
The life’s work that proved Einstein right - pcl
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/05/14/the-chirp-heard-across-universe/xYC8dFRTnCyl3tT2LNuafN/story.html
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maxander
Man, the days when a kid without particular academic accomplishment could just
be "guided" to MIT by a teacher impressed by his intelligence and passion. Or
when a dropout could just wander into a physics lab and land a job as a
research assistant. Neither sounds remotely feasible in 2016- these days, the
available human potential and ambition outstrips society's resources to
actualize it, by an order of magnitude. Coming decades will have to do without
their Weisses.

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Artoemius
On the other hand, there were the days when you had to be born into the right
social caste to have any chance for an interesting life at all, otherwise
being doomed to a lifetime of menial labor.

I really do prefer our current situation to 99% of the history of mankind.

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zepto
Those days are today:
[http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/recruitm...](http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/recruitment-
resumes-interviews-how-the-hiring-process-favors-
elites/394166/?single_page=true)

~~~
jospoortvliet
That was an awesome read. Thanks...

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tobinfricke
I worked on LIGO as a graduate student, where I had the privilege of
interacting with Rai Weiss. He is a role model for us all: brilliant, hard-
working, and human. After he retired from his teaching duties at MIT, he could
often be found late at night in the electronics shop of our Louisiana lab,
working to eek out a little more sensitivity in the detector, a half decibel
by a half decibel. As a graduate student, I appreciated his sincere concern
and advocacy for our dissertation work.

He also has wonderful stories from a long career in physics: inventing atomic
clocks, launching balloons to map out the cosmic microwave background
radiation, being pitched the proposed Space Shuttle program by Werner von
Braun himself, serving on the JASON committee... He is probably too modest to
write an autobiography, but it would be a captivating tale.

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projectramo
If this article can't be read because of a pop up, just close the tab and open
click on the link again.

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CamperBob2
Why reward the paper (or its advertisers) for abusive practices?

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kmote00
Did somebody hit you over the head with a tent-pole, CamperBob? What abuse are
you possibly talking about? This story is a tremendous work of journalism,
crafted by an author who really ought to get paid for his work. Or do you work
for free too?

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gfgjmfgjmgh
From the official guidelines:

When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. E.g.
"That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

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jessriedel
I wonder if "proving Einstein right/wrong" will still be the #1 clickbait
headline for physics articles 100 years from now.

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venomsnake
I never got the reasons for the whole idolization/obsession with Einstein.
Seeing all the guys that were his contemporaries - discovering fundamental
stuff about the universe was a favorite pastime back then. I guess he was
probably the first to break out as a celebrity.

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deepnet
Einstein's modification of Classical Newtonian Physics is still unparalled
today.

~~~
venomsnake
In his time we also had Planck, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrodinger - whose
contributions are as foundational and unparallel too.

But nobody is the media is obsessed with proving Max Planck wrong. Or
Schrodinger.

"Will scientists finally prove XXX wrong", XXX is always Einstein.

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Jenya_
yes, the others, if Heisenberg (or other German scientists) would be a bit
more smarter then WWII may have ended differently and in that new world no one
would be praising Einstein, for obvious reasons:
[http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/8491/did-
heisenbe...](http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/8491/did-heisenberg-
undermine-the-german-atomic-bomb-by-deliberately-hiding-his-exper)

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nxzero
>> He was at MIT as an undergrad "for two years before flunking out, losing
his way while pursuing a girl he met on a ferry."

Sound like something I would do.

