What did Einstein ever do for us?
Published: 03 Jun 2005 12:00 BST
Einstein's 1905 papers did have some direct connections to today's engineering work. One widely cited example is the Global Positioning System, the navigation technology based on satellite signals with precise timing information. The GPS satellites move fast enough compared with the Earth's surface that relativistic time changes must be taken into effect.
The photoelectric effect also is employed in a technology called X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, which underlies diagnostic tools in the microprocessor industry. "It lets you characterise the interfaces between materials," for example how electrons move between metals and semiconductors in chips, said Rice's Natelson.
Einstein's theories were connected to experimental reality, and physicists taking inspiration should follow that strategy — especially proponents of today's string theory — said Philip Anderson, a Princeton University physics professor whose essay on Einstein appears in Robinson's book.
"In the half a century since his death, the mystique surrounding Einstein has created a cult that in my view starts clever physics students by the thousand off in the entirely wrong direction," Anderson wrote. "The cult makes Einstein into the embodiment of a 'pure' theorist, a genius so brilliant that he snatches his ideas from thin air and achieves revolutionary advances solely by the exercise of mathematical reasoning."
Experiments to prove Einstein's theories are still active. Today, physicists involved with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) project are trying to verify the existence of gravity waves, which physicists agree is a consequence of Einstein's general relativity theory. Einstein himself became sceptical of the prediction and even tried to disprove it, Stachel said.
It's a measure of the scientist that his ideas are still at the forefront of physics. "In my opinion, he was a true genius," Chau said, "well ahead of his time and, in many aspects, beyond modern days."
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