I haven't tried to read Walter Isaacson's new biography of Einstein because I found his biography of Benjamin Franklin insufferably boring. So I consider myself still on the search for a good biography of the most imp0rtant physicist of the 20th century.
Meanwhile, I can highly recommend physicist's
Lee Smolin's essay,
The Other Einstein, which appeared in the June 14th issue of the
New York Times Review of Books. Thankfully, the entire essay is available
free on-line.
The most interesting part of the article is its consideration of how some of Einstein's objections to quantum mechanics may have even more relevance today than when he was alive. If you have any interest in the conflict between relativity theory and quantum mechanics you will want to read
this essay.
Show Notes
This episode turned out longer than I planned. After I recorded a piece about Lee Smolin’s book The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the fall of a science, and What Comes Next, I decided to wait until the next episode to discuss my Audible.com top 10 for 2006.
I think Smolin’s book makes an important contribution on several levels. First, it is an excellent review of contemporary physics and puts string theory into context. It is also a candid look at the trends in contemporary science that are stifling original thinking and creativity. It is a passionate defense of the traditional scientific method (making predictions and testing them with experiments). If physics, which has always been thought of the purest science could lose site of its principles, we are reminded that science is a human endeavor, prone to human error and human desires.
