The Einstein paradox

 kw: book reviews, nonfiction, biographies, social media, celebrities, albert einstein

I am presently 76 years old, just three months shy of age 77. That is eight months beyond the age at which Albert Einstein died. He passed away 69 years ago, and it seems that he is more famous now than he was during his life. He was not an entertainer, nor a politician, nor anything else we associate with being a celebrity. Celebrities come and go, and most of those who were utterly idolized just a few years ago have been forgotten.

He was famous in Germany for years before he became hated by the Nazis and had to flee to America. He spent his years in America trying to extend his General Theory of Relativity into a Unified Field Theory, or Theory of Everything. He was working on that the day he died. The brightest minds in Physics have been trying the same thing ever since, so far without success. The only one of them who still holds, somewhat, a place in the popular mind is Stephen Hawking. Sadly, he also passed away without reaching that theoretical Holy Grail.

On an airplane ride a few years ago I sat near a youngish cosmologist. I told him I had a question I'd been just itching to ask a cosmologist; he agreed to hear it. He had already said—in agreement with things I have read—that a Unified Field Theory depends on discovering a quantum of gravity, a "graviton". By analogy with the photon, a graviton is thought to be a boson (a force-carrying particle). So I asked, "If not even photons can escape the gravity of a black hole, and all of a black hole's mass is found inside its event horizon, how do gravitons get out to reach other bodies and attract them toward the black hole? What is the 'emitting surface' of a black hole?" He was silent for half an hour, thinking. Then he said, "I have the beginning of an answer. The emitting surface of an accelerated electron is much larger than the electron, which emits photons with wavelengths thousands of times greater than the size of the atoms about which electrons orbit. By analogy, gravitons must be emitted over an area larger than the event horizon of a black hole." I agreed that it is a good beginning. I hope he has continued to think about it. Such a principle may not be the key to producing a Theory of Everything, but perhaps it is a start.

Einstein's General Relativity theory, that gravity describes the shape of spacetime, rather than being a field (or boson), is quite incompatible with the notion of a graviton! Time will tell. Einstein surpassed Newton. Some future physicist may surpass Einstein.

In the meantime, we have the real Einstein, and the legendary Einstein, to content with. Little did I realize that there is a social media presence in his name. The social media accounts for Albert Einstein are mediated by an interesting fellow named Benyamin Cohen, who has written The Einstein Effect: How the World's Favorite Genius Got into Our Cars, Our Bathrooms, and Our Minds.

Mr. Cohen states that he is not a scientist, and that he doesn't try to impersonate Einstein (unlike some fool I've heard of who impersonates Jesus online and on radio). He posts new and interesting factoids about Einstein, both from others' efforts or from bits of research unearthed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where the Einstein archives are.

Cohen did a bit of traveling to connect with various facets of the Einstein legend and history. Along the way, he got to see some of the remnants of Albert Einstein's brain, which was originally stolen by the pathologist who did the autopsy; he interviewed friends and fellow scientists; he visited a warehouse where Einstein memorabilia are made and sold; he tracked down a few relatives.

In many ways, Einstein was a kind of miracle. As one descendant put it, he got all the good bits and all other Einsteins get genetic leftovers. His fame began, and largely rested, on the astonishing series of articles he published in 1905, his annus mirabilis, on four subjects:

1. Photoelectric Effect
2. Brownian Motion
3. Special Theory of Relativity
4. Mass-Energy Equivalence

It is necessary to dig into each of these very briefly, more briefly than the book does:

