E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation

Just what those circumstances are occupies much of Bodanis's book, which pays homage to Einstein and, just as important, to predecessors such as Maxwell, Faraday, and Lavoisier, who are not as well known as Einstein today. Balancing writerly energy and scholarly weight, Bodanis offers a primer in modern physics and cosmology, explaining that the universe today is an expression of mass that will, in some vastly distant future, one day slide back to the energy side of the equation, replacing the "dominion of matter" with "a great stillness"--a vision that is at once lovely and profoundly frightening.

Without sliding into easy psychobiography, Bodanis explores other circumstances as well; namely, Einstein's background and character, which combined with a sterling intelligence to afford him an idiosyncratic view of the way things work--a view that would change the world. --Gregory McNamee

Product Description
Already climbing the bestseller lists-and garnering rave reviews-this "little masterpiece"* sheds brilliant light on the equation that changed the world.

"This is not a physics book. It is a history of where the equation [E=mc2] came from and how it has changed the world. After a short chapter on the equation's birth, Bodanis presents its five symbolic ancestors in sequence, each with its own chapter and each with rich human stories of achievement and failure, encouragement and duplicity, love and rivalry, politics and revenge. Readers meet not only famous scientists at their best and worst but also such famous and infamous characters as Voltaire and Marat...Bodanis includes detailed, lively and fascinating back matter...His acknowledgements end, 'I loved writing this book.' It shows." (The Cleveland Plain Dealer)

"E=mc2, focusing on the 1905 theory of special relativity, is just what its subtitle says it is: a biography of the world's most famous equation, and it succeeds beautifully. For the first time, I really feel that I understand the meaning and implications of that equation, as Bodanis takes us through each symbol separately, including the = sign...there is a great 'aha!' awaiting the lay reader." (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

"'The equation that changed everything' is familiar to even the most physics-challenged, but it remains a fuzzy abstraction to most. Science writer Bodanis makes it a lot more clear." (Discover)

"Excellent...With wit and style, he explains every factor in the world's most famous and least understood equation....Every page is rich with surprising anecdotes about everything from Einstein's youth to the behind-the-scenes workings of the Roosevelt administration. Here's a prediction: E=mc2 is one of those odd, original, and handsomely written books that will prove more popular than even its publisher suspects." (Nashville Scene)

"You'll learn more in these 300 pages about folks like Faraday, Lavoisier, Davy and Rutherford than you will in many a science course...a clearly written, astonishingly understandable book that celebrates human achievement and provides some idea of the underlying scientific orderliness and logic that guides the stars and rules the universe." (Parade )

"Bodanis truly has a gift for bringing his subject matter to life." (Library Journal [starred review] )

"Entertaining...With anecdotes and illustrations, Bodanis effectively opens up E=mc2 to the widest audience." (Booklist )

"Accessible...he seeks, and deserves, many readers who know no physics. They'll learn a handful-more important, they'll enjoy it, and pick up a load of biographical and cultural curios along the way." (Publishers Weekly)

The biography of an idea: a wonderful approach to a fascinating and important topic. The idea is Einstein's famous equation: E = mc2. The equation expresses a fundamental principle of the universe (as presently constituted). The principle existed long before Einstein discovered it -- or had the idea. This book is an intellectual history of how the idea was born with emphasis on the people involved and how events in their lives contributed to the culmination of the concept and its application to our twentieth century world and future of the universe.

A remarkably fast read for a book about a scientific subject, which attests to the author's skill in reducing a technical subject to an easily understood narrative of historical and cultural events as they impacted on the discovery that energy is matter and matter is energy. This is not The Theory of Relativity For Dummies; the work is very rich in historical, political, and cultural perspective and is exceptionally resourceful in its endnotes and appendix. In spite of its usefulness as a text, it is not technical and can be understood without any background in astrophysics or math. While not for children, I would highly recommend it as a very worthwhile introductory book and motivating challenge for precocious ones with a fascination about space and astronomy.


A Fascinating read!   November 11, 2000
Daniel Wilkins (Boulder, CO USA)
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

I loved this book. It is a first rate physics primer that reads like a great mystery. David Bodanis ( author of The Secret House and The Secret Family, which I also recommend )has a way of ending chapters with intriguing statements or questions that make it difficult to stop reading. His treatment of the Allied Forces' attempts to sabbotage the heavy water facility at Vermork, Norway during WWII is a lot like a short Ken Follett novel. Since finishing the book, I find myself looking for ways to bring up E=mc2 topics in conversations ( "...speaking of smoke detectors, did you know that they derive the power to generate their smoke-sensitive beams from the radioactive decay of americium?" or "...just imagine, the glare from the explosion over Hiroshima would have been viewable from Jupiter" ). This is popular science writing at its best.


Top Noch Book!   December 13, 2000
Joseph D. Seckelman (Poway, California USA)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

This is the first book I have ever read that explains the equation E=MC2 without giving a mathematical explanation, meaning literally anyone can understand it completely. The book is interesting and provides a superb understanding of what the true significance of that powerful equation is and the supreme precience, intelligence and independence of Einstein when he thought of it in 1905.

My only critical comments about the book are on page 161 where he said of President Truman's advisor Jimmy Byrnes: "It was Byrnes who ensured that the clause protecting the emperor (Hirohito of Japan) which might mollify Japanese opponents of a settlement-was taken out." There is a book by Herbert P. Bix, HIROHITO AND THE MAKING OF MODERN JAPAN and Mr. Bodanis' reference to Jimmy Byrnes is never mentioned. That book is probably one of the best researched books ever written. Said another way, Mr. Bodanis states the two nuclear bombs droped on Japan during the final days of the Second World War should never have been droped and it was Byrnes' fault for refusing to mollify the Japanese that they were dropped. Read HIROHITO AND THE MAKING OF MODERN JAPAN it was far more complicated than Mr. Bodanis' canned liberal view.

Having said that, however, I literally could not put this book down. I wanted to find out as much as I could in about the equation and its development. The book is very easy and quick to read even though one might think a book about an equation could be otherwise.

If you want to really understand what our universe is about and how all matter comes into being, read this book. Even those of you that have zero-point-zero understanding of science and math (me), this book has the uncanny ability to describe everything with extreme clarity. I wish Mr. Bodanis would write a similar book about Quantum Mechanics!!