Happy Birthday Albert, you changed our lives!

Happy Birthday Albert

E = MC2

Swan

Happy Birthday, Albert - now about that e=mc2 thing....I wish I could have met you.

There is an Einstein special on TV right now on "H2" Dish Network channel 121. It repeats at midnight.

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.
-- Albert Einstein

My birthday is today too(tu):D:Albert got the brains...I got the looks and the faith:-o Billy Crystal b-day is today too He got the laughs!!!! Cheers !!!

Wonderful.

And yes, happy PI day... I've decided to start celebrating Euler Day (Feb 7th)... I missed one it's most important years: 1828 (so did he)

"Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism."

...yes, Einstein, I know you meant to say "beings" instead of "souls", but why the Freudian slip?

You referred to both "body" and "soul" in the same sentence...:D

Those of you that hate JJ stories, please scroll on by!

I had planned to teach JJ about Einstein as my son LOVES science so I thought he would really enjoy learning about Einstein. Time put out a whole edition last year called, Albert Einstein, the Enduring Legacy of a Modern Genius, so I picked it up last time I was in the states. Also in anticipation of teaching my son about one of the worlds greatest scientist, I also purchased books called History Maker Bios, by Barnes and Noble. I was very excited to start our learning adventure about great scientists.

This morning I told him that today we were going to spend the morning learning about a great scientist called Albert Einstein. He took one look at the front of the Time magazine and told me he already knew all about that guy. I asked him what he knew. He told me that he taught the world about gravity and how gravity bends light, that he was a Jewish man who was married twice, he played the violin, his clothes were a mess and he didn't comb his hair much. I asked him how he knew all that because I certainly hadn't taught him. Discovery channel or something like that was his answer. I am thinking great, he already knows a lot so we will just do a few experiments and have some discussion about Einsteins contributions. He then asked if we could be "done" with the subject. He didn't want to have any discussion. I insisted he tell me something interesting about Einstein. He thought for a minute and said, "Well some scientists take science way too far and do bad things". He said, Einstein helped develop a terrible bomb that almost destroyed our earth". So I am not so sure that he was a great man". I guess he was a pretty good scientist. Can we be done now"? I said, "OK".

Einstein's only involvement in the development of the Atomic bomb, beyond his theory of special relativity which predicted that a great deal of energy could be released from a small amount of matter, was that he was asked by the scientists working on the project to sign a letter to FDR urging that the bomb be developed. These scientists were aware that Germany was working on the bomb and were afraid of what might happen if they developed it first.

Einstein was not part of the Manhattan project. He was the first rock-start scientist.

Letter to FDR

Interestingly enough, the scientists are not the ones who decide whether or how discoveries such as this will be used. It is our politicians. All that scientists do is to expand the knowledge of mankind, our political leaders decide how to use this knowledge.

As Einstein said “My participation in the production of the atom bomb consisted in a single act: I signed a letter to President Roosevelt.”.
Einstein and the bomb

Yes Roto, I explained Einsteins role. I just found JJs perspective interesting. Through out his life his opinions and perspectives will change through his own life experiences and pursuit of knowledge. I only teach and offer my opinion. I let him form his own.

I just remembered something I read last year about some scientist disproving Einsteins Theory. I have to look it up. I found it facinating when I read it as it had to do with time travel which I think is possible.:-o

I just remembered something I read last year about some scientist disproving Einsteins Theory. I have to look it up. I found it facinating when I read it as it had to do with time travel which I think is possible.:-o

We are all time travelers because we were all here yesterday :D:D

(tu)

This is cool:

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_special_relativity :

"It's notable that Einstein's paper [on Special Relativity from 1905] contains no direct references to other papers."

Those of you that hate JJ stories, please scroll on by!

I had planned to teach JJ about Einstein as my son LOVES science so I thought he would really enjoy learning...

Posted above.

Tammy,
What a great story about JJ! Thank you for sharing.

Although I am drifting off topic, I wanted to share a wonderful Disney Production, which was released in 2010, but may not have been seen by some ocean science fans.

A movie, it is titled "OCEANS" and is narrated by Pierce Brosnan.

The information and presentation is astounding; the cinematography is absolutely breathtaking! (that is an understatement!).

If JJ has not seen this remarkable documentary already, then it is a wonderful ocean-ecological adventure to perhaps add to his viewing. JJ's interest in Marine Biology brought to my mind this movie and I wanted to pass it along to him - and, of course, others. 🙂

Swan

it's too bad about the speed of light. but you rock anyway,e- Stein!

