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EINSTEIN by Walter Isaacson
‘Isaacson’s biography is readable and highly professional, based on extensive research and thorough checking by expert physicists and historians. Anyone coming to Einstein’s life and work for the first time will be accurately informed and intellectually stimulated…A memorable conclusion: “For some people, miracles serve as evidence of God’s existence. For Einstein it was the absence of miracles that reflected divine providence. The fact that the world is comprehensible, that it follows laws, is worthy of awe.” This is as pithy as Einstein himself’
Andrew Robinson, New Scientist 14/4
‘What captures the public attention will be the biographer’s revelation that Einstein fathered a daughter, Lieserl, before he married his fellow mathematician, Mileva Mari, and that the child mysteriously disappears from the record’
Lisa Jardine, The Times 28/4
‘[A] brilliant biography, rich with newly available archival material’
Literary Review, June issue
‘Beautifully written, it renders the physics understandable… Einstein was one of the creators of the modern world, and anyone that does not possess a biography of him should acquire this one’
Sunday Telegraph 3/6
‘With prodigious effort and businesslike calm, Isaacson has given us much more than Einstein the magus, he has given us Einstein the mensch’
Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times 3/6
‘Isaacson is excellent at explaining the science…. But moments later the reality of the understanding has slipped away and one’s sense of amazement returns. This is because Einstein is analyzing a world beyond the direct perception of our senses’
Daily Express 8/6
'YOU REALLY MUST READ… Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson: a highly readable, dramatic and revelatory biography'
Sunday Times 10/6
‘This book is popular science, biography, history and dramatic writing at its very best’
5 stars, London Lite 12/6
'A thorough exploration of his subject's life, a skilful piece of scientific literature and a thumping good read...It's one of the greatest stories of modern science and to his credit and my surprise, Isaacson has done a first-rate job in telling it. This is, quite simply, a riveting read'
Robin McKie, Observer 10/6
'This book is a splendid achievement'
Daily Telegraph 23/7
'[Isaacson] has written a great book, one that provides everything one would want from a biography of Einstein'
The Spectator 30/6
'YOU REALLY MUST READ… a highly readable, dramatic and revelatory biography'
Sunday Times 17/6
'A readable, dramatic and revelatory life, based on a mass of new letters'
Sunday Times 1/7
‘The popular Einstein story is impossible to resist. A young man fails his mathematics exams yet becomes the world’s greatest scientist. He works in obscurity. When he publishes his great papers, he’s ignored. Despite all this – and his autism – he triumphs. But he does so only with the help of his wife, a key source of his ideas. It turns out that none of that is true. The reality, however, is even better’
FT 4/8
‘This book reads very much like a labour of love… While Einstein may have changed from scientific revolutionary to reactionary during his career, his life remained fascinating and complex to the end, and this book does him justice’
Independent on Sunday 12/08
'In the end, Einstein left his mark on the world because he always had the courage to stand up to conventional wisdom and was never afraid to ask seemingly naïve questions, most of which began with the words "what if?". This tendency to rebel was the source of his creativity and his real talent was an ability to focus on mundane things that his contemporaries had overlooked. He has always deserved a biography that radiates intelligence, wit and eloquence - and now, thanks to Walter Isaacson, he finally has one'
Sunday Business Post (Ireland) 5/8
‘His sympathetic biography of “science’s pre-eminent poster boy” can justifiably claim to be more comprehensive than any before.
