December 31, 1905
Dear Mother,
It feels like it has been a big year, so why do I feel so lonely?
Hans turned one this year, and I received my PhD also; on these, everyone seems to agree. However, none of my prominent peers in Physics seem to agree with any of my deepest held convictions, which I have had the opportunity to publish this year.
In June, I published a paper stating that light is not merely a wave, but a particle too, as the nature of its interactions occur at one point, and one at a time. These one-off interactions may be referred to as quanta. Anyway, I had a dream that this will spin into something neat called quantum physics and that this paper, which describes the photoelectric effect, is central to the whole thing.
In September, I published another paper that just has to be right, because it so beautiful. This paper states that time is not absolute. It should probably be referred to as special relativity on the grounds that it is not so general as to include accelerating reference frames, but the name works also because it just feels very special to me - but it seems, at times, only to me. I had a dream that God is laughing at me. I am just trying to make sense of His universe.
In November, I published yet another paper that I feel is important; it is too soon to say whether any of my contemporaries will agree. It argues that mass m and energy E are equivalent entities, tied together by the simplest of equations, "'E' equals 'm''c' squared," where c is the speed of light. I had yet another dream, where this became the most famous equation on planet Earth.
Earth... You know mother, something seems wrong about gravity. Newton's gravity just does not work on a number of levels. Just last night, I had a dream that some years from now, I will crack that one, and call it general relativity.
Sorry if I am boring you. At a time when so few hold my ideas in high regard, I needed to vent a bit. Also, the food sucks. Same stuff all the time. OK, mother, I feel better now.
With love, your tired 26-year-old son, Albert.
...
As it turns out, Einstein's relative loneliness in the physics world would persist for some time. The first prominent physicist to support Einstein's Annus Mirabilis (Year of Miracles, as it is often referred to) papers was Max Planck. Still, information moved slowly at that time, and it took a few years before Einstein and his ground-breaking work was embraced by the physics community at large.
He became a household name in 1919, when news came that his three-year-old general relativity theory had been validated experimentally. In 1921, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to quantum physics via his theoretical depiction of the photoelectric effect.
Looking back at 1905, it is remarkable, though not at all inconceivable, that Einstein's outlandish claims were largely ignored. Today, some scientists with wild ideas that appear to contradict the status quo are labelled quacks by the scientific community. Sometimes, the term is merited, and other times, it is not.
The top lesson I retain from Einstein's lonely year of miracles is this: it is fine, even admirable, to remain steadfast in our convictions, even when those around us remain unconvinced. A secondary, though no less valuable lesson, is that having a mentor in your corner like Max Planck is never a bad thing.
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