Einstein's Cosmos: How Albert Einstein's Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time

Einstein's Cosmos: How Albert Einstein's Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time

by Michio Kaku

Phoenix, $144

Lean back in your chair to the point before it topples. Then imagine what happens if you fall. Albert Einstein, working in the Bern patent office and with a lot of time on his hands, did just that and ended up with his general theory of relativity, a simple mathematical description of the structure of the universe. Michio Kaku, a distinguished physicist in string theory who's open to the idea of worlds beyond this one, is noted for his demystification of science and space. He seems to have enjoyed writing Einstein's Cosmos, his contribution to the Year of Einstein, which was last year, the 100th anniversary of E=mc?. Einstein understood how incomprehensible maths can seem. 'Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it feels like an hour,' he would say. 'Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.' Emma Crichton-Miller of The Sunday Telegraph says Einstein's Cosmos is an 'engaging biography' about a man for whom the only limit was imagination.