Einstein's Enigma or Black holes in my bubble bath.

A book to inform, enrich and entertain every science educated reader.

This is a fascinating and enjoyable popular science book on gravity and black holes. It offers an absorbing account on the history of research on the universe and gravity from Aristotle via Copernicus and Newton to Einstein. The author possesses high literary qualities and is a celebrated relativist. The physics of black holes constitutes one of the most fascinating chapters in modern science but at  the same time, there is a fanciful quality associated with this strange and beautiful entity. The black hole story is undoubtedly an adventure through physics, philosophy, history, fiction and fantasy. This book is an attempt to blend all these elements together.Along with the prose, one also gets to enjoy poetry and cartoons by the author.

"The author blends fiction, fantasy, physics and philosophy to tell the story of gravitation theory...and the astrophysics of black holes. He not only succeeds at doing this; he entertains readers with delightful digressions and illustrates key concepts with wonderful cartoons, some purportedly scribbled on paper napkins..." (Michelle Press, Scientific American, January 2008).

 Here is a sample of a Poem from the book.......

The Plight of Light           or  Lamentations of Light         or Light's liberty lost

Oh my dear Albert E

Tell me, what have I done to thee?

I wandered fast and I wandered slow,

Much as a meandering river would flow.

But you made me travel with a constant c

Whatever the speed of the observer be.

You tucked me firmly into a curved space

I must now climb hills red in the face.

Straight as an arrow I used to go

How painful it is to bend like a bow.

Oft I get trapped in a gravitational field

Of your astronomer friend Schwarzschild.

Ever since the Big Bang, a long time back,

I have been stretched on the cosmic rack.

Worst of all, I am doomed to a double life,

As both particle and wave in a schizophrenic strife.

Oh, my dear, dear Albert E,

Tell me, why have you done this to me?

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