“JERUSALEM — There are pasted-on half pages, numerous cross-outs and insertions in meticulous penmanship and an open acknowledgment that some of the mathematics was beyond even him. Albert Einstein personally rewrote the laws of physics in a sparsely furnished central Berlin apartment nearly a century ago and the resulting manuscript, profoundly human and surprisingly moving to examine, has been put on display here for the first time.
Each of the 46 pages, labored over between November 1915 and their publication in May 1916, has its own case, each lighted dimly in a room that has been darkened to protect the paper. There on Page 1 is the now familiar title in German: “The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity.”
The display of the work, which forced a redefinition of gravity, predicted the existence of black holes and illuminated how galaxies are formed, is at the center of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Out of concern for the life of the documents, it will be up only for the next three weeks.”
Read more at the NY Times
wow, now that is something I’d really like to see.
And all done with no computers.
All hail the human brain!
Have a pic of my little girl next to The Origin of Species and one with the above would be fantastic. Inspiring blog!
I’m sure people working in the same field and who have encountered Einstein in their work a lot dont dislike seeing the originals one time, and not the more modern printed versions of it. It’s still more personal .. handwritten documents. At least, that’s what it still feels like to many. The handwriting itself might tell a lot about Einstein as well. About him as a person. Some like that. Seeing the man behind the scientists, or the combination of both.
Science back then seems to have been more someone’s life mission than nowadays. Now some find it disgusting that they need to use their ‘depressive’ psyche to work .. for many it’s more about the money, PR and such. Back then .. that’s not that long ago. For some younger scientists he might serve as their role model though.