In his bestselling E=mc2, David Bodanis led us, with astonishing
ease, through the world's most famous equation. Now, in "Electric
Universe, he illuminates the wondrous yet invisible force that
permeates our universe--and introduces us to the virtuoso
scientists who plumbed its secrets.
For centuries, electricity was seen as little more than a curious
property of certain substances that sparked when rubbed. Then, in
the 1790s, Alessandro Volta began the scientific investigation that
ignited an explosion of knowledge and invention. The force that
once seemed inconsequential was revealed to be responsible for
everything from the structure of the atom to the functioning of our
brains. In harnessing its power, we have created a world of
wonders--complete with roller coasters and radar, computer networks
and psychopharmaceuticals.
A superb storyteller, Bodanis weaves tales of romance, divine
inspiration, and fraud through lucid accounts of scientific
breakthroughs. The great discoverers come to life in all their
brilliance and idiosyncrasy, including the visionary Michael
Faraday, who struggled against the prejudices of the British class
system, and Samuel Morse, a painter who, before inventing the
telegraph, ran for mayor of New York City on a platform of
persecuting Catholics. Here too is Alan Turing, whose dream of a
marvelous thinking machine--what we know as the computer--was met
with indifference, and who ended his life in despair after British
authorities forced him to undergo experimental treatments to "cure"
his homosexuality.
From the frigid waters of the Atlantic to the streets of Hamburg
during a World War II firestorm to the interior of the human body,
"ElectricUniverse is a mesmerizing journey of discovery by a master
science writer.
"From the Hardcover edition.
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