In the meantime, while the human sciences are the fun place to be right now, let’s not ignore the many good books for general-interest readers on the physical sciences.
One such is the subject of my fortnightly “Shelf Life” review over at The American Spectator. The book is Pedro Ferreira’s The Perfect Theory:
“On November 25, 1915, Einstein presented his new equations to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in a short three-page paper,” this author tells us. Thus was the General Theory of Relativity born, after of course some years of gestation in Einstein’s remarkable brain.My 900-word review actually contains more equations than Prof. Ferreira’s 300-page book. I guess the author has taken to heart Stephen Hawking’s rule: that every equation you put in your pop-science book reduces sales by 1,000 copies.With the centenary of that event almost upon us, a historical survey is in order. In The Perfect Theory, Pedro Ferreira, a professor of astrophysics at Oxford University, has supplied one.
If the Hawking rule is true, that’s a pity. The equations of Relativity, even those of the General Theory, are mostly simple and elegant; and an equation breaks up the page nicely, giving the eye something to dwell on.