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Title: Einstein Lived Here: Essays for the Layman by Abraham Pais ISBN: 0-19-853994-0 Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 April, 1994 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: An indispensable source for the educated layman
Comment: As it is known, Albert Einstein is the leading creator of the relativity theory, that's right? It's right, but this is not only a stereotyped image, it's also a very simplified image of the geniality and the psychological complexity of one of the major savant among all the savants. An excellent overview of the Einstein scientific work is presented in that many people consider the best biography of this genial scientist. I'm referring to the Abraham Pais book "Subtle is the Lord", published in 1982. Although an incontestable bibliographical source, "Subtle is the Lord" is not at all accessible to the layman. With the present book, "Einstein Lived Here", Pais help the general public, from the relativity theorist to the absolutely layman. While not discarding a rigorous historical approach, Pais priority is on Einstein human dimension, and gives us a fluent and very agreeable text in which he deals with polemic questions, as the supposed involvement of Einstein in the American atomic bomb fabrication. Among all those that have written about Einstein, Abraham Pais seems to be the most qualified. Theoretical physicist of recognized competence, emeritus professor at the Rockefeller University, New York, Pais have been acquainted with Einstein from 1946 to December 1954, when he visited him for the last time; at the Einstein death, in April 18, 1955, Pais was not in the USA.
Even for the reader reasonably up to date with the pertinent literature, Pais discloses interesting facts. For example, in the first chapter there is an admirable description of the dramatic marital life of Albert and Mileva Maric, his first wife. Pais discusses the very controversial participation of Mileva on the Einstein's scientific work, particularly on the relativity theory. For the author, the only evidence for a possible role of Mileva in the creation of relativity is Einstein's remark in a letter of March 1901: "Together we shall conclude victoriously our work on relative motion". The followed discussion arrived at the author's suggestion that the remark was no more than a love declaration.
These letters, published in "Albert Einstein-Mileva Maric, the love letters", by J. Renn and R. Schulmann, Princeton University Press, 1992, revealed an absolutely unknown fact until 1986: In April 1901, before the Einstein's marriage, Mileva was pregnant. The child, born in January 1902, was a girl, named Lieserl. But, what became of Lieserl? Nobody knows! Apparently Einstein ever even saw her. In the summer of 1903 Mileva went to visit her family. From Berna Einstein wrote to her expressing concern about Lierserl's attack of scarlet fever. This is the last known communication between the parents about their daughter.
The Einstein's life was a great target of the public curiosity. As such he had to pay the price of receiving numerous messages from strangers. It is a safe bet that among scientists no one received more such letters than him. The true amount it is not known, but over 600 is now in the Einstein Archive at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Einstein referred to this collection as "die komische Mappe". In chapter 8, Pais presents a lot of strange, funny, sometimes pathetic envelopes and letters.
Chapter 11, almost a half of the whole book's content, is concerned with the press interest on Einstein's work and life. This kind of approach is the first in the vast Einstein bibliography. For Pais, "Einstein, creator of some of the best science of all time, is himself a creation of the media in so far as he is and remains a public figure". The beginning of Einstein's mythical role dates from November 1919, after a joint session of the Royal and Astronomical Societies, in London, in which the results obtained by British observers of the total solar eclipse of May 29 were discussed. The observations were decisive in the verifying of the prediction of Einstein on the bending of light when it approaches a large body, like the sun. By the way, the Einstein's work was so ample and full in geniality that its perception depends strongly on the observer cultural profile. For the layman the Einstein's Nobel Prize is associated to the relativity theory, but in Chapter 6, Pais discusses how the photoelectric effect, and not the relativity theory, enables Einstein to get the Nobel Prize. Pais explains why Einstein did not win the Nobel Prize because of the relativity theory. Besides these fabulous works, Einstein published in the same annus mirabilis of 1905 three other marvelous works. For Pais, any single one of "these theoretical discoveries would have sufficed to guarantee Einstein a prominent and lasting position in the history of science". However, none of these contributions caused even modest mention in the press before 1919.
In conclusion, "Einstein lived here" is a highly recommendable book for any educated layman and indispensable for any scientist, by the complex personality of this renowned savant and by his splendid scientific contribution.
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Title: The Constants of Nature: From Alpha to Omega--The Numbers That Encode the Deepest Secrets of the Universe by John D. Barrow, John Barrow ISBN: 0375422218 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 14 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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