Einstein's Cosmos, by Michio Kaku

Over the last few years, I've been spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about the General relativity and other issues beyond the scope of Physics. Over the years, I've always been fascinated by how relativity allows for explanations for many things and perhaps a better understanding of perspectives in a broader sense.

What I never did was really read about how Albert Einstein did come up with the theory, how it grew, how others contributed, and why it is the way it is now and how that defines where it is in the future. One thing I have learned is that there is always space for new perspectives on things. When I hit a local bookstore in Trinidad and Tobago, I was somewhat surprised to find a book by Michio Kaku on the shelf - and even more surprised that the bookstore had Einstein's Cosmos: How Albert Einstein's Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time (Great Discoveries). I bought it. Over the course of the last week, I read it.

I'd never considered the backdrop of how Einstein came up with his theories; his was an era of Newtonian physics - which I did know. What I didn't know was how he meandered through schools, that his instructors often belittled him, and that at first even the Theory of Relativity itself was challenged because he was a Jew (instead of the truth, that not many people understood it). In fact, to this day, people have problems understanding the theory of relativity - and while the basis is in Physics, it's hard to deny the role of the theory even in now mundane parts of life.

But who was this fellow, Einstein? A Nobel Laureate, yes, but not because of his theory on relativity - the committee didn't understand the theory! For 8 years, he'd been considered and yet nobody understood his theory - so he got the prize for the Photoelectric effect. In an interesting twist, his prize was for advancing a theory that Philipp Lenard had worked on and won the Nobel Prize for 16 years earlier. Phillipp Lenard had publicly called Einstein a "Jewish fraud" over the Theory of Relativity.

I really didn't expect to learn so much from this book; I had thought it would be yet another explanation of the Theory of Relativity - but instead I found it to be much more. In tracking through the progress of Einstein and his contemporaries, I think I found a better understanding of how the theories were developed and how they were also tested - an important thing to consider, since theory means nothing without experiment. You don't need to be a physicist or a a physics person to appreciate this book. This book is really a book about how Einstein and others developed the theory, tested it, and presented it. It's a book that demonstrates a lot of the success of the theory was dependent on Einstein's presentation of it - basically, his ability to market it through his charisma. The facts are presented against a backdrop of the period in which Einstein lived, his private life, and the changes he himself underwent during his lifetime which affected the development of his theories. If you want raw physics and mathematical equations, this book isn't for you. If you want to picture a young Einstein imagining running next to a beam of light and considering what he would see, this is the book. If you want to read about how to this day, things he cast aside in his waning years are still being found to be true, read this book. If you want to consider what else aside from Physics that relativity explains, this is a good book to read.