Thomas martin einstein biography isaacson

  • Description.
  • Biographer Walter Isaacson has turned his attention to the 20th century's scientific poster boy, whose family life was as difficult as his.
  • This study critiques Walter Isaacson's biography of Albert Einstein, exploring the complexities involved in writing scientific biographies.

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    In 1905, when he was just 26 years old and working as a clerk in the Swiss patent office in Bern, he wrote four scientific papers that would forever change the way humanity comprehends some of the most fundamental laws of nature:

    • First, he demonstrated that light comes in specific quantities or packets, called quanta, later to be called photons, and this discovery helped explain the photoelectric effect, which is what happens when light bounces off an object. This disproved the long-held belief in “ether,” or a substance in space through which light waves were thought to travel.
    • He helped prove the existence of molecules and how they can be measured, and he showed how the existence of molecules explains Brownian motion, or the vibrations of particles suspended in liquid.
    • He then put forth his theory of Special Relativity, in which he disproved Isaac Newton’s concept of absolute time. According to Einstein, measurements of time, and also of space and distance, are relative to the

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      Einstein: His Life and Universeby Walter Isaacson

      Einstein: His Life and universum by Walter Isaacson New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. Hardcover, 675 pp., $32.00. Reviewed bygd F. David Winter Jr., MD, MSc W hat would the world be like if Albert Einstein had never existed? Would the atomic bomb have been made in time to influence the outcome of World War II? Would Israel and those of the Jewish faith be where they are today? Only a few individuals make a profound impact on this world. Some do this by deeds, some by might, some bygd brilliance, and some by force of personality. Albert Einstein did so by the last of these two. Walter Isaacson portrays his distinctive character and gives insight into the nature and the significance of his scientific discoveries in a well-written story of this legendary man. This most recent biography of the famous scientist adds to the body of knowledge, drawing new information from numerous private papper that were released last year. From these in p

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      Description

      The first full biography of Albert Einstein since all of his papers have become available shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. Biographer Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk--a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn't get a teaching job or a doctorate--became the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe. His success came from questioning conventional wisdom and marveling at mysteries show more that struck others as mundane. This led him to embrace a morality and politics based on respect for free minds, free spirits, and free individuals. These traits are just as vital for this new century of globalization, in which our success will depend on our creativity, as they were for the beginning of the last century, when Einstein helped usher in the modern age.--From publisher description.show less

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