1. Photoelectric Effect – When light shines on any material, only the light "bluer" than a characteristic wavelength will eject electrons from it. This proved that light is carried by particles that we now call photons. The color of light we see depends on the energy of the photons. We see only a very narrow range of photon energies, with red being lower energy and blue being higher (about twice as much) energy per photon. Einstein explained how it worked, for which he received a Nobel Prize. 
2. Brownian Motion – Tiny particles such as pollen grains in water jitter continually, as described by a scientist named Robert Brown in 1827. Anyone can see this with a microscope. Later scientists developed the statistical understanding of the particles' motions. Einstein showed that the motions were caused by thermal motions of molecules of water, thus proving that such molecules existed.
3. Special Theory of Relativity – Earlier scientists had worked out some elementary math of the consequences that result if light's speed is constant, relative to anyone observing the light. Einstein formalized the theory, which showed how relative velocity between one frame of reference and another, causes the perceived length of a moving object to change, the rate of time passing to change, and the mass to change. For example, mu mesons (muons) produced in a particle accelerator go farther than one might expect: At rest the half-life of a muon is 1.52 microseconds. But if a muon beam is zipping along at 99% of the speed of light, the half life is seven times as long, about 10.8 microseconds. Without "time dilation" the muon beam would be reduced to ½ strength after 200 meters, and to ¼ strength after another 200 meters. But instead, the ½-strength distance, at 0.99c, is 1,400 meters. Much closer approaches to light speed allow muons to persist much longer.
4. Mass-Energy Equivalence – The famous equation E=mc² encapsulates the idea. Where it becomes practical is with nuclear energy (or nuclear bombs). The "atomic bomb" works by the release of energy of nuclei of uranium or plutonium: when the nucleus is split, the products weigh just a bit less than the original nucleus, and this tiny difference in mass yields a huge amount of energy. This is because c² is a very large number. The "hydrogen bomb" is even more energetic because the percent of the mass of hydrogen released by fusing it to helium is about 100x as great as that from splitting uranium.

This leads us to a paradox in Einstein. He was a determined pacifist. But, once E=mc² became known to scientists, he and others realized that Hitler's scientists could produce a devastating weapon. Thus, he sent a letter to President Roosevelt urging him to begin a project to produce that weapon first. The President did two things: he started the Manhattan Project, and he ordered his generals in Europe to intensify the war against Germany, to forestall their chances of developing an atomic weapon.

Einstein was reserved, disturbed by the limelight, the incessant publicity. He was also subject to a lot of harassment because of his fame. He might be rather bemused by his current popularity. I think he would appreciate that someone like Mr. Cohen is taking care of the social media accounts (none of which existed until about 40 years after he died!).

Here is one way Einstein's work affects us daily. Wayfinding depends on both theories of Relativity. GPS navigation depends on satellites that constantly emit precisely timed signals giving their present location in orbit. Because the satellites are moving, relative to Earth's surface, at about 2.4 miles per second (3.9 km/s), their clocks run slow by a few microseconds per day. The actual velocity of the surface depends on latitude, but ranges from zero at the poles to 0.46 km/s at the equator. All this is corrected for using the math of Special Relativity. Also, the satellite orbits are a 12,500 miles (20,200 km) above the surface, and the lower gravity field causes their clocks to run fast by a few microseconds per day. Correcting for this requires the math of General Relativity. These effects don't quite cancel out. Wouldn't that be convenient! Einstein in the sky!

By the way, I have to correct an error. On page 42 I read, "Let's say your car is moving at sixty miles per hour and headed west. Your phone sends those coordinates to the satellite, which in turn, sends back information on where you need to go…" Not even close! Here's what actually happens:

• There are 32 satellites in orbit (more are planned), in groups of orbits designed to keep three or more satellites in view from any place on Earth, all the time.
• Each carries a hyper-accurate atomic clock.
• They continually broadcast their location and the accurate (to the billionth of a second) time the signal was transmitted.

That is what the satellites do. They do not receive signals from GPS receivers in our cars or phones, nor do they calculate our driving directions. They would need to be huge supercomputers to handle the traffic of billions of devices on a continuous basis.

Your receiver, whether it's a phone or stand-alone, receives signals from satellites it can hear. This is a view from a diagnostic screen in a GPS receiver, showing ten satellites in view, and five being "listened to". Then,

• The receiver calculates the distance to each satellite based on the time signals they send compared to its own clock.
• Each distance implies a sphere in space centered on the satellite's position.
• The receiver does the math to find where the spheres all intersect. That is the position of the receiver. Three satellites can pinpoint one location on Earth; four can pinpoint that location and its elevation; five can refine the position more accurately.
• The receiver updates the screen to show its (your) current position on the map.

When you begin navigating, you tell the receiver where you want to go, and perhaps where you want to start from, or allow it to find out where it is by checking the satellite signals. It then calculates one or more routes from start to finish. Once you choose the route you want, it displays the tracking screen, updating it as you go.

