Jeffrey Orens is a former chemical engineer and business executive with Solvay Chemical who has written for several history publications and has an exceptional eye for overlooked gems in history. He lives in Fairfield, New Jersey.
“Orens’s approach to the lives and works of the attendees, through
the story of this conference, is unusual and well-conceived.
The Soul of Genius revisits what is certainly one of the most
exciting, turbulent periods in the history of science and better
acquaints us with people who played significant roles in this
drama."
*The Washington Post*
"Einstein's often-forgotten links to the empirically minded Marie
Curie receive highly illuminating scrutiny from a researcher
affiliated with the Solvay Institutes, sponsor of the 1911
conference in Brussels that brought these two brilliant minds
together. Readers share in the intellectual ferment of this
singular conference, and Orens recounts how these two pioneers
won each other’s admiration for their complementary roles in
forging a twentieth-century physics. The narrative teaches readers
a great deal about the scientific research of Einstein and Curie;
however, it also probes the tangled romantic lives of both
scientists. A compellingportrait of two geniuses, remarkable for
their conceptual daring and emotional complexity."
*Booklist, STARRED REVIEW*
“The Soul of Genius is the engaging story of science at a
crossroads, a telling of how the world was transformed from the
long-held ideas of Newton to those of Einstein and Curie that
define modern physics. Deeply researched and masterfully
told, The Soul of Genius is a ground-breaking book that
delves deep into the story of how an ‘assembly of genius’ led to
how we perceive the physical world today.”
*John Dvorak, author of The Last Volcano and Mask of the Sun*
“Imagine you could gather the world’s most brilliant minds to
debate the fundamental nature of reality – this was the opportunity
seized a century ago by the Belgian industrialist Ernest Solvay,
wrangling Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and a mountain of Nobel
Prize winners to solve the mysteries of quantum physics. The Soul
of Genius takes us through these epochal Solvay Conferences,
focusing on the scientific ideas and personal lives of Curie and
Einstein. In compelling stories, we see how they changed the world
against a backdrop featuring the Mona Lisa, a fair bit of
swordplay, and a world war. A marvelous tale of how science
actually works.”
*Matthew Stanley, New York University, author of EINSTEIN'S
WAR*
“Jeffery Orens’ insightful work exploits the Age of Information as
a marvelous time for deep research, uncovered details, unexpected
cross-connections, and scandalous gossip. The Soul of
Genius is a new examination of how the Solvay Conferences of
Physics, beginning in 1911, brought together people who would turn
science upside down and change our view of reality. Two
participants, Marie Curie and Albert Einstein, were key influencers
in this revolution, and Orens’ analysis of their collision at
Solvay is thorough and revealing. Read all about it, and soak
yourself in the details.”
*James Mahaffey, author of Atomic Accidents and Atomic
Adventures*
“A dual biography of ‘the two brilliant individuals who have made
the greatest impression on people across the world when they think
of science’…and the iconic first 1911 Solvay Conference in
Brussels. Einstein and Curie met [at this conference] and
remained friends. [Einstein’s] groundbreaking discovery at the
birth of quantum mechanics…was among the first proven phenomena to
contradict Newton’s laws and scientists are still trying to
reconcile these quantum effects and classical physics. Fiercely
dedicated, ambitious, and workaholic, Curie overcame poverty and
the almost universal prejudice against educated women to became the
first internationally famous woman scientist.
The Soul of Genius is a good read and
introduction to two of the 20th century’s greatest
geniuses.”
*Kirkus Reviews*
“Toward the end of his life, when asked which physicist he most
respected, Albert Einstein replied ‘Hendrik Lorentz and Marie
Curie.’ At the momentous inaugural Solvay conference,Einstein, the
meeting’s youngest participant, was dazzled by the ‘sparkling
intelligence’ of Curie, and she was impressed with him, too, and
soon afterward gave him a glowing reference that helped to secure
his first professorship. Vivid. [Upon Curie’s death,]
Einstein’s tribute to her life gives some of the most compelling
evidence of the closeness of their friendship and the depth of his
admiration for her. A rewarding read.”
*Science Magazine*
“Curie’s first Nobel Prize had been for the physics of
radioactivity; her second would be for the chemistry of radium. It
coincided with a further crisis that forms a major part of Jeffrey
Orens’s The Soul of Genius, [along with]
the historic conference that is the central event of Oren’s
book. The The First Solvay Conference has gone down as a landmark
event, the start of a series that continues to the present
day. The story of Curie’s love affair had broken just as the
conference was ending. Then, only a few days later, came the
announcement that Marie was to be awarded the Nobel Prize for
chemistry. She was at the eye of a media storm. Curie was due
to receive her second Nobel the following month, and the committee
was nervous. Curie replied, ‘I consider that there is no relation
between my scientific work and the facts of private life.’ On Dec.
10, she went to Stockholm and received her award. By the end of the
month she was seriously ill and in a hospital. ‘She had paid a
tremendous cost for being a woman of principle,’ Mr. Orens writes.
‘It was a price that would never be fully recovered.’”
*Wall Street Journal*
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