Those of you that hate JJ stories, please scroll on by!

I had planned to teach JJ about Einstein as my son LOVES science so I thought he would really enjoy learning...

Posted above.

Tammy,
What a great story about JJ! Thank you for sharing.

Although I am drifting off topic, I wanted to share a wonderful Disney Production, which was released in 2010, but may not have been seen by some ocean science fans.

A movie, it is titled "OCEANS" and is narrated by Pierce Brosnan.

The information and presentation is astounding; the cinematography is absolutely breathtaking! (that is an understatement!).

If JJ has not seen this remarkable documentary already, then it is a wonderful ocean-ecological adventure to perhaps add to his viewing. JJ's interest in Marine Biology brought to my mind this movie and I wanted to pass it along to him - and, of course, others. 🙂

Swan

as always, i feel a distinct synergy with you Swans. Oceans is my son's favorite film, and at three years old it has been for two years. we have been going over an old Marine Biology textbook (that he picked from the shelf mind you) and we know a majority of what is discussed just because of our familiarity with that documentary!

highly recommend.

Swans, thank you. Yes, we have Oceans and watch it over and over and everything I can find to do with ocean life and coral reefs. Oceans is incredible. I recommend it highly.

Shibuya, if your son is like mine, my advice is to just let him go. Living on this island is incredible. Our son has been stung, pierced, and bitten by everything this island has to offer. If we disappeared tomorrow he could survive. He knows how to make fire with flint and steel and everything eatable on island.

Swans, in celebration of Einstein we are reading a Wrinkle
in Time. Time travel at it's finest.

What I meant to say Shibua is that our son has learned to avoid being stung pierced and bitten. Though he has been stung and bitten quite a few times. Also what plant life is editable. LOL.

What I meant to say Shibua is that our son has learned to avoid being stung pierced and bitten. Though he has been stung and bitten quite a few times. Also what plant life is editable. LOL.

haha! i understood 😛 agreed, i think this island is great for nurturing kids' souls. wish we were staying longer...but we will always take with us the lessons we've learned!

Hmmm...interesting. I've passed by this thread a few times and don't know what possessed me to read it now but I'm glad I did. It could just be me but the quote in the original post sounds like an affirmation of disbelief in God by Einstein which is inaccurate and taken out of context of Einstein's religious beliefs (which while not rare are not very common outside scientific circles.) Einstein like many well respected scientists (Descartes, Galileo, Newton, Capernicus, etc.) believed in the existence of God (also, historically,the profession of the scientist has the largest percentage of agnostics and atheists - as I recall reading many years ago the percentage of scientists who believe in God is somewhere in the low 40% range.) What he DIDN'T believe in was the concept of a PERSONAL God who cared about and interacted with you on an individual level. Einstein viewed God as the great equalizer/harmonizer in nature - the force that brought equillibrium to nature.

Here's a few quotes I just dug up for further perspective:

On whether he considered himself religious: "Yes, you could call it that. Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything we can comprehend is my religion."

On whether he accepted the historical existence of Christ: "Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life."

On whether he considered himself an atheist: "I'm not an atheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what that is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the most intelligent human toward God."

On the nature of God: "That deeply emotional conviction of a presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God."

My quote came from Einstein's obituary in the New York Times. It can be found here. His religious views are mentioned at the bottom.

From his letter to Eric Gutkind as published in the UK Guardian.
"The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These subtilised interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them."

When he turned 50, Einstein granted an interview in which he was asked point-blank, do you believe in God? “I am not an atheist,” he began. “The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws.”

That almost sounds like Einstein is attributing the laws of the universe to a god of some sort. But what type of god? A personal deity or some impersonal force? To a Colorado banker who wrote and asked him the God question, Einstein responded: “I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals or would sit in judgment on creatures of his own creation. My religiosity consists of a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we can comprehend about the knowable world. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.”

The most famous Einstein pronouncement on God came in the form of a telegram, in which he was asked to answer the question in 50 words or less. He did it in 32: “I believe in Spinoza’s God, who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists, but not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.” (These quotes are documented in Walter Isaacson’s excellent 2007 biography Einstein: His Life and Universe.)
http://www.bigquestionsonline.com/columns/michael-shermer/einstein%E2%80%99s-god