Einstein year
This year marks not only 50 years since the death of
Albert Einstein (18 April, 1955) but, more importantly, 100 years since 1905 –
the year in which he made three major separate contributions to the birth of
modern physics. GEOFF JONES, below, describes his scientific impact while SENAN
(page 24) reviews a recently published collection of the physicist’s political
writings.
ALBERT EINSTEIN is the only physicist whose picture everyone
recognises. But the image of Einstein that everyone recognises – the
white-haired patriarch, brilliant but completely impractical; the Zionist who
opposed the Israeli state; the pacifist who called for the building of the
atomic bomb – is far from the truth.
A picture of Einstein in 1905 is very different – young,
slightly dangerous looking, ready to dive headfirst into the physical and
philosophical ferment of the start of the 20th century. After graduation,
Einstein had refused to fit into the suffocating mould of academic life in
German universities. Instead, he got a job in the Swiss patent office which gave
him the space to do what he was best at – thinking. Einstein’s great strength
was his ability to think through the physical basis of a problem before
attempting to cast it into a theory.
At the turn of the century, physics was in a state of
turmoil hard to grasp a century on. Nineteenth century classical physics had
seemed all but perfect when John Rayleigh and James Jeans demonstrated
that classical electromagnetic theory led to the ludicrous result that a heated
body should radiate an infinite amount of energy. To get round this, in 1898 Max
Planck had proposed a scandalous hypothesis that radiation might be quantised –
only capable of being absorbed or emitted in discrete energy packets. This
produced results that squared with experiments but was quite incomprehensible to
classical physicists. At the same time, since there was no direct evidence for
the existence of atoms, an influential group led by Ernst Mach questioned their
physical existence, seeing them as merely useful props for calculation.
(Vladimir Lenin, in one of his early works, attacked this group from a realist
versus idealist standpoint.)
In 1905, Einstein dived into this melee with three very
different papers. In his first, he analysed the phenomenon of ‘Brownian motion’,
the random motion of pollen grains in water viewed through a microscope. He
demonstrated that such motion could be explained satisfactorily by assuming that
the grains were being bombarded by water molecules – a direct demonstration of
the physical existence of molecules, and an answer to Mach.
Einstein’s second paper dealt with the ‘photoelectric
effect’, the emission of electrons from a metal irradiated by light. This was
another experiment which could not be explained by classical theory. He showed,
following Planck, that the experimental results could be explained if light was
thought of as travelling in small packets each with its own ‘quantum’ of energy.
Ironically, although he received the Nobel prize for this paper, in fact, it led
up a blind alley with regard to the nature of light, which had to be explained
later in very different terms.
Einstein’s true eminence rests on his third paper, on the
theory of relativity. The idea of ‘relativity’ is known to anyone who has sat in
a train at a station. The train on the next track starts to move relative to you
– but is it your train or the other that is moving? The problem is solved by
referring to the station, a fixed frame of reference. From Isaac Newton on,
physicists had assumed that the universe as a whole acted as such a reference,
but Einstein demonstrated that this could not be the case. Given that light
travels at a finite speed (first measured 100 years earlier), and thinking of
himself as sitting on a beam of light, he showed that there could be no fixed
frame, and that nothing could travel at speeds equal to or greater than that of
light. These two ideas were revolutionary in their implications for our ideas of
‘space’ and ‘time’ – no longer an impartial stage on which our experiments were
played out but an integral part of the experiments themselves.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Einstein was at the heart of debates
and arguments about the new quantum physics. By this time, the rough and ready
quantum theories proposed by Planck, Einstein, Niels Bohr and others had been
superseded by the theory of quantum mechanics, developed mainly by Werner
Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger and Paul Dirac, utterly different from classical
Newtonian mechanics. Quantum mechanics brilliantly explained the structure and
motion of nature at a microscopic scale and below, but its relation to
relativity was shaky. What was more, its philosophical underpinnings were
dubious. It appeared that if an experiment could have two outcomes, quantum
mechanics could only provide the probability of either occurring, not predict
which actually would occur. Bohr stated categorically that causality – that one
cause produces one unique effect – had to be thrown away and replaced by a
statistical view of the world where only the probabilities have any meaning.
Nothing exists ‘beneath’ the experimental results. Einstein refused to accept
this with his famous saying: ‘The Good Lord does not play dice!’
As far as most physicists were concerned, Bohr won. Quantum
mechanics provided a magic toolkit to analyse the physical world. Einstein’s
worries were put aside with only a few scientists trying to cope with the
contradictions he saw at the basis of quantum theory. He spent the last decades
of his life fruitlessly trying to reconcile his theory of gravity with quantum
theory. But 80 years on he is, in a sense, vindicated. For example, one of his
arguments against Bohr was an imaginary experiment concerning the states of two
‘twin’ particles separated from each other (the Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky
paradox). In the last few years, the experiment was actually carried out. The
results agreed with quantum theory, but that agreement implied some underlying
connection between all parts of the universe allowing instant ‘teleportation’
between particles kilometres apart. Underlying Bohr’s statistical view lies a
much more complex reality.
Albert Einstein is now paraded as an example for physicists:
‘Stick to your airy-fairy theories but leave practical decisions like invading
Iraq to practical politicians’. But at the turn of the last century, Einstein
was a part of the intellectual ferment that produced Pablo Picasso, Arnold
Schönberg – and Lenin and Leon Trotsky.
