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More on Pursuits & Retreats from The Atlantic Monthly.

From the archives:

"Light Shows of the Mind" (December 2002)
Einstein was right when he said that imagination is more important than knowledge. By David Brooks.

"Our Genius Problem" (December 2002)
Why this obsession with the word, with the idea, and with the people on whom we've bestowed the designation? By Marjorie Garber

"The Jaguar and the Fox" (July 2000)
Hard as he tried, Murray Gell-Mann could never make himself into a legend like his rakish colleague and collaborator, Richard Feynman—even if he was probably the greater physicist. By George Johnson

"Recent Progress in Astronomy" (January 1902)
In 1902, three years before Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity would reshape the notions of time and space, astronomer T.J.J. See reported on binary stars, Doppler shifts, and the "luminiferous ether."

From Atlantic Unbound:

"The Universe Made Simple" (May 20, 2004)
Brian Greene, the author of The Fabric of the Cosmos, on opening readers' eyes to the hidden forces that govern our world. By Bradley Jay.

Also by Katharine Dunn:

Flashbacks: "In Search of the Canadian Dream" (December 27, 2004)
Is Canada a more civilized version of America? Articles from 1923 to the present take up the question of Canadian national identity.

Flashbacks: "Dr. Kinsey's Revolution" (November 22, 2004)
Articles from the 1920s through the 1990s comment on sex in America and the influence of Dr. Alfred Kinsey.

Previously in Flashbacks:

Flashbacks: "The Paradoxical Pope" (April 2, 2005)
A look back at three Atlantic articles on Pope John Paul II, offering insight into the man, his leadership style, and his far-reaching influence.

Flashbacks: "John Brown in The Atlantic" (March 30, 2005)
A collection of writings—some by Brown's friends and collaborators—sheds light on the abolitionist who took a violent stand against slavery.

Flashbacks: "Whose Right to Die?" (March 23, 2005)
Articles from 1974 to the present consider the question.

Flashbacks: "Russia's Would-Be Masters" (March 18, 2005)
What sort of men have ruled Russia? Articles from 1928 to the present examine the inner lives of Russia's leaders.

Flashbacks: "The Trembling of the Earth" (February 16, 2005)
Earthquakes, tsunamis, mudslides—Atlantic authors from the 1880s to the present have addressed the causes and steep human costs of Earth's violent outbursts.

Flashbacks: "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Islam" (January 14, 2005)
Can democracy take root in a predominantly Islamic part of the world? Atlantic contributors from the early to the late twentieth century take up the question.

Atlantic Unbound | April 5, 2005

Flashbacks

Mind Over Matter

Articles from the 1920s to the 1990s reflect on the revolutionary insights of Albert Einstein

.....

or many of us, the name "Einstein" calls to mind two things: genius, and unruly white hair. (Unruly white hair now almost evokes "genius" on its own.) But behind the iconic name and image, of course, are the man himself and his revolutionary work. This year marks an anniversary for both: fifty years ago, on April 18, 1955, Einstein died in Princeton, New Jersey, where he had spent the final two decades of his life. And one hundred years ago, in 1905, the then-twenty-six-year-old Einstein published five papers in the prestigious German science journal Annals of Physics. One of those papers, which explained how light can behave as both a particle and a wave, earned him a Nobel Prize. Two others explained the nature and motion of atoms and molecules. Yet another introduced the world's most famous equation, E=mc².

But it was a fifth paper, describing his theory of relativity, that made him an international celebrity, a synonym for brilliance. His theory—which suggested, among other things, that it was possible for space-traveling twins to age at different rates—captured the imagination of non-scientists in a way his other work hadn't, because it upended our very concepts of space and time.

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Discuss this article in Post & Riposte.

More flashbacks in Atlantic Unbound.

Katharine Dunn is a freelance writer based in Somerville, Massachusetts.