Everything's Relative: And Other Fables from Science and Technology

by Tony Rothman

Book Overview

The surprising truth behind many of the most cherished "facts" in science history

Morse invented the telegraph, Bell the telephone, Edison the light bulb, and Marconi the radio . . . right? Well . . . the truth is slightly more complicated. The history of science and technology is riddled with apocrypha, inaccuracies, and falsehoods, and physicist Tony Rothman has taken it upon himself to throw a monkey wrench into the...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471202576
• ISBN13: 9780471202578
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Wiley (TP)
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Amusing

This author, who is an expert in science, goes through many firsts in science and engineering and shows how many people worked on an idea and only one got the credit. Frequently the person who heard of the other discoverers before they ever thought about the idea. There is one defect in the book and that is the author's bias against spiritual-religious beliefs. He is ignorant of the basics of these systems and makes false claims about them and then condemns the people who hold them and claim that it was these beliefs that caused them to get the credit for what others did. Another bias of the author is that he thinks that the first person who made a poorly functioning invention should get the credit instead of the person who made a fully functioning version that the public accepted and used.. A famous philosopher said that history is the lie that historians agree to. This is very true. After reading this book you will wonder how much of what journalists say is true considering historians who do careful research for several years on a topic frequently get it wrong.

Who was first in science and technology?

This is a book about priority in science --- who gets the credit for being there first? One undisputed case is between Darwin and Wallace. Wallace came up with evolution on his own, but he was a friend of Darwin. When Wallace informed Darwin that he planned to publish the theory, Darwin quickly finished his Origin of Species. The rest is history. Evolution is credited to Darwin, but far fewer people know about Wallace.Tony Rothman tells about two dozen additional stories like this in Everything's Relative. He divides the book into three sections: Physics, Technology, and Biology. The discoveries in physics center on explanations for the behavior of matter and energy. But so many of these explanations were "in the air" when they came to light that you can find at least one other person who should be co-credited for just about every major discovery. Einstein, in particular, wasn't inclined to credit those who came before him, but Rothman knows the facts. He tells you where Einstein got his ideas, then he leaves you to judge who was first.This book was hard to put down. Somehow, Rothman takes a vast number of facts --- including a lot of dates and names I've never heard before --- and strings them together in a way that is easy to understand. With an average writer, I would have been lost. But Rothman makes it easy. This is a great science book. If you've read stacks of science books already, you need this one. It will correct some of your ideas about priority. It adds to your understanding of science, as well. For those who don't read a lot about science, it's a great place to start. I wish I knew all of this stuff years ago.

a great read!

Did Einstein really say "everything's relative"? Who invented the telegraph? the telephone? TV? And what is Hedy Lamar doing in a book like this? Chances are that your answers are wrong -- or only partly right.In this engaging, entertaining, witty, sometimes funny and always meticulously researched book, Rothman takes us on a tour of the many "just so" stories that our science or history teachers used to tell us. For those of us who teach science or history, it is also a reminder to be wary of those stories in the textbooks we use that glibly attribute the development of complex scientific concepts or technological artifacts to one or a small number of individuals. Except perhaps when that individual happens to be Einstein. Did he really say, "everything is relative"? You'd have to read the book to find out!

Essential Reading

Forget what you learned in school! Wish I had this to read then.Rothman's enlightening excursions into the winding nature of scientific discoveries are absolutely enthralling. Elegantly written, witty, humorous, exquisitely detailed---a mind-popping eye opener from start to finish.

Conventional History versus What Really Happened

The tremendous amount of research that must have been involved in the writing of this book simply boggles my mind. And to be able to present the findings with such wit and clarity says a lot about the capabilities of this most gifted author. In addition, this book is a real eye opener - anyone who has read it will not be able to look at history without a healthy dose of skepticism. Just because some discovery is synonymous with a certain person's name does not mean that that person was the first to have made that discovery; the author makes this clear through countless examples. A most entertaining and informative read! Highly recommended!