Scientific American Editorial and Einstein

-

Along with his article submission, the scientist included an apologetic note to the editors:

“The article is somewhat long and not quite easy to grasp. I should, therefore, not be astonished if you find it unsuited for publication in your magazine.”

Despite the author's concern, the publisher, Gerard Piel, and the editor in chief, Dennis Flanagan, ran the article in . They also framed the letter.

The author? Albert Einstein. His article, “,” appeared in the April 1950 issue ().

I stumbled across this charming anecdote while paging through one of our old scrapbooks, which included a clipping from the November 19, 1961, edition of the , along with others about our publication of the feature submission from Einstein.

Of course, it wasn't our first encounter with Einstein. As you would expect from a magazine that is now celebrating its 170th year of reporting innovation, the editorial team and our scientist authors covered his theories as he published them. For example, Max Planck commented about the evolution of relativity theory in a 1910 article, “The Mechanical Theory of Nature”: “The principle of relativity, despite its youth, appears very promising.” He mentions Einstein, “who boldly generalized the principle and proclaimed the relativity of all intervals and epochs of time.”

And in 1920—long before the world ever heard of “crowdsourcing,” the magazine sought to rectify the paucity of lay explanations of the physics via a global essay contest. The editors explained: “Mr. Eugene Higgins offered, through the , a prize of the extraordinary amount of $5,000 for the best popular essay on the Einstein Theories of Relativity.” The contest drew exactly 300 essays from “all parts of Europe and North America, from India and South Africa and South America.” With the agreement of the judges, Mr. L. Bolton of London got the award, with publication of his essay in a February 5, 1921, issue.

A century after Einstein's landmark December 2, 1915, publication of “” (“The Field Equations of Gravitation”), which we celebrate in this edition, we offer today's perspective on efforts to grasp the nature of spacetime. Issue editor Clara Moskowitz and the team have created a special report that is profound yet playful and sparkles with the wonder of discovery—rather like the great man himself. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we did putting it together.

see also:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Heart Drugs More Expensive than Expected

-
Image
Two of the most anticipated new heart drugs to be launched in recent years have been priced well above analyst expectations, fuelling the debate about whether modern medicines cost too much July 27, 2015 | By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - Two of the most anticipated new heart drugs to be launched in recent years have been priced well above analyst expectations, fuelling the debate about whether modern medicines cost too much. Praluent (alirocumab) injection, made by Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and Entresto (sacubitril/valsartan) from Novartis are both treatments that represent significant advances for millions of patients at risk of serious heart problems. But their positioning in the marketplace was always likely to be contentious since they offer more effective alternatives to very cheap, off-patent drugs. The manufacturers have taken an ambitious view on pricing, arguing that the clear medical benefits of their products and their ability to keep patients out of ...
Read more

The Physics of Baseball: How Far Can You Throw?

-
Image
A sports science activity by Science Buddies By | | What is one trick to throwing a ball farther? Learn a little about physics--and how those baseball outfielders can make such impressive plays--with this fastmoving activity!  Key concepts MotionResistance Introduction Background When air resistance is very low, a projectile moves in the shape of a parabola—a type of mathematical curve. (You can do an Internet search for "parabola" to see what one looks like.) The path the ball follows (called its trajectory) will determine how far it goes before it hits the ground. Adjusting the ball’s initial angle and keeping its initial speed constant is one way to find out the best angle to throw a ball as far as possible. In this experiment you will throw a ball as hard as you can while changing the ball's initial angle relative to the ground. What angle do you think will make the ball go the farthest? Materials Sports ball of your choice (baseball, tennis ball, football, ...
Read more

Can the U.S. Jump-Start Offshore Wind Power?

-
The Department of Energy has awarded around a half-million dollars to New York, Maine, Rhode Island and Massachusetts state organizations to cooperate on scaling up the offshore wind industry in the region. Under the leadership of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the group will lay out a collaborative road map by the end of the year on how to build up the new industry. The project largely aims to reduce the cost of offshore wind projects, which has been a barrier to development, and establish a regional supply chain. Industry and state representatives learned about the federal grant at the first-ever offshore wind summit hosted by the White House yesterday. Offshore wind has struggled to take off in the United States. Europe, meanwhile, has more than 80 offshore wind farms with more than 10,000 megawatts of capacity. The White House summit marks a renewed effort to get the industry going in the United States, said various attendees. “There’s a...
Read more