conveys the discoveries that various scientists made, the challenges they
faced, and the determination with which they championed their ideas.
chronicles Michael Faraday's journey from bookbinder's apprentice to lab
assistant and follows Faraday's quest to understand the interaction of
electricity and magnetism.
introduces a young Albert Einstein, who was growing up at a time when new
ideas about energy were being formed.
follows the life of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier as he investigates the
nature of matter and devises experiments that show that matter is always
conserved in a chemical reaction.
shows the central role that Lavoisier's wife, Marie Anne, played in
helping him run his lab, illustrate his experiments, and translate other
scientists' work.
describes how James Clerk Maxwell was able to mathematically show that
light is a form of electromagnetism, a finding supporting Faraday's belief that
light was an electromagnetic wave.
recounts Einstein's reflections on light and how he came to understand
its nature.
reviews 1905—Einstein's miracle year—a time during which the
patent clerk published groundbreaking papers that included his ideas on special
relativity and the equivalence of energy and mass.
notes that Einstein spent four years answering queries about his ideas
before his brilliance was fully recognized and he was appointed professor of
physics at Zurich University.
relates the first confirmation of Einstein's equation in 1938 by Otto
Hahn and Fritz Strassmann who, without knowing it, split the atom—an
accomplishment that was realized by Lise Meitner and Otto Robert Frisch.
notes how the splitting of the atom was applied to the creation of the
atomic bomb.
concludes with ways E = mc2 is being applied by
physicists today.
NOVA explores the stories behind E = mc2 and relates how
Einstein came to his startling conclusion that mass and energy are two forms of
the same thing.
