illuminating science

So Sunday was the delightful Science in the Pub activity - a trip down to the local pub to debate the question: Should Einstein have been named Person of the 20th Century, or was he overrated? It ended up being a really interesting debate. The panelists were all excellent, and had some really interesting arguments.

Perhaps the only odd thing that most of the panel was eithre neutral or against Einstein! I guess they assumed that most people would already be pro-Einstein, and their job would be to create an interesting counter argument. For instance, one panelist, Matt, wasn’t a physicist - instead he’s a top class debater. His argument (against Einstein) was that Einstein’s theories weren’t quite as amazing as everyone claimed. Einstein “stood on the shoulders of giants” (that is, he’d used the research of a lot of great people before him) to develop his theories, and anyway, if he hadn’t done it then someone else would have. It was an interesting argument, but as a physicist I have to disagree. As Andrew White, another panelist pointed out, Einstein’s theories really were revolutionary. Sure, someone else would eventually explained the photoelectric effect, etc. But his theory of general relativity, that whole idea of space and time being the same, was pure genius - and he shouldn’t be slighted for that.

It seems that the physicists assumed that everyone would know how great Einstein’s discoveries were, and so set out to discuss his attributes as a person, while Matt, as a non-physicist, may not have really appreciated how much Einstein changed modern physics (no offense to Matt here - it was an interesting argument that made for great discussion, and that’s what debating is all about!) But the panel swung around to defend Einstein when he needed it, so the discussion was still lively.
One interesting question was whether Einstein was a good role model, and hence appropriate for “Person of the Century”. He was a disrespectful student, he didn’t treat his first wife well, and he (supposedly) didn’t reference other people’s works. On the other hand, he campaigned for peace and nuclear disarmament, was involved in humanitarian efforts, and helped Marie Curie get a job when no-one else would employ a woman. Personally, I think that Einstein was human, and no human is perfect. If anything, it’s their flaws that make them interesting.
A related question Einstein’s popularity is a good thing for physics or not. He’s old, he’s got the crazy hair, and is always portrayed as being a brilliant but slightly absent minded old man - all together, forming pretty much the standard stereotype of a physicist. Is that really what we want young people thinking physics is all about? I guess not, but Einstein’s more than that - he shows that a physicist can become a household name and be more famous that anyone. He was brilliant but also funny, an academic but also involved with the rest of the world. And really, anything we can do which promotes physics and makes it accessible to students has got to be good.
So, at the end of it all, the audience voted and found Einstein to be worthy of his Person of the Century title, by a 2 to 1 majority. Seems like Einstein gets to keep his place as everyone’s hero. I certainly voted for him!