The Invisible Century: Einstein, Freud, and the Search for Hidden Universes

By Richard Panek

Book Overview

Though they met just once, and even then didn't know what to make of each other's work, Einstein and Freud had more in common than they might have imagined. Each ran out of evidence using the traditional scientific methods that had worked well since the dawn of the scientific revolution and each adopted new scientific methods that opened up unprecedented intellectual landscapes'relativity in Einstein's case, the unconscious in Freud's. In this brilliant, elegant book, renowned science writer Richard Panek traces the creation of two new sciences'cosmology and psychoanalysis'that have allowed us for more than a hundred years to explore previously unimaginable universes without and within.Like a nonfiction version of Einstein's Dreams, Panek's The Invisible Centuryis a story of a revolution in thought that altered not only what or how much we see, but also the very nature of seeing.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670030740
• ISBN13: 9780670030743
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

brilliant and intoxicating

I'm very careful about what science (or math. or anything that's not MBA) that I read, because usually these texts are dry, boring to the point of What's the Point? Why would an author write a book that seems to deliberately set out to lose readers is my question. But The Invisible Century is one of those extremely rare books (Bill Bryson's Short History of the World is the only other one in recent memory I can think of) that is not just fascinating, but also fascinatingly written, and that makes some extremely difficult ideas -- Einstein's theory's of relativy, hello? -- almost thrillingly understandable. I put down this book, and for the first time felt I understand what Einstein was driving at. Ditto went for Freud's theory of the unconscious. Panek's amazing point (kind of profound, when you think about it) is that Einstein began probing the heavens at the same time Freud began experimenting with his theories of the unconsicous -- that basically both men (who did meet once, acc. to Panek!), were after the secrets that lay behind invisible screens -- Einstein the sky, and what lay beyond it, and Freud our dreamworld and our id. Really fascinating stuff. Now as a topic, none of this is easy sledding. But it's RIchard Panek's great gift to make these profound contributions by two of the towering geniuses of the last century into something succinct, intriguing, readable, and easy-to-understand, while never patronizing the reader, or lapsing back into over-intellectual science talk. Except for the Bryson book, I didn't think there was such a thing as a science book I could not put down. But this is one. Buy The Invisible Century right now! You'll be glad you did!