Abraham pais [Einstein Colleague]: “Einstein was among the greatest men of science of all time, one may say, in finding where t

American Museum of Natural History – Einstein

es_TheManBehindTheScience_SCRIPT_v25a - Script

ABRAHAM PAIS [Einstein Colleague]: “Einstein was among the greatest men of science of all time, one may say, in finding where the question is.”
MICHIO KAKU [City University, New York]: “When you think of Einstein, you think of a man that is smiling, a man whose humanity reaches out and touches you. A man that’s accessible, a man that is playful and understands the nature of our being.”
LINUS PAULING [Einstein Colleague]: “This I think was a guiding principle for Einstein, that there is sense and beauty in the physical world.”
ANIMATED QUOTE/VISUAL: “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” Albert Einstein (signature)
His face is instantly recognizable; his name, a synonym for “genius.” Albert Einstein is a legend whose imagination helped shape the 20^th century.
Not since Galileo and Newton has one scientist so advanced our understanding of the universe. But unlike his predecessors, Einstein’s qualities as a member of society and a humanitarian defined him as an icon.
ANIMATED QUOTE/VISUAL: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
KIP THORNE [California Institute of Technology]: “Einstein saw hints and worked on the basis of them. He had hints about the nature of space and time, but he could work with far fewer hints than anyone else. He could see a couple or three hints and make a huge intuitive leap as to what was really going on.”
As a child during the late 1800s, Einstein became fascinated with understanding the nature of the universe. Even in those early years he was honing his most valuable scientific tool: his own imagination.
When asked to reveal the whereabouts of his laboratory, Einstein was said to point to the pen in his pocket. No apparatus could recreate what Einstein visualized: riding on a beam of light; watching time slow down; and falling to the center of the Earth. He merged these “thought experiments” with mathematics and published revolutionary theories about light, time, energy and gravity.
VERA RUBIN (Carnegie Institute of Washington): “There was an eminent mathematician who once said there were two kinds of geniuses; there is a kind of genius we would all be if we were much, much smarter than we are, and then there is the kind of genius we couldn’t be because these people look at things in a very different way… and I think Einstein falls into that class.”
The scientific community recognized Einstein with the Nobel Prize in Physics for his pioneering theory called the “Photoelectric Effect.” This theory showed that light behaves as a particle as well as a wave.
Breaking new scientific ground, Einstein’s 1905 Special Theory of Relativity challenged ideas about space and time dating back to Newton. The theory also stated that matter could be converted to pure energy. Describing this phenomenon is the deceptively simple, "E=mc²."
ANIMATED QUOTE/VISUAL: “The whole of science is nothing more than the refinement of thinking.”
Although 1905 was a great turning point for science, it was Einstein’s 1916 General Theory of Relativity that made him famous. Once again he challenged Newton’s laws of motion—this time by showing that gravity is not a force and the universe does not have a rigid structure. In Einstein’s universe, gravity is the result of a warp in the cosmic grid known as “space-time.”
The scientific community didn’t accept Einstein’s radical ideas about gravitation until images of a 1919 solar eclipse revealed both actual and apparent positions of known stars. The pictures confirmed Einstein’s prediction that the Sun’s gravity deflects the path of light. The news catapulted Einstein onto the world stage, immediately elevating him to "movie star" status.
S. JAMES GATES [University of Maryland]: “It is as if Elvis Presley and Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Sally Ride, Madonna had all been wrapped up into a single person. That was the stature of his celebrity. That must have been an unbearable sort of thing to have to shoulder. But he managed.”
ANIMATED QUOTE/VISUAL: “To punish me for my contempt for authority, Fate made me an authority myself.”
THOMAS LEE BUCKY [Family Friend]: “Although he knew who he was, although he was aware of his celebrity, he always took it with humor and always laughed at it and himself.”
NEWSREEL (German, subtitled):

MAN (OC): “Are you happy to be in America?”
ALBERT EINSTEIN: “When I see you, for sure!”
Already highly respected among his peers, Einstein never anticipated the throngs of reporters and fans that met him at every port. With his privacy now gone, Einstein soon discovered how to put this newfound fame to good use. Stardom enabled him to reach global audiences on important humanitarian issues.
During World War I Einstein emerged as a fierce opponent of militarism, strongly supporting global democracy and human rights. But by the 1930s, he reluctantly acknowledged that the United States needed to develop nuclear weapons, if only to prevent Nazi Germany from using them first.
Even though E=mc² was not a blueprint for building bombs, the equation did explain the amount of energy released by splitting the atom—a process called “fission.” Einstein’s name became associated with the use of atomic weapons, and the devastating effect that the bomb had on the world haunted him for the rest of his life.
PETER BERGMAN (Einstein Assistant): “I don’t know how much hope he had, but he felt, at any rate, obligated to make every possible effort on his part to bring the end of war about. He realized that a third world war might well mean the end of civilization on earth, or possibly the end of life on earth.”
Following World War II Einstein campaigned vigorously for nuclear disarmament and control of nuclear energy. He also used his celebrity status to promote the welfare of the Jewish people. Einstein raised funds for the founding of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, supported the formation of the State of Israel and helped European Jews gain asylum from Nazi persecution.
NEWSREEL:

ALBERT EINSTEIN: “The effect upon all nations and not least upon Germans of the fate of these innocent people so maliciously persecuted must not be underestimated. To leave these victims to their misery would be a heavy blow to all those who believe in human solidarity and would encourage those who believe only in force and oppression and who act accordingly.”
Einstein became a US citizen in 1940, but he always saw himself as a citizen of the world. His staunch support of socialism and a “world government,” his anti-war essays and speeches and his opposition to McCarthyism earned him an FBI file nearly 1,500 pages long. It was Einstein’s nature to speak out for his beliefs, no matter how controversial.
ANIMATED QUOTE/VISUAL: "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.”
Driven by a vision, Einstein spent the last decades of his life struggling to describe all physical phenomena—from the smallest subatomic particles to the entire universe—under a "Grand Unified Theory." He never succeeded, and he even doubted his own work. The quest for the Unified Theory is one of the hottest topics in physics today, forming the basis for how we understand the origin and evolution of the universe.

BRIAN GREENE "If there's one thing that characterizes Einstein's work and insight it is that he was often ahead of his time. When he began to think about unified theories, not enough was known about the structure of matter and the structure of the universe to have a hope of success…But in the intervening years we have learned enough to take his dream, to take his goal, and run with it -- to take it to the next step.…So the last 30 years of his life was not a waste. Instead, it was really what launched the current generation of work in physical sciences."
Throughout his life Einstein never lost his ability to laugh at himself and the world around him. The enduring legacy of his scientific achievements, humanitarian efforts, wit and charm will continue to inspire great thinkers for generations to come.