‘Isaacson still manages to explain Einstein’s revolutionary thinking with infectious enthusiasm, but it is the man behind the science who is now brought into sharper focus’
Guardian 25/8
‘Walter Isaacson’s achievement is to take us beyond the myth of the huge brain. Through an artful mix of biography and lucid illumination of the most mind-blowing theoretical leaps in science, he makes the case that Einstein’s genius depended not on ‘brute processing power’, but imagination, independence, creativity and passion’
5 stars, Mail on Sunday 2/9
'It is the portrayal of [Einstein's] weaknesses and foibles that makes this book and Albert himself such a delight. He might have been able to understand quantum theory and imagine the universe as a series of equations that swept through existence like a wave, but people! He was just like the rest of us. His private life as a lover, husband and father shows many faults and mistakes. The book is a glorious attempt to showing a towering genius in human terms' Venue 28/9
'A compelling biography of the little scientist who never wore socks and who changed the way we see the world. Isaacson elegantly and fluently interweaves Einstein's interestingly chaotic personal life with confidently lengthy accounts of the work'
Favourite Biographies of 2007, Sunday Times 25/11
'A wealth of information about a complex and divided character. Einstein said his public acclaim made him feel a fraud, but he was an adept manipulator of his own image; when it was rumoured that he was too absent-minded to remember his socks in the morning, he stopped wearing them so as not to disappoint anyone'
Tim Martin, Biographies of the Year Daily Telegraph 24/11
EINSTEIN by Walter Isaacson - 9781847370488
'In the end, Einstein left his mark on the world because he always had the courage to stand up to conventional wisdom and was never afraid to ask seemingly naïve questions, most of which began with the words "what if?". This tendency to rebel was the source of his creativity and his real talent was an ability to focus on mundane things that his contemporaries had overlooked. He has always deserved a biography that radiates intelligence, wit and eloquence - and now, thanks to Walter Isaacson, he finally has one'
Sunday Business Post (Ireland) 5/8
"Albert comes vividly to life and so do his space-warping, mind-bending theories. Isaacson uses personal letters that have only recently become available and it turns out he was as passionate about the female of our species as he was about the rest of the universe"
Alan Alda, Hawkeye and Science buff, The Times 8/11
What happens when a graduate of MIT, the bastion of technological advancement, and his bride move to a community so primitive in its technology that even Amish groups consider it antiquated? Eric Brende conceives a real-life experiment: to see if, in fact, all our cell phones, wide-screen TVs, and SUVs have made life easier and better -- or whether life would be preferable without them. By turns, the query narrows down to a single question: What is the least we need to achieve the most? With this in mind, the Brendes ditch their car, electric stove, refrigerator, running water, and everything else motorized or "hooked to the grid" and begin an eighteen-month trial run -- one that dramatically changes the way they live, and proves entertaining and surprising to readers. Better OFF is a smart, often comedic, and always riveting book that also mingles scientific analysis with the human story, demonstrating how a world free of technological excess can shrink stress -- and waistlines -- and expand happiness, health, and leisure. Our notion that technophobes are backward gets turned on its head as the Brendes realize that the crucial technological decisions of their adopted Minimite community are made more soberly and deliberately than in the surrounding culture, and the result is greater -- not lesser -- mastery over the conditions of human existence.
He studied with Niels Bohr, taught Richard Feynman, and boned up on relativity with his friend and colleague Albert Einstein. John Archibald Wheeler's fascinating life brings us face to face with the central characters and discoveries of modern physics. He was the first American to learn of the discovery of nuclear fission, coined the term "black hole," led a renaissance in gravitation physics, and helped to build Princeton University into a mecca for physicists. From nuclear physics to quantum theory to relativity and gravitation, Wheeler's work has set the trajectory of research for half a century. His career has brought him into contact with the most brilliant minds of his field; Fermi, Bethe, Rabi, Teller, Oppenheimer, and Wigner are among those he's called colleague and friend. In this rich autobiography, Wheeler reveals in colorful detail the excitement of each discovery, the character of each colleague, and the underlying passion for knowledge that drives him still.
