Finished reading E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis. I've never heard of the author before this book, but he's a pretty good writer. Instead of treating this as a physics lesson, it reads more like a history book where he traces the origin and the development of Einstein's famous theories of relativity.The book covers a lot of ground, and along the way I learned:
- how carbon dating works
- how a nuclear reaction works
- how US won the atomic race through sabotage
- politics and discrimination in the scientific world
- why you can never go faster than light
- how the rumour that only a dozen people understands Einstein's theories started
- why solar eclipses are important in proving Einstein's theories
- how the speed of light was derived
- what heavy water is and its role in a nuclear reaction
- how the world will end, etc.
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