Publisher's Synopsis
It is a well-known equation, yet who but the physicists really understand E=mc2? Bodanis rescues the masses from ignorance in an entertaining story about Einstein's formulation of the equation in 1905 and its association ever after with relativity and nuclear energy. Touching on Einstein's background and character, he pays homage to the scientist, noting the impact the findings had on such predecessors as Maxwell, Faraday and Lavoisier. In writing the "biography" of the greatest scientific discoveries in history, Bodanis turns this seemingly impenetrable theory into a dramatic and accessible human achievement.