Tuesday, March 01, 2005
On Einstein and Gödel
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Einstein's pathbreaking papers on the photoelectric effect, on Brownian motion, and of course on relativity. The New Yorker has a fascinating article on Albert Einstein and Kurt Gödel, titled "Time Bandits". What is well known is that these two men were responsible for reshaping philosophical ideas in their respective fields. Slightly less well known is their having spent a significant portion of their lives at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (not to be confused with Princeton University). Much less well known are Gödel's crippling paranoia, his ideas about the fictitiousness of time and his very special relationship with Einstein. Do read the article even if you think you've already heard enough about these men, because you probably haven't.
Also, the Historisches Museum Bern will be running a special Einstein exhibition starting this June, Bern being the place where Einstein made the aforementioned pathbreaking discoveries.
For me, personally, the article brought back nostalgic memories of my days at the Institute and in Princeton in general. Davidson's food market, alluded to in the article, vanished during my first month in Princeton (Sep 1997) and has since been replaced by a Wild Oats market. Incidentally, Landau's store in Princeton, which, as far as I could tell, was permanently in liquidation sale mode, had some interesting Einstein memorabilia in its back room. Can someone in Princeton check if they still do?
Also, the Historisches Museum Bern will be running a special Einstein exhibition starting this June, Bern being the place where Einstein made the aforementioned pathbreaking discoveries.
For me, personally, the article brought back nostalgic memories of my days at the Institute and in Princeton in general. Davidson's food market, alluded to in the article, vanished during my first month in Princeton (Sep 1997) and has since been replaced by a Wild Oats market. Incidentally, Landau's store in Princeton, which, as far as I could tell, was permanently in liquidation sale mode, had some interesting Einstein memorabilia in its back room. Can someone in Princeton check if they still do?
