Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
|
List Price: Our Price: $8.10 You Save: $10.85 (57%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.05 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Einstein: His Life and Universe
Book Review: Sorting out the genius, the man, and the state of modern science
Summary: 5 Stars
Writing about Einstein's standing in the history of modern science requires wide and deep knowledge of diverse disciplines, let alone the highly demanded writer's discretion in filtering out public propaganda from objective factual information. This author earns an "A" in his objective analysis of how Albert Einstein, the man, has demonstrated his genius in answering the pressing questions of the twentieth century's modern science.
The book describes in vivid details the timeframe when Einstein engaged in academic research. The genius of Einstein was not born in vacuum. Einstein's generation was confronted with the new findings of subatomic particles, artificial radiation, and electromagnetism. Einstein's first defined mission was to tackle the puzzle of ether as a medium for propagating radiation. Einstein brilliantly capitalized on the experiment of the constancy of the speed of light, regardless of the Earth's rotation, and devised the theory of relativity with the conservative restraint that Newton's classical mechanics remains a valid subset of relativistic mechanics.
Adhering to Newton's doctrine, Einstein again reconciled Plank's quanta with Newton's postulate that light was both corpuscular and particulate. Thus, Einstein hit two birds with one stone: the quanta. Einstein defended the Maxwellian wave theory of electromagnetism as a time-averaged interpretation of Newtonian particulate nature of radiation. With both Plank's quanta, Kirchhoff's blackbody radiation, and Lernard's photoelectric effect, Einstein was able to seal his genius in the history of modern science as the discoverer of the law of quantization of radiation.
As the previous greater theoreticians; Newton and Maxwell had proven their genius by relying on the experimental works of Copernicus and Faraday, Einstein followed the same path by capitalizing on Kirchhoff's and Lenard's experimental findings of the nature of interaction of radiation and matter. The book demonstrates the atmosphere of sharing knowledge in Europe in the early 1900's that engaged Einstein to the earnest interactions of the greatest scientific minds of his time.
The First World War signaled the end of Einstein's greatest contribution to science. With the defeat of Germany, Einstein was on the run for safe haven. Though America offered Einstein such sanctuary, the American nuclear and atomic research was government-run and excluded the non-conformist scientists such as Einstein. Einstein's genius dried up by the indiscriminate governmental exclusion of his new homeland. Immigration to the new land, offered Einstein the financial security and the public fame minus the scientific prosperity. Einstein ran away from Nazism and Fascism yet to confront McCarthyism and racial tension in America.
The book sheds light of the personal limitations that hindered Albert Einstein in maintaining healthy family relation. Einstein's entanglements in international and local politics at the expense of catching up with modern advances in nuclear physics was paralleled by his alienation of his ex-wife and ill son and his stubborn adherence to unify gravitation and electromagnetism despite his lack of follow up of any new experimental breakthroughs. For twenty years after arriving in America, Einstein never traveled overseas except to get a visa from Bermuda, never drove an automobile, and squandered the wise years of old age in beating up Mathematics for the sake of chilling Physics. While Einstein chose theoretical physics; a hen that lays few eggs, experimentalists such as Ernest Rutherford and Marie Curie had laid many golden eggs that advanced modern science to highest level. Rutherford chased the mystery of the Neutron for two decades while Curie and her daughter unravelled the mystery of radioactivity -artificial and natural- and thus established a new era of nuclear physics, in the maintime when Einstein was chasing his own tail over mathematical abstraction.
The book clearly rebuts the aura that Einstein was the greatest mathematicians and explains how Einstein relied on his colleagues to devise the theory of General relativity. The book sheds light on Einstein's struggles with endless errors and miscalculation that squandered many decades of his old age in seeking a unified field theory that reconciles the particulate nature of radiation with gravitation. Furthermore, the writer did not shy away from the controversy of awarding Einstein the Nobel Prize for the work pioneered by Philipp Lenard, while the theory of relativity remained a philosophical puzzle. Even Einstein had poked holes in his own theory while attacking Quantum mechanics for spooky actions at distances. Niels Bohr's explanation that objects entangled in actions serve a defined quantum function explains how all objects in the universe serve specific quantum function by lieu of their entanglement in gravitational actions. An explanation that defeats the main argument about the relativistic nature of time postulated by Einstein.
