OUT OF MIND
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.
Latest topics
» As We Navigate Debs Passing
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyMon Jan 08, 2024 6:18 pm by Ponee

» 10/7 — Much More Dangerous & Diabolical Than Anyone Knows
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyThu Nov 02, 2023 8:30 pm by KennyL

» Sundays and Deb.....
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptySun Oct 01, 2023 9:11 pm by NanneeRose

» African Official Exposes Bill Gates’ Depopulation Agenda: ‘My Country Is Not Your Laboratory’
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyThu Sep 21, 2023 4:39 am by NanneeRose

» DEBS HEALTH
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptySun Sep 03, 2023 10:23 am by ANENRO

» Attorney Reveals the “Exculpatory” Evidence Jack Smith Possesses that Exonerates President Trump
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyTue Aug 29, 2023 10:48 am by ANENRO

» Update From Site Owner to Members & Guests
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyTue Aug 29, 2023 10:47 am by ANENRO

» New global internet censorship began today
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyMon Aug 21, 2023 9:25 am by NanneeRose

» Alienated from reality
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyMon Aug 07, 2023 4:29 pm by PurpleSkyz

» Why does Russia now believe that Covid-19 was a US-created bioweapon?
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyMon Aug 07, 2023 4:27 pm by PurpleSkyz

»  Man reports history of interaction with seemingly intelligent orbs
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyMon Aug 07, 2023 3:34 pm by PurpleSkyz

» Western reactions to the controversial Benin Bronzes
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyMon Aug 07, 2023 3:29 pm by PurpleSkyz

» India unveils first images from Moon mission
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyMon Aug 07, 2023 3:27 pm by PurpleSkyz

» Scientists achieve nuclear fusion net energy gain for second time
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyMon Aug 07, 2023 3:25 pm by PurpleSkyz

» Putin Signals 5G Ban
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyMon Aug 07, 2023 3:07 pm by PurpleSkyz

» “Texas Student Dies in Car Accident — Discovers Life after Death”
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyMon Aug 07, 2023 3:05 pm by PurpleSkyz

» The hidden history taught by secret societies
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyMon Aug 07, 2023 3:03 pm by PurpleSkyz

» Vaccines and SIDS (Crib Death)
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyMon Aug 07, 2023 3:00 pm by PurpleSkyz

» Sun blasts out highest-energy radiation ever recorded, raising questions for solar physics
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptyMon Aug 07, 2023 2:29 pm by PurpleSkyz

» Why you should be eating more porcini mushrooms
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptySun Aug 06, 2023 10:38 am by PurpleSkyz

» Study shows that glyphosate impairs learning in bumblebees: a wake-up call for insect conservation
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptySun Aug 06, 2023 10:36 am by PurpleSkyz

» The power of automatic writing: a gateway to unlocking your inner wisdom
Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology EmptySun Aug 06, 2023 10:34 am by PurpleSkyz


You are not connected. Please login or register

Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology

Go down  Message [Page 1 of 1]

PurpleSkyz

PurpleSkyz
Admin

Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology

Posted on Thursday, 13 May, 2021



Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology News-einstein-color


Einstein won a Nobel Prize in 1921. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 4.0 Carl A. Gist / Michael W. Gorth
A newly unearthed letter from the celebrated physicist cements just how ahead of his time he actually was.
[!gad]Adrian Dyer, Andrew Greentree and Jair Garcia from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology take a look at the significance of what Einstein wrote in this long-lost letter.




Since the dawn of the electronic age, it has never been easier for researchers to engage with the general public - gaining access to precious resources otherwise unavailable.

This is illustrated perfectly in our latest publication, in which we introduce a previously unknown letter written in 1949 by none other than Albert Einstein. In it, the German-born mathematician and physicist discusses bees, birds and whether new physics principles could come from studying animal senses.

We first came across it in 2019, after Judith Davys - a retiree living in the United Kingdom - read an article we'd published on the mathematical abilities of bees. She reached out to us to share the 72-year-old letter, which Einstein had addressed to her late husband Glyn Davys. We spent a year investigating the precious document.

A key encounter

Einstein was one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century, as well as an excellent communicator. His imagination helped shape many technologies that define the information age today. For example, Einstein's theory of general relativity governs the large-scale structure of the universe, which in turn enables corrections for the GPS system used on our smartphones.

