'Einstein' by Walter Isaacson.

[pinto]

I'm about a third into it. Blends a readable take on his scientific work as well as his relationships, both professional and personal. Isaacson has managed to set Einstein in his own time and place, among his peers and his family.

We usually think of Einstein in purely iconic terms. This biography really fleshes out his story.

Anyone interested in science, philosophy or just a good read on a giant of our age will find something in this, I think.

It's from Simon and Schuster, @ 2007.

[nightrider767]

1. Thanks....

that sounds right up my alley.

[Kutjara]

2. I bought it a few months ago. Its in the middle of my "to be read" stack...

...at the moment, but after reading your post, I think I'll tackle it next. Thanks! :hi:

[pnorman]

3. I have it in Audible.com format

it runs about 15 1/2 hours. I too enjoyed it immensely, and will probably listen to it again in the near future. Of interest is that Hoover was obsessed with Einstein's alleged communism, and kept a beady eye on him from his first entry in the US, to the day of his death! Here's a book on it: http://www.amazon.com/Einstein-File-Hoovers-Against-Scientist/dp/0312288565 In addition to that, there's a CD full of FOIA stuff on Einstein available.

pnorman

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. Excellent book.

I've got it and have read some of it. Finally, brilliant physicists are allowed to have a sex life in their biographies, including Einstein. He was popular with the ladies and got around.

His first wife was the only woman in his physics classes and she had to have special permission to go to the schools she did, because they did not admit girls and women. I suspect she contributed a lot to his 1905 papers, because they had many, many discussions about them.

He was the first Physics Studmuffin of the 20th century. The second was Feynman and the third was Sagan.

I'm waiting for the fourth one to appear and dazzle us on TV like Sagan did!

[qwertyMike]

5. When USSR documents were released

a few years ago, Einstein's wife's name (Mileva Maric) appeared beside his on the theory of Relativity. It eas later removed. In fact that was her main field of study. Einstein spent his life in a fruitless search for a unified force that included gravity.

A new theoretical element has since been named after her (Correct me if I'm wrong chemists) . She showed no animosity about not being included in his Nobel prize, as did Rosemary Brown(?) who presented Crick and Watson with the double helix structure of DNA.

Women, except for Marie Curie have been cruelly treated by the Nobel Science Committee

[dialectic]

7. Science and women

I've only heard about this book through NPR interviews, but it sounds like another "Great Men of Science" books, which has a tendency to glorify scientists--even as this book provides context to Einstein's life.

Perragrande, women have been severely maltreated in science. In fact, the historian of science Margaret W. Rossiter has coined the term the "Matilda effect" to point to the ways in which women are not given credit for their scientific ideas, such as was the case with Mileva Maric Einstein.

A great documentary on the life of Mileva was done by pbs and can be found here:

http://www.pbs.org/opb/einsteinswife/

[Sabriel]

6. How about studmuffin Brian Greene?

Or Stringmuffin, maybe:

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/physics/fac-bios/Greene/faculty.html

[dialectic]

8. Objectifying physicists

While we are objectifying hot physicists, or stringmuffins, I might as well point out Lisa Randall--of course, it is sad that the only woman physicist on this post to be mentioned, other than Einstein's wife, is because she is hot...oh well...

http://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpages/randall.html