Cathy Constable, Kathy Whaler, Peter Olson, Christine Thomas, Collin Phillips, Philippe Cardin, Bill McDonough, Hagay Amit, Benoit Langlais, Gauthier Hulot, and others who have influenced this book.
This book would have remained unwritten but for the kindness of Daniel Baker of LASP in Colorado, who both spoke with me at length and met with me to explain his work.
The work of A.R.T. Jonkers and of Gillian Turner has infused the book’s research and writing. The magnificent, if now dog-eared, Encyclopedia of Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism, edited by David Gubbins and Emilio Herrero-Bervera, has been my constant companion.
And finally, the theoretical physicist Sean Carroll of Caltech came into my life by chance at the perfect moment to answer burning questions about the four forces of the universe, quantum field theory, and electrons. Thank you for your generosity.
Despite all this help, my mistakes are my own.
I began to imagine this book because of the inquisitiveness, energy, and outright generosity of my agents, Sally Harding and Ron Eckel of the Cooke Agency. Immense thanks to you both.
I have often thought of my editor, Stephen Morrow at Dutton, as the dramaturge of this book, to borrow a theatrical idea. What I mean by that is you alone sensed the shape and scope of this book from the very beginning and gently dropped the exact right ideas at precisely the right times to help it come to life. Your unfailing support, even for the quirky bits, has meant the world to me. Thank you.
Nick Garrison, of Penguin Random House in Canada, took me for a memorable lunch in Toronto near the beginning of the writing of the book and, right there, caused the introduction to be born. Always so devilish to write. Many thanks!
To Madeline Newquist of Dutton, thank you so much for your cheerful patience. To Rachelle Mandik, Dutton’s astonishing copy editor, I bow to your gifts.
Many thanks to Nicholas Michel. You are an excellent scientist and a very patient chemistry teacher to your mother.
And to my James, thank you for being my compass, now and always.