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

Description

A book which offers fresh perspectives on the scientific developments of the past 100 years through the complementary work of two of the century's greatest thinkers, Einstein and Freud. At the turn of the century there was a widespread assumption in scientific circles that the pursuit of knowledge was nearing its end and that all available evidence had been exhausted. However, by 1916 both Einstein and Freud had exploded the myth by leading exploration into the science of the invisible and the unconscious. These men were more than just contemporaries - their separate pursuits were in fact complementary. Freud's science of psychoanalysis found its cosmological counterpart in the Astronomy of Invisible Light pioneered by Einstein. Together they questioned the little inconsistencies of Newton's ordered cosmos to reveal a different reality, a natural order that was anything but ordered, a cosmos that was volatile and vast - an organism alive in time. These men inspired a fundamental shift in the history of human thought. They began a revolution that is still in progress and provided one of the past century's greatest contributions to the history of science.

Richard Panek has written for the New York Times Magazine, Outside, 'Esquire and the Chicago Tribune, and is a contributing writer at Elle and Mirabella. He is the winner of the PEN award for short fiction, and the author of Waterloo Diamonds and The Invisible Century. He lives in New York.

'Fascinating. Panek's presentation is masterly.' New York Times 'Read this book. From it you can learn a great deal not just about how science works, or how scientists think, but also about how they define the science they do.' Guardian 'Positively humming with intellectual excitement.' Financial Times