Einstein: Revolution in time and space
Rajan Datar invites guests Janna Levin, Matthew Stanley and Jimena Canales to explain Einsteinâs theories and why they underpin so much of what we now know about the universe.
Albert Einsteinâs inability to get a job on graduating has given hope to generations of students. Knowing what we know now about the genius scientist, itâs hard to avoid smiling on reading his fatherâs pleas to physics professors to give his son an academic post.
Perhaps it was just as well that these attempts failed, as the job Einstein eventually secured gave him the opportunity to daydream. Assessing new inventions at the Swiss capitalâs patent office, Einstein allowed his imagination to run riot, creating âthought experimentsâ that questioned centuries of knowledge about time, space and motion. In 1905 he published a series of papers that scientists today still use as a reference point.
While Einstein himself didnât foresee the technological application of his work, his research has since been used as the basis of modern inventions such as the atomic bomb, lasers, solar panels and GPS. Neither did he realise immediately the potential of his theories to help us understand the beginning of the universe.
Rajan Datar explores the complexity of Einsteinâs theories as well as what made him tick, with expert guests Janna Levin, professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College, Columbia University, USA; science historian Jimena Canales, author of The Physicist and the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson and the Debate that changed our understanding of Time; and Matthew Stanley, professor of the history of science at New York University whose book Einsteinâs War: How Relativity Conquered Nationalism and Shook the World was published in 2019.
(Image: Portrait of German-born physicist Albert Einstein on his 75th birthday.
Photo by American Stock/Getty Images)
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