Albert Einstein

... ordinary person to understand Dr. Albert Einstein's ideas. He is the high priest of mathematical learning and there are only twelve men who really understand him.

Actually there is no one understanding in science; it has different levels. We may, perhaps, succeed in choosing a level so high that only a few people could rise to it. But what few people? One a distinguished mathematician has seriously voiced doubts whether Einstein is one of the three men who understand Albert Einstein best.

Einstein could not be one of those few who have influenced our century most strongly if his ideas in physics were understood by only a few persons. Sometime in the future the principles of relativity theory may even be taught in high school. The underlying ideas are both simple and essential, although the process of translating results into ordinary language requires time. The number of people who have assimilated some of the ideas of relativity theory increases, and will continue to increase for a long time to come. This is the reason why Albert Einstein has influenced our modern culture. Relativity theory is not only for high priests of learning. Later we shall see how this abstract web of thought has influenced our whole life. True, there were times, around 1917, when only a few people fully understood relativity theory.

Many believe that relativity theory tells us that ours is a kind of Alice-in-Wonderland universe; that this was revealed by the mathematician Einstein who discovered that there is a fourth dimension, that objects shorten or elongate, that our world shrinks or expands like a balloon; that, in short, everything is relative and mysterious. That it is not your train that stops at Princeton, but it is Princeton that stops at your train. And out of this fantastic, relative world that Albert Einstein created there suddenly appeared the atomic bomb.

In 1916, when relativity theory was known mainly among German physicists and mathematicians, but hardly known to the public at large, Albert Einstein wrote a small, non-technical book about special and general relativity theory. Einstein's small book became a classic. Later, around 1920, when the fame of relativity and its creator spread all over the world, hundreds of books, pamphlets, articles in journals and newspapers were printed about Einstein and relativity, starting an era of hucksterism in popular science. Soon it was found that books which startle the reader, mixing science with mystery and drama, have a greater appeal than those, like Einstein's, that present the basic ideas in a straightforward, almost colorless, manner.

Thus, the examples introduced by Albert Einstein were worked over endlessly by others, and at the same time they were embroidered with unnecessary frills; everything possible was done to make the scenery more striking and on it to paint the scientist as a devilishly clever fellow who snatches the mysteries that nature cagily tries to hide from his eyes. These books evoked metaphysical thrills; it was possible to read them with excitement and a feeling of drama, while understanding nothing. Some of the popularizing authors wrote with great artistic skill and a new style of popularization was developed, and this is what engendered the prejudice about the mysteries of the universe and science.

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