Preface to the Paperback Edition ix
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction A Hundred Times More Than Relativity Theory 1
Chapter 1 "An Act of Desperation" 5
Chapter 2 The Impudent Swabian 15
Chapter 3 The Gypsy Life 21
Chapter 4 Two Pillars of Wisdom 26
Chapter 5 The Perfect Instruments of the Creator 36
Chapter 6 More Heat Than Light 44
Chapter 7 Difficult Counting 51
Chapter 8 Those Fabulous Molecules 62
Chapter 9 Tripping the Light Heuristic 70
Chapter 10 Entertaining the Contradiction 80
Chapter 11 Stalking the Planck 86
Chapter 12 Calamity Jeans 94
Chapter 13 Frozen Vibrations 103
Chapter 14 Planck's Nobel Nightmare 111
Chapter 15 Joining the Union 122
Chapter 16 Creative Fusion 129
Chapter 17 The Importance of Being Nernst 141
Chapter 18 Lamenting the Ruins 149
Chapter 19 A Cosmic Interlude 160
Chapter 20 Bohr's Atomic Sonata 168
Chapter 21 Relying on Chance 181
Chapter 22 Chaotic Ghosts 193
Chapter 23 Fifteen Million Minutes of Fame 204
Chapter 24 The Indian Comet 215
Chapter 25 Quantum Dice 228
Chapter 26 The Royal Marriage: E = mc² = h¿ 241
Chapter 27 The Viennese Polymath 254
Chapter 28 Confusion and Then Uncertainty 268
Chapter 29 Nicht diese Töne 279
Appendix 1: The Physicists 287
Appendix 2: The Three Thermal Radiation Laws 291
Notes 295
References 319
Index 325

The untold story of Albert Einstein's role as the father of quantum theory
Einstein and the Quantum reveals for the first time the full significance of Albert Einstein's contributions to quantum theory. Einstein famously rejected quantum mechanics, observing that God does not play dice. But, in fact, he thought more about the nature of atoms, molecules, and the emission and absorption of light-the core of what we now know as quantum theory-than he did about relativity.
A compelling blend of physics, biography, and the history of science, Einstein and the Quantum shares the untold story of how Einstein-not Max Planck or Niels Bohr-was the driving force behind early quantum theory. It paints a vivid portrait of the iconic physicist as he grappled with the apparently contradictory nature of the atomic world, in which its invisible constituents defy the categories of classical physics, behaving simultaneously as both particle and wave. And it demonstrates how Einstein's later work on the emission and absorption of light, and on atomic gases, led directly to Erwin Schrödinger's breakthrough to the modern form of quantum mechanics. The book sheds light on why Einstein ultimately renounced his own brilliant work on quantum theory, due to his deep belief in science as something objective and eternal.

A. Douglas Stone is the Carl A. Morse Professor of Applied Physics and Physics at Yale University.