How an unknown German and an Englishman on opposite sides of WWI created a scientific revolution

In 1916, Arthur Eddington, a war-weary British astronomer, opened a letter written by an obscure German professor named Einstein. The neatly printed equations on the scrap of paper outlined his world-changing theory of general relativity, the first complete revision of our conception of the universe since Isaac Newton.

Until then, Einsteins masterpiece of time and space had been trapped behind the physical and ideological lines of battle, unknown. Many Britons were rejecting anything German, but...