Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
This is a work of fiction that weaves in the whimsy of Einstein’s days as a patent clerk in Switzerland and the types of dreams he may have had. They are little fables that come from his dreams and that relate the theory of relativity to real life.
The Evolution of Physics, by Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld.
Infeld was a poor Jewish refugee to America when he met Einstein. Infeld needed money and so Einstein said he would write a history of physics with him. Infeld was a great writer and Einstein was a great physicist and this book gives a history of physics in a way that helps you to understand Einstein’s great insights. Deeply woven into this is his idea that there must be laws of the universe that are invariable and it shows why Einstein was opposing quantum theory and quantum mechanics which say things happen at a sub-atomic level purely by chance.
But isn’t quantum theory still … valid?
Yes. Very valid. Einstein was wrong in resisting it. Or I guess I should say it seems like he was probably wrong. He had deep philosophical qualms that drove his scientific criticisms.
He was afraid of uncertainty?
He thought that God would not play dice with the universe. He had a religious-like reverence for the concept of a creator, even though he did not believe in a personal God, and this is reflected in this book as well.
Read full interview
The former editor of Time magazine and CEO of CNN has written the seminal work on Einstein’s life and theory. He tells us Einstein bet his wife he’d win the Nobel Prize for his 1905 work and promised her the prize money in return for a divorce. ‘She takes a week to calculate the odds...and she takes the bet. He didn’t win until 1921 but he did give her the money and she bought three apartment buildings in Zurich.’
