Albert Einstein: And the Frontiers of Physics

Albert was considered to be a dreamy child without an especially promising future. Later in life he remembered two instances from his childhood - his fascination with a compass shown to him by his father when he was five, and his introduction to geometry - that may have been the first signs of what was to come. This lively biography beginning with the chapter How I Did Not Get to Meet Albert Einstein looks at how from ordinary beginnings became one of the greatest scientific thinkers of all time. Physicist and science writer Jeremy Bernstein provides glimpses into the heart and mind of the man as he discusses Einstein's decision to leave Germany for the United States and his increasing despair over the rise of Hitler and the coming of World War II. He explains clearly and simply the experiments and revolutionary theories that flowed from Einstein's imagination and intellect, from his famous theory of relativity, which changed our conception of the universe and our place within it, to his search for a unified field theory that would explain all of the forces found in nature.