This is just a synopsis and not a critique on the book.
Well researched , I would think , considering the fact that , records if any , available those days were only the written ones and possibly helped by interviews with several people. Of course in the case of Einstein who had become a celebrity of sorts , even those days, his being in the printed news more often and the fact that must have been preserved must have helped .
It was quite surprising to read somewhere that there was no electricity in one of the places Einestein stayed, early in his career, was it Berne ?
Born in Ulm, term him swabian,must have been the term for Jew form that area. While Einstein was born a Jew , did not seem to have had strong religious feelings or affiliations till his community started getting persecuted .
Did his Graduation in ETH, Zurich
Secured doctorate by submission of thesis to ETH ?
Left Germnany to pursue education in Switezerland
Gave up German citizenship once, very early in life in his teens to avoid conscription and later again in protest
Struggled to get a job, research or teaching and after a lot of effort gets a low level job in the Patent office in Switzerland
The time he spent as an employee of Patent office, was almost a science sterile atmosphere. Was almost left to his imagination. Of course did seem to have had some access to scientific journals , but no access to great minds. Had a very average lifestyle. Meeting ends appears to have been a stretch. Such an imaginative mind , being left to himself, must have been able to think out Photoelectric effect and Special theory of relativity in 1905 . Visualising something totally against the trend of the then current thinking is one thing but thinking something radically different and against what no one would suspect even in a dream requires vision beyond any great visionary. Could anyone have imagined that space, length and time are not absolute.
One understands that he was helped in this, in having got an inkling of things from Maxwell,(electromagnetic field), Lorentz and a few others. Morley Michelson who experimentally disproved the existence of "ether" also helped Eisntein to come to a conclusion that speed of light was absolute and independent of the frame of reference or speed of the origin point. Speed of Light is the limiting speed , nothing can equal or exceed this. While earlier scientists had come close to finding that Matter Very difficult to comprehend. An average brain like yours truly would require several more readings to even come close to understanding the concepts.The mats , for the special theory of relativity was provided by Minkowski, his teacher in ETH.Notwithstanding the gentle nudge that Max Planck, Lorentz and the Morley Michelson experiment gave, still to come out with what he thought out on the relativity of time, space ... was extraordinary to put in the mildest terms.
Shifts to Berlin in 1919 to Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and possibly does he best work in the next 14 years or so.Had become very famous by then and publishes his general thoery of relativity
Great friendship with Max Planck, the quantum man.Had great respect for Lorentz.
Eddington was one of the early converts to relativity and did huge service to the cause of spreading the same across Europe .
Einstein was a confirmed Pacifist . Was completely against Germany's armament and against any kind of armament.
The author tries to bring out that Einstein , while great physicist was a bit muddled in other aspects.From a lot of information that the author brings out, it does not appear so. He might have been a bit innocent about the ways of the world but to come to a conclusion based on his change from pacifism to armament once Hitler came to power that he was muddled is not correct.
He realised later that Pacifism does not always work. There are occasion when you have arm yourself and threaten to protect the larger interests.
Einstein became such a popular figure ( the splayed and flying hair on the head also created aura and halo like looks must have helped ) that he was perennially invited to address several public meetings , science as well as others.
During the period till mid 1930 s , was a clearly the leader amongst scientists , his opinions and views mattered more than others.
In 1933 , shifts to US and sometime later gives up his German Citizenship again, Continued to retain his Swii Citizenship.
Won the Nobel in 1920 for his discovery on something to do with Photoelectric effect
Spent the last 20-25 years trying to come out with a Unified theoery. Did come out a few times, rejected them himself when it did not quite come comprehensive and logical or when one of the premises was proven wrong (mostly by himself )
Could not quite agree with Bohr on Quantum theories . Bohr had theorised the concept of electrons jumping from shell to shell, giving up and sometimes absorbing energy. Einstein could not quite accept the probabilistic aspect embedded in this.
He was quite sure that any theory should have as one of the basic premise the Determinancy, and Causal and not probabilistic as suggested by Bohr in his quantum theory and Heisenberg.... Famous words of Einstein " God does not play dice" and or something on those lines.
At the time of dying still had fond hopes that the theory of everything would sometime in future be unravelled.
His unmatched humility and kindness is brought out , so was his being most of the time not being too bothered about personal aspects,conveniences and people were not of great concer also most of the time including his first wife.
Spent last 20 years trying to come out with a simple and comprehensive unified theory
Letter to Roosevelt to speed up the A bomb project though it was quite possible that he was not aware that anyway , US was going ahead albeit at slow speed. Einstein appeared to have been swayed by the fact that there were reports that Germany had made progress on the same.
Offered Presidency of Israel, but rejected due to a combination of health, inability to devote time and his own perception of his inability to do justice such jobs and also a desire to devote time on science ( Unified theory et al)
Involved a bit with Weizman ( who was the first President ) in the Zionist movement and formation of Israel
Was Involved in founding of Hebrew University.
Without doubt , Albert Einstein was a rounded intellectual, less rounded in some aspects but all the same a great thinker who appeared to have applied himself to a variety of things and left no one in doubt as to what was his true calling and talent.
One of the greatest minds , a great and imaginative one at that.Relativity appears almost like a Hindu concept, more specifically , Sankara on the whole universe being "maya". A confluence of wave and matter, interchangeability of energy and matter all appear more Hindu philosophy than Advanced physics.
One understands that he had no fear of death and had a peaceful death when he was 75-76 years , aneurysm of aorta (enlargement of aorta ) which required surgery and with just about 50% chance of survival. He rejected the idea of any surgery.
Quite a nomadic life, he had, from Germany to Berne, Switzerland to Berlin to USA , initially CALTECH in USA and finally Princeton
The author very well captures how various groups , starting from Jewish group to Pacifists group to..... try using his name and get mileage. Einstein also understood it and lends his name to many. The author suggest that he also had a tendency to make inappropriate statements occasionally.
Einstein had a nice take on him spending the last 20-25 years on "Unified theory", it was almost like chasing a mirage. He was convinced that there could be a simple way of conceptualising and quantifying a comprehensive unified theory and mentions that , he, having a name for himself can afford to spend time on a potentially unsuccessful effort Vis a Vis younger scientists who would be better off spending time on something more concrete with probability of success being more.
Fabulous to read about such great personalities . Uplifting experience and in this case , considering the theory , almost a spiritual experience.
The author appeared to have felt that , Einstein should have been a bit more forgiving of the Germans. Einstein developed a strong hatred towards the country and to a great extent , large population of the people who went along with Hitler and persecuted, tortured and killed Jews.I find that a normal reaction even of an extraordinary man when one considers the atrocities perpetrated on Jews, imagine 6.0 Mil Jews killed, almost 25% of the global Jewish population annihilated by a mad man .
