A SMITHSONIAN BOOKThe third and final installment of a spectacular new series by Joy Hakim, author of the bestselling A History of US, who has been called the J.K. Rowling of nonfiction.

Einstein Adds a New Dimension explores the universe as Einstein saw it and delves into the mind-bending theories of physics in the twentieth and twenty-first century from the theory of Relativity to Chaos theory and String theory. Einstein was haunted by the question: "What would the world look like if I could sit on a beam of light?" Hakim explains how he tried to answer that question and developed a new kind of physics that pointed the way to the recent theories of particle physics and quantum mechanics. She shows how scientific thoughts today are often written in the language of mathematics, such as E=mc2, and explains clearly what that means. She tells us why relativity and quantum theory are perhaps the most important ideas of modern science, maybe of all time. She shows how scientists came to believe that nothing can go faster than the speed of light and nothing can be smaller than Planck's constant. She explores atomic theory, electrons and protons, and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. She writes about Nils Bohr, the science and scientists as Los Alamos, and follows the development of the atomic bomb. She examines the Big Bang theory, Hubble's telescope, and dark matter.