The Hunt for Vulcan
How Albert Einstein destroyed a planet and deciphered the universe
Thomas Levenson
Speaking Tiger
229 pages; Rs 695
This book stitches together a history of physics from Newton to Einstein, by chronicling the hunt for a planet that did not exist, alongside searches for several planets that did. Astronomy has always been an important test-bed for physics. To be taken seriously, physicists must make predictions that match and explain the observational data of astronomy.
This dependence on astronomy started in the 17th century, Circa 1609, Galileo started mapping the sky, using the newly-invented telescope. He also put together his blasphemous
