The loneliness of a scientific researcher: about the book "Einstein's Dreams"

Each of its chapters describes, so to speak, a dream of Einstein's which is mainly dedicated to the concept of time, and these dreams take place over the course of about three months in the spring of 1905

What has not been written about Albert Einstein in connection with the centenary of the "magical year" for the publication of five groundbreaking papers in physics, which included, among other things, Einstein's doctoral thesis, the special theory of relativity and the paper on the photoelectric effect, for which Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921? And here appeared a thin book called "Einstein's Dreams" and proved that man's imagination is, apparently, without limits.
The book is so unusual that it cannot be attributed to one of the usual categories: it is not fiction, it is not poetry, it is not documentary, it is not a non-fiction book, nor is it a science or science fiction book. And yet, it has something of all these. And it is also a beautiful and interesting book.
To describe the content of the book simply, each of its chapters describes, so to speak, a dream of Einstein's that is mainly dedicated to the concept of time, and these dreams happen over the course of about three months in the spring of 1905. There is a dream that describes what would happen if time went backwards;
Another dream describes what would happen if there were a geometric point where time would stop completely and the speed of time - the speed at which human life would pass, would change depending on the distance from that zero point. What would happen if the speed at which time passed depended on the height above the ground? And one dream touches on the question of what would happen if those traveling at speed experienced time slowing down compared to those at rest. And these are just examples of some of the dreams presented in the book.
The shape of the book is reminiscent of a seminar on the basics of geometry held many years ago in which the students were asked to show the possible conclusions and results of deleting or making changes to Euclid's axioms. Changing the axiom of parallels can lead, for example, to projective geometry, and the assumption that an infinite number of straight lines can be passed through two points is true in spherical geometry, and these are just a few of many examples. In the book before us, Einstein dreams about the various possibilities of changes in the common concepts of time, and what the changes in these concepts mean.
The beauty of the book is achieved by sentences and short passages that can describe a complete story, when the reader fills in the gaps in his imagination. Characters and places (the pharmacist and the pharmacy that appear in several dreams), the detailed description of the streets in Bern while mentioning their names, and the (unfortunately few) illustrations link the dreams to Swiss reality and do not allow them to become completely abstract.
The quasi-documentary part of Einstein searching for the solution to the physical problem before him is achieved by describing Einstein's relationship with his friend Basu. With the help of these dreams (as the author of the book alludes), Einstein finally arrives at the concepts underlying the special theory of relativity, and sends his article on the subject to the editor of the German-language Annalen Der Physik, perhaps the most important newspaper at that time.
After a glimpse of Einstein's dreams, one is allowed to continue pondering, and glimpse into slightly distant realms, such as observing the loneliness of the researcher. After all, Einstein worked a lot alone at that time, and all his publications in that miraculous year were the result of his own creative work.
Later he worked more with other researchers and had assistants, but his loneliness at that time was not uncommon. Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, solitude in the field of natural sciences remains mainly the domain of basic mathematicians and theoretical physicists. The large experimental systems, the large investment whether in money or in human resources, naturally entail extensive cooperation and teamwork of many researchers. Their scientific articles are not uncommon, with a long and impressive list of authors who contributed, each one on his way to the success of the research.
It is accepted, in some fields, that those who have contributed more to the research will appear in a more honorable place, in the first or last place in the list of authors or closer to it. There are areas where the list is determined in alphabetical order, and there are no scholarly disputes on this issue. Some add to the list all those who helped in the work, and some single out only an expression of thanks.
Some add the name of the head of the department where the work was done to every publication that comes out of it, and some even have to place him at the top of the list. The solitary explorer is exempt from most of these troubles, but he has other troubles, especially if he is young and still unknown. In this case, he has a long path of suffering ahead of him.
An editor of a scientific journal must ensure compliance with several conditions: the article must be scientifically correct; It must be an original article by the well-written author(s); The article must be non-trivial, that is, of importance that will add a valuable detail to the pool of human knowledge. Not an easy task it is. In order to fulfill it, the editor is assisted by referees, those scientists with knowledge and experience in the field of the work submitted to the editor, who read the work and express their opinion regarding the fulfillment of the conditions mentioned here.
In the vast majority of cases, those referees will state their comments, recommend necessary changes or even additional work to prove the truths stated in the work. The work will be returned to them for further judging after the requirements have been met. For various reasons, the date on which the work was first received in the system, and the date on which it was approved for publication will be indicated, usually at the top of the work, below the title and the authors' names.
The time difference between the dates can sometimes be greater than one year. Here the path of suffering is not over yet, as a considerable amount of time will pass between the approval date and the actual publication date, as this depends on the load on the newspaper, (sometimes) the ability of the researcher or his institution to pay for the publication, and even on the importance that the editor attaches to the scientific work itself.
A long and annoying story, since the scientist, especially the young one, depends for his advancement on the number of articles he publishes and of course their quality. There are scientific institutions that depend on the number of articles that the young researcher publishes in quality newspapers. The quality of the newspaper is very important in these cases.
And here we return to the young (26-year-old) researcher Albert Einstein, who in that miraculous year received his doctorate, and published four more works, for one of which he received the Nobel Prize and another which earned him worldwide fame. These four works were published in the same scientific journal, the Annalen Der Physik, which deserves a few words.
The paper was founded in 1790, and over the years became the most important physics paper in the German language. In this newspaper, the works of the most important scholars of the early 20th century were published and it was the source from which scholars drew knowledge about the works of others and in which they even argued with each other. In 1900, Paul Drood, himself a renowned physicist, was appointed as the editor of the newspaper.
The newspaper's policy was to publish almost any article that the editor thought was suitable for publication, thus allowing a wider than usual audience to present their opinions to the audience of physicists, teachers and students who were among its loyal readers. For Einstein, the newspaper played two important roles: it was a source of knowledge, since Einstein was not an ordinary student, attending university, but served as a clerk at the Swiss Patent Office in the capital city of Bern, and the newspaper also served as a secondary source of income for Einstein, since he was paid for writing Newspaper columnist.
The editor of the newspaper was even a friend of Einstein's (but that's a matter for another time). Either way, it was the newspaper that received Einstein's articles and published them almost without delay. Compare in your mind what would happen today to the articles of a young researcher, shortly after receiving his doctorate, working alone, sending four ground-breaking articles in a short period of time on completely different topics to the same scientific journal...
I waited for a first reading of the book "Einstein's Dreams", then I went back and read it. I found that the first impression remained and the pleasure of reading it only intensified. Those who are ready for an unusual experience - the road is open to them.

"Einstein's Dreams" by Alan Lightman, translated from English by Tsila Elazar, Keter Publishing (2007). Published in Scientific American Israel magazine. Written by: Dr. Ephraim Ascholai