In the new book “Einstein Revolution: Historical Roots of Breakthroughs” Israeli physicist Hanoch Gutfroind and German science historian Jurgen Renn presented the original analysis of Albert Einstein’s contribution to physics and our understanding of the physical world. |
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The authors of the book consider Einstein’s work in the context of a long development of scientific knowledge, refuting the myth of Einstein as a single genius who alone created modern physics. |
In 1905, in his “Year of Miracles”, Einstein published four revolutionary works affecting the photoelectric effect, Brownian movement, the theory of relativity and the relationship of mass and energy (E = MC²). |
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These works were based on the ideas that Einstein developed based on previous studies in the field of mechanics, thermodynamics and electrodynamics. |
The authors of the book claim that Einstein used a golistic approach, crossing the boundaries between different areas of physics, but did not pay attention to other sciences, such as chemistry, astronomy or geology. |
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This distinguished him from other scientists of that time, such as the German physicist Walter Nernst, who was engaged in research at the junction of chemistry and physics. |
The book also analyzes the philosophical aspects of Einstein’s work in detail. |
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Despite the apparent radicality of his theory of relativity and theory of light quanta (photons), Einstein and the authors of the book do not consider his work the “breaking of the paradigm” in the sense proposed by the philosopher Thomas Kun. |
Einstein saw progress in science as cumulative, not revolutionary. |
The authors also pay attention to the relationship of classical and modern physics, emphasizing that Einstein saw his theory of relativity as a natural continuation of the works of Galileo, Newton, Maxwell and Lorentz. |
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In the conclusion of the book, Einstein’s scientific and social heritage is considered. |
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