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Who Got Einstein's Office? Eccentricity and Genius at the Institute for Advanced Study
It was home to Einstein in decline, the place where Kurt Göedel starved himself in paranoid delusion, and where J. Robert Oppenheimer rode out his political persecution in the Director's mansion. It is the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey; at one time or another, home to fourteen Nobel laureates, most of the great physicists and mathematicians of the modern era, and two of the most exciting developments in twentieth-century science—cellular automata and superstrings. Who Got Einstein's Office? tells for the first time the story of this secretive institution and of its fascinating personalities.
336 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1987
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360 people want to read
About the author
Ed Regis
29 books14 followersEd Regis holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from New York University and taught for many years at Howard University. He is now a full-time science writer, contributing to Scientific American, Harper's Magazine, Wired, Discover, and The New York Times, among other periodicals.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 23, 2023
WHO GOT EINSTEIN'S OFFICE or The Right to be Lazy. Sometimes the best place for physics, mathematics and philosophy is where you are guaranteed and paid to do absolutely nothing but think, and if your thinking comes up with absolutely nothing, that's fine too. Albert Einstein spent two decades at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton---in fact the Institute had been built back in the Thirties just to lure him into settling permanently in the United States---working on Unified Field Theory, reconciling gravity with electromagnetism, which, of course yielded no results. Saith one peer, "if Einstein had gone fishing for the last twenty years of his life the impact on physics would have been the same". The Institute also yielded Superstring Theory as one possible answer, and that's gone kaput as well. But, what about after Einstein? and, after After? Kurt Godel, Einstein's bestie, whose Incompleteness Theorem I have already reviewed on Goodreads, was so shocked by his own findings that he turned first to spiritualism and then self-mortification, starving himself to death in the Seventies. Perhaps the greatest scientist to haunt the Institute after Einstein was John Von Neumann, arguably the most important thinker almost no one has heard of. Von Neumann conjured up both The Prisoner's Dilemma in Game Theory (a version of which would later win the Noble Prize for John Nash; see A BEAUTIFUL MIND) and the Von Neumann Machine; a theoretical construct of a device that could maintain, repair and copy itself, thus allowing for travel across vast distances in space. (This raises the question of whether such a machine would be alive; after all, it can give birth to others like it.) Kudos also to John, a ferocious Hungarian anti-communist, for defending fellow Institute resident J. Robert Oppenheimer from the Red Scare witch hunters. Ed Regis gives us a guided tour of misfits, zanies, crackpots and other geniuses who idled away at the Institute and in so doing made the modern scientific world.
April 22, 2012
Rare specimen in science divulgation literature, as it provides insight not only in the personal and intellectual characters of past and present and the future of science, but also in the organizational challenges that research institutes face. Its final analysis on scientific truth and theories of knowledge is a masterpiece in its style. A must-read if you are interested in the future of science and the most advanced theories, but also if you would like to know why the hell does scientific developments take so long. My only criticism is that its character development is flat and näive.
February 6, 2008
THe Institute for Advanced Studies is a very interesting yet obscure neighbor to better known cousin Princeton University. Extremely well funded playground for exceptional minds best known for hosting Einstein (after he was a star) it describes the politics of science and the value of a purely theoretical research center.
It's fun for those who enjoy reading about the eccentric and brilliant minds that shape our realities while living outside ours.
It's fun for those who enjoy reading about the eccentric and brilliant minds that shape our realities while living outside ours.
July 25, 2017
A very interesting and good book.
August 12, 2013
Very enjoyable mixture of history, biography, and science, not to mention some great observations on the nature of research and the divisions between experimentalists and theorists.
November 25, 2024
A lot of interesting stories about interesting scientific luminaries.
June 24, 2023
The good
- Gives you a deep appreciation for the realm of research and the audacious attempt of humans to understand, well, everything! The book offers a small glimpse into the life and work of some of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century. I definitely found myself daydreaming about what it would be like to do what they do, and spend all day trying to unravel the underpinnings of our entire universe.
- An interesting look at some of the remarkable researchers who worked at the IaS, including, of course Albert Einstein, but also Kurt Göedel, John von Neumann, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Wolfgang Pauli, Freeman Dyson, Thomas Kuhn, Stephen Wolfram, and many others.
- The book does a nice job of describing the research of these folks—which included complex topics like quantum physics, string theory, and cellular automata—in a way that will be accessible and interesting for most readers. It was also interesting to see that the institute focused more or less exclusively on theoretical research; no experiments or other practical work here, thank you.
- The author has a good sense of humor; I found myself laughing out loud a few times.
- You get a good glimpse into the occasional politics and ego's that arise at such an institute. The several faculty "mutinies"; the battle over who gets credit for various findings; the dismissive attitude of one scholar towards the research of another. Academia and research are not always neat and pretty.
The not so good
- The book is oddly dismissive of researchers outside of the math and science fields.
- The book seems to optimize for breadth over depth, covering a number of researchers, but with only a short glimpse at each of them. Often, just as things started to get interesting—just as you started to get into the life of some scientist or become curious about their research—the book would move on to the next one, leaving you hanging.
