Edward Nagel

Fervor of the Minds (Part Two) Edward Nagel

This is part two of a two part book in a kind of "what if?" Amadeus format telling the story of the meetings and interactions of Albert Einstein, Kurt Godel, Niels Bohr and John Wheeler, scientists at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study in l942 After a dinner at Einstein's home, part two starts when Einstein and Godel meet the day after Godel had, at Einstein's 70th birthday party, presented him with his essay for the Schlipp program, where Godel takes the field equations of Einstein's general relativity, his time/space continuum and creates his worlds with time and his method of going back in time in space ships. The last chapter has Einstein, Godel and Bohr arrive from the grave and meet Wheeler in Einstein's old office and review how their inventions in physics and math have stood the test of time and critique of their colleagues.