Einstein's Universe : The Layperson's Guide

Description

An updated edition of a classic of popular science.

Leading science writer Nigel Calder, author of Magic Cosmos, wrote Einstein's Universe to mark the centenary of Einstein's birth in 1979. Now it is reissued to celebrate the centenary of Einstein's 'miraculous year' in 1905, when he wrote five astonishingly original scientific papers, culminating in the special theory of relativity. Calder outlines this great theory in a way every reader can understand, and provides a new chapter detailing experiments on relativity in the years since his book first appeared.

Reviews

A valuable contribution to the de-mystification of relativity. ("Nature") Calderas gift for simplifying the complex has rarely been better demonstrated. ("San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle")

Author description

Nigel Calder served his apprenticeship as a science writer on the original staff of the magazine New Scientist, and became its editor, 1962-66. Since then he has worked as an independent author and TV scriptwriter. He won the UNESCO Kalinga Prize for his work for the BBC in a long succession of 'science specials', with accompanying books. Examples are Violent Universe, Restless Earth and The Comet is Coming! The original version of Einstein's Universe accompanied a BBC-WGBH documentary with the same title, scripted by Calder and featuring leading scientists together with the actor Peter Ustinov. Calder continues to report from the frontiers of research, and his most recent book is a comprehensive guide to modern science, called Magic Universe (2003). It was shortlisted for the Aventis Prize for Science Books.