Einstein: A Life in Science [Paperback]

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."

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 gave physicists the theoretical tools to describe the big bang, quasars, pulsars and black holes. He certainly gave future generations of physicians plenty to think about, and work on. Indeed even in to the 1990's, predictions of General Relativity were being tested. One thing that remains is the elusive Theory of Everything (TOA) that was hanging albatross-like around Albert Einstein's neck until his death.

Even when he was wrong, he was right! Throughout the 1930's, Einstein was implacable in his opposition to Quantum Theory, even though he has initially supported the ideas. It was his intellectual arguments against this plank of modern thought that actually forced the proponents to be more rigorous and precise in their formulations. He also found the need to introduce a `Cosmological constant' into his equations for General Relativity, "the greatest mistake if my scientific life", because it was thought at the time that the solar system was in the ONLY galaxy in the universe. This was shown to be untrue by Edward Hubble some 12 years later.

An absorbing read, you will learn that there is much, much more to the man. There is an enduring question that remains with me, however. Was Einstein great because he was eccentric, or eccentric because he was great? Was the nature of the man that which drove him to produce earth shattering ideas that changed the way we think about ourselves, and the universe. You decide!

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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.