"In Five Equations That Changed the World, Dr. Michael Guillen, known to millions as the Science Editor on ABC-TV's Good Morning America, tells the amazing stories of the people and discoveries that led to the five most powerful and important scientific achievements in human history. In doing so, Dr. Guillen reveals in simple, everyday language the secret world of mathematics." "It was through the brilliance of these five fascinating people: a sickly love-starved loner; an emotionally abused prodigy from a dysfunctional family; a religious, poverty-stricken illiterate; a soft-spoken widower living in perilous times; and a smart-alecky high-school dropout - that we were able to harness the power of electricity, fly in airplanes, land astronauts on the moon, build a nuclear bomb, and understand the mortality of all life on Earth."--Jacket.