An entertaining, eye-opening account of the extraordinary team of innovators who discovered the laws of thermodynamics essential to understanding the world today-from refrigeration and jet engines to calorie counting and global warming-for fans of How We Got to Now and A Brief History of Nearly Everything.
The laws of thermodynamics-the branch of physics that deals with the relationship between heat and other forms of energy-govern everything from the behavior of atoms to living cells, from the engines that power our world to the black hole at the center of our galaxy. Not only that, but thermodynamics explains why we must eat and breathe, how the lights come on, and ultimately how the universe will end. Now, Einstein's Fridge tells the incredible epic story of how a group of scientists over two centuries uncovered the least known and yet most consequential of all the sciences, learned to harness the power of heat and ice, and formulate the universal theory essential to understanding the world as we know it.
The brilliant people who decoded its laws came from every branch of the sciences; they were engineers, physicists, chemists, biologists, cosmologists, and mathematicians. From French military engineer and physicist Sadi Carnot to Lord Kelvin, James Joule, Albert Einstein, Emmy Noether, Alan Turing, and Stephen Hawking, author Paul Sen introduces us to all of the players who passed the baton of scientific progress through time and across nations. Incredibly driven and idealistic, these brave pioneers performed groundbreaking work often in the face of torment and tragedy, and their discoveries kick-started the industrial revolution, changed the course of world wars, and informed our modern understanding of space.
An accessible and enlightening work that brings to life one of the most important scientific revolutions of all time, Einstein's Fridge captures the thrill of discovery and the power of scientific progress to shape the course of history.
