Gribbin, John

"In 1915, Albert Einstein presented his masterwork to the Prussian Academy of Sciences, a theory of gravity, matter, space and time: the General Theory of Relativity. Einstein himself said it was 'the most valuable theory of my life,' and 'of incomparable beauty.' It describes the evolution of the universe, black holes, the behavior of orbiting neutron stars, and why clocks run slower on the surface of the earth than in space. It even suggests the possibility of time travel. And yet when we think of Einstein's breakthrough year, we think instead of 1905, the year of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity and his equation E=mc2, as his annus mirabilis, even though the Special Theory has a narrower focus. Today the General Theory is overshadowed by these achievements, regarded as 'too difficult' for ordinary mortals to comprehend. In Einstein's Masterwork, John Gribbin puts Einstein's astonishing breakthrough in the context of his life and work, and makes it clear why his greatest year was indeed 1915 and his General Theory his true masterpiece"--Amazon.com.

"The twentieth century gave us two great theories of physics. The general theory of relativity describes the behavior of very large things, and quantum theory the behavior of very small things. In this...book, John Gribbin...presents his own version of the Holy Grail of physics, the search that has been going on for decades to find a unified "Theory of Everything" that combines these ideas into one mathematical package, a single equation that could be printed on a T-shirt, containing the answer to life, the Universe, and everything. With his...mixture of science, history, and biography, Gribbin shows how--despite skepticism among many physicists--these two...theories are very compatible, and point to a deep truth about the nature of our existence"--Amazon.com.

The Death of the Sun explores man's intimate links with the sun and the stars, and our planet's precarious place in the delicate balance of Earth, Sun and Galaxy. In a vivid and frightening scenario of a solar storm, we witness the relative ease by which that balance-- and our existence-- may be challenged. An inconstant, doomed Sun is a grim prospect, but Dr. Gribbin points the only way out.

Explains quantum physics in a way that's not only clear, but also enjoyable. The author opens with the subjects that most physics professors have just started to examine at the end of the semester: The mysterious character of light, the valence concept in Nils Bohr's atomic model, radioactive decay, and the physics of life-defining DNA all get clear, comprehensive, and witty coverage. This book reveals the beauty and mystery that underlies everything in the universe.