Inside Einstein's Mind

One hundred years have passed since Albert Einstein revolutionized the world with his theory of general relativity. Filmmaker Jamie Lochhead's PBS-aired NOVA documentary examines how a rebellious loner yet also deeply curious man sought to understand the underlying laws of the universe. As a child, Einstein rarely spoke, and he excelled in math and science, but was an indifferent student in other areas. Einstein was a persistent daydreamer, capable of conducting thought experiments—essentially imagined situations in which he visualized his theories on gravity, space, and time. Einstein's work was slow to gain acceptance, but by 1915 he had become a celebrity and his theories competed for headline attention with the outbreak of World War I. After the war, Einstein ran afoul of the Nazis, not only because of his Jewish background, but also because they found his ideas repugnant. Moving to the United States in the early 1930s, he worked at Princeton University, and befriended fellow pacifist Charlie Chaplin, while continuing to refine his ideas, even as they were falling out of fashion. Since Einstein's death in 1955, new technology has allowed physicists to test and expand his research in ways that Einstein could only dream about, notably in areas including black holes, the Big Bang theory, the expanding universe, the curvature of space-time, and gravitational waves (Einstein's theory on the latter was confirmed in early 2016). His research has also had practical benefits, helping to make the widespread Global Positioning System possible. Offering a fine tribute to the earth-shaking power of a single idea—Einstein's theory of general relativity—this is highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)