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We have entered what is being celebrated as the Einstein Year, marking the centenary of the physicist's annus mirabilis in 1905, when he published three landmark papers -- those that proved the existence of the atom, showed the validity of quantum physics and, of course, introduced the world to his theory of special relativity. Not bad for a beginner. "It's not that I'm so smart," Einstein once said, "It's just that I stay with problems longer." Whatever the reason for his greatness, there is no doubt that this determination allowed him to invent courageous new physics and explore realms that...

Gödel and Einstein: Friendship and RelativityBy PALLE YOURGRAU In the summer of 1942, while German U-boats roamed in wolf packs off the coast of Maine, residents in the small coastal town of Blue Hill were alarmed by the sight of a solitary figure, hands clasped behind his back, hunched over like a comma with his eyes fixed on the ground, making his way along the shore in a seemingly endless midnight stroll. Those who encountered the man were struck by his deep scowl and thick German accent. Speculation mounted that he was a German spy giving secret signals to enemy...

In 1905 the musings of a functionary in the Swiss patent office changed the world forever. His intellectual bequest remains for a new generation of physicists vying to concoct a theory of everything. Albert Einstein looms over 20th-century physics as its defining, emblematic figure. His work altered forever the way we view the natural world. "Newton, please forgive me," Einstein begged as relativity theory wholly obliterated the absolutes of time and space that the reigning arbiter of all things physical had embraced more than two centuries earlier. With little more to show than a rejected doctoral thesis from a few...

LOVE: I particularly admired Einstein’s deep devotion to, and ability to focus on, science itself and his recognition that the personalities of scientists are irrelevant to understanding science. Most important, in light of recent trends in physics, he understood the place of mathematics in science as a tool, not an end in itself. He was always motivated by physical questions and searching for experimental tests, even as he explored new mathematics. In particular, he didn’t confuse mathematical elegance with physical significance. HATE: I find myself frustrated at Einstein’s constant and inappropriate use of the term “God,” when he really meant...

Even its critics admit that it was a great idea in 1959. It was then that three Stanford scientists, dangling their legs in a university swimming pool, agreed to team up on an ambitious effort to peer deep into the heart of the strangeness that is Albert Einstein's legacy. Now 45 years and $700 million later, their dream has materialized as a van-size assemblage of plumbing, electronics and quartz, known unpoetically as Gravity Probe B, sitting atop a rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It is to be launched into orbit next Monday on an 18-month mission. When...

MARINA DEL REY, Calif., Feb. 20 — A dark, unseen energy permeating space is pushing the universe apart just as Einstein predicted it could in 1917, according to striking new measurements of distant exploding stars by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. The energy, whose source remains unknown, was named the cosmological constant by Einstein. In a prediction he later called "my greatest blunder," but which received its most stringent test ever with the new measurements, Einstein posited a kind of antigravity force pushing galaxies apart with a strength that did not change over billions of years of cosmic history. Theorists...

A number of valuable historic documents stolen from some of Israel's leading research institutions, including the Weizmann and Jabotinsky institutes, are being offered for sale in the United States, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Antiquities expert John Reznikoff, who owns and operates University Archives, an antiquities dealership in Westport, Connecticut, told the Post on Monday that "all the major archives in Israel are being looted, and the items are ending up here in the US. Jewish culture is being sold for pennies on the dollar, and there's a general malaise at the institutions in Israel about the situation. "I'm very...

<p>July 31, 2002 -- JERUSALEM - Israel has canceled an Albert Einstein exhibit in China after Beijing officials insisted there be no reference to his being Jewish or a supporter of the Jewish state, a government spokesman said yesterday.</p> <p>The collection of Einstein memorabilia was to open in Beijing next month and travel to five other Chinese cities, in the biggest cultural exchange ever between the two countries.</p>