The Telescope in the Ice: Inventing a New Astronomy at the South Pole

by Mark Bowen

The Telescope in the Ice is about the building of IceCube, which Scientific American has called the "weirdest" of the seven wonders of modern astronomy. It's the inside story of the people who built the instrument, the mistakes they made, the blind alleys they went down, the solutions they found, their conflicts, and their teamwork. It's a success story.Located at the U. S. Amundsen-Scott Research Station at the geographic South Pole, IceCube is unlike most telescopes in that it is not designed to detect light. It employs a cubic kilometer of diamond-clear ice, more than a mile beneath the surface, to detect an elementary particle known as the neutrino. In 2010, it detected the first extraterrestrial high-energy neutrinos and thus gave birth to a new field of astronomy.Aside from being a telescope, IceCube is the largest particle physics detector ever built. Its scientific goals span not only astrophysics and cosmology but also pure particle physics. And since the neutrino is one of the strangest and least understood of the known elementary particles, this is fertile ground. Neutrino physics is perhaps the most active field in particle physics today, and IceCube is at this forefront.This book is mainly about people and the thrill of the the struggle to understand the neutrino ever since it was "invented" by the extraordinary Wolfgang Pauli in 1930, the early researchers who helped understand it, the strange things it taught them about the nature of space and time, and the pioneers and inventors of neutrino astronomy.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, Astronomy, History

422 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Mark Bowen is an American science writer. He received a Ph.D. in physics from M.I.T..

He is a rock-climber, and a mountain-climber who summited on Mount Kilimanjaro.

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating tale of neutrino astronomy and its origins. Beginning with Victor Hess’s first detection of cosmic rays dating all the way back to 1912, and ending around 2015 with the presentation of discovery of 28 high-energy cosmic neutrinos.

As others have mentioned, I did deduct a star due to the seemingly absent help of editorial guidance throughout the book. It did tend, at times, to stray all over the place (as well as elaborate a bit too much on subjects or events either scarcely related, or even entirely unrelated, to the neutrino, IceCube, or particle physics astronomy whatsoever).

All in all, a lovely and at times, hilarious look at not only the brilliance - but the patience and perseverance - required of a successful physicist. I particularly enjoyed reading about Francis Halzen and his larger-than-life personality. His comments about physicists and their “maturity levels only reaching 21 years of age” (assigning each relevant physicist to the project an age - the ones who tended to throw tantrums and demand the most attention and credit for collaborative projects, for example - coming in at “a solid 13 years old”, for instance) were amusing but also characteristic of his ever-diplomatic, mature approach to the tricky issues that come with scientific collaboration and massive egos.

It’s crazy that so many of their entire lives’ work is in a telescope buried so deep in the Antarctic ice that one cannot even see what the telescope looks like, much less peer through it (at least, in the literal sense - of course there are supercomputers that provide some of the most vivid, remote sensing images the telescope captures).

The scientists that took part in all these projects - DUMAND, AMANDA and its later versions, and IceCube (ideas that seemed completely insane to the scientific community at large at their inception) - certainly got the last laugh at the end, with all of the scientific progress their experiments and collaborations have thus far achieved - and will continue to achieve - in furthering our knowledge of the field of neutrino astronomy and the evolution of our universe.

This book is conclusive proof of how essential it is to have many different types of personalities, thinkers, and experts working together if you expect to achieve the kind of scientific progress and greatness these men and women have undoubtedly achieved.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Bowen is a great writer. In this book he manages quite a few very difficult tasks with aplomb. He makes difficult scientific concepts approachable to those who may not share a scientific background. He keeps a cast of dozens of players lined up and presented in a way that the reader can mostly keep track of them. He takes a story that developed over decades, or, if you include backstory, over a full century, and narrates it in a way that makes it engaging and readable. He presents the triumphs as well as the ugly side of humans in a way that feels mostly fair to all individuals, though he definitely forms his own opinions, good and bad, about some of them. He highlights the raw and gritty sides of science, where construction realities conflict with engineering, where engineering problems limit the usefulness of experimentation, where experimentation concerns trump scientific theory, and where scientists find they have to play politics in order to do their jobs. There is often a long, difficult road from taking a scientific theory and turning it into a measurement, and that journey is illustrated amazingly in this book.

The idea of IceCube, a neutrino “telescope” that occupies the volume of a cubic kilometer buried more than a kilometer beneath the ice at the South Pole but pointed toward the sky above the North Pole, at first sounds like the stuff of science fiction. Who could have thought of that? Who would have the audacity to attempt to construct it? And who would actually go to the South Pole and engage in that type of effort at such environmental extremes?

