The reading on Einstein was interesting. It was interesting to see how the scientific community reacted to a patent clerk who published a revolutionary theory. That at first Einstein’s work was rejected by many is not surprising, and that as time went on, more and more scientists saw its validity. I noted that near the end of the chapter, the author mentions that even as Einstein was so well known among scientists, the public at large knew virtually nothing of him.
I appreciated the description of space-time that the book provides. It makes me ponder the question, if time is like the other dimensions, why can’t we move around in it like we can in the other three? Why can’t we go backwards and forwards in time? What is it that stops us?
I found the reading on Bohr to be somewhat less interesting. Having read Hoffman’s biography on Einstein, I have a better appreciation for the comparison of the characters of Einstein and Bohr near the beginning of the reading. I noted that Bohr, in his new description of the atom, was not trying to throw out classical physics, but instead wanted to reconcile classical physics with the emerging (and more fitting) quantum physics, which applied better to the world of atoms.
Also, though I didn’t really need to know the details of how the students at the Bohr Institute would classify the women, it did serve to make it easier to understand the mindset of the students. They didn’t just limit their thinking to the classroom or the lab. Thinking and theorizing and hypothesizing were part of their daily lives.