Genius Loves Company

According to legend, Albert Einstein was a lone genius, coming up with ideas and concepts nobody else thought of.

But as with most myths, the truth is more complex. As detailed on The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, a 16-volume series of books co-edited by numerous scholars, Einstein worked with many collaborators and was deeply embedded in the world of science.

Einstein’s native language was German so his writings have had to be translated for the rest of us to read them. All of the volumes are now available in English and free in electronic formats.

In a CalTech article written by Prof. Diana Kormos-Buchwald, it is detailed that Einstein developed his special theory of relativity in 1905 with help from his college friend Michele Besso and his wife, Mileva Marić.

He later perfected his general theory of relativity in 1915 with help from both Besso and another college friend, mathematician Marcel Grossmann.

Perhaps most illustrative of all was his involvement in experiments with younger physicists to test the structure of radiation and matter, and ultimately the development of the ground-breaking field of quantum mechanics. When approached by one of his young colleagues about being listed as a co-author on an important paper on that topic, Einstein demurred.

“I just don’t know whether I should count as a co-author since after all you did all the work...”

Einstein was a tinkerer and inventor of gadgets, including a patented refrigerating system. And he was an original thinker, who indeed came up with brilliant ideas. But perhaps his true genius was as a synthesizer, a collaborator, and a mentor of younger people.

(This one is from 2021.)

HEADLINES:

• Illinois sues the Trump administration to block National Guard deployment, joining Oregon (NPR)

• Trump claims ‘Portland is burning’ while federal agents escalate ICE protest response (Oregonian)

• What a Chicago immigration raid says about Trumpism (Economist)

• ‘Enormous fear’: Trump’s threats against George Soros chill US non-profits (Financial Times)

• Government shutdown threatens food aid program relied on by millions of families (AP)

• Democrats Still Have No Idea What Went Wrong (Atlantic)

• Psychiatrists call for RFK Jr. to be replaced as health secretary (NPR)

• RFK Jr. once targeted pesticides. Why the MAHA report gave them a pass. (WP)

• The Supreme Court will wrestle with a question this week that, depending on the answer, could open up broad avenues for President Donald Trump to manipulate elections and the courts, HuffPost’s Brandi Buchman reports. [HuffPost]

• Supreme Court to consider whether states can ban gay conversion therapy (WP)

• France’s new Prime Minister Lecornu resigns hours after naming cabinet (Al Jazeera)

• Rubio Says U.S. Wants Quick Deal to Bring Gaza Hostages Home (NYT)

• Returning Gaza flotilla activists claim mistreatment in Israeli detention, fear for remaining prisoners (CNN)

• Bari Weiss: the anti-woke superstar shaking up American journalism (Telegraph)

• A 19-year-old nabs backing from Google execs for his AI memory startup, Supermemory (TechCrunch)

• Deloitte will refund Australian government for AI hallucination-filled report (ArsTechnica)

• The reinforcement gap — or why some AI skills improve faster than others (TechCrunch)

• Nobel Prize In Medicine Awarded To Tums (Onion)