The satellites don't know where you are, or anything else. They just know where they are. Your GPS receiver does all the work.

OK, back to the book. On his various trips, Cohen learned more and more aspects of Einstein's life and the ongoing hype surrounding him and his legend. A lot is there! One company still sells a warehouse full of bobblehead Einstein dolls about yearly. Hats, T-shirts, posters; Einstein look-alike contests. An Einstein exhibit near "Area 51", which is still considered by many to hold a crashed flying saucer. One celebrity attendee told Cohen, "I'm celebrated because people understand me. Einstein is celebrated because nobody could understand him."

That's the bottom line. Nobody understands what Einstein really did, except for a very few physicists who are trying to extend his theories into a Theory of Everything. Perhaps someday somebody will do it, or more likely it will be a collection of scientists. Modern science is too big for solitary geniuses to grasp it all. In the meantime, we have Albert Einstein to look up to, as someone who transcended the bounds that restrain the rest of us, at least a little. Recently, now that most light bulbs have been replaced with LED bulbs, the last patent of Thomas Edison became obsolete; of the thousand patents he was awarded, none are currently in use. Of the four articles Einstein published in 1905, and the General Relativity article he published a dozen years later, all are still in use. Whether we know it or not, we touch the results of his work daily.

Biography of a friendship

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, biographies, celebrities, actors, friendships

This was a wildcard selection for me; I seldom read biographies. Hank & Jim, by Scott Eyman, was too alluring to pass up. It chronicles 50 years of friendship between Henry Fonda and James Stewart.

Henry Fonda and James Stewart were opposites in some important ways: politically left vs right; Fonda marrying five times (and finally getting it right) and Stewart taking his time and hitting a home run on the first try; Fonda never giving up his first love of live theater but Steward gravitating almost exclusively to film, where together they dominated for decades.

Their similarities were sufficient to sustain a friendship in which they didn't need to talk about what was different. In fact, they were both introverted and "lived inside" much of the time and could spend tons of time together with little said, if anything. They both got their start in The University Players, though at different times and didn't meet until later. They soon became roomies, along with a few other close friends, during their "starving artist" years. They loved model airplanes (these were not the punch-out-and-glue kits, but the sort that yielded a room full of balsa wood shavings and could make you dizzy with glue fumes). They both enlisted during WWII, Fonda in the Navy and Stewart in the Army Air Corps; both were considered war heroes, they weren't just pretty faces that hung around the base. Stewart, in particular, remained active in the Reserves for years thereafter, retiring as a Brigadier General.

The book is really a triple biography, one for each man, and one for their bond. They spent years apart but always stayed in communication. Stewart was particularly solicitous during Fonda's last days, though he wasn't present for his final moments. Trying to think of a way to encapsulate the impression the book made on me, I find myself tongue-tied (metaphorically; "finger-tangled?"). It is a bittersweet book.

I find a further similarity they shared: they managed to keep at least some of their private lives out of the limelight. I am not sure how possible that would be today, now that the paparazzi are so much more aggressive (and deadly at times!), and are getting drones. But perhaps a couple of expert radio-control airplane aficionados could playfully engage in homemade anti-drone warfare!

The book is far from the fare I typically favor, but was quite enjoyable anyway. Like trying a new and very different restaurant, I got a nice surprise.

Courage and maturity

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, memoirs, celebrities, depression

Major depression isn't just one thing. A collection of influences that quiet, or stifle, or crush the soul will manifest one way for some and another way for others. Ginger Zee writes of being suddenly transported into a small, strange, dark room, frequently with scolding voices shrieking her worthlessness. This is depression with just enough delusion that it almost managed to finish her off on a couple of occasions.

The overarching purpose of Ginger Zee's memoir Natural Disaster: I Cover Them; I am One is to chronicle her gradual triumph over that dark room and to offer hope for others similarly afflicted. She is a little young for memoir-writing (about 35 when she was writing the book), but she had already packed an amazing mass of life experience into this half-a-lifetime.

