Einstein: A brief introduction

Being a history buff and spending the first 15-20 years after coming to the States reading science and medicine only, I naturally was in love with history of science; that is why I am still subscribing the Scientific American with an access to all its 170-year content online.

There was a special issue of Scientific American celebrating 100 years of general relativity last September.

I have been talking about the life and science of many scientists (yes, medicine is 100% science. as Dr. Osler said, “the practice of medicine is an art, based on science"; i.e. medicine by or in itself is not an art; practice of medicine is.) Rarely did I ever mention Einstein in my blog, lest the mention of “general relativity” scaring the readers away.

Einstein took a great interest in the history of science; in fact, his last interview (done two weeks before his death, published in Scientific American 7/1/1955) was with a historian of science.  He wrote many articles about Newton and other great scientists in history.

But come to think about it, there are many interesting things to talk about this Man of the last Century.

Einstein got his Nobel for photoelectric theory, not general relativity theory

When Einstein was formulating the idea of general relativity that will re-write the century-old Newtonian gravity law, even Max Planck advised him not to try it, “As an old friend, I must advise you against it. . . . You will not succeed, and even if you succeed, no one will believe you.”

The exact date of birth of quantum mechanics/physics is December 14, 1900 when Max Planck announced his revolutionary idea that energy emitted by a resonator could only take a discrete value (quanta, hence quantum mechanics; E = hf; E=energy, f=frequency, h=Planck constant).  Based on Planck’s concept, Einstein proposed in 1915 that light is also quantized—his photoelectric effect (E = hv) that earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921, ad Planck was so honored in 1918.

In fact, Einstein never got another Nobel Prize for his general relativity; I think part of the reason was that Nobel committee was so cautious and had no intention to make a fool of themselves by awarding something that might turn out wrong.

Charlie Chaplin once told Einstein, “The people applaud me because everybody understands me, and they applaud you because no one understands you.”

Einstein wrote an article for Scientific American (published in the issue of 4/1/1950, part of my collection) that came with a letter, saying “The article is somewhat long and not quite easy to grasp. I should, therefore, not be astonished if you find it unsuited for publication in your magazine.”  That letter is framed and displayed at the Scientific American’s office now.

Einstein is an ultimate pacifist during WWI

Einstein is an ultimate pacifist; a great man is often great in many aspects.  While reading WWI, I discovered how great an effort he made in trying to stop the war.  As I always said WWI shouldn’t have happened and WWII should fight at all costs.

Many intellectuals, including Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, Romain Rolland and Einstein (all Nobel laureates) in Europe tried to stop the war, but to no avail. Einstein wrote to Rolland on 3/25/1915, “When posterity recounts the achievements of Europe, shall we let man say that three centuries of painstaking cultural effort carried us no further than from religious fanaticism to the insanity of nationalization? In both camps, today even scholars behave as though eight months ago they suddenly lost their heads.”

When observations of the total eclipse in 1919 detected the light was indeed bent by the gravitational force that confirmed his general relativity theory was correct, Einstein used that fame to speak out many issues to right the wrong and advocate a just world government.

Einstein's hand written E = mc²

Manhattan Project

In 1939 when the physicist Leo Szilard wrote a letter to warn FDR that Nazi might be building an atomic bomb, leading to the Manhattan Project. Szilard asked Einstein to sign the letter and he did.  But, Einstein never actually participated in the project as the government never trusted him, as many of his views were that of a socialist and leftist.

As we all know that the tremendous energy of an atom is revealed by his most famous formula: E = mc², that c is speed of light; there is nothing can be faster than speed of light).  After Hiroshima, Einstein remarked, “If I knew they were going to do this, I would have become a shoemaker!”

Esoteric general relativity

An article about Einstein will not be complete without talking about his general relativity.  I will only mention a few very basic concepts as higher calculus will be required to have a better grasp.

In Newton’s gravity law the gravity force is merely from the mass, but in general relativity gravity is the “curvature of space due to the presence of mass”, as physicist John Wheeler said, general relativity shows that “space tells matter how to move; matter tells space how to curve.”

Space and time are not fixed absolutes; they are relative to one another, and influenced by observer’s motion. In particle physics experiments, it has been observed that unstable particles moving at a very high speeds take longer to decay [as time passing much slower] than those moving at much slower velocities.

Road to relativity: crises in life drive the creativity in science and in literature?

Einstein began an affair with his cousin in 1912, whom he later married. He and his first wife separated in 1914 and his wife moved to Zurich with their two sons.  Anti-Semitism was rising.  Einstein lived alone in Berlin, where “he ate intermittently, slept randomly, played his violin and waged his solitary struggle.” There was rivalry in work, especially with David Hilbert.

One article implied that Einstein’s most productive and creative years corresponded to his most trying time of his personal and family life.

This reminds me of the story of T. S. Eliot.  By all accounts, he had a happy second marriage (1957 until his death at age of 76 in 1965) during which he wrote no plays or poetry of importance, in contrast to what he had produced during his melancholy 17 years with his first wife, Vivienne.  The Waste Land came out in 1922.