Page 284 - Encyclopedia Of World History

634 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity,
and I’m not sure about the former. • Albert Einstein (1879–1955)

relativity. It claimed that gravitation is not a force, as Isaac theory to arrive at a “theory of everything,” by means of
Newton had said, but a curved field in the space-time highly advanced mathematical models. That some of
continuum created by the presence of a mass, such as the Einstein’s theories are only now being fully understood,
sun. When the theory was later proved during a solar decades after his death, stands as a testament to his place
eclipse, when his light-deflection prediction could be in science and human history.
tested, the popular press praised Einstein.
James G. Lewis
Einstein’s stand as a pacifist who did not support
Germany’s war aims brought him much respect outside See also Energy; Science—Overview
Germany, but derision as a traitor and defeatist from his
former countrymen. After the war, when the victorious
Further Reading
powers sought to exclude German scientists from inter-
Brian, D. (1996). Einstein: A life. New York: Wiley.
national meetings, Einstein worked to include German Clark, R.W. (1995). Einstein:The life and times. New York: Wings Books.
physicists. His popularity and his political stances, which Einstein, A. (1954). Ideas and opinions. New York: Crown Publishers.
Einstein, A. (1987– ). The collected papers of Albert Einstein. Princeton,
also included Zionism, led to attacks in the 1920s by
NJ: Princeton University.
anti-Semitic physicists. This in part explains why his Sayen, J. (1985). Einstein in America:The scientist’s conscience in the age
Nobel Prize in 1921 was awarded not for relativity, but of Hitler and Hiroshima. New York: Crown.
White, M., & Gribbin, J. (1993). Einstein: A life in science. New York:
for his less controversial 1905 work on the photoelectric Dutton.
effect.
Einstein abandoned his pacifism when he realized
that Hitler and the Nazis had to be stopped by military
means, but he never stopped working on behalf of peace. Electricity
Einstein sent a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt
in 1939 urging that the United States develop an atomic lectricity is so common today that it would be diffi-
bomb before Germany could do so. The letter con- Ecult for anyone to imagine how life would be with-
tributed to Roosevelt’s decision to fund what became the out the well-known applications we use every day in our
Manhattan Project. It is one of the great ironies of the homes and jobs. But things were not always that way. It
pacifist Einstein’s life that his energy-mass equation, is just four hundred years since scientists began to study
which asserted that a particle of matter can be converted electrical phenomena and the nature of electricity, and no
into an enormous quantity of energy, found its proof in more than 150 years since electrical applications started
the atomic and hydrogen bombs, the most destructive to be a part of our way of living.
weapons ever created.After the war, he joined with other Around 600 BCE, one of the natural philosophers of
scientists in seeking to contain nuclear proliferation. ancient Greece, Thales of Miletus (625?–547? BCE),
Though he failed in his political efforts, Einstein was observed that rubbing η ′λεκτρον (amber) against a piece
not disappointed. His central interest always remained of cloth attracted light bodies.This remained the only ref-
physics and the search to find the mathematical rela- erence to an electrical phenomenon for almost two thou-
tionship between electromagnetism and gravitation, bet- sand years, and though it was considered quite impres-
ter known as the unified field theory. A version of the sive the cause of this strange effect remained unexplained.
unified field theory he published in 1950 was politely At the end of the sixteenth century, the Englishman
criticized as flawed and went somewhat neglected for William Gilbert (1540–1603) became the godfather of
decades. In more recent years, physicists have begun try- electricity, as he was the first natural philosopher who
ing to combine Einstein’s relativity theory with quantum introduced the word electric, in his book De Magnete.