Once upon Einstein

"It is well known that Einstein founded twentieth-century physics with his work on relativity and quanta, but what do we really know about these ground breaking ideas? How were they discovered? What should we retain today from the conceptual upheavals he initiated? Through a selection of concrete scenes taken from Einstein's life, the author offers a view into the formation of his theories, as well as reminders of the day-to-day applications of his ideas. Simultaneously the reader is lead through a reflection on their philosophical impact: How should we think of time according to the theory of relativity, which removes any meaningful "now" and shows that twins can have different ages? How should we think of reality when quantum theory predicts that spatially separated objects nevertheless remain connected through Einstein's notion of "entanglement," which has recently been verified through scientific observation? This book puts readers in Einstein's place, allowing them to share some of those particular moments when he succeeded in "lifting a corner of the great veil."--Publisher's website.

"It is well known that Einstein founded twentieth-century physics with his work on relativity and quanta. But what is really known of the essential ideas contributed by Einstein? How were they discovered? What should we retain today from the conceptual upheavals he initiated? Through a selection of concrete scenes taken from Einstein's life, this book offers a view into the formation of his theories, as well as reminders of the day-to-day applications of the ideas."--Jacket.

1. The question of time -- The eagle and the sparrow -- Space and time before Einstein -- Ether : the materialization of absolute space -- Butterflies in a ship's cabin -- "The step" -- Time deregulated -- Temporal refrigerators -- An infinite multiplicity of desynchronized times -- 2. The world's checkerboard -- "Time does not exist!" -- Bergson and Einstein -- The Princesse de Guermantes listens to Einstein -- A new "world" : space-time -- Methodological interlude on the notion of "real" -- The space-time block -- The world's checkerboard -- A tenacious illusion -- Lorentz, Poincaré, Einstein, Minkowski, and special relativity -- Ephemeral matter -- A profound simplification of the basic categories of reality -- 3. Elastic space-time -- Newton unthroned -- Suddenly famous -- "The happiest thought of my life" -- Einstein's elevator -- Towards a generalized relativity -- Einstein's theory in a phrase and an image -- Space-time deformed -- Einstein's law of space-time elasticity -- The strength of space-time elasticity -- 4. Einstein's world-game -- Mercury advances, the Sphinx speaks -- Vibrational waves in the space-time gelatin -- Thinking of the whole -- Large space-time deform…