The Next Einstein? Applicants Welcome

New York Times ^ | 3/1/05 | Dennis Overbye

[orionblamblam]

Relativity: It's Only A *Theory *
[/IDiot]

[djf]

I think the smart money is that general relativity will be obsoleted. Or possibly be shown to be an approximation.

The most likely outcome, IMO, is that they will discover we actually live in some type of multiverse. Where the rules depend on what we're measuring, and how.

We need to get the dimensional stuff straightened out. It's very obvious we don't live in a four dimensional place, it's more like ten or eleven.

[SpaceBar]

Nary a word about Max Plank, James Clerk Maxwell, Willard Gibbs et al? Science and scientists always stand on the shoulders of those who lay the groundwork before them.

[Strategerist]

Thing about physics is most guys make their big breakthroughs when they are young and by the time they're famous they're not really accomplishing anything. Was true of Einstein, and Hawking as well.

[djf]

Yup. Had Al never been born, relativity still would have been discovered, probably not more than ten years or so after his work.

[G32]

Witten's got a good chance, but needs to do something revolutionary behind M theory. That was very VERY impressive, but won't keep his name in the history books.

[G32]

Witten's got a good chance, but needs to do something revolutionary beyond M theory. That was very VERY impressive, but won't keep his name in the history books.

[Richard Kimball]

Also Winona Ryder.

[Moonman62]

I think the smart money is that general relativity will be obsoleted.

Even Einstein knew General Relativity was incomplete. It will be refined just as Newton's laws were refined by Einstein. But it should be noted that Newton's equations are still widely used. I don't know if obsolete is the right word.

[Bon mots]

Einstein said that light could exist as either particles or waves, but Niels Bohr said that all matter could also exist as waves.

So I want to build a "transporter".

:-)

[djf]

I agree, obsolete is not the right word, let's say superceded.

[LibWhacker]

He likes to think, he added, that it will be solved by "a Brazilian kid in a dirt floor village.

I'll bet when we're all sitting around in Heaven someday (well, I might not be there with 'ya), we're gonna be amazed at how many potential Einsteins actually existed, but whose talents were snuffed out by disease, drugs, war, crime, lack of education, lack of opportunity, brainwashing, lack of interest, interest that got sidetracked into fashion, etc.

[fishtank]

.....Never read about her in a physics book....

[Lekker 1]

I always thought that brother of Napolean Dynamite...what's his name? He could be the next Ein-Steen.

[clyde asbury]

http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm

[LibWhacker]

. . . but whose talents were snuffed out by . . .

I missed one of the best ones: ABORTION!

[Fudd]

.....Never read about her (Winona Ryder) in a physics book....

Alas, her talent has been overshadowed by another up-and-comer in the field.

Semiconductor physics

[Glenn]

Yup. Had Al never been born, relativity still would have been discovered, probably not more than ten years or so after his work.

Right. AE's contribution was nothing, really. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

[BlackRazor]

"Who or where is the next Einstein?"

Couldn't they just have a new reality show to find him? Sorta like The Apprentice? /sarcasm (in case you couldn't tell).