Overview

"It is a well-known equation, yet who but the physicists really understand E=mc2? Bodanis rescues the masses from ignorance in an entertaining story about Einstein's formulation of the equation in 1905 and its association ever after with relativity and nuclear energy. Touching on Einstein's background and character, he pays homage to the scientist, noting the impact the findings had on such predecessors as Maxwell, Faraday and Lavoisier. In writing the ""biography"" of the greatest scientific discoveries in history, Bodanis turns this seemingly impenetrable theory into a dramatic and accessible human achievement."

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Reviews

.. .Bodanis effectively opens up E = mc2 to the widest audience.

Bodanis has had the rather neat idea of explaining the significance of Albert Einstein's work by writing the 'biography' of the most famous equation in science. He says that his aim has also been to make the subject more accessible than other books do, but, if he fails in this, it is not because his book is particularly hard, but that there are more simple descriptions of relativity theory than he acknowledges. Where he is different is in the simplicity of his English, rather than of his science. The book reads as if it were written for teenagers, with very short, simple sentences and very short paragraphs. This leaves little scope for literary style or entertainment, but it does make it easy to follow, step by (sometimes painfully short) step. Covering a lot of the history of mathematics and physics, and the history of the nuclear bomb, this is rather an odd little book, which would be very suitable for a young reader who has just got turned on to science, or for an older person who who hasn't yet got the faintest idea what relativity is all about. Review by JOHN GRIBBIN. Editor's note: John Gribbin is the author of Einstein: A Life in Science (Kirkus UK)

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