I have to mention while I think of it: The dark room with its scolding voices worked its way into reality with a "boyfriend" named John, a serious abuser, who actually became the expression of that inner domain, keeping her effectively locked up while accusing, scolding, shrieking her worthlessness, and forcing her to reveal passwords to all her accounts, until she managed to find the strength to flee and call 911 for help. In the book it isn't clear if she made this connection.

Ginger Zuidgeest grew up in a chaotic family and came to epitomize the need for chaos in her life to feel "normal". She wasn't abused as a child, nor neglected, but life had its way of providing a whole lot more twists and turns for her than is the usual fare. Her mother was capable of the most amazing conniption fits. I suppose that gave her just enough thick skin to answer brightly and even compassionately the trolls who complained to her via Twitter or email once she became a TV personality. Along the way the trickiness of her hyper-Dutch name was troubling enough to colleagues who had to say in on the air that they soon began calling her "Ginger Z.", and then a friend suggested she simply use the stage name Zee. It was a great idea.

She chronicles the story of her climb to becoming ABC's Chief Meteorologist, but there's little use in my re-hashing it for you. She was driven. So driven that my armchair psychologist hat practically forced itself onto my head, to declare from time to time, "Ms Zee, you aren't just the occasional depressive, you are bipolar ("manic depressive"), someone who is lucky enough that you spend a lot more time with that manic energy than in the dark room." She has, for years, endured a work schedule that would exhaust nearly anyone. She thrives on it. She even managed to wangle a series of assignments that included very high-flying paragliding, swimming in Jellyfish Lake in Palau (where she discovered she was pregnant), and a descent into the amazing Hang Son Doong cave in Vietnam (while pregnant).

Her "escape" from becoming overwhelmed by depression swings around two foci. The first is fleeing from John, the second is checking herself into a mental hospital for a week of special therapy, ten days prior to starting to work for ABC. Her description of that week shows the value of finding a truly competent therapist. In my experience there are many more who are at best marginally competent, and I wonder if my experience is ordinary or not, that more than half belong "in the bottom of the barrel." Actually, I had only one truly good psychiatrist since being diagnosed as bipolar, fortunately, at a less extreme level than most. Dr. Wilson proved to be a supremely good therapist for her, and helped her develop the tools she needed to become the person she needed to be.

Ginger Zee makes it clear that not all who experience depression will experience it "her way", but that no matter how it manifests itself, it can be overcome, and the first step is usually being willing to hold up a hand to say, "You know, I am really NOT OK." She states something we all need to keep in mind: we all have someone, usually several someones, who love us enough to be willing to help, even if it costs them time and energy.

She ends the book with a hint that the coming years may not be any less chaotic, but they will have a clearer focus, her husband Ben and their little son. She is experiencing a core of stability she feared she would never reach. Good on ya, girl!

Sure he is great, just ask him

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, memoirs, celebrities

During my last two years in my parents' home, there was a ritual a couple nights a week: Mom would prepare dinner, then take her plate to the next room to watch Star Trek. I, and at least one or two of my brothers, would join her there. For a show that was generally considered "not well received", it obtained quite a cult following that continues today. The cultus was vindicated when the cast was reassembled over a decade or so to produce seven feature films.

I have also read a lot about how the cast members didn't get along, particularly with the star. Several of them considered William Shatner to be insufferably arrogant, and some would never be seen with him off the set. In Shatner Rules: Your Guide to Understanding the Shatnerverse and the World at Large, written with Chris Regan, Bill Shatner lays out all of his career. By 1970, he considered Star Trek as little more than a blip in the road, until the uproar arose that led to those films. And he has his own take on the arrogance thing. Yes, he was arrogant, and he still is, with good reason: he's good (just ask him).

The young Captain Kirk is how I and many of my friends remember William Shatner. The more mature actor who starred in Boston Legal and several other TV series is less familiar to us (at least to me; I seldom watch TV series). Now, at age 80 (the second pic was taken on his birthday), Bill is still going nonstop.

The book is constructed around a number of his Rules, the first being, "Say 'Yes!'". As long as we are about rules, here is one my father passed on to me:

Jim's First Rule – Don't say bad things about yourself. The world is full of people who will do that for you.

