Have you ever wanted to learn more about Einstein’s greatest discoveries, and theories? How would you like to learn about not only his theories, but also the mistakes he made? Well, if you’d like to read a book on this topic, there is one that I would highly recommend to you, and it is written so just about anyone can understand it. The name of the book is;
“Einstein’s Mistakes: the Human Failings of Genius” by Hans C. Ohanian, WW Norton & Co. Publishers, New York City, New York, 2008, (369 pp).
Although Einstein gave us some great theories, he also made a number of mistakes, and luckily, we overlook his many mistakes, and leave his name in history for his greatest achievements. In this book you will learn about all of Einstein’s lapses in Genius, and misinterpretations of data in his work. You’ll also learn about the many scientists who followed his lead to dead ends, or discoveries that he was wrong.
This is very insightful to the future scientist who wishes to learn more, about how to challenge the experts, as Einstein also reminded us to do. This book is excellently footnoted, and completely well documented.
The author obviously knows what he’s talking about, and if you wish to defend Einstein’s legacy, this book may upset you, but it really shouldn’t because the author does give Einstein his due, and considering what they knew at the time, the author also explains how easily such simple mistakes could have been made.
In a way one could say that this book does tend to humanize Albert Einstein, and show him as a real human that does make mistakes. “I thought I was wrong once, but I had been mistaken,” is a quote that comes to mind after reading this book, and it makes me recall all the pearls of wisdom that Albert Einstein left us with.
He had many great quotes, and philosophical comments that make us all think to this day. Indeed, if you are a research scientist, I think you should have this book in your research library. It was very fun to read, and extremely interesting.
Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes in science.
Author – Lance Winslow
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