telepathy and einstein
As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.
understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.
Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.
My old friend from Oxford emailed me recently a passage from Life and Fate by Grossman, "There is nothing more difficult than to be a stepson of the time; there is no heavier fate than to live in an age that is not your own. Stepsons of the time are easily recognized: in personnel departments, Party district committees, army political sections, editorial offices, and on the street. Time loves only those it has given birth to itself: its own children, it own heroes, it own labourers. Never can it come to love the children of a past age, any more than a woman can love the heroes of a past age, or a stepmother love the children of another woman." I replied very shortly, "how much time does it take for a paper to be forgotten?" To which he replied, "Are you thinking of Einstein's 1905?". Shockingly, I had just been reading Einstein's On the Electrodynamics of moving bodies.
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<p>Now, I am not a physicist and I don't usually read Einstein or theoretical physics. I am a biochemist, and I strictly read research papers pertinent to my work with the occasional philosophy or history text for amusement purposes. While my friend is in Oxford, I currently reside in the USA, and have not met my friend in person for over five years. When I revealed to him that I had just been reading Einstein, he immediately forwarded me this website, and pushed me to describe the event.
Date submitted:Wed, 25 Nov 2015 23:32:37 +0000Coincidence ID:8311
