image: "A Professor, a President, and a Meteor: The Birth of American Science" is published by Prometheus Books. view more
Credit: Prometheus Books
When a fiery meteor crash in 1807 lit up the dark early-morning sky in Weston, Connecticut, it did more than startle the few farmers in the sleepy village—it sparked the curiosity of Benjamin Silliman, a young chemistry professor at nearby Yale College. His rigorous investigation of the incident sparked a chain of events that eventually brought the once-low standing of American science to sudden international prominence. And, by coincidence, it also embroiled Silliman in politics, pitting him against no less an adversary than President Thomas Jefferson. In what Booklist calls "[A] tour-de-force look at early American science," A Professor, a President, and a Meteor: The Birth of American Science (Prometheus Books, $26) tells the remarkable, little-known story of Benjamin Silliman—arguably America's first bonafide scientist—in detail for the the first time. Based on a wealth of original source documents and interiews with current experts in history, astronomy, and geology, journalist Cathryn J. Prince documents the primitive state of American science at the time, Silliman's careful analysis of the meteor samples, and the publication of his conclusions, which contradicted both popular superstitions regarding meteors as ominous portents and a common belief that meteors come from volcanic eruptions on the moon. "This true tale of the birth of modern science illustrates a pivotal moment when we shrugged off bias and took a first step towards a technical maturity and looked instead to better understanding of our place in the universe," says AstroGuyz.com.
Prince also describes Silliman's struggles to build a chemistry department at Yale with rudimentary material, new insights into geology that resulted from his analysis of the meteor, and his report to the prestigious French Academy, which raised the prestige of American science. She also explains the political turbulence of the time, which Silliman could not escape, and how the meteor event was used to drive a wedge between New England and President Thomas Jefferson. This vignette of Federal Period America—when science on this continent was still in its infancy, but was just beginning to make its mark—is "a captivating tale of America's entry into the world of science," says Richard Z. Chesnoff of The Huffington Post, "told with such graceful prose and fascinating detail that at times you feel you are there."
About the Author: Cathryn J. Prince (Weston, CT) is the author of Burn the Town and Sack the Banks: Confederates Attack Vermont! and Shot from the Sky: American POWs in Switzerland. She is an adjunct professor of journalism at Quinnipiac University, a reporter for Wilton Patch, and a freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor and Weston Magazine.
MEDIA NOTE: Cathryn J. Prince is available to discuss professor Benjamin Silliman's controversial investigation of the Weston, Connecticut, meteor fall of 1807 and the birth of American science. Contact Prometheus Books at publicity@prometheusbooks.com or 1-800-853-7545 for author contact information or to request press materials or a review copy of A Professor, a President, and a Meteor: The Birth of American Science (ISBN 978-1-61614-224-7).