I’m completely in awe of these people and the contributions they have made toward understanding the universe. I’m so happy that our society sometimes chooses to spend its money on people and projects like this. (Just a strange thought: the IceCube telescope cost less than some movies. To be fair, fewer people know about IceCube than know about those more-expensive movies.)

The book is pretty well done. I think it could have used a stronger editor: the end of the book seemed a bit meandering, and there were a dozen or so places where an extra word seemed to have crept into the manuscript. I loved that the book had a glossary of terms and a timeline of events at the back of the book, in addition to the more customary end-notes, bibliography, and index. The end-notes actually have some interesting information in them, but none of them were notated in the main text, so I didn’t discover them until I was about two-thirds through the book. And it includes photographs (yeah, only in black and white, bummer) so that the reader can get a bit of an idea of the people and the structures and the machinery involved.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book to everyone. It can be a bit dry at times. But if you are interested in both science and history, this book is a fabulous choice.

[Matthew Fitzgerald · Rating 2 out of 5]

It would take a truly gifted writer to carefully balance the alchemical mixture of history, physics, engineering and cutting-edge science necessary to tell the story that's waiting to be told in this book, to distill that heady neutrino soup into book palatable to the average reader. Sadly, this book and Bowen's obsessive attention to detail is not up to the task, and it left this reader slogging through chapter after chapter of details waiting for the magic of this crazy new kind of science to kick in. It simply never did.

Read the book's introduction. It's perhaps the best distillation of what the author has to say, and what the reader needs to learn, in the entire book. Nowhere in the following 400+ pages does Bowen surpass the clarity or concision of this intro. It's brisk, it's carefully worded, it's devoid of needless detail, and it orbits a carefully honed core message of what this is all about. It reads like a good magazine piece, in fact. The rest of the book is nowhere near as focused, and it's to the books detriment, because the whole experience suffers as a result.

Bowen could be forgiven for the seemingly endless details he conjures up for his story, the academic turf wars and ego expositions and post-doc assignments and such. We know he was deeply embedded with many of these people for years as they tried, failed, and tried again to make neutrino astronomy happen. Some of them are certainly geniuses, and Bowen's own PhD in physics occasionally helps the reader focus on what's happening by giving some short-and-sweet explainers of the more obtuse physics concepts. But far too often in this book, all that extra time and detail simply bloats the whole story, causes the narrative to lose focus, taking endless discursive detours that don't add much and ultimately make for a very laborious read. The math and science don't get in the way of enjoying this story; it's the copious detail (which, I have to add, hardly enrich the reader's understanding of the science and experiments going on) that sink it.

If Bowen could have taken an editorial chainsaw to this book, and turned in a manuscript half as long but as tight and clear as his introduction, this could have be a much better book. As it stands, unless you really want to know the gory details who who's studying what where and with whom, who's pessimism is propelling another round of tests, the goings-on of endless conferences and projects and research papers, and the build-up and fallout to various grants, proposals, and research studies, this book will leave you sorely wanting. There's simply too little of anything resembling a core narrative to keep anyone but the most hardcore physics nerd (or physicist) engaged.

The neutrino telescope at the South Pole is in the ice, but for all the unnecessary baggage in this book, it'll leave the reader just as cold.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

What starts out as a ruminative history on the key players in the story of the neutrino (Pauli’s gallivanting around red light districts and his convincing himself he was the cause of misfortune so often he had told himself and others it was a natural law all the while being so brilliant to change the physical world as we understand it to the clashing of Nobel-seeking, groundbreaking efforts of Fermi’s fission experiments and other teams working with accelerators that led to neutrino detection and foundational discovery making Pauli feel comforted through all the personal torture) turns into an astonishing tale of 80+ years of the human spirit. Much like the regular beta decay and inverse beta decay that began the journey, the rest of the story plays out with initial unknowns and slow discovery leading to solid ground, the solid ground being vast ice sheets in the Antarctic pole region. There are so many characters of vastly different personality types and backgrounds (Cline, Morse, Halzen, Kochi, Reines, and so many more) that their coming together seems impossible. Yet, the science prevailed even though as Morse basically somewhat puts it “We had no fucking clue what we were doing.” Glad they didn’t and took the chances based upon their knowledge and intuition because their brilliant minds, ambition, and striving to perform groundbreaking science led to great accomplishment. This quote sums up the book and amazing stories within: “Fueled by the camaraderie and what seems to have been a good deal of alcohol, the science progressed famously”

[Scott Kardel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Bowen's The Telescope in the Ice is a great history of AMANDA and its successor IceCube, two projects built at Earth's South Pole to detect elusive subatomic particles known as neutrinos. It's a very enjoyable read for those interested in science that delves into the trials and tribulations in building these deep under-the-ice observatories.

