Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was born in Ulm in the German Empire and received his academic teaching diploma from the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in 1900. Unable to secure a teaching post, he eventually found work in the Swiss Patent Office in Bern, where he began to develop his special theory of relativity. In 1905 (his “miracle year”), he published four revolutionary papers, which came to be recognized as stunning breakthroughs in physics. For the next 25 years, while continuing his research, he taught at several universities in Europe, relocating to the U.S. in 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power. During World War II, his insights regarding mass-energy equivalence led to the development of the atomic bomb, a practical demonstration of his theories that shook the world. Einstein was horrified that the bomb was used, and he spent the rest of his life warning about the dangers of nuclear weapons and advocating for peace and international cooperation.
In Simply Einstein, Professor Jimena Canales offers the reader a unique perspective on the man who occupies a singular place in the popular imagination. Unlike many Einstein biographies, her book does not glorify the scientist or get lost in esoteric details, but takes pains to present a straightforward, thoroughly readable introduction to the man and his work that shows just how and why an eccentric physicist became a household name.
The universe that Einstein described is the one in which we now live, a world of paradoxes and uncertainty, as well as infinite possibility. For anyone interested in better understanding how this came to be–and in gaining a fuller appreciation of the brilliant, flawed human being who changed everything–Simply Einstein is essential reading.
How scientists through the ages have conducted thought experiments using imaginary entities―demons―to test the laws of nature and push the frontiers of what is possible
Science may be known for banishing the demons of superstition from the modern world. Yet just as the demon-haunted world was being exorcized by the enlightening power of reason, a new kind of demon mischievously materialized in the scientific imagination itself. Scientists began to employ hypothetical beings to perform certain roles in thought experiments―experiments that can only be done in the imagination―and these impish assistants helped scientists achieve major breakthroughs that pushed forward the frontiers of science and technology.
Spanning four centuries of discovery―from René Descartes, whose demon could hijack sensorial reality, to James Clerk Maxwell, whose molecular-sized demon deftly broke the second law of thermodynamics, to Darwin, Einstein, Feynman, and beyond―Jimena Canales tells a shadow history of science and the demons that bedevil it. She reveals how the greatest scientific thinkers used demons to explore problems, test the limits of what is possible, and better understand nature. Their imaginary familiars helped unlock the secrets of entropy, heredity, relativity, quantum mechanics, and other scientific wonders―and continue to inspire breakthroughs in the realms of computer science, artificial intelligence, and economics today.
The world may no longer be haunted as it once was, but the demons of the scientific imagination are alive and well, continuing to play a vital role in scientists' efforts to explore the unknown and make the impossible real.
Un acercamiento fascinante al gran debate que cambió nuestra percepción de una característica fundamental del universo: el tiempo.
El 6 de abril de 1922, en París, se llevó a cabo un debate público entre Einstein y Bergson sobre el concepto del tiempo. Einstein sostenía que la teoría del tiempo de Bergson era una noción psicológica y superficial, incompatible con las realidades cuantitativas de la física. Por su parte, Bergson, quien había ganado renombre como filósofo al argumentar que el tiempo no debía ser comprendido exclusivamente a través de la lente de la ciencia, criticó la teoría de Einstein por ser una especie de metafísica incrustada en la ciencia, una que ignoraba los aspectos intuitivos del tiempo.
'El físico y el filósofo' narra la fascinante historia de cómo este debate explosivo transformó nuestra comprensión del tiempo y creó una brecha persistente entre la ciencia y las humanidades en la actualidad.
Jimena Canales presenta en esta obra las ideas revolucionarias de Einstein y Bergson, su posterior colisión y las repercusiones de este choque. Un relato magistral y revelador que muestra cómo se puso a prueba la verdad científica en un siglo dividido, marcado por un nuevo sentido del tiempo.
«Si los lectores están del lado de la física de Einstein o la filosofía de Bergson no es lo más importante: este libro abre nuevas formas de pensar sobre la relación entre la ciencia y las humanidades que perturban a ambos campos». Gerald Holton, Universidad de Harvard
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