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In part two of this presentation,
physicist Wal Thornhill continues his exploration of the cultural phenomena
surrounding the life and career of Albert Einstein. With the passage of time,
it seems that both the popular culture, and much of institutionalized science,
have only grown more certain that Einstein was right.
However, as Thornhill explains, the mythology of celebrity has the ability
to distort perceptions, and rewrite history. Einstein won the Nobel Prize
belatedly for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for
his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, and not for his
highly publicized theory of relativity. Although physics students today are
often taught that it was a quirk of the Nobel Committee to give the prize to
Einstein for his quantum work, rather than relativity, the truth is that everyone at
the time, including Einstein, believed it to be the more surprising result.
He proposed that light consists of small massless particles, or quanta called
photons, which carry energy that is proportional to the frequency of light.
Here again, he indulged in mysticism by introducing a physically impossible
zero mass particle carrying energy, in defiance of E=mc². This introduced the
absurd wave particle duality into electromagnetism. But, by discarding the
mystical paradoxes of relativity theory, it is possible to see that classical
causality can be reinstated to our understanding of quantum interactions of
light with matter. Light merely imitates some 'thing' carrying energy at the speed
of light from a transmitting atom to a receiving atom. However, it is now
proven that there can be a so-called 'subtle, non-local connection' between
subatomic particles - they are said to be 'entangled'. Both of these
terms are euphemisms for an instantaneous connection
and are symptomatic of the stultifying effect of Einstein's postulates.
Clearly, there is an instantaneous longitudinal electrical signal via the
polarizable ether that establishes resonance between two separate atoms.
So, when the transverse light wave arrives later a fixed quantum of energy is
accepted by the first in-phase resonant receiving particle. And, since all matter is
connected in real-time by the subtle longitudinal electric force (also
known as gravity) the energy of the light wave is not available to any other
particle once it has been accepted by the resonant receiving particle. Light is
a combination of two signals between atoms: the direct longitudinal
resonating signal, and the slower transverse electrical wave. The classical
approach also removes the confusion of physical clocks with the concept of
time intervals, which is absolute. Clocks simply tick at different rates depending
upon their energy, which is directly related to the potential and kinetic
energy of all the particles in the clock with respect to all other bodies.
The most profound objection that can be raised to special relativity theory is
its total reliance on relative motion. Thomas E Phipps, Jr. points out in his
excellent book Old Physics For New, that timekeeping depends asymmetrically upon
state of motion. Which of two clocks runs slower depends on which has been
moved, yet relative motion of the clock does not depend on which has been moved.
The latter results in the well-known 'Twins Paradox', where the twins separated
at high speed age at different rates. But, who is to choose which frame of reference
is the high speed one when the choice is arbitrary? Phipps asks, "Is that too profound
an antinomy for the professorial mind to encompass?" He earlier concludes,
"The search for a physical cause of clock behavior must ultimately conduce to Machian
thoughts. The mere fact that the fiducial system is inertial already
sets up recognition of a subtle influence of distant matter on timekeeping."
The global positioning system merely adjusts for a slower clock tick
in Earth orbit - it does not confirm Einstein's relativity.
Installing Einstein as an icon of genius was a cultural and
historical phenomenon. It was Sir Arthur Eddington who championed and publicized
Einstein. In 1975, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar wrote about conversations in 1933 in
Cambridge, England, which included Eddington and Earnest Rutherford.
Rutherford is reported saying to Eddington, 'you are responsible for
Einstein's fame'. He was referring to Eddington's postwar expedition to
measure the bending of starlight close to the Sun during a total eclipse.
Chandrasekhar writes, "I expressed to [Eddington] my admiration of his
scientific sensibility in planning the expeditions during the 'darkest days of
the war'. To my surprise, Eddington disclaimed any credit on that account -
indeed he said that, left to himself, he would not have planned the expeditions since
he was fully convinced of the truth of the general theory of relativity."
Eddington was driven by his need to re-establish his authority following his
pacifist role in the first world war - that irrational paroxysm. In the
catharsis that followed such outbursts, people were looking to forget the
unbearable memory. It could be said that Einstein's mysticism was an escape
picked up in the arts by the surrealists. Salvador Dali was inspired by Einstein
to paint melting clocks and distorted figures in landscapes. Einstein's ticker
tape parade reception in New York reveals that this was not about science.
In Chandrasekhar's words, "Astronomy had always appealed to public imagination; and an
astronomical discovery, transcending worldly strife, struck a responsive cord.
The meeting of the Royal Society, at which the results of the British
expeditions were reported, was headlined in all the British papers; and the typhoon
of publicity crossed the Atlantic. From that point on, the American press played
Einstein to the maximum". With his oxymoronic 'thought experiments', Einstein
became the unacknowledged but leading New Age mystic. The Big Bang creation
myth, built upon his work,
welded science and religion back together. As Einstein remarked, "The only
deeply religious people of our largely materialistic age are the earnest men of
research". If anything shows how far we have strayed from real science, consider the
poignant story of the post-mortem examination of Einstein's brain.
Dr. Harvey, who sliced the brain, found no unusual traits in form, volutions or size.
Einstein was a normal human being who was thrust early in his life by
Eddington into the celebrity circus. His iconoclastic papers on relativity would
not pass peer review, today.
Einstein's popular image was untarnished although, he achieved little after the
Bohr Heisenberg Copenhagen School theory of acausal quantum mechanics
gained acceptance in 1927. In real science, cause and effect cannot be divorced.
Einstein complained of quantum mechanics, "God doesn't play dice with the world."
But, ever since students have been taught two unscientific philosophies
that are mutually exclusive.
Ironically, Einstein's postulates stand in the way of understanding gravity,
light and quantum interactions in simple classical terms. Looking back on
his life at age 70, Einstein gave a clear evaluation of what he believed
were his accomplishments in a personal letter to Professor Sol Levine, dated 28th
of March 1949, and made public many years after his passing. "You can imagine that I
look back on my life's work with calm satisfaction. But from nearby it looks
quite different. There is not a single concept of which I'm convinced that it
will stand firm, and I feel uncertain whether I am in general on the right track."
Scientific understanding is provisional.
It's a tactical error to declare someone
a paragon of genius. In this era of peer censorship, it stifles debate and dissent
which is essential for the advancement of science. It accentuates confirmatory
bias, it can halt progress - that's the situation in the 21st century as scientists
celebrate 100 years of Einstein's
theory of relativity. Einstein's book Relativity The Special And The General
Theory, published in English in 1920, was supposed to be understandable by all.
Yet, he later joked with the polish physicist Leopold Infeld that the description
'generally understandable' on the book's cover should be changed to 'generally not
understandable'. The simple fact is that his theories make no physical sense.
Never have so many books been written by so many experts purporting to explain
a theory but, with so little success.
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