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E=mc²: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation

david bodanis

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E=mc². Just about everyone has at least heard of Albert Einstein's formulation of 1905, which came into the world as something of an afterthought. But far fewer can explain his insightful linkage of energy to mass. David Bodanis offers an easily grasped gloss on the equation. Mass, he writes, "is simply the ultimate type of condensed or concentrated energy," whereas energy "is what billows out as an alternate form of mass under the right circumstances."

Just what those circumstances are occupies much of Bodanis's book, which pays homage to Einstein and, just as important, to predecessors such as Maxwell, Faraday, and Lavoisier, who are not as well known as Einstein today. Balancing writerly energy and scholarly weight, Bodanis offers a primer in modern physics and cosmology, explaining that the universe today is an expression of mass that will, in some vastly distant future, one day slide back to the energy side of the equation, replacing the "dominion of matter" with "a great stillness"--a vision that is at once lovely and profoundly frightening.

Without sliding into easy psychobiography, Bodanis explores other circumstances as well; namely, Einstein's background and character, which combined with a sterling intelligence to afford him an idiosyncratic view of the way things work--a view that would change the world. --Gregory McNamee

337 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2000
Literary awards
independent publisher book award (ippy), 

This edition

Format
337 pages, Paperback
Published
October 1, 2000 by Berkley Trade
ISBN
9780425181645
ASIN
0425181642
Language
English

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About the author

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david bodanis

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David Bodanis' latest book THE ART OF FAIRNESS: THE POWER OF DECENCY IN A WORLD TURNED MEAN was published November 2020 and asks the question that has long fascinated David: Can you succeed without being a terrible person? The answer is 'Yes, but you need skill', and the book shows how. I demonstrate those insights through a series of biographies…

David Bodanis is the bestselling author of THE SECRET HOUSE and E=MC2, which was turned into a PBS documentary and a Southbank Award-winning ballet at Sadler's Wells. David also wrote ELECTRIC UNIVERSE, which won the Royal Society Science Book of the Year Prize, and PASSIONATE MINDS, a BBC Book of the Week. Then a return to Einstein and the struggles he went through with EINSTEIN'S GREATEST MISTAKE which was named ‘Science Book of the Year' by the Sunday Times, and also widely translated.

David has worked for the Royal Dutch Shell Scenario Prediction unit and the World Economic Forum. He has been a popular speaker at TED conferences and at Davos. His work has been published in the Financial Times, the Guardian, and the New York Times, and has appeared on Newsnight, Start the Week, and other programs. When not slumped in front of a laptop, he has been known to attempt kickboxing, with highly variable results.

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Toksic
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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this book is a whole lot of fun. bodanis spreads his arms real wide and grabs a huge of load of knowledge-forming information, packs it all together like neutrons and protons, forms it into a nice little ball and hands it to you on a thin, ceramic plate that had last been used to feed sloppy joes to a ten year old glued to the public broadcasting system.

a millisecond-by-millisecond narrative of the hiroshima bomb's innards as it fell was the most thrilling ten minutes of reading i've had in a while.
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i-animecat-99
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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The thrills of being in the queue at Houston’s court house:

A couple of weeks ago I was summo
ns for jury duty, so while in line, seeing if I was going to be selected, a gentleman in his early sixties was reading this book titled “E=MC2.” I overheard him sharing that he was enjoying it, so that was enough to get my curiosity up.

I guess this book is an expansion of a book I read a few weeks ago titled “A Brief History of Time” by Steven Hawking. I don’t believe this book was written as well as Hawkins’ book, but it had some amazing items in it that just astonished me.

For example, the atomic boom we dropped on Japan in World War II exploded 2,000 feet above the earth. In addition, militarily we didn’t even need to drop this boom to win the war, so I guess tens of thousands of lives could have been saved. Furthermore, we dropped it directly over a hospital, but that’s really a moot point considering the power and velocity of this weapon.

More importantly, this book helps me with my understanding of the world and universe we live in. It’s fascinating to glimpse or even think about different dimensions of space and time within our universe. Let alone how the big bang theories apply to our current space in time, and how our universe is developing.

I mean how does one capture the depths of this in just a few paragraphs? All I can say is OMG, there is so much to learn. Keep it coming.
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PinkAntartic
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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Another Science History book... this one not as good as others. Still it had a lot of interesting notes on renowned science figures. Unfortunately, it seemed to dwell on war history and salacious tidbits which may be interesting to some but not to me.
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tomoyohime
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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A lot of this book is not easy to follow despite the obvious efforts Bodanis has put in to make it more accessible to the lay reader. It's the anecdotes that make it an interesting read. The author marries his narrative of scientific progress with the last two centuries' pivotal events. This makes it not just a recounting of the triumph of science but also a chronicle of the role scientists have played in shaping history. The high point of this book is the part dealing with the development and the use of the atom bomb. Its fascinating as well as harrowing. That part more than makes up for the numerous duller tracts.
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snakeguy33
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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Extremely technical and science forward. Wouldn’t read it again but there were some interesting facts and history.
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mc_anime_
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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This book made me fall in love with physics all over again. Much like spinning together a crazy plot or fairy tale, scientists must think "out-of-the-box" in order to take a theory to the next level. You kind of feel lighter than air as you read about their thought process.

I loved picturing Einstein at his home with his newborn son on his knee, plotting how light affects the conversion from mass to energy. There is something fantastic about equations--the way all the pieces fit together is quite inspiring. Bodanis also describes how the atomic bomb was developed and other applications of of E=mc(squared).

Anyway, Bodanis is one of my favorite authors. I would also recommend his book about Emilie du Chatlet and Voltaire. He manages to merge science with history and make his vignettes come alive with oodles of odd factoids and anecdotes.

I see here that one reviewer thought that some of the mathematics in this book were incorrect. For me, I wasn't as concerned with accuracy, preferring to read about how people solve problems, build off of each others ideas, and how jealous and ego-centric scientists can be. A great read.
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Animecyupcyake
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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I so enjoy science histories, and this is a good one, amply demonstrating that geniuses are people, too, with all their conceits, deceits, and prejudices. As advertised, one need not be scientifically inclined to understand the World's Most Famous Equation. This is an easy read, and, if the author may swing a little wild with some of his examples and philosophizing, he manages to get his points across with room to spare.
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