I’m not quite sure why I keep going back to these history of science books, but I enjoy them. E=mc2: A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation is pretty much what it says. But if you’re looking for just another Albert Einstein biography, author David Bodanis is mostly going to disappoint you here. It’s more like a biography of the eponymous equation, examining each term (heck, even the equal sign) in great detail and giving a thorough accounts of the history of each piece and the impact it has had on modern living.
The book strikes just the right balance between physics lessons (don’t worry, there’s no math) and explaining the scientific achievements leading up to and following in the wake of the equation’s discovery. I’m hard pressed to think of a subject that would include French aristocrats getting beheaded over the construction of a wall, Madam Curie’s radioactive cookbooks, high-brow academic bickering, and detailed discussions of how make uranium atoms asplode real good. My favorite part was something that actually sounds more like the final level in some World War II video game than a physics textbook: a small group of Norwegian commandos (actually mostly former plumbers and machinists) creeping into a heavy water factory in order to sabotage it and derail the Nazis’ 1942 atomic weapon program.
It’s all very thorough and very readable and I had no idea that there was so much that went into and came out of the fact that mass and energy are the same thing in two different forms. The end of the book even looks forward billions of years to show how the equation predicts the Earth will end (in flames as the Sun gives one final cosmic belch) and how the universe itself will eventually sputter to a stop. But don’t worry, you’ll be long dead.
If you’re looking for a recent and well written biography on Al, check out Walter Isaacson’s latest book, Einstein: His life and universe. I finished it a couple of months ago and it was terrific. I also read his biography on Ben Franklin, also really good.
I’ve seen Isaacson’s Einstein biography in the bookstore, but I haven’t picked it up. Mainly because I read (most of) his Franklin bio and found it WAY too detailed and pedantic. He seemed more interested in researching every tidbit and detail of the guy’s life instead of telling his story. Good for academics, not as good for entertainment.
I’m just in the middle of Isaacson’s biography right now. Good, good stuff. I’m really kind of sad for they guy because after ~ 1915 he seems to have gone downhill in terms of creativity. There’s some theory/study about early vs. late creativity I recall from a while back that discussed him as an example of exactly that phenomenon.
Disappointed to hear what you thought about his Franklin biography, Jamie, as I was going to pick that up once I finished Einstein.