Einstein’s Greatest Mistake
The Life of a Flawed Genius
This book stands on its own, but in another sense completes my series on Einstein, which began with 'E=mc²'. Sunday Times Science Book of the Year. It centers on what Einstein always felt was the most important work of his life – yet in defending that work, he ended up destroying his reputation among all working physicists, even while remained lauded by members of the general public. It's a tragic story, getting to the roots of what creativity is.
Here's the introduction, setting the stage; later I'll add some additional extracts. (And here's a brief video where I informally take another angle talking about curved space-time.)
For more detail
For readers interested in more technical detail, I prepared a long (20,000 word!) appendix that develops some of the main principles of special and general relativity, almost entirely using just words and geometrical sketches.
In it one learns how a 15-foot car can fit comfortably within a 2-foot long garage; why it's incorrect to divide everything into past, present and future (for we actually live with a fourth zone, called 'elsewhere'); one even learns how the distance to the event horizon of a black hole is calculated. (Where equations do appear, they're no more than what's common in basic high school classes.)
Email my office putting 'EGM appendix' in the subject line and a copy shall be teleported your way.
Further reading
Reviews
“Bodanis is a lot like Einstein—minus the great mistake. Both see fun in physics, both love simplicity and brevity. In this book, theories of the universe morph into theories of life.”
“What Bodanis does brilliantly is to give us a feel for Einstein as a person. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that does this as well.. Bodanis triumphs.”
“While we now remember Einstein for his early success and have reinvented him as a meme with crazy hair and sticking his tongue out, [Einstein’s Greatest Mistake] reminds us to go beyond the cliché and remember the human — flawed, hubristic and alone — but no less the greatest genius of the modern age.”