Was Einstein's Wife His Silent Collaborator?
Friday April 23, 2004
A recent PBS documentary highlights the role that Albert Einstein's first wife, Mileva Maric, may have played in the development of his theories of relativity, quantum physics, and Brownian motion. He doesn't even mention her in his autobiographies. Was she the brain behind the scenes, his silent collaborator?
- About the Documentary: Einstein's Wife: the Life of Mileva Marie Einstein
- A more skeptical view: PhysicsWeb - Arguing about Einstein's wife
- A strong accusation: Albert Einstein: the Incorrigible Plagiarist
- More on Mileva Maric-Einstein - with illustrations
Comments
There is clearly a link between Einsteins success and his genius wife Mileva Maric. I would go as far as saying that she was a major contributor to theories he published for several reasons. When Mileva asks Einstein for money if he earns Nobel price he gives in without opposition. What kind of leverage she had for him to do so? Ever since they separated Einstein has not produced anything significant. His communication ability and founded on papers published in 1905 made him famous but all his future work was invalid and even contradictive of his famed work. If Mileva arrived to e=mc2, as a women scientist, she would have very difficult time being taken seriously. Finally, the whole secrecy about his first marriage is suspect as well.
It is sad that the scientific community is not proactive in promoting and recognising Mileva’s contribution, their fellow scientist who sadly is known mainly as Einstein’s Wife.
Now come on…Its like saying Gandhi had a secret life as a serail killer.
Just stop the crazy conspiracy theories and feminist bull crap…
No she didn’t contribute anything and no there is no evidence whatsoever.
Just respect the man and his brilliance will you?!
Please pay attention - Einstein met his wife while they were both students at the same university - studying physics. She gave up her studies and career to raise his child.
PBS aired a recent documentary on “Nova” about Einstein that verified she did indeed help him.
Stop the mascunazi bullcrap and just accept her brillance, won’t you?
Wow I think its great that people are now debating about another Serbian scientist. It took years for people to recognize the full extent of Nikola Tesla’s work, and I would be thrilled if Mileva Maric’s work is finally recognized as well. Lord knows Serbia could use some good publicity after all the recent events that tarnished it’s image!
The program was a mixture of misunderstanding, ignorance and special pleading. See the PBS ombudsman’s discussion at
http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2006/12/einsteins_wife_the_relative_motion_of_facts.html
After reading Esterson’s critique I defy any fair minded person to think that Mileva had any important direct role in the 1905 papers.
The claims made in the documentary “Einstein’s Wife” have been thoroughly disproven (see below) and the historians quoted in the documentary have complained about the misrepresentation’s in the film. To continue repeating the claims of this film can only be explained by ignorance (willful or accidental), political interest, or malice.
Mileva Maric was perfectly fine and intelligent woman and it’s a shame her name has to be dragged through this controversy, but the facts are (in brief): she never received her degree because she flunked the final exams, twice; of the letters of hers we still have she never discusses physics in any depth nor showed any new ideas; she never made any claims to have worked on Einstein’s papers; she never wrote any papers of significance.
Einstein’s personal treatment of her may not have been ideal, but to use that as “proof” regarding scientific work is absurd.
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=182
http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2006/12/einsteins_wife_the_relative_motion_of_facts.html
http://physicsandphysicists.blogspot.com/2007/08/einsteins-wife-update.html
http://www.esterson.org/
PMW said, “To continue repeating the claims of this film can only be explained by ignorance (willful or accidental), political interest, or malice.”
Perhaps PMW didn’t read the actual 2004 posting on which this 2007 comment appears: it says Einstein’s wife “may” have played a role in the development of his theories and asks a question — and includes a (2004) skeptical link as well.
Surely asking questions and calling attention to a controversy (both sides) is not out of bounds for historians!
Thanks for the links to more recent articles — 2006 and 2007 — responding to the question posed in this 2004 posting.
Read the first 5 comments or so. They’re not just saying “She helped out a bit” these people are going far enough to say she did the entire thing for him. That’s nonsense.
We will never know. That is hard to deal with but sometimes things just must always remain a mystery. If it were a Court of Law would you acquit of criminal charges but have enough to award material restitution?
What makes me wonder the most is that Einstein never did anything after they separated. It was all done when they were together. If the situation was reversed, and he were the woman, wouldn’t people wonder about that?
Splashy wrote:
>What makes me wonder the most is that Einstein never did anything after they separated.
I fear Splashy’s comment typifies many of the contributions to blogs in that it contains an assertion that is a recycling of ‘information’ that is historically erroneous. After the couple separated in 1912 Einstein developed and completed what is widely regarded as his greatest achievement, the general theory of relativity. He also continued to make important contributions to quantum physics and statistical physics (e.g., Bose-Einstein statistics) well into the 1920s.
See Abraham Pais, “Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein.” (1982)
For a scholarly discussion of the whole issue, see
John Stachel (1996): “Albert Einstein and Mileva Maric: A Collaboration That Failed to Develop”:
http://philoscience.unibe.ch/lehre/winter99/einstein/Stachel1966.pdf