BOOKS

摘要

Joe Theismann, a quarterback earlier in his career and now a broadcaster, once opined, "Nobody in the game of football should be called a genius." This is because, as he explained, "a genius is somebody like Norman Einstein," thereby finishing his thought while reinforcing his point. In Einstein's Mistakes: The Human Failings of Genius, author Hans Ohanian, Ph.D., takes a different approach to examining Albert Einstein, generally regarded as the greatest physicist of the 20th century. His theories, his quips and bits of wisdom, his life, and his influence have been widely and frequently chronicled in print, but here his numerous wrong turns, his failed attempts, and his outright errors in the formulation of the work his reputation is built on are given center stage. Despite the provocative title, the book is not an attempt to diminish Einstein's legacy or to beat an antiscience drum. Ohanian, who has authored several physics textbooks and many journal articles, has written a book that the layman will find understandable and entertaining, although some acquaintance with the terms and concepts of physics and science will be helpful.