A wise and meticulously researched account of a vital period in our technological history, peopled by remarkable characters painted in the round (Peter Forbes Independent )
Fascinating . . . the story Dyson tells is intensely human, a tale of teamwork over many years and all the harmonies and rows that involves (Jenny Uglow )
This wide-ranging and lyrical work is an important addition to the literature of the history of computing (Economist )
A beautiful example of technological storytelling . . . much more than a chronicle of engineering progress: it includes fascinating digressions into the history and physics of nuclear weapons, the fundamentals of mathematical logic, the mathematical insights of Hobbes and Leibniz, the history of weather forecasting, Nils Barricelli's pioneering work on artificial life and lots of other interesting stuff (John Naughton Observer )
It is a joy to read George Dyson's revelation of the very human story of the invention of the electronic computer, which he tells with wit, authority, and insight. Read Turing's Cathedral as both the origin story of our digital universe and as a preceptive glimpse into its future (W. Daniel Hillis )
At long last George Dyson delivers the untold story of software's creation. It is an amazing tale brilliantly deciphered (Kevin Kelly )
The world he re-creates will enthral scientific romantics . . . an entertaining starting point for anyone wanting to understand how Turing's astonishing ideas became a reality, and how they continue to shape the world we live in today (The Sunday Times )
An engrossing and well-researched book that recounts an important chapter in the history of 20th-century computing (Evgeny Morozov Observer )
Rich in historical insight . . . a timely reminder of why we should care about computers and the endless possibilities they hold (The Times )
(3)'Riding Rockets is the story of space-age America in all its glory and folly as seen through the eyes of a remarkable writer who has brilliantly captured the triumphant and tragic years of the Space Shuttle era.' Homer Hickam, author of October Sky
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Quick, who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the double helical structure of DNA? Most people would say Watson and Crick. But most people would make Maurice Wilkins very upset. The Rodney Dangerfield of biology, Wilkins shared the prize with Watson and Crick but missed out on the limelight, due largely to Watson's hit book, The Double Helix. Wilkins thought the book was so misleading he asked Harvard University Press not to publish it. Things have quieted down a bit now, and Wilkins is now telling the story his way. This book tells how he showed his colleagues the x-ray picture that gave them their crucial insight, and about his interactions with Rosalind Franklin, the researcher who actually created the picture, and who also received very little credit for her role in the discovery. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the DNA discovery. Finally Wilkins gets to have his say.
Fraser's well researched contribution provides a transparent description on the creation of the standard model that merits attention from physicists and historians alike. Cosmic Anger is highly recommended. (Optics Journal )
Gordon Fraser's enigmatically titled biography,Cosmic Anger: Abdus Salam - The First Muslim Nobel Scientist, is immensely engaging, and its numerous anecdotes will titillate physicists. (Pervez Hoodbhoy, Physics Today )
I find the book to be a well written account of the achievements of a genius who was a citizen of the world, destined to play a memorable role in the global development of science and technology. (CERN Courier )
An intriguing biography, a striking, frequently moving story [...], Cosmic Anger is an important work, not just in terms of its biographical revelations, but for the light it shines on the dark, irrational times we now inhabit. (Robin McKie, The National, August 2008 )
Gordon Fraser...has produced a rich and varied biography...in this sensitive account. Salam's contributions on the international scene shine out. (Simon Mitton, Times Higher Education Supplement )
More than a biography of a great scientist, this book provides a wider political and historical commentary. And while some of the details of Salam's physics may be incomprehensible to those without a background in the subject, the politics of the indian subcontinent, and the status of science in Islam, both past and present, makes this an important and enlightening read. (Jim al-Khalili, NewScientist )
Fascinating and delightful. Although I knew Salam well, I learned much from this account. Salam's truly remarkable multi-faceted character is well mirrored here. The book is beautifully written, and handles many delicate political and personal issues with sensitivity and understanding. Very authoritative and insightful, giving a rounded picture of a very complex man. (Tom Kibble, Imperial College London )
"People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."--Albert Einstein Best-selling author and physicist Stephen Hawking assembles the most groundbreaking works by Albert Einstein together into one volume. From the text that revealed the famous "Theory of Relativity"--renowned as the most important scientific discovery of the 20th Century--to his significant works on quantum theory, statistical mechanics, and the photoelectric effect, here are the writings that changed physics, and subsequently, the way we view the world. Einstein also thought deeply on both political issues and religious thought, so many of Einstein's philosophical essays are included. Hawking provides introductions to each work, which provides both historical and scientific perspective. From the papers that shaped modern scientific thought to Einstein's later musings on his landmark findings, A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion is a collection of Einstein's most important work, with commentary from our greatest living physicist.
A shot of the purest oxygen (Simon Winchester )
It fizzes (John Gapper FT )
Entertaining ... clear-sighted and intelligent (The New Yorker )
[Johnson is] an infectiously exciting writer ... The Invention of Air is delightful to read (Salon )
Packed with excellent stuff (Russell Davies )
Johnson paints Priestley not as a man of the past but precisely the sort of figure the world needs more than ever (New York Post )
