God's Equation: Einstein, Relativity, and the Expanding Universe Paperback - 2000

First line

Saul Perlmutter sat in his office high in the Berkeley hills overlooking the San Francisco Bay and watched the sun set below the Golden Gate Bridge.

From the rear cover

Are we on the verge of solving the riddle of creation using Einstein's "greatest blunder"?
In a work that is at once lucid, exhilarating and profound, renowned mathematician Dr. Amir Aczel, critically acclaimed author of Fermat's Last Theorem, takes us into the heart of science's greatest mystery. In January 1998, astronomers found evidence that the cosmos is expanding at an ever-increasing rate. The way we perceive the universe was changed forever. The most compelling theory cosmologists could find to explain this phenomenon was Einstein's cosmological constant, a theory he conceived--and rejected---over eighty years ago.
Drawing on newly discovered letters of Einstein--many translated here for the first time--years of research, and interviews with prominent mathematicians, cosmologists, physicists, and astronomers, Aczel takes us on a fascinating journey into "the strange geometry of space-time," and into the mind of a genius. Here the unthinkable becomes real: an infinite, ever-expanding, ever-accelerating universe whose only absolute is the speed of light. Awesome in scope, thrilling in detail, God's Equation is storytelling at its finest.

From the jacket flap

Are we on the verge of solving the riddle of creation using Einstein's "greatest blunder"?
In a work that is at once lucid, exhilarating and profound, renowned mathematician Dr. Amir Aczel, critically acclaimed author of Fermat's Last Theorem, takes us into the heart of science's greatest mystery. In January 1998, astronomers found evidence that the cosmos is expanding at an ever-increasing rate. The way we perceive the universe was changed forever. The most compelling theory cosmologists could find to explain this phenomenon was Einstein's cosmological constant, a theory he conceived--and rejected---over eighty years ago.
Drawing on newly discovered letters of Einstein--many translated here for the first time--years of research, and interviews with prominent mathematicians, cosmologists, physicists, and astronomers, Aczel takes us on a fascinating journey into "the strange geometry of space-time," and into the mind of a genius. Here the unthinkable becomes real: an infinite, ever-expanding, ever-accelerating universe whose only absolute is the speed of light. Awesome in scope, thrilling in detail, God's Equation is storytelling at its finest.

Media reviews

"[Einstein's] field equation remains the closest thing we have to a divine blueprint for the universe....Aczel gives a very readable account of the science and the scientists involved."
-- Kirkus Reviews

"There is something startling on just about every page."
-- San Francisco Chronicle

"It is a wonderful time to glance back over Einstein's path in developing the field equation...fortunately, we have a fabulous guide in Amir D. Aczel."
-- Discover

Citations

• Scitech Book News, 03/01/2001, Page 46