| German-born physicist Albert Einstein was the greatest scientific thinker of the 20th century. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars - along with quantum mechanics - of modern physics. He won the Nobel Prize in 1921. He pushed Franklin D. Roosevelt to develop a powerful new weapon to defeat the Axis powers during World War II, leading to the Manhattan Project. He devised the world's most famous equation - E=mc2 - which demonstrates the equivalency of mass and energy. His work changed the way we view the universe. It also had a tremendous impact on modern technologies, making possible everything from semiconductors to fiber optics to lasers to nuclear power. Today, Einstein's name is synonymous with genius. His face - with that shock of unruly hair - is recognized worldwide. Yet the man was no drab academic. Einstein enjoyed the outdoors, often hiking for days in the Alps or Apennines. He loved classical music - especially Mozart and Schubert - and was passionate about sailing. He had an impish wit and a self-deprecating sense of humor. He often said that to punish him for his lifelong contempt for authority, Fate made him an authority himself. (When asked how he created that iconic hairstyle, he cited "negligence.") While Einstein did not speak until he was nearly 3 years old - the family maid called him "the dopey one" - it is a myth that he was a poor student. It's true that one teacher amused posterity by claiming Einstein would never amount to anything, but before age 15, he had mastered differential and integral calculus. He was endlessly curious about the structure of reality. As a young man, Einstein devoured books on physics, mathematics and geometry. And throughout his life he proclaimed that the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible - that it can be explained through the methods of science and the language of mathematics. His groundbreaking work changed the way we think about space... and even time. He showed that both are relative - and said that the distinction between past, present and future is only "a stubbornly persistent illusion." Pioneering psychologist Abraham Maslow featured Einstein - along with Thomas Jefferson, William James, Eleanor Roosevelt and others - on his short list of history's greatest self-actualizers: people with the rare ability to fully realize their deepest talents and highest aspirations. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment