The man beneath the electrified halo of hair
26 August 2007 | Einstein, pop science, Reviewing | Post a comment
The Guardian have just printed my review of Einstein: His Life and Universe
by Walter Isaacson. Obviously, there have been many excellent biographies of the great physicist, but Isaacson explains Einstein’s revolutionary physics with an infectious enthusiasm, memorably describing his seminal 1905 work on special relativity, On the electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, as “one of the most spunky and enjoyable papers in all of science”.
Isaacson also had privileged access to a cache of family correspondence which was kept under lock and key until 2006, in accordance with the will of Einstein’s step-daughter Margot, so he can righful claim to have new material. He makes good use of these personal documents, although I suspect much of interest remains. We will have to wait for future volumes in Princeton’s excellent Collected Papers for the full picture.
You can read my review here.
