Einstein
Authors: Walter Isaacson
ALSO BY WALTER ISAACSON
A Benjamin Franklin Reader
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Kissinger: A Biography
The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made
(with Evan Thomas)
Pro and Con
INSTEIN
HIS LIFE AND UNIVERSE
WALTER ISAACSON
SIMON & SCHUSTER
Rockefeller Center
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 2007 by Walter Isaacson
All rights reserved,
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form.
Simon & Schuster and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-800-456-6798 or [email protected].
Endpapers: Alan Richards, Princeton University Library
Frontispiece: Ullstein Bilderdienst/The Granger Collection, New York
Illustration credits are on page 679.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Isaacson, Walter.
Einstein : his life and universe / Walter Isaacson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Einstein, Albert, 1879–1955. 2. Physicists—Biography. 3. Einstein, Albert, 1879–1955—Friends and associates. 4. Relativity (Physics). 5. Unified field theories. I. Title.
QC16.E5I76 2007
530.092—dc22
[B]
2006051264
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-6473-0
ISBN-10: 978-0-7432-6473-8
eISBN-13: 978-1-4165-3932-2
To my father, the nicest, smartest, and most moral man I know
In Santa Barbara, 1933
Life is like riding a bicycle.
To keep your balance you must keep moving.
—A
LBERT
E
INSTEIN, IN A LETTER TO HIS SON
E
DUARD
, F
EBRUARY
5, 1930
1
CHAPTER ONE
The Light-Beam Rider
CHAPTER TWO
Childhood, 1879–1896
CHAPTER THREE
The Zurich Polytechnic, 1896–1900
CHAPTER FOUR
The Lovers, 1900–1904
CHAPTER FIVE
The Miracle Year: Quanta and Molecules, 1905
CHAPTER SIX
Special Relativity, 1905
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Happiest Thought, 1906–1909
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Wandering Professor, 1909–1914
CHAPTER NINE
General Relativity, 1911–1915
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Einstein’s Universe, 1916–1919
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The Wandering Zionist, 1920–1921
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Nobel Laureate, 1921–1927
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Unified Field Theories, 1923–1931
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Turning Fifty, 1929–1931
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Einstein’s God
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The Refugee, 1932–1933
CHAPTER NINETEEN
America, 1933–1939
CHAPTER TWENTY
Quantum Entanglement, 1935
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The Bomb, 1939–1945
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
One-Worlder, 1945–1948
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Landmark, 1948–1953
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Red Scare, 1951–1954
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The End, 1955
EPILOGUE
Einstein’s Brain and Einstein’s Mind
Diana Kormos Buchwald, the general editor of Einstein’s papers, read this book meticulously and made copious comments and corrections through many drafts. In addition, she helped me get early and complete access to the wealth of new Einstein papers that became available in 2006, and guided me through them. She was also a gracious host and facilitator during my trips to the Einstein Papers Project at Caltech. She has a passion for her work and a delightful sense of humor, which would have pleased her subject.
Two of her associates were also very helpful in guiding me through the newly available papers as well as untapped riches in the older archival material. Tilman Sauer, who likewise checked and annotated this book, in particular vetted the sections on Einstein’s quest for the equations of general relativity and his pursuit of a unified field theory. Ze’ev Rosenkranz, the historical editor of the papers, provided insights on Einstein’s attitudes toward Germany and his Jewish heritage. He was formerly curator of the Einstein archives at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Barbara Wolff, who is now at those archives at Hebrew University, did a careful fact-checking of every page of the manuscript, making fastidious corrections large and small. She warned that she has a reputation as a nitpicker, but I am very grateful for each and every nit she found. I also appreciate the encouragement given by Roni Grosz, the curator there.
Brian Greene, the Columbia University physicist and author of
The
Fabric of the Cosmos,
was an indispensable friend and editor. He talked me through numerous revisions, honed the wording of the science passages, and read the final manuscript. He is a master of both science and language. In addition to his work on string theory, he and his wife, Tracy Day, are organizing an annual science festival in New York City, which will help spread the enthusiasm for physics so evident in his work and books.
Lawrence Krauss, professor of physics at Case Western Reserve and author of
Hiding in the Mirror,
also read my manuscript, vetted the sections on special relativity, general relativity, and cosmology, and offered many good suggestions and corrections. He, too, has an infectious enthusiasm for physics.
Krauss helped me enlist a protégé of his at Case, Craig J. Copi, who teaches relativity there. I hired him to do a thorough checking of the science and math, and I am grateful for his diligent edits.
Douglas Stone, professor of physics at Yale, also vetted the science in the book. A condensed matter theorist, he is writing what will be an important book on Einstein’s contributions to quantum mechanics. In addition to checking my science sections, he helped me write the chapters on the 1905 light quanta paper, quantum theory, Bose-Einstein statistics, and kinetic theory.
Murray Gell-Mann, winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics, was a delightful and passionate guide from the beginning to the end of this project. He helped me revise early drafts, edited and corrected the chapters on relativity and quantum mechanics, and helped draft sections that explained Einstein’s objections to quantum uncertainty. With his combination of erudition and humor, and his feel for the personalities involved, he made the process a great joy.
Arthur I. Miller, emeritus professor of history and philosophy of science at University College, London, is the author of
Einstein, Picasso
and of
Empire of the Stars.
He read and reread the versions of my scientific chapters and helped with numerous revisions, especially on special relativity (about which he wrote a pioneering book), general relativity, and quantum theory.
Sylvester James Gates Jr., a physics professor at the University of Maryland, agreed to read my manuscript when he came out to Aspen for
a conference on Einstein. He did a comprehensive edit filled with smart comments and rephrasing of certain scientific passages.