[Ben Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

vivid account of the creation of an amazing project, full of characters and accounts of how "big science" happens

[Páidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just love this book. A whole new world of astronomy

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

FINALLY FINISHED! This book had a profound impact on the way I see our universe but man can it be chompy. You can tell this book was written by a physicist because of the way that it is: painstakingly detailed, often to its detriment. The book lacks a clear, coherent narrative and the forest often gets lost for the trees. It meanders, it skips back and forth, it meticulously dissects experiments of little importance while skipping entirely on the human side of the ICECUBE story (what happened at the one crazy winterover, the world may never know!). Author David McCloskey said recently that too much detail is lazy writing, and Bowen may be a case study in this (though he would be in good company, considering the literary canon).

But.

As much as the writing caused frustration, made me wonder if I was ever going to finish, the pain came with a certain beauty. This book about a neutrino experiment at the South Pole opened my eyes to the world of particle physics, astronomy, and polar science—it offered a glimpse of something greater, a window into the sublime.

If you have ever wondered at the nature of our universe, even as you struggles to calculate the velocity of a rock dropped from a cliff in physics 101, open this book. I was truly shocked to learn about the standard model, ostensibly one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the last century, never once mentioned in years of schooling. Not only did this transform my understanding of books such as The Dispossessed, by Ursula Le Guin, but it also sparked a deep dive into the amazing things we apparently ALREADY KNOW about our world.

In this regard, the level of detail, though overdone, was also illuminating: small details here and there brought this strange new world to life, and opened a door into more than just a science, but also the beliefs, idiosyncrasies, and greater ecosystem it comprises.

5 stars for a 5σ nonfiction discovery.

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Telescope in the Ice is a popular account of the building of the AMANDA and IceCube neutrino detectors at the South Pole. The book is divided into four parts. The first part gives a brief history of the concept of the neutrino up to its first discovery; the second part discusses early attempts to build detectors, including DUMAND, underground or undersea; the third and longest part is the history of the building of AMANDA, the first neutrino telescope in the ice, in the late 1990s and early 2000s; and the last part is about the building of IceCube, the present neutrino telescope, completed at the end of 2010, and the first results. There is an epilogue bringing the story up to 2016. It is mentioned that there are proposed upgrades; as of the present time (2025) they have not yet been approved, and with the drastic cuts to all scientific research under the Trump regime they are unlikely in the near future.

Most of the book is concerned with details of the construction, and there is a lot of biographical and anecdotal material about dozens of people who had some connection with the projects; I would have personally preferred more emphasis on the science and the results, which are somewhat sketchily described. The thread of the science and even the construction is frequently difficult to follow because of all the personal matter, and there are frequent digressions out of chronological order. Despite this, the book is an extremely interesting look at a major scientific project which is perhaps less known to the general reader than the LHC, LIGO, or the various satellite projects.

[Adam Ferrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book soars past my expectations in the following ways:

As history of science - tracing the development of the neutrino from Wolfgang Pauli and Niels Bohr's handwritten disagreements on quantum mechanics to the latest data from the South Pole's neutrino telescope, with photographs.

As biography - not of an individual but of an experiment, the myriad researchers, committees, alterations, and influences it must navigate from idea to instantiation to pillar of cosmology.

As narrative - Is the science correct, is the engineering feasible, will it get funded... are competing teams sabotaging the progress?? (Yes!) Bowen does a terrific job showing the project as a prize-fighter, bobbing and weaving out of the way of obstacles.

I wrote my Master's (in History) on the creation (not discovery!) of the neutrino as a tool to solve spin and conservation of energy questions during the development of quantum mechanics so I approached this text with a scientifically and historically skeptical eye. I am floored by Mark's achievement here - he does justice to the people, the science, and the telescope. It's terrifically entertaining and Mark puts a marvelous light on humanity and our frequently halting and sometimes inspired search for the truth.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Particle physics, astrophysics, astronomy. These subjects would generally present a daunting read to a layman. Not so, in the case of Mark Bowen's "The Telescope in the Ice". Part particle physics tutorial, part scientific soap opera, and part South Pole adventure, Bowen places the reader smack in the middle of this unlikely tale so adroitly that by time you finish the book, you feel as if you are now an expert on the subject. Quite simply, this work is a masterpiece, and no, this is not a hyperbolic statement. Breathing literary life into such a dry and arcane subject is a difficult task, but Bowen does so in magnificent fashion, completely immersing the reader in this extraordinary tale by demystifying the science, and going to great lengths to make flesh and blood people out of all the major players. I honestly can't imagine how this unique subject could have been presented in a more comprehensible and interesting manner, and I extend many thanks to Mark Bowen for making a subject that is generally over everyone's head so accessible.