Finally, the book leaves the objective reader with many questions: whether or not Einstein's neglect of his personal appearance, his content with marrying his cousin, refusing to see his own ill son Edwards and his estranged ex-wife, refraining from travel, shutting off his mind to new developments in science, indulging in smoking despites his doctor's advice, and sticking to his guns on relying solely on mathematics to solve physical puzzles; were in any way signs of his overall detachment both from science and life? Whether or not the public reverence of Einstein falls within the realm of glorifying superstars, elevating them to superhuman status, and has contributed to Einstein's mental freezing? Whether of not spoiling scientists with extravagant privileges undermines their ability to excel in their field of search for knowledge?
Though Einstein lived long enough to enjoy the demise of Nazism and Fascism, the success of tapping into the nuclear energy, he died few years before the invasion of space became reality, the wide proliferation of the solid-state computers, laser applications, particle accelerators, discovery of the genetic codes, the end of McCarthyism and the triumph of the civil rights movement.
Book Review: Albert Einstein is a human being first most
Summary: 5 Stars
I was able to get this book from my library in audio. After the very first paragraph, I found myself looking for excuses to drive around on long trips just so I could listen to the book. I only have listened to half the book so far and found myself compelled to write a review. This book is just amazing and anyone who did not give this book a five, should read or listen to the book again. I will say here that I found myself having common ground with Einstein on many issues. This after hearing about the great scientist for all my life but not being much into physics did not understand why he was so great except that he had some great theories that I did not understand till I listened to this book. Common ground, I can only say that because the book showed the Human side of Einstein behind the theories. Like Einstein, I am of German Jewish heritage and understand that part of the story and how it effected the person and his dedication to science, the obstacles he had to overcome the sacrifices he made as a person to let his science which he knew was correct reveal itself to the world. I loved the idea of the book in revealing what was important to Einstein himself, in my opinion the real message and legacy Einstein wanted to leave behind that his science was just a tool for that end ; a unified world where scientists and natures good were more important than the militaristic Prussian nationalistic mentality of the time. Einstein would have loved Star Trek, I am sure, which was on TV only ten years after his death. Einstein , before his science, as a person, first took on Swiss nationality so he would not have to live in Germany. The other part I found myself having common ground , myself a researcher in behavioral psychophysiology, was that Einstein was able to bring to imagination in visual imagery first his ideas. Myself a teacher of guided imagery, art creativity , and learning strategies, I was amazed that Einstein used these methods. He was way ahead of his time. Only recently can you find math books that are written for visual learners. As someone who wrote books on creativity, and teaches creativity and art as a profession, I just have to say, if you ever read one amazing biography in your life, Read Einstein which was written in such a good and fun way. PS the book also shows Einsteins love of the arts and that he was an accomplished musician) Yes, science can be fun as Einstein taught us. Creative Painting for the Young Artist Exotic and Meditative Sights and Sounds from IsraelBook Review: Einstein the Human Being
Summary: 5 Stars
Einstein: His Life and Universe, written by Walter Isaacson, is one of the enjoyable physics works I have ever read. While providing an excellent and in-depth study of Albert Einstein throughout his entire life, it is an even better source of information concerning his work in science. Isaacson has the ability to explain his theories in such a way that not only it is easy to understand; it is a pleasure to do so. All other books and articles I have read about Albert Einstein cannot even compare to the quality of this work. I hardily recommend to anyone that has an interest in Einstein and the basics of his theories.
In combining the life and the work of Einstein, this is a comprehensive volume on everything concerning this singular man. Engagingly written, I found that I actually looked forward to the spare moments when I would be able to sit down and learn a little bit more about the man that has influenced so much of modern scientific thought. Isaacson wrote for a popular audience, explaining everything in simple, non-technical terms that is rarely mystifying. That being said, it would be helpful to know a little bit about the major players of the physics community throughout the life time of Einstein. I found myself confused at parts about the significance of many of Einstein's contemporaries.
Ironically, my strongest complaint has nothing to do with the quality of the book itself. In reading hundreds of pages about the personal life of Albert Einstein, he is revealed as a somewhat bitter and spiteful man in his personal life, in complete contrast to the beneficent old man that he is so often portrayed as. It appears that this image of him came only in his old age at Princeton University. I found myself finding the man himself slightly distasteful, though never uninteresting. Though this came as a shock, it is the nature of a biography, and Isaacson never drops to hero worship; he presents Einstein as he was, not as he is venerated today. I am very glad Isaacson kept his professionalism as a biographer whereas many other sources I have come across do not. While disagreeing with his personal relations to his wife, I admired his outspoken nature in publically advocating what he thought to be right.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Einstein: His Life and Universe. Isaacson presents a brilliant but flawed human being; presenting all sides of every issue. Never really presenting Einstein the symbol, this book is firmly about Einstein the man. I recommend this book to all as an excellent introduction to twenty-first century physical thought.
Book Review: Einstein's Reluctance to Embrace Quantum Mechanics
Summary: 5 Stars
So much for so little! An enjoyable multifaceted look at one of the most brilliant minds of our time, Isaacson does a great job depicting the inner workings of Einstein's thought processes and his famous thought experiments. I frequently use thought experiments in my product development, so I really enjoyed that aspect. Given the numerous comprehensive reviews written, I will stick to the most important realizations or conclusions perhaps not touched upon.
Einstein, as a young bohemian was a free spirited and fearless free thinker with the knowledge that a comprehensive view was always best. Unfortunately, later in life he conformed to his own "conventional" wisdom, and as sophisticated as this wisdom may have been, this would prove to hinder his thought processes later in life. With Einstein's own thought process now "stuck" within a box he himself built, the rest of his life would prove to be an exercise in futility running countless equations, without the right tools, literally up until the day he died. The stubborn and rebellious nature of this great thinker, which led him to greatness in the first place, would now be the source of his torment, which he did seem to come to peace with at the end.
Einstein's reluctance to embrace quantum mechanics and his fear of accepting the "evil or spooky" quanta hindered any further ground breaking developments. I can't help believe that with the supremacy of Einstein's mind, had he only embraced quantum mechanics, he may have been able to understand the seemingly inconsistent continuity and realize there was no "conflict" between all of the theories; general relativity and the possibility of the unified theory included. Quanta could have bridged this in his mind, but his fear of nothing being left of his "castle of general relativity in the sky" was just too much for him to bare. At the same time, this proves Einstein more than sensed his own barrier, which turned out to literally be the cause of his failure. How sad indeed that the master of free thinking could egotistically conform to his own constraints, impede his own progress and turn into what he had fought against so passionately throughout his younger years! Einstein, Einstein, Einstein!
Well researched, entertaining and thought provoking, I give Einstein: His Life and Universe a huge thumbs up! Nichol J. Nelson
Book Review: This inspiring tome is well worth the considerable time it takes to get through it
Summary: 5 Stars
I checked this book out of the library and had to renew it several times to finish it, then finally bought it new for a very reasonable price through Amazon.com. I recommend it highly with certain reservations. Firstly, you really need a technical background to have a shot at understanding the physics the way it's presented in the initial chapters. I have to say, on this score, that I was disappointed in Isaacson's rather murky and overly involved explanations of Einstein's various physical concepts and hypotheses, as fascinating as some of his ideas were. He's a good writer, otherwise, but I wouldn't call him an excellent science writer because an excellent science writer can take difficult scientific concepts and make them understandable to a layman without oversimplifying the details. Isaacson does not accomplish that in this book, at least in my opinion, because his discussions of theoretical physics are not truly understandable to a non-physicist, even one with a fair degree of scientific training, at least if it's been quite awhile since you studied physics in school. The book, however, was interesting enough for me to keep plowing ahead, which proved well worth the substantial investment in time and energy.
As the book moves beyond the technical phases of Einstein's early career, however, it undergoes a subtle transformation, becoming more interesting, more understandable, and very readable. The reader has seen this remarkable individual grow from an extremely intelligent yet egotistical and rather callous iconoclast to a first-rate human being. In fact, toward the end, it was like reading a spiritual work, very gripping and inspiring, which for me aptly coincided with the recent conjunction of Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon, a moving backdrop while finishing a book about Einstein. When I finally turned the last page, I was further inspired to read the new book on Oppenheimer entitled American Prometheus, which is also quite interesting (if a much sadder book). Since my own father was not only an accomplished nuclear and space physicist but a colleague of some of the leading physicists mentioned in these two books, I've been especially interested in the subject matter. As such, I can highly recommend this title to anyone interested in science, especially in Cosmology, or who is intrigued by a thoughtful and penetrating analysis of genius.