He plots the course of the equation through the twentieth century, showing how our lives have been revolutionized by its applications and looks far ahead to the future.īut as with any biography, it is the human stories that really ignite the subject - stories of love, courage and tragedy, of near misses, disappointments and disasters that, brought together by Bodanis in this remarkable book, turn Einstein's seemingly impenetrable theory into a dramatic and accessible human achievement. He looks at the elements 'e', 'm' and 'c' and honours the scientists whose landmark discoveries paved the way for Einstein. In this fascinating biography David Bodanis tells the story of one of the greatest scientific discoveries in history. Generations have grown up knowing that equation changed the shape of our world, but without understanding what it really means and why it is so significant.

One of those papers introduced the theory of special relativity and his legendary equation, E=mc2. In 1905, Albert Einstein produced five historic papers that shattered many cherished scientific beliefs. I didn't know I could know so much.' Fay Weldon, Books of the Year, Washington Post It's a lucid, even thrilling study: the very best kind of science journalism.

Balancing writerly energy and scholarly weight, Bodanis offers a primer in modern physics and cosmology, explaining that the universe today is an expression of mass that will, in some vastly distant future, one day slide back to the energy side of the equation, replacing the 'dominion of matter' with 'a great stillness'-a vision that is at once lovely and profoundly frightening.By the end of the astonishing E=mc2, a dedicated reader will have achieved, if only by osmosis, an understanding of Einstein's theory of relativity and feel quite at ease dining with Nobel Prize winners. Just what those circumstances are occupies much of Bodanis's book, which pays homage to Einstein and, just as important, to predecessors such as Maxwell, Faraday, and Lavoisier, who are not as well known as Einstein today. Mass, he writes, 'is simply the ultimate type of condensed or concentrated energy,' whereas energy 'is what billows out as an alternate form of mass under the right circumstances.' David Bodanis offers an easily grasped gloss on the equation. But far fewer can explain his insightful linkage of energy to mass. Just about everyone has at least heard of Albert Einstein's formulation of 1905, which came into the world as something of an afterthought.

E mc2 david bodanis