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Einstein's Cosmos: How Albert Einstein's Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time (2004)

by Michio Kaku

Other authors: Jennifer Trainer Thompson (Author)

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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4851650,339 (4.1)21
Few figures loom as large as Albert Einstein in our contemporary culture. It is truly remarkable that a man from such humble beginnings, an unemployed dreamer without a future or a job, who was written off by his professors as a hopeless loser, could to dare to scale the heights he reached. In this enlightening book Michio Kaku reasseses Einstein's work by centering on his three great theories - special relativity, general relativity and the Unified Field Theory. The first yielded the equation E =mc which is now such a fixture in our culture that it is practically a ubiquitous slogan. But the subsequent theories led to the Big Bang theory and have changed irrevocably the way we perceive time and space. Michio Kaku gives a new, refreshing look at the pioneering work of Einstein, giving a more accurate portrayal of his enduring legacy than previous biographies. As today's advanced physicists continue their intense search to fulfill Einstein's most cherished dream, a 'theory of everything', he is recognised as a prophet who set the agenda for modern physics.… (more)
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» See also 21 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 14 (next | show all)
Biographies usually bore me. But Michio manages to avoid the dry academic prose and the romantic idolatry of the subject. He even manages to give a layman reader like myself a beginner’s grasp of Einstein’s theory of relativity!

The book gives me a respect for the physicists and mathematicians of the world. I was already fascinated with Einstein and was overjoyed to get a peek at his life and mind. ( )
  wellington299 | Feb 19, 2022 |
Einstein’s Cosmos, How Albert Einstein’s Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time, by Micho Kaku (pp 233). Professor Einstein once wrote “All physical theories, their mathematical expression notwithstanding, ought to lend themselves to so simple a description that even a child could understand.” While I’m no longer a child, I’d like to think I can understand much that children understand, but apparently I can’t. In reading about Einstein’s theories in this and other books, the various word pictures he used to describe his instructions gets did give me insight into some of his theories, but try as I might, any glimpses I gained as a result never got me past the most rudimentary elements of his thinking. This book, despite the author’s valiant attempt to make this subject matter comprehensible, was part wonderful biography and story telling, and part scientific mumbo jumbo (to me). Obviously, my understanding of science is at its most basic level: water is wet if it’s not a solid or a gas, air is what we breathe and is made up of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide (mostly), fire is often hot, and other basics. What I think I know of physics, notwithstanding a class in high school, comes from episodes of The Big Bang Theory television show. In imminently readable prose, the author walks readers through Einstein’s life, and the extraordinary breakthroughs in theoretical physics he made while working as an unheralded patent clerk. His breathtakingly new theories, then and in later years, overturned much of the world’s understanding of physics and spawned new fields of study and direct and indirect collaborators throughout his life and to the present day. Given my extreme ignorance, I will not feign understanding of his breakthroughs by quoting from the book, but even with my pitiable lack of knowledge, even I could grasp at least a tiny bit of the magnitude of his achievements, at least in the abstract. Micho Kaku walks the reader through Einstein’s work, compares it to his predecessors include Newton and Maxwell, and throws in fellow physicists whose names many of your will know: Planck, Schrodinger (of cat fame), Heisenberg (uncertainty principle), Fermi, Oppenheimer, Bohr, Hubble, Higgs, and more. Despite the many passages that defied my brain cells’ ability to comprehend, this was a fascinating book and was well worth my time. ( )
  wildh2o | Jul 10, 2021 |
Very interesting review of Einstein's life and his effect on the world of physics and other fields.

Side Note: He had an open solar plexus chakra from an early age, in my estimation, which led to his youthful renunciation of his German citizenship and his cavalier approach to achieving his goals. I think it served him well. ( )
  micahammon | Dec 19, 2020 |
Excellent view. ( )
  devendradave | Sep 1, 2020 |
Summary: This book was a mixture between an abbreviated biography of Albert Einstein and a discussion of how he came up with his theories. It is pretty good at explaining any physics that it included in the book, and was not at all difficult to understand for a complete layperson on the subject.

My Thoughts: I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It’s my second book by Kaku, and I plan on reading more of his work. His science is quite approachable and he keeps to interesting topics. ( )
  The_Hibernator | Feb 18, 2019 |
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» Add other authors (3 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Michio Kakuprimary authorall editionscalculated
Thompson, Jennifer TrainerAuthorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Žofka, MartinTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
凛, 槇原翻訳secondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bojtár, PéterTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
誠, 菊池監修secondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Leipold, IngeÜbersetzersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Popowski, JanuszTł.secondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Porter, RayNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Tarhan, EnginTranslator.secondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Zabalza de Torres, VíctorTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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This book is dedicated to Michelle and Alyson
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Genius.  [Preface]
A journalist once asked Albert Einstein, the greatest scientific genius since Isaac Newton, to explain his formula for success.
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Few figures loom as large as Albert Einstein in our contemporary culture. It is truly remarkable that a man from such humble beginnings, an unemployed dreamer without a future or a job, who was written off by his professors as a hopeless loser, could to dare to scale the heights he reached. In this enlightening book Michio Kaku reasseses Einstein's work by centering on his three great theories - special relativity, general relativity and the Unified Field Theory. The first yielded the equation E =mc which is now such a fixture in our culture that it is practically a ubiquitous slogan. But the subsequent theories led to the Big Bang theory and have changed irrevocably the way we perceive time and space. Michio Kaku gives a new, refreshing look at the pioneering work of Einstein, giving a more accurate portrayal of his enduring legacy than previous biographies. As today's advanced physicists continue their intense search to fulfill Einstein's most cherished dream, a 'theory of everything', he is recognised as a prophet who set the agenda for modern physics.

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W.W. Norton

2 editions of this book were published by W.W. Norton.

Editions: 0393327000, 039305165X

 

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