Posted on 08/20/2004 9:43:04 AM PDT by RightWingAtheist
LOVE: I particularly admired Einsteins deep devotion to, and ability to focus on, science itself and his recognition that the personalities of scientists are irrelevant to understanding science. Most important, in light of recent trends in physics, he understood the place of mathematics in science as a tool, not an end in itself. He was always motivated by physical questions and searching for experimental tests, even as he explored new mathematics. In particular, he didnt confuse mathematical elegance with physical significance.
HATE: I find myself frustrated at Einsteins constant and inappropriate use of the term God, when he really meant something else. As a result, he opened the door for generations of individuals to misrepresent his ideas.
LAWRENCE KRAUSS, chairman, department of physics,
Case Western Reserve University
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Einsteinhis mind and his mannerbecame the symbol of science to millions of people throughout the world. In an era of wrenching human struggle under the heels of military might and the horrors of World War I, the experimental proof of the correctness of Einsteins notion of gravity and curved space showed the world that there were fundamental truths to be learned about nature and that the human mind and spirit could rise above all. Einsteins manner, his grandfatherly warmth, gave science, and physics in particular, a human side, which we have lost over the century.
What still drives me crazy about Einstein is that he did not participate in the scientific revolution he helped launch. His successful theory of the photoelectric effect was a key step in establishing the correctness of quantum mechanics. He seemed to consider working out the details of the atom and its nucleus more as busywork than as fundamental science.
NEAL LANE, former director, the National Science Foundation;
professor of physics and astronomy, Rice University
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(Excerpt) Read more at discover.com ...
These physicists, Einstein included, have an overblown sense of their intellectual powers. They think they can understand how our Universe works. They will only ever be able to understand a small fragment of it.
If Einstein has had a negative influence on anything, it's that the physics community since his time has teneded to lean left on most issues, largely because they have looked up to him on everything else. That and the Oppenheimer case has led a lot of otherwise bright minds to advocate some of the most dunderheaded policy positions imaginable.
Denis Weaire wrote an article about the physics of missing socks years ago. What is it about Irish physicists and foot garments?-)
They have known for 50 years that relativity and quantum mechanics are incompatible. They hope that superstring theory can be of some help, but probably no one thinks they will ever understand ultimately what the structure of the Universe might be, or if that is even the right question.
Blecchh!
-good times, G.J.P. (Jr.)
Aye, we be a strange lot, laddie boy. I tink it's de Guinness.
As a hardcore ENTP, I know where he's coming from. Paperwork...can't the clerks do that?
On the contrary, we physicists understand much better than laymen how little--or how much--is understood, because we know where the boundaries lie.
It turns out that fundamental questions of how space and time behave are comparatively simple and knowable, and if our answers aren't truly complete, they are very nearly so. Questions such as "how does water flow" or "how do protein molecules get their shapes" or "how do bumblebees keep aloft" or "how does a carburetor do what it does", now, those are hard questions.
Hey pal, what da hell do I look like, some kinda butlah or sometin'?(!) Friggin' clerk. Gimme a friggin' break. Sheesh! Deez people.
Hey, I never said it was right...I just said I understood! =]
Maybe he just recognized that he didn't understand the universe, after all.
LOL!
Well at least they talk about socks and not underwear...
Maybe there's a sock shortage there.
I'm wrong, I think that's Horton.
No, it's Hawking.
You are correct. Not sure what Conway (Horton) is doing these days. He certainly revolutionized mathematics.
By "occupying the Siege Perilous", I meant to say that they're both dead.
I'm wrong, I think that's Horton.
Who?
That's because he knew that QM was/is a hack.
John Horton Conway, mathematician. He invented the game of Life, a set of rules for two-dimensional automatons, that take on a life of their own.
He has succesfully proved that there are a limited number of problems in math.. I think the number he came up with is 19.
Thats all there is. Every math problem is one of the 19 types.
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