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conveys the discoveries that various scientists made, the
challenges they faced, and the determination with which they
championed their ideas.
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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.
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introduces a young Albert Einstein, who was growing up at a time
when new ideas about energy were being formed.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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recounts Einstein's reflections on light and how he came to
understand its nature.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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notes how the splitting of the atom was applied to the creation
of the atomic bomb.
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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.
