Einstein Defiant

"I find the idea quite intolerable that an electron exposed to radiation should choose of its own free will, not only its moment to jump off, but also its direction. In that case, I would rather be a cobbler, or even an employee in a gaming house, than a physicist." -Albert Einstein A scandal hovers over the history of 20th century physics. Albert Einstein-the century's greatest physicist-was never able to come to terms with quantum mechanics, the century's greatest theoretical achievement. For physicists who routinely use both quantum laws and Einstein's ideas, this contradiction can be almost too embarrassing to dwell on. Yet Einstein was one of the founders of quantum physics and he spent many years preaching the quantum's importance and its revolutionary nature. The Danish genius Neils Bohr was another founder of quantum physics. He had managed to solve one of the few physics problems that Einstein ever shied away from, linking quantum mathematics with a new model of the atom. This leap immediately yielded results that explained electron behavior and the periodic table of the elements. Despite their mutual appreciation of the quantum's importance, these two giants of modern physics never agreed on the fundamentals of their work. In fact, they clashed repeatedly throughout the 1920s, arguing first over Einstein's theory of "light quanta"(photons), then over Niels Bohr's short-lived theory that denied the conservation of energy at the quantum level, and climactically over the new quantum mechanics that Bohr enthusiastically embraced and Einstein stubbornly defied. This contest of visions stripped the scientific imagination naked. Einstein was a staunch realist, demanding to know the physical reasons behind physical events. At odds with this approach was Bohr's more pragmatic perspective that favored theories that worked, even if he might not have a corresponding explanation of the underlying reality. Powerful and illuminating, Einstein Defiant is the first book to capture the soul and the science that inspired this dramatic duel, revealing the personalities and the passions-and, in the end, what was at stake for the world.

In essence, Einstein did not win the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1921 for developing the theory of relativity. Instead the committee in charge considered his work on the photoelectric effect more worthy of attention. Here Elzinga (history of ideas and history of science emeritus, U. of Goteborg), working from his research in the Nobel archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, describes the complex story of how and why Einstein received the award, having been nominated 60 times from 1910 to 1922. He explores the possibilities of who and what were responsible for the sole successful nomination, the scientific community's skepticism about relativity, the role philosophy, politics and culture had in science in the cold war after the First World War, and what it was about Einstein himself that may have encouraged or discouraged the committee.

The exploitation of Einstein's relativity theory on behalf of the relativization of all norms and values is the most conspicuous aspect of a culturally disastrous trend, which, in its various ramifications, is the critical target of this book. Students of history, psychology, sociology and metaphysics will find much food for thought and rich material in this latest of the author's long-standing efforts aimed at the demythologization of science. This book presents fourteen not readily available essays of the winner of the Templeton Prize for 1987. Co-published with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

List of members in Proceedings of 2nd- annual meeting.