As the Einstein Year comes to an end, the science historian Ernst Peter Fischer draws some lessons learned from the event in an editorial for Physik Journal, December issue. First the political level: Support by prominent politicians was undistinguished (if you take the science minister aside). Much talk about innovation and the importance of science, but no credible visions or programmes. 2nd the public level: Did anybody get a grasp of Einstein's achievements. I mean, the science, not the person. Ask the people in the streets. Fischer says, the average impact is near zero. "What do you understand from Einstein's science? Nothing," is the most probable answer of the public, including journalists. Fischer states that the scientists and the journalists really failed to communicate the science, its concepts and consequences.
But Fischer also mentions that the scientists themselves showed up narrow minded: There are lots of new historical insights on how Albert Einstein or Max Planck developed new ideas, how they discussed them and what makes it hard for them to believe the new findings: Generally scientist told that Einstein didn't get the Noble Prize for Relativity Theory but for a paper on the nature of light. "But nobody told the public that with the new finding Einstein just understood that light has got such strange properties that makes it hard or impossible to understand," writes Fischer.
But Fischer also mentions that the scientists themselves showed up narrow minded: There are lots of new historical insights on how Albert Einstein or Max Planck developed new ideas, how they discussed them and what makes it hard for them to believe the new findings: Generally scientist told that Einstein didn't get the Noble Prize for Relativity Theory but for a paper on the nature of light. "But nobody told the public that with the new finding Einstein just understood that light has got such strange properties that makes it hard or impossible to understand," writes Fischer.