A socialist scientist
Albert Einstein
Edited by Jim Green (part of the Rebel Lives series)
Published by Ocean Press, 2004, £8.95
Reviewed by Senan
ALBERT EINSTEIN is an excellent collection of some of the
physicist’s important political writings. It is a must-read book for those, like
me, who are ill-informed by the corrupted education system.
Apart from the necessary introduction by the editor, Jim
Green, there is a chronology of Einstein’s life before the writings are divided
into sections: pacifism, nationalism and fascism; world government; human
rights; the Jews and Israel; capitalism and socialism.
The collection includes Einstein’s famous ‘Why Socialism?’,
which originally appeared in the first issue of the left publication, Monthly
Review, in 1949. This article shows the scientist’s affiliation with socialism.
Einstein published his groundbreaking scientific papers in
1905. One hundred years have passed and still science has not been able to put
his works to maximum use.
He is arguably the most-celebrated scientist of the last
century, considered to be the most well-known person in the world. Yet his
political life and opinions have been kept hidden. Furthermore, they have been
twisted to serve the interests of capitalism. As Einstein said: "My opinion of
the human race is high enough that I believe this bogey [patriotism and war]
would have disappeared long ago, had the sound sense of the peoples not been
systematically corrupted by commercial and political interest acting through the
schools and the press". (The World As I See It, 1931)
Born in Ulm, Germany, in 1879 to a middle-class family, he
was educated in Munich and then Switzerland. Einstein rejected the authoritarian
education system in Germany, and was unable to get into university. His first
marriage was a struggle in poverty to support his family. Then 1905 changed
everything. Academic acclaim and positions came once he had published his major
works.
Unlike the way bourgeois historians like to portray him,
Einstein was not a genius from some faraway ‘planet maths’. Science is not
something extraordinary, and scientists are not superhuman. Science is also a
social expression – a kind of art. Einstein seems to have understood its social
role.
The year 1905 was a breakthrough in many aspects. Not only
Einstein but also many scientists came with great discoveries and inventions.
Prior to 1905, Isaac Newton’s laws dominated the scientific world. (Karl Marx
expressed dissatisfaction with the rigid scientific explanations of his time.)
Science needed more creative theories to enable humanity to understand the
wealth of data available at this historical juncture.
Also, prior to that revolutionary year, the working class
was going through massive changes all over Europe and the world. Einstein was
affected by this mood of change.
The strong working-class movement at that time was involved
in deep political and philosophical discussion on the need and possibility for
social change.
Einstein saw the inherent contradictions of the capitalist
economic model: "The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today
is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil". Most importantly, he concluded
that a socialist planned economy was needed: "I am convinced there is only one
way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a
socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented
toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by
society itself and are utilised in a planned fashion". (Why Socialism?)
Einstein was an anti-war scientist from the start, writing,
"As long as sovereign nations possess great power war is inevitable". Before the
first world war he was part of the Bund Neues Vaterland (New Fatherland League)
which opposed the conflict. He also spoke out against the second world war.
In 1952 he refused an offer to become Israel’s president. He
also refused an offer from Joseph Stalin to live in Russia. In Einstein’s reply
to Stalin he asked why there was discrimination against scientists who were
Jews. He consistently spoke in support of a world government and planned
economy. This terrified the capitalist establishment.
Einstein changed his nationality according to his needs.
Twice he denounced his German nationality and, by the time he died, had been a
citizen of three countries. He was a member of Chinese, black and Asian
associations. In 1933, Einstein and his second wife, Elsa, went to live in the
US. While all new immigrants to the US were expected to be patriotic, he wrote:
"And all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism – how
passionately I hate them".
Many believe that Einstein is the father of the atomic bomb.
On the contrary, he fought vehemently against its development. It is true that
Einstein’s letter to US president, Franklin D Roosevelt, in 1939, kick-started
the Manhattan project. However, he did not help to develop that project. In
1955, Bernard Russell and Einstein, together with many leading scientists, wrote
a manifesto for nuclear disarmament. Einstein wrote: "I do not consider myself
the father of the release of atomic energy. My part in it was quite indirect. I
did not, in fact, foresee that it would be released in my time". (Atomic War or
Peace, 1945)
He spoke on behalf of and helped many socialists. During the
McCarthy era he fought against the witch-hunt. Senator Joseph McCarthy
considered Einstein an enemy of America. The notorious head of the FBI, J Edgar
Hoover, initiated an investigation which collected more than 2,000 pages of
information on him. Many methods were used to try and discredit him, including
attempts to prove his theories were bogus. Despite all this, he continued to
speak up for socialists and others condemned by the US administration’s
authoritarian efforts. He argued for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were
executed in 1953 as spies. He protested against the arrest of Communist Party
leaders. He was a good friend of left-wing activist and singer Paul Robeson. In
the 1950s he wrote to a friend that the "US is no longer a free country". He
wrote: "If a visitor should come to this country from another planet, would he
not find it strange that in this country so much power is permitted to private
corporations without their having commensurate responsibility? I say this to
stress that the US government must keep the control of atomic energy, not
because socialism is necessarily desirable, but because atomic energy was
developed by the government, and it would be unthinkable to turn over this
property of the people to any individuals or groups of individuals". (Atomic War
or Peace)
Science and scientists are inevitably linked to the social
model of their time. And Einstein was a socialist scientist. His clear
understanding of the incapacity of the capitalist system, however, is always
hidden from science scholars. This ensures that his great influence on up and
coming scientists does not carry on into the social arena, ultimately making
them aware of the class struggle. The establishment is right in concluding that
a scientist of this caliber would be a great asset to the working class.
Albert Einstein is available from
Socialist Books
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