[Ashutosh Sahu · Rating 2 out of 5]

A how-to in what not to do. This is a bloated, longwinded book that beat around the bush far too much for me to finish.

I want to know about project Ice Cube, the neutrino detector and the results of their efforts.

I do NOT want something that competes with the Bible for the sheer number of 'begats.'

This book has a biography of what feels like every particle physicist born between 1930 and 2021. There are longwinded descriptions and stories of people long-dead that are just boring as well as confusing.

This reads like a book written for Physicists and science historians rather than laypeople. I don't care at all about the 3 dozen or so prior experiments often only tangentially related to the neutrino. As far as I'm concerned this book could have been 1/3 the size and profited greatly.

The author is sort of like the Anti-Malcolm Gladwell, taking an interesting topic and creating an atmosphere of stultifying, self-indulgent boredom.

Thank god I checked this out from the library, because I would have been PISSED at spending $27.00

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like reading science-topic books that expect the reader to already like/know science. This author dives right into whatever physics topic is necessary to explain the latest findings of the Telescope In The Ice. The explanations were fantastic without needing equations. I liked the physics-strong first half of the book. The book gives details that feel like the author was consulting video from a go-pro camera that recorded the events. I appreciated all the research and notes that must have been reviewed to get to this level. The later half of the book was a little strong on all the politics going on behind the scenes of the personalities within the project. But this frank earnestness needs to be told, as this is all part of the process of getting funding. I finished the book wanting to join their team in Antarctica! The leadership/attitude of Francis Halzen sounds like the kind of person that really can inspire "we would do it even if we were not paid for it".

[Read Ng · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been a very long time since I studied particle physics. I thought it was a bit confusing at the time. Now that I have read this book, I understand why.

The first part covers the history of developing modern particle physics theory. I was surprised at just how short a time ago modern science was working on these theories. This may be part of the reason I had a difficult time understanding some of imp early education. The science I was being exposed to was (and continues to be) still under development. Oh, we know more, but there is always more to learn. The history puts my early education into a different perspective for me.

I was very excited to read the mechanics of construction of an ice telescope. It must be the engineer in my that wants to build to solve a problem. I found this telling to be exciting. I am such a geek.

This was a GoodReads. I think those geeks out there will really enjoy it also.

[Erik Molnar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book because I love telescopes. I even have a tattoo of one. I don't care if it is radio, optical, x-ray, etc. Telescopes are time machines that we can use to look back at how the universe use to be. The more powerful the telescope, the further back in time we can go. They help us understand our place in the universe as well as the past, present, and future. What an incredible tool. However, the book focused less on the science and hardware and more on the people and project. I don't care about the politics that needed to happen to make this project a reality. Name dropping doesn't do anything for me as a reader. A chapter of that would have been fine, not half the book. I care about the science behind the project and the science it will give us in the future. I wish the author spent more time on that. This felt like a project management summary, which I struggled to get through.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not certain of the intended audience for this book. (My last course in physics was as an undergraduate.) The book does not "talk down" to the reader. In fact, it is comprehensible and fascinating. It is also quite dense and not as humorous as some popular scientific works ---for example, Sam Kean's writing. I'm not saying it should be amusing, just mentioning the fact. The author quotes Robert Millikan, "Physicists are more interesting than physics," and Bowen writes quite a bit about the lives, personalities, and even appearance of the scientists involved. I enjoyed this but don't know if everyone will.

The book traces the history of the neutrino from the appearance of the idea in 1930 through the attempts to detect it. The struggle and journey to build the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica comprises much of the exciting story. Its success is almost a postscript.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I have to start by saying that if advanced particle physics shuns you away from a read like this, you need to forget that misconception and give this a shot. It’s written in a manner that allows someone with only a basic knowledge of particle physics to understand the history of the field, and where it’s going. It doesn’t make you feel dumb...it defines concepts and principals with enough rigor that you get it, but doesn’t push you through a crash course in the subject from MIT. I really enjoyed this book. I didn’t expect to like it so much honestly, but I will buy a hard copy for myself.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book about a group of unique characters who decide to turn the South Pole into a giant telescopic lens. This book doesn't read like general fiction. It reads a bit like a history book and is packed with fascinating facts. The author is a physicist as well as a writer, so the story has strong scientific elements embedded within. The characters are pretty quirky which makes this book enjoyable if you're more of a fiction than science book fan. I also felt like I learned a lot from reading this. I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for a review -- and I'm trying not to give away any spoilers. Overall, worthwhile reading.

