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Einstein's
'E=mc²: The Most Urgent Problem of Our Time'
1946
Albert
Einstein was the most famous and influential scientist
of the twentieth century; his discoveries transformed
both the world itself and our understanding of
it. Einstein's scientific contributions were immense
and varied, but his theories of relativity brought
him the most lasting recognition. In the course
of one year1905he wrote four papers,
which completely revolutionised the pre-existing
concepts of time and space, energy and matter.
Einstein's
Special Theory of Relativity developed from one
of these papers, and, containing a variant of
the most famous scientific equation of all, 'E
= mc²', was first published in 1907. The
formula shows that the mass and the energy of
any particular object are interchangeable, and
that under the right conditions a tiny amount
of matter is equivalent to a vast quantity of
energy.
When
Einstein published 'E = mc²', the equation
was at first almost entirely ignored, as it simply
did not fit in with what most scientists were
doing. Its potential to describe extraordinary
physical phenomena only became evident much later,
with the discovery in the 1930s of nuclear fission:
Einstein himself had not foreseen any technological
applications. The Special Theory of Relativity
had, in reality, become a tool of modern physics;
its concepts of the symmetry between space and
time and the equivalence of mass and energy allowed
scientists a way forward, but it did not tell
them which direction to take.
Only
two handwritten autograph manuscripts outlining
the consequences and implications of the Special
Theory of Relativity exist. The manuscript exhibited
here was written for the popular American journal
Science Illustrated in 1946, under the
title 'E = mc²: The Most Urgent Problem of
Our Time'. It was commissioned as a result of
increased public awareness following the detonation
of atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
1945. The title establishes the connection between
Einstein's formula and his passionate efforts
for nuclear disarmament.
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