Einstein: A Life in Science

by Michael White and John Gribbin

Book Overview

As much as we all know that 'E = mc2' was Einstein's most important and groundbreaking equation, do we really know what it means or why Einstein is regarded as one of history's foremost thinkers? In... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0525937501
• ISBN13: 9780525937500
• Release Date: March 1994
• Publisher: Dutton Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Review for Einstein: A Life in Science by Sean

The book Einstein: A Life in Science provides a great recollection and explanation for the importance of one of the greatest scientists in the 20th century: Albert Einstein. The book covers many topics such as the influences/inspirations that prompted Einstein in his work, how his ideas refuted contemporary ideas of his time, the adversities he had to overcome in developing his theories, and how Einstein's theories were carried into the 21st century. The reader will be taken into the world in which Einstein lived: his childhood experiences that initiated his obsession with science, his amazing ability to form insightful concepts despite lack of resources to help him, and how war ultimately affected Einstein and vice versa. In addition to elucidating Einstein's landmark contributions to physics, the reader will learn of the twists and turnings of his life, which was wracked by the tumultuous history of Einstein's time period. The main goal for the writing of this book is really to present Albert Einstein as more than just the archetypal absent-minded scientist, but also as a peace campaigner and Zionist sympathizer. As the authors say: "We hope that with this account, the reader will see all the faces of Albert Einstein, a man as complex in personality as the theories he gave the world."

Separating the man from the myth

The year 2005 is a big Einstein year; it is 100 years since the publication of The Special Theory of Relativity, and 50 years since the death of the man. This volume was published in 1993, but updated slightly to take advantage of the `Einstein fever' of the year. The biographer (White) and the physicist (Gribben) work well together as authors. Their collaboration shows the big picture, without becoming bogged down in the intricate details of Relativity, for example, or quantum mechanics. In spite of what it may seem, there is much more to Einstein than "E = mc2", itself the most famous scientific equation of all. He made major and significant contributions in many and diverse areas, with his output outside of Relativity is (probably) the most valued from an individual to theoretical and practical physics in the 20th Century. Light, thermodynamics, quantum electromagnetism and quantum mechanism are just some of the subject matter. What is more, Einstein was a catalyst for the ideas of others, and there is a notable influence of the esteemed scientist, even into his latter years. Sometimes this was a result of little more than words of encouragement from him. That is not to say that the book glosses over the detailed scientific outpourings of the Patent Officer (Third Class). It is staggering that someone at the time outside of the tightly knit scientific community could have such phenomenal output as Einstein in 1905 (referred to as his `annus mirabalus'). Just after the crucial experiment of the Eddington Expedition in 1919 to observe a solar eclipse, `Scientific American' offered a prize of $5,000 for the best explanation of `relativity' to the man in the street. It was the demonstration that light is `bent' by gravitational-like forces that catapulted Einstein to international stardom. How ironic that the aforementioned reward was won by a senior presenter at the British Patent Office. This is a layman's guide to the man and his work, and it will probably lose readers [other than me] in the detail, but Einstein and his contributions are placed in both a scientific and historical context. There is no attempt to hide personal foibles, and some could believe that Einstein courted his own image as an eccentric. Certainly, many in Princetown had their own favourite story of how Einstein interacted with them individually; they surely could not all be true. The authors do play down some of the exaggerated claims of Einstein-worshippers - he certainly played a small but important part in the development of the Atomic Bomb, but was by no means `the father'. I found the graphical explanations good, of thought experiments, or Schrõdinger's cat, the idea of neither true nor false, but being both and neither, collapsing to a of singularity, when observed. Concepts such as the curvature of space-time are not obviously true. Yet these and other complex, non-intuitive ideas are introduced as needed. In the final pages, the authors state that Einstein ga

Great Biography, Less Great on the Science Part

The authors attempted to present both the personal life and scientific acheivments of Albert Einstein. I thought they did very well with the first but struggled with the latter. At the expense of a simple and equation-less presentation, many concepts were left unclear and not properly explained. In many parts, Gribbin and White just try to weasel themselves out from the tough subjects by just stating that they're complex, as if to say it's the subject's fault not theirs for the non-clarity. Surely concepts of relativity and quantum physics can be obscure, but other writers made much better attempts at explaining them to the general public. I'm giving it four stars for the great account of Einstein's life. For a good equation-free explanation of relativity, I highly recommend Lewis C. Epstein's Relativity Visualized. As for quantum physics, I cannot recommend this book more: David Lindley's Where Does the Weirdness Go: Why Quantum Mechanics Is Strange, but Not As Strange As You Think.

Good biography and history of physics

Einstein: A life in Science is a biography that covers Albert Einstein's entire life and his entire life's work. It explains his scientific papers in an easy way that everyone can understand. Einstein was born in 1879 in Germany into an intellectual family. His parents had a great influence on him at a young age by encouraging him to think freely. As a young boy, Einstein did not have much success in school because his school's strict rote system clashed with his own learning techniques. He often disrespected the teachers and was eventually expelled from his school. At about the age of 14 Einstein completely rebelled against his own country and faith. He left Germany and decided that he did not want to Jewish anymore. His parents approved him for they were not especially religious either. He finished high school in Switzerland where his family had moved and then planned on owing to college but was not accepted at first. The next year he was more prepared for the entrance exams and passed with flying colors. College was a time in which Einstein had a lot of time to discuss his ideas about the world with professors and fellow students. At the age of 21 Einstein published his first paper which was on the surface of liquids. He got little recognition for any of his papers until 1905 when he began doing important work with light and with particle motion. His general theory of relativity made him the most famous scientist in the world after he published it in 1916. This theory still lives on as the best general description of gravity. Einstein's work influenced everyone in the field of science and still does. The authors were interested in writing this story because they wanted to let people see inside the head of the greatest thinker of the 20th century. They wanted to piece together a story about him that would give readers not just an idea of he was but an understanding of all his important work. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in science at all. It gives excellent descriptions of what relativity is and why it is important. The book does get slow at times so I might suggest skimming through some of it. It is worth reading just for the scientific information, though. There are two chapters completely devoted to explaining physics before and after Einstein. The reader will have a good idea about how physics has progressed since Newton.

Insightful and well-written

It's very inspiring reading about the lives the 'great' lived for it shows that even the truly gifted are mere mortals with everyday problems. "Einstein, A life in Science" furthermore proved to be an insightful and accessible introduction to the scientific works of Einsteins. A good real, all in all.