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Not sure I would agree with that sentiment. Einstein was considered to be exceptional even by his peers. I've read quite a few biographies of of prominent/fam
by dannylandau 12y ago
Not sure I would agree with that sentiment. Einstein was considered to be exceptional even by his peers. I've read quite a few biographies of of prominent/famous scientists, including Teller, Bohr, Fermi, Pauli, Landau, Feynman, Bethe, Von Neumann, Abraham Pais, Weisskopf, Wigner, etc.. and almost all revere Einstein and put him on the same pedestal as Isaac Newton (and in Mathematician case -- Karl Gauss). Based on a brief appraisal of his accomplishments, one can objectively come to the conclusion that he was head and shoulders above the rest, such as:
1) Brownian Motion -- showing the existence of atoms.
2) Photoelectric Effect -- demonstrating that light can be thought of as a particle.
3) Special Relativity -- Relating mass with energy.
4) General Relativity -- generalizes the special case and incorporate gravity as well.
Many other contributions including Bose-Einstein effect that he would like consider secondary contributions, but have non the less have gone on to generate enormous research in the field (and lead to not a few noble prizes if that matters to people).
Heisenberg is probably the only one that can be honestly said to have made a profound discovery rivaling Einstein.
Just my two cents here.
- Retra 12y agoSupposedly Landau made a 1-5 scale of physicists productivity. If I recall correctly, Newton and Einstein were the only ones he put in the 1 bracket.
- eru 12y agoBut only because von Neumann was a philosopher. Before Newton, physics used to be called natural philosophy. Newton made it tractable. Before von Neumann, strategy was philosophy. ("But it's so simple. All I have to do is divine from what I know of you: are you the sort of man who would put the poison into his own goblet or his enemy's? Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.") After von Neumann, strategy became tractable. (Obviously, this view of history is very simplified.)
- dannylandau 12y agoYap, and he made a 1-5 scale for good looking girls as well when he was studying in Germany. Like science, he felt that the best physics development have already been done, and all the best looking girls taken. (Disclaimer: no relation to Lev, even though we share the same name).
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]