- Gives you a deep appreciation for the realm of research and the audacious attempt of humans to understand, well, everything! The book offers a small glimpse into the life and work of some of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century. I definitely found myself daydreaming about what it would be like to do what they do, and spend all day trying to unravel the underpinnings of our entire universe.
- An interesting look at some of the remarkable researchers who worked at the IaS, including, of course Albert Einstein, but also Kurt Göedel, John von Neumann, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Wolfgang Pauli, Freeman Dyson, Thomas Kuhn, Stephen Wolfram, and many others.
- The book does a nice job of describing the research of these folks—which included complex topics like quantum physics, string theory, and cellular automata—in a way that will be accessible and interesting for most readers. It was also interesting to see that the institute focused more or less exclusively on theoretical research; no experiments or other practical work here, thank you.
- The author has a good sense of humor; I found myself laughing out loud a few times.
- You get a good glimpse into the occasional politics and ego's that arise at such an institute. The several faculty "mutinies"; the battle over who gets credit for various findings; the dismissive attitude of one scholar towards the research of another. Academia and research are not always neat and pretty.
The not so good
- The book is oddly dismissive of researchers outside of the math and science fields.
- The book seems to optimize for breadth over depth, covering a number of researchers, but with only a short glimpse at each of them. Often, just as things started to get interesting—just as you started to get into the life of some scientist or become curious about their research—the book would move on to the next one, leaving you hanging.
September 3, 2025
Science friction
I first read this several years ago, but sought out a copy to re-read prior to a visit to Princeton next month. It's a gossipy, popular account of the Princeton Institute For Advanced Study, a centre for theoretical research which is most famous as the academic home for Albert Einstein in the last twenty years of his life. Other luminaries associated with the institute included the logician Kurt Godel, the mathematician John von Neumann, the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the polymath Freeman Dyson. Plus a group of Nobel laureates whose size is out of all proportion to that of the institute. The author describes how the institute was set up as a haven for scholars in which knowledge could be pursued for its own sake (without worrying about its practical applications or teaching), and gives thumbnail sketches of the achievements and characters of some its most distinguished members, and the way in which they interacted with each other. He also discusses some of their work in abstruse fields such as string theory, fractal geometry, complex systems, philosophy of science and pure mathematics, and presents this in a way which is both intelligible and entertaining.
I enjoyed re-reading this book. Some of the same ground is covered by Turing's Cathedral, although that book (written by George, the son of Freeman Dyson) focusses more intently on von Neumann and his development of one of the world's first electronic computers at the Institute - notwithstanding its focus on less practical topics. The present volume is written in a livelier style, which makes it a pleasant, interesting read in spite of the elevated nature of some of the subjects it's concerned with.
Originally reviewed 26 October 2016
I first read this several years ago, but sought out a copy to re-read prior to a visit to Princeton next month. It's a gossipy, popular account of the Princeton Institute For Advanced Study, a centre for theoretical research which is most famous as the academic home for Albert Einstein in the last twenty years of his life. Other luminaries associated with the institute included the logician Kurt Godel, the mathematician John von Neumann, the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the polymath Freeman Dyson. Plus a group of Nobel laureates whose size is out of all proportion to that of the institute. The author describes how the institute was set up as a haven for scholars in which knowledge could be pursued for its own sake (without worrying about its practical applications or teaching), and gives thumbnail sketches of the achievements and characters of some its most distinguished members, and the way in which they interacted with each other. He also discusses some of their work in abstruse fields such as string theory, fractal geometry, complex systems, philosophy of science and pure mathematics, and presents this in a way which is both intelligible and entertaining.
I enjoyed re-reading this book. Some of the same ground is covered by Turing's Cathedral, although that book (written by George, the son of Freeman Dyson) focusses more intently on von Neumann and his development of one of the world's first electronic computers at the Institute - notwithstanding its focus on less practical topics. The present volume is written in a livelier style, which makes it a pleasant, interesting read in spite of the elevated nature of some of the subjects it's concerned with.
Originally reviewed 26 October 2016
October 22, 2020
For anyone who enjoys learning about how some of the greatest minds of the 20th Century came to live and work on a campus just outside of Princeton NJ, this will be a fun read for you.
May 29, 2025
cool look on science
but is science even real?
maybe, maybe not
but is science even real?
maybe, maybe not
March 4, 2024
I first read this in 1987 when it came out. Having read quite a bit about Einstein before that the title was intriguing. I enjoyed re-reading the book because it talked about many other scientists who spent time at the Institute for Advanced Study. It also provided some of the history of the Institute and how it came to be.
Margaret Geller was covered and I remember sitting in on a public presentation of hers, back in 1987 or 88, about her work discussed in this book.
Stephen Wolfram (creator of Mathematica) was also covered and his work on cellular automata. Most of the other people in the book have since died. Still, reading about some of their accomplishments was enjoyable.
If you like science you'll probably like this book.
Margaret Geller was covered and I remember sitting in on a public presentation of hers, back in 1987 or 88, about her work discussed in this book.
Stephen Wolfram (creator of Mathematica) was also covered and his work on cellular automata. Most of the other people in the book have since died. Still, reading about some of their accomplishments was enjoyable.
If you like science you'll probably like this book.
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January 25, 2013507.20974 R3371 1988
May 28, 2008
Fascinating.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews