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Albert Einstein
(1879–1955)
'E=mc
²: The Most Urgent Problem of Our Time'  1946
Courtesy of the Albert Einstein Archives, Jewish National and University Library, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

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Jewish National and University Library
Jerusalem
Israel

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 year—1905—he 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.