Ikko tanaka biography of albert einstein

The history of science is littered with many examples of diverse thinking that found convergence. A 110 years ago, an unknown Indian physicist by the name of Satyendra Nath Bose, then 30, wrote to Albert Einstein saying he had solved a problem in quantum physics. Einstein, who was then at the University of Berlin, realized that Bose had indeed correctly derived the solution to a problem that had stumped him. It concerned a satisfactory derivation of Planck’s Law, which describes the spectrum of radiation from a black body (an idealized physical body that absorbs all incident electromagnetic radiation, regardless of frequency or angle of incidence). First derived by Max Planck in 1900, the law showed that the radiation emitted by a black body does not keep rising at ever shorter wavelengths as suggested by classical physics but instead peaks before falling back.

So what? you may ask. The answer is that Planck’s law has many ramifications in theoretical and practical science. It is fundamental to quantum theory as it describes how energy is transferred in chunks called quanta, and the relationship between the energy of a photon and its frequency. It also forms the basis for many technologies, including computer chips, MRI scans, photovoltaic solar panels, photodetectors, thermal imaging and applications in climate science.

Einstein quickly translated Bose’s short paper (just 4 pages long) into German and had it published in a premier physics journal. He then extended Bose’s theory to show that it applies not only to photons but also to gases like hydrogen or helium. More precisely, Einstein predicted that at sufficiently low temperatures, the wavelike characteristics of gases would be more pronounced, to the point where viscosity would rapidly decrease, and all gas atoms would coalesce into a single new state of matter. Thanks to Bose and Einstein, we now know that this state of matter (BEC) applie

The German-born physicist Albert Einstein developed the first of his groundbreaking theories while working as a clerk in the Swiss patent office in Bern. After making his name with four scientific articles published in , he went on to win worldwide fame for his general theory of relativity and a Nobel Prize in for his explanation of the phenomenon known as the photoelectric effect.

He lived and worked in Princeton, New Jersey, for the remainder of his life. As a child, Einstein became fascinated by music he played the violin , mathematics and science.

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He dropped out of school in and moved to Switzerland, where he resumed his schooling and later gained admission to the Swiss Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich. In , he renounced his German citizenship, and remained officially stateless before becoming a Swiss citizen in Did you know? Almost immediately after Albert Einstein learned of the atomic bomb's use in Japan, he became an advocate for nuclear disarmament.

Robert Oppenheimer in his opposition to the hydrogen bomb. While at Zurich Polytechnic, Einstein fell in love with his fellow student Mileva Maric, but his parents opposed the match and he lacked the money to marry. The couple had an illegitimate daughter, Lieserl, born in early , of whom little is known. After finding a position as a clerk at the Swiss patent office in Bern, Einstein married Maric in ; they would have two more children, Hans Albert born and Eduard born While working at the patent office, Einstein did some of the most creative work of his life, producing no fewer than four groundbreaking articles in alone.

In the first paper, he applied the quantum theory developed by German physicist Max Planck to light in order to explain the phenomenon known as the photoelectric effect, by which a material will emit electrically charged particles when hit by light. To do this, Einstein introduced his special theory of relativit