All thinkers

Albert Einstein: 2 ideas worth knowing

2 ideas from Albert Einstein, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

• A letter Einstein barely wrote helped launch the atomic bomb

  In August 1939, physicist Leo Szilard drafted a warning that Nazi Germany might be building an atomic bomb, and persuaded Albert Einstein to sign it. The letter reached President R…

  — Leo Szilard and Albert Einstein, Einstein–Szilard letter

• A pollen grain's jittery dance in water helped prove that atoms are real

  In 1827, botanist Robert Brown noticed tiny pollen particles suspended in water never sat still, jittering randomly for no obvious reason, a mystery that stood unsolved for 80 year…

  — Albert Einstein, On the Movement of Small Particles Suspended in Stationary Liquids Required by the Molecular-Kinetic Theory of Heat

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