In 1921, Einstein was awarded a Nobel Prize for his study of the "photoelectric effect". This effect describes how light can remove electrons from atoms - a principle that underpins the operation of today's solar cells.

In 1933, Einstein left Germany to work at Princeton University in the United States. It was here, in April 1949, he met scientist Karl von Frisch at a lecture.

Von Frisch was visiting Princeton to present his new research on how honeybees navigate more effectively using the polarisation patterns of light scattered from the sky. He used this information to help translate bees' now famous dance language, for which he eventually received his own Nobel Prize.

The day after Einstein attended von Frisch's lecture the two researchers shared a private meeting. Although this meeting wasn't formally documented, the recently discovered letter from Einstein provides some insight into what may have been discussed.

Animal behaviour from a physicist's lens

We suspect Einstein's letter is a response to a query he received from Glyn Davys. In 1942, as WWII raged, Davys had joined the British Royal Navy. He trained as an engineer and researched topics including the budding use of radar to detect ships and aircraft. This nascent technology was kept top secret at the time.

By complete coincidence, bio-Sonar sensing had been discovered in bats at the same time, alerting people to the idea that animals may have different senses from humans. While any previous correspondence from Davys to Einstein appears lost, we were interested in what may have prompted him to write to the famous physicist.

So we set out to trawl through online archives of news published in England in 1949. From our search we found von Frisch's findings of bee navigation were already big news by July of that year, and he had even been covered in The Guardian newspaper in London.

The news specifically discussed how bees use polarised light to navigate. As such, we think this is what spurred Davys to write to Einstein. It is also likely Davys's initial letter to Einstein specifically mentioned bees and von Frisch, as Einstein responded: "I am well acquainted with Mr. v. Frisch's admirable investigations".

It seems von Frisch's ideas about bee sensory perception remained in Einstein's thoughts since the two scientists crossed paths at Princeton six months earlier.

In his letter to Davys, Einstein also suggests that for bees to extend our knowledge of physics, new types of behaviour would need to be observed. Remarkably, it is clear through his writing that Einstein envisaged new discoveries could come from studying animals' behaviours.

Einstein wrote:

"It is thinkable that the investigation of the behaviour of migratory birds and carrier pigeons may someday lead to the understanding of some physical process which is not yet known."

Einstein ideas seem right, yet again

Now, more than 70 years since Einstein sent his letter, research is indeed revealing the secrets of how migratory birds navigate while flying thousands of kilometres to arrive at a precise destination.

In 2008, research on thrushes fitted with radio transmitters showed, for the first time, that these birds use a form of magnetic compass as their primary orientation guide during flight.

One theory for the origin of magnetic sense in birds is the use of quantum randomness and entanglement. Both of these physics concepts were first proposed by Einstein. But although Einstein was one of the founders of quantum physics, he was uncomfortable with its implications.

"God does not play with dice", he famously stated, to express his opposition to the randomness which lay at the heart of quantum mechanics.

In an influential 1935 paper, Einstein and co-authors Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen introduced the concept of quantum entanglement. Interestingly, it was introduced as a conceptual failure of quantum mechanics, rather than one of its defining centre pieces, as we now understand it.

Perhaps ironically, one of the leading theories for the origin of magnetic sense in birds is the use of quantum randomness and entanglement. This theory suggests radical-pair chemical reactions in cryptochromes - signalling proteins found in certain plants and animals - are affected by the Earth's magnetic field, and thus form the basis of a bird's biological magnetic compass.

Although Einstein disagreed with entanglement, his willingness to speculate on how we might learn new things from animal sensory perception suggests he would have been delighted by how new research on bird migration is pushing the boundaries of our understanding of physics.

Indeed, Einstein's letter to Davys is testament to how open he was to new possibilities for the field of physics being observed in nature. It illustrates, once again, how mindful he was of what one might discover when taking a different view of the world.

Adrian Dyer, Associate Professor, RMIT University; Andrew Greentree, Professor of Quantum Physics and Australian Research Council Future Fellow, RMIT University, and Jair Garcia, Research fellow, RMIT University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Read the original article. Lost Einstein letter links physics and biology Count

Source: The Conversation

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/346893/lost-einstein-letter-links-physics-and-biology
Thanks to: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com

Back to top  Message [Page 1 of 1]

Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum