Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Spring on Titan Brings Sunshine and Patchy Clouds

False-color image of cloud cover dissolving over Titan's north pole and clouds appearing in the southern mid latitudes.


September 21, 2010
The northern hemisphere of Saturn's moon Titan is set for mainly fine spring weather, with polar skies clearing since the equinox in August last year. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been monitoring clouds on Titan regularly since the spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn in 2004. Now, a group led by Sébastien Rodriguez, a Cassini VIMS team collaborator based at Université Paris Diderot, France, has analyzed more than 2,000 VIMS images to create the first long-term study of Titan's weather using observational data that also includes the