Abdul Montaqim - Albert Einstein: A Biography

I.

Albert Einstein: A Biography

Introduction

Via lowdensitylifestyle.com

Albert Einstein is regarded by many people as the greatest scientific mind in the history of the world. Why? Well, there are many reasons, but one of the most important is that his theories led directly to the creation of the atom bomb, and with it, the dawn of the nuclear age. Not only did his work in theoretical physicsin particular, his famous e=mc2 equationindicate that it would be possible to build a massively destructive bomb, the like of which had never been seen before, Einstein himself urged the United States government to go ahead and build it.

Most historians agree that Germanys invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, marked the beginning of World War II in Europe. But about one month before that dateon August 2, 1939Einstein, who was living in America at the time, wrote to the then President of the US, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, outlining the ongoing scientific breakthroughsmade by Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilardthat could lead to the creation of extremely powerful bombs of a new type and suggesting that the government should fund, manage and speed up the progress towards such weapons.

In the letter, Einstein explained that the key element used in these scientific chain reaction experiments was an element called uranium, which would become critical to the making of the bombs in the immediate future. To that end, he recommended that the US government should give particular attention to securing the supply of uranium ore, particularly as the US had no significant uranium mines of its own. Einstein further pointed out that Germany had stopped exports from the uranium mines it owned in Czechoslovakia, implying that if the US did not develop the new bombs, Germany will.

At that time, Germany was controlled by the National-Socialist German Workers Party, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, who held the official title of Chancellor. The Nazis, as they were known, had come to power in 1933 on a wave of nationalist sentiment. Within weeks of Hitler being sworn in, an arson attack almost burned down the German national parliament building, the Reichstag, in what is now known as the Reichstag Fire.

The Reichstag Fire was a key moment in German politics as it was used by Hitler to launch a ruthless campaign of suppression against his enemies, beginning with the Communist Party of Germany, who were accused of causing the fire, although some historians claim that the fire was actually caused by Hitlers own supporters in order to pass through new laws suspending the authority of local governments across the country as well as suspend ordinary German peoples civil liberties.

As a result, power in Germany was centralised and placed in the hands of Hitler and his henchmen. And with that near-absolute power, Hitler built up the military and started expanding Germanys sphere of influence more assertively into neighbouring countries. But when Germany invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war. The US declared war two years later, on December 8, 1941.

Einstein was obviously worried about Germanys technological prowess and the possibility that Hitlers scientists could win the race to build the first atom bombs. In todays world, we use the term nuclear bombs, but essentially, they are one and the same in that they work on the same principle of splitting atoms to cause a chain reaction which takes a long time and a lot of space to dissipate, causing a huge amount of destruction as it does so. For a non-scientist like me, it sounds like the weapons punch a hole in the taut fabric of space-time, rather like the piercing of a balloon.

Via sodahead.com

Einstein was himself a German. He was born in a city called Ulm, located in the southern German state of Baden-Wrttemberg. He was a non-observant Jew and was from a modest family background. His father was an engineer and his mother was a housekeeper. He grew up seeing the country go through turbulent times, but generally seemed settled and comfortable in Germany.

However, as soon as Hitler came to power in 1933, Einstein, who happened to be on a visit to the US at the time, considered staying out from Germany permanently because of the Nazis hostility towards the Jews in their midst. Within months of coming to power, the Nazis had passed laws banning Jews from holding any official jobs, including teaching at universities. They placed Einstein on a list of assassination targets, and his books were publicly burned.

Hitler had quickly established a totalitarian regime known as the Third Reich, and seemed determined to exact revenge on the rest of Europe for the countrys defeat during World War I, when the German Empire was effectively brought to an end. The bitterness of that defeat would live long in the memory for Hitler and his contemporaries.

It was against this background that Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt warning him about the German threat. He wrote four times, the last time in 1945, just months before the bomb that he had dreamed up was eventually built and dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, obliterating each one in turn.

Einstein did not speak publicly about the atomic bombing of Japan until a year later, and even then, his comments were reported indirectly; and to this day, no direct and substantial statements made by him about the matter have surfaced. The New York Times, in 1946, reported that: Professor Albert Einstein said that he was sure that President Roosevelt would have forbidden the atomic bombing of Hiroshima had he been alive and that it was probably carried out to end the Pacific war before Russia could participate.

But that was not a direct quote. Neither was the following, even though it was in a book about Einstein, written by his biographer, Ronald Clark: As far as his own life was concerned, one thing seemed quite clear. I made one great mistake in my life, he said to Linus Pauling, who spent an hour with him on the morning of November 11, 1954, when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justificationthe danger that the Germans would make them.

Einstein was also reported to have written the following line in a book called Einstein on Peace: I have always condemned the use of the atomic bomb against Japan.

Nonetheless, the fact remains that the only atomic bombs that have ever been used on a large-scale basis were the two that the US used on Japan in 1945. Japan had been engaged in the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937, a war which it expanded to include the US, attacking Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, after which the US declared war. The atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the first two weeks of August, 1945. Less than a month later, Japan surrendered. Germany, which was an ally of Japan, had already surrendered several months earlier, in May.

It could be argued that the atom bomb is what brought peace to the world. Without it, World War II may have rumbled on for a lot longer. However, evidence from that time shows that the war was coming to an end already, well before the use of the atom bombs, and their use was not necessary.

In any case, Einstein concerned himself with the aftermath of a world in which atomic bombs were in the hands of an increasing number of countries. And he could envision even bigger, more destructive bombs.

Although Einstein himself was not directly involved in the project to build the atomic bombthe Manhattan Projectit was his unique and extraordinary insight into the universe of atoms that had alerted the worlds scientists to the possibility of creating such bombs; and ultimately, it was his vision that had led the world into the atomic, or nuclear age.