http://pullthecork.wordpress.com/tag/albert-einstein/
Albert Einstein, a man of wisdom
and courage. Yet, we picture him like this, see picture above. Why is that?
Beats me, but my best guess would be that we picture scientists as crazy. Well,
that brings up a whole new predicament. Where did this theory of smart people
acting like lunatics come from? I wonder this outside of class all the time.
Einstein
is a classic. Not only did he discover the worst equation physics and chemistry
can ask for (E=mc^2), but he also teaches the words youth how to stick out their
tongues. I am almost certain that somewhere at sometime, someone was playing
around and said “hey, how funny would it be if we made Albert look stupid!” and
lo and behold a classic view of Alby. Obviously that’s not the picture I chose
but pretty much everyone knows what I’m talking about. I chose this picture of
Albert because it is more realistic. Although his hair is messy and he seems
out of sorts, this was the real him. As a science major myself, I can
understand why he would want to pull out his hair and maybe scream a little
here and there, but he never gave up. Albert didn’t let his appearance
influence his work. So, do all scientists go batty?
I would think not, but for some
reason the usual acceptance by convention is the crazy guy in a white lab coat.
That just seems odd to me. I want to know where this silly idea came from. For
now, I’ll just assume that Alby was not what pop culture makes him out to be.
this is one of a classic trio of pix I call the "Uncle Al" genre (the other is of him sticking out his tongue -- a real photo, an one of him riding a bicycle). It's also how he is portrayed in the movie "I.Q.", in which he plays cupid for his mathematician niece...it seems like it is an important theme in popular culture, the idea that AE may have been a genius and yet was still "like one of us", perhaps? It does seem to be a bit more than this, though, maybe the idea that he could be silly was kind of reassuring, perhaps that science itself wasn't unapproachable. Because there is that other side of it, the equation about the equivalence of energy and mass, which was a fascinating concept that played out with very scary consequences.
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