And as for arrogance, I don't mind it so much. I first learned about "creative arrogance" from my Dad, of course, and I also love the jokingly arrogant attitude Rush Limbaugh adopts, to the point that I sometimes open an inspirational speech by saying, "Rush says he has talent on loan from God. I've never felt I needed to borrow any." (Spoiler alert: In case you hear one of my speeches, you need to realize the message is simple. If two people agree on everything, one of them is redundant. Don't be afraid to differ. Just don't differ to the point that children run for the exits or hunker under chairs.)

Bill Shatner is someone who knows his strengths. He is an actor. He has been an actor since he was six. As of March 22 this year, that makes 74 years in which the only thing he has been paid to do is to act. Or so he says. He has produced and participated (perhaps starred, at least in his estimation) in several albums of music. So he's been paid to do just a bit of singing. He directed one of the Star Trek films; did he accept a director's salary, or was he sufficiently compensated as the star of the film? Yet, first and foremost, he is an actor.

Finally, I have to say, one thing I really liked about Star Trek was that the Captain, and others, were literate. Literary quotes were used in a number of episodes. I sometimes wondered if that was all the writers' doing, or if William Shatner was literate himself? At least to some extent, yes he is, not that he has a great deal of time to read! In one chapter he takes us through an ordinary "Two Shatner Day", meaning a day in which he has about twice as much stuff scheduled as the clock allows. Somehow, he accomplished it all. He does admit that a "Four Shatner Day" makes his head explode.

As long as you are going to turn 80 anyway, it's better to keep active. And while you are at it, remember who you love.

This preacher comes at you from another angle

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, celebrities, religion, values

The kind of spiritual leaders I like best didn't go to any seminary, and usually haven't been ordained by any organization. God's way as seen in the Bible is for a prophet to appear from the wilderness, make a huge impression on his generation, and pass on. Though a "school of the prophets" will often rise up, none of its graduates exhibits the gift or power of its namesake. Moses is the prototype: well educated, though in the Egyptian way, at the age of forty, he suffered a terrible failure, and spend the following forty years watching sheep eat "in the back side of the wilderness," somewhere in Midian. Once God decided he'd learned his lesson, and was ready to be a more effective shepherd, he called Moses from the burning bush.

Often the best preachers are the secret ones, those who can put God's lessons into you without seeming to touch on religion at all. St. Francis strove to be one of these; he said, "Preach the Gospel at all times. When absolutely necessary, use words." Fred Rogers, TV's Mister Rogers, is my favorite of this genre.

Marcia Z. Nelson, who writes about religion in a number of venues, has found such a "secret preacher" in Oprah Winfrey. She has influenced people worldwide for twenty years through her TV talk show and the publishing empire that has grown up around it...and I mean publishing of all kinds, for it is her Web site, www.oprah.com, that has the greatest impact.

Though Oprah Winfrey was raised a Christian, she has been accused of being "New Age" because of her nonjudgmental approach and emphasis on self esteem. While I prefer to emphasize self respect over self esteem, I understand her approach, and appreciate it. I am a Christian teacher, and I find nothing to offend me in her method.

Ms Nelson's new book, The Gospel according to Oprah, shows a double handful of ways that Oprah gets her message across without being preachy. Two are of interest to me, the 5th and 10th of ten chapters: "Oprah teaches gratitude" and "Oprah is a reminder service."

We are frequently exhorted in the Bible to exercise thanksgiving. The Psalms are primarily expressions of praise and thanksgiving to God, and the rest of the Bible contains many "secret psalms" such as Isaiah chapter 12. Gratitude in our attitude makes everything go better, as Oprah reminds her audience frequently.

Also in the book of Isaiah, God's people are called "God's remembrancers," even called to remind God (and themselves in the process) what His plans are. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit's major task would be to "bring to remembrance" the things He had said, and what His disciples had read. This is why we need to read the Bible; it gives the Spirit something to work with. For those who have never read the Bible, and perhaps wouldn't be caught dead with one in hand, Oprah reminds us what values and virtues really are, and why we're happiest when we're best.

Dale Evans once said, "The way we behave may be the only Gospel some people ever see." I don't know if Oprah knows that aphorism, but it is clear she is living it, and asking us also so to do.