[Heather Duris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, though as an artist not a scientist, and did find the science a bit challenging at times! However, the story of how this project came together and that it required not only physicists with the initial ideas, but also engineers and drilling experts to make it happen was fascinating. It is a story of how people figure out how to work together to complete a project. It was refreshing to learn that scientists “play” around, not knowing what kind of results they’re going to get, but that’s called “research “! I could appreciate that as an artist. It was a challenging read for me but overall enjoyable and educational.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much of this book reads like the founding story of a successful private company. Smart lads tweaking an idea from another company who failed to execute and cranking out a quick and dirty prototype, which enables a pitch for more funding. As the company grows, there is adjustment to the increasing organizational complexity with the accompanying politics. Of course, the product of this particular company happens to be a brand new way to perceive the universe. And, the product happens to be installed in one of the most unusual places on the planet. So, this is a worthwhile read. But, the endless introduction of new characters, sometimes several to a page, becomes a trudge.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Come for the amateur interest in astronomy, stay for the lectures on particle physics, which is to say, this book isn’t at all what I expected when I picked it up at the library.

This is a fascinating story on the development of the theories and questions that led to the building of two telescopes in the ice of the South Pole. The science is complex but presented in an accessible manner, and the stories of the people involved - from funding to engineering to management to “actual” science - are well told.

[Rosaline Winters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be quite dry -to be expected considering the genre. However, I very much enjoyed learning about what happened behind the scenes of the IceCube Observatory. All the stress, frustration, and drama the scientists have to deal with, has heavily attributed to making this book worthwhile. It reminds us that these people aren't just walking talking computers, they're people with families, emotions, and hobbies. I appreciate that the author put a timeline of the events in the back of the book -very helpful.

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has so many elements that are interesting to me including extreme environment expeditions and cutting-edge astrophysics. Yet I struggled hard to get through the book, I think because I was bored with the in-depth discussions of the project management, staff, and funding issues when I was really looking for the adventure story of how the telescope was built and operated at the South Pole. There is some of that of course, but there is also a lot of administrivia. It is an incredible scientific and engineering feat regardless.

[Melinda M · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Telescope in the Ice: Inventing a New Astronomy at the South Pole by Mark Bowen is a well written account that tells of a telescope and the building of it in the extreme weather of the South Pole. It tells the story of the frontier lab being created by scientists, who mainly were physicists, and engineers. Mark Bowen writes in a language that allows those with very little knowledge of physics to be able to follow the story.

I received a copy thru a Goodreads Giveaway.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book, but it felt longer than it needed to be. The first several chapters that cover the history of the neutrino itself could have been removed or condensed considerably. And the later chapters, while showing the author's access to the participants, could have also been reduced as well. As someone who studied astrophysics, the book would sometimes put me to sleep trying to read it.

[Woolstar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took me a long time to get through; but it covered quite alot about the science, the engineering, the math, and the people of the detectors. The explanations of the properties and interactions of neutrinos was good; and while once in a while I felt like the author was trying to wedge himself into the story a bit much, this was as long a journey to write it seems as the original detector construction.

[Kee Onn · Rating 4 out of 5]

To catch a glimpse the impossible massless particle, one would need the largest and most unconventional of telescopes. Enter the IceCube, an ambitious project of neutrino observation in Antartic ice, pulling together experts from science and engineering to the South Pole on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. The book is a record of the people behind the project, from the mastermind to the expert ice driller, and provides a glimpse of how science really happens.

[Adam Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great blend on storytelling for the history of multiple projects while explaining much of the science of the field and the human history of 'how we know' this information. Surprisingly readable as someone who is not at all well-versed in physics, and helped by the fact that Bowen regularly gives throwback details to help you recall people, acronyms and scientific concepts consistently along the way.

[Luis Cuesta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book as a Goodreads giveaway. I think it does a good job describing how physicists and engineers have created a frontier laboratory in the South Pole. Bowen’s account of the challenges of engineering a telescope under extreme conditions is both compelling and inspiring.

[Stephen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was quite interested in the science, but just try to find it, buried in the unending list of biographies about every person involved in every capacity of every competing or participating project, all the politics, all the introductory material and so on, nearly endlessly.