Einstein and Great Discoveries

Published by in edtech, science on January 8th, 2006

Einstein-Image and Impact is a fantastic AIP History Center exhibit / website. (AIP is the American Institute of Physics.)

The site is organized into eight primary areas:

  • Formative Years
  • The Great Works – 1905
  • World Fame
  • Public Concerns
  • Quantum and Cosmos
  • Nuclear Age
  • Science and Philosophy
  • “The World as I [Einstein] See It”

If you want a condensed version, try the “Albert Einstein in Brief” page. 2005 was the 100 year anniversary of Albert Einstein’s annus mirabilis, or “year of miracles.” The impact of those papers Einstein wrote in 1905 (can you believe it was that long ago?!) is truly remarkable.

The Science Friday podcast from December 9, 2005 featured a conversation with Alan Lightman, author of ““The Discoveries: Great Breakthroughs in 20th-century Science, Including the Original Papers.” Lightman doesn’t touch on every discovery and scientist included in his book during the podcast, but it is a great overview and enticement to read his full work.

Who can predict what exciting new discoveries, inventions, and revelations are in store for us in the twenty-first century? No one! Let us hope those discoveries will be made to serve the cause of good, rather than evil. Amidst the enthusiasm for the great scientific discoveries of the past century, we also should pause and remember the twentieth century has been named the “Century of Death” by some, because of the genocides which took place during those ten decades.

On this day..

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