Description
Book SynopsisWidely considered the greatest genius of all time, Albert Einstein revolutionised our understanding of the cosmos with his general theory of relativity and helped to lead us into the atomic age. Yet in the final decades of his life he was also ignored by most working scientists, his ideas opposed by even his closest friends.
This stunning downfall can be traced to Einstein''s earliest successes and to personal qualities that were at first his best assets. Einstein''s imagination and self-confidence served him well as he sought to reveal the universe''s structure, but when it came to newer revelations in the field of quantum mechanics, these same traits undermined his quest for the ultimate truth. David Bodanis traces the arc of Einstein''s intellectual development across his professional and personal life, showing how Einstein''s confidence in his own powers of intuition proved to be both his greatest strength and his ultimate undoing. He was a fallible genius. An intimate a
Trade Review
Bodanis is a lot like Einstein . . . Both see the fun in physics, both love simplicity and brevity * The Times *
A sympathetic appraisal of Einstein's intellectual development * Nature *
Like Einstein, he finds fun in physics and understands how to communicate its mystery * The Times *
This is a perceptive and lucid account of a brilliant but flawed physicist. -- PD Smith * the Guardian *
