Albert Einstein was arguably the most famous scientist of the 20th century. Born in Germany in 1879, Einstein’s contribution to theoretical physics is almost incalculable. When Adolf Hitler came to power in the 1930’s, Einstein, being of Jewish descent, came to America and warned Franklin D. Roosevelt of the evils of Hitler. After becoming an American citizen in 1940, Einstein’s name became synonymous with genius and he became a rock star of sorts in the scientific community. Despite dying in 1955, scientists to this day seem to want to honor Albert Einstein in nearly every single field of science that is known to man. These are the top 10 examples of Einstein’s name being plastered on different scientific endeavors.
10. 2001 Einstein In the Asteroid Belt between Jupiter and Mars there are approximately 750,000 objects larger than 1 kilometer. Of these, 2001 Einstein is more known for its namesake than any unique or distinguishable characteristics of the asteroid that bears his name.
9. Albert Einstein Automated Transfer Vehicle Automated Transfer Vehicles (or ATV’s) are an essential link between the European Space Agency and the International Space Station. Proudly built with a spirit of cooperation between different countries in Europe, the unmanned craft shuttles supplies and maintains the European presence in space. The spacecraft ATV-4: Albert Einstein last docked with the Space Station in June of 2013.
8. Einstein (Moon Crater) Because it’s on the ‘dark’ side of the moon, the Einstein crater wasn’t discovered until 1952 and is still fairly hard to locate from earth. Its central coordinates are 16.3 N and 88.7 W and its diameter is nearly 200 kilometers wide. For hardcore Moon enthusiasts, the Einstein crater is not to be confused with the later discoveries of satellite craters Einstein A, Einstein R, or even Einstein S.
7. einstein (As a unit of measure) “Light can be described as a wave of particles known as photons; these are units of energy, or light quanta. The quantity N photons is thus called an einstein. The energy of light varies inversely with the length of the photon waves; that is, the shorter the wavelength, the greater the energy content.” Translation: Some measure of light, way above my pay grade as a former TopTenz contributor, which is measured on the molecular level.
6. Einstein Telescope The Einstein Telescope is a third generation gravitational wave observatory in Europe. Where in Europe, might you ask? Well the ET is still in the project phase, but once built, the telescope hopes to answer some of the questions related to Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. Apparently, the second generation gravitational wave observatory’s effectiveness was undermined by both seismic noise and Newtonian noise. If your niche is Astroparticle Physics, feel free to contact the scientists at http://www.et-gw.eu/, they are actually recruiting the best and brightest to collaborate on the project.
5. Einstein Medal The Einstein Medal is given by the Albert Einstein Society for deserving individuals for outstanding scientific findings, works, or publications related to Albert Einstein. The Albert Einstein Society, besides granting the Einstein Medal, runs the Einstein House in Bern, Switzerland (which had nearly 40,000 visitors in 2010), manages the Einstein Club, and publishes the Albert Einstein Society Newsletter. Just a reminder, Albert Einstein himself passed on in 1955.
4. Einstein Observatory Also known as HEAO-2, the Einstein Observatory was the first fully imaging X-ray telescope put into space. According to NASA, it was a key mission in X-ray astronomy and its scientific outcome completely changed the view of the X-ray sky. Launched in 1978, the observatory was fully functional for 2 ½ years before its mission was complete. In the March of 1982 the multimillion dollar facility re-entered Earth’s orbit and burned up. Some of the scientific highlights of the mission include: First high resolution spectroscopy and morphological studies of supernova remnants, first study of the X-ray emitting gas in galaxies and clusters of galaxies revealing cooling inflow, and the first medium and deep X-ray surveys.
3. Einsteinium Einsteinium is a synthetic element discovered in 1952. Not found in nature, Einsteinium was discovered in the debris field of the first large thermonuclear bomb explosion. It took until 1961 to produce a macroscopic amount of the element. Found in the actinoid section of the periodic table, Einsteinium’s atomic number is 99. All actinoids are, by definition, slightly to highly radioactive. Some other interesting facts about Einsteinium: Its color is unknown, but it is speculated that it is of a metallic silver tint. Its melting point is a balmy 1580 degrees Fahrenheit. And since Einsteinium is an artificial element, there are no stable isotopes associated with the element, thusly 19 more radioisotopes of Einsteinium have been observed in the past 50 years
2. EINSTEIN Program “EINSTEIN is an intrusion detection system for monitoring and analyzing Internet traffic as it moves in and out of United States federal government networks. EINSTEIN filters packets at the gateway and reports anomalies to the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team at the Department of Homeland Security.” Developed by the National Security Agency (NSA), EINSTEIN is now up to its third version, as mandated by the American Department of Homeland Security. I would continue, but I don’t need my computer system red flagged.
Since Einstein himself fled Germany based on the intrusive politics of the Nazis, I speculate that he would be insulted that such a program would bear his name, no matter how complex the algorithms are that it takes to run it.
1. Albert Einstein College of Medicine Located in the Bronx section of New York City, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, is a “premier, research-intensive medical school dedicated to innovative biomedical investigation and to the development of ethical and compassionate physicians and scientists.” Founded in 1953, there are currently over 2,000 full-time faculty members, versus an enrollment of just over a 1,000. As the center continues to expands, the focus on cutting edge technologies and state of the art laboratories bely Einstein’s focus on a continuation of discoveries at the molecular level in the treatment, cure, and prevention of disease. “The College of Medicine is a nonsectarian institution, which from its inception has welcomed students of all creeds and races-an attribute that Dr. Einstein took great pride in when consenting to the use of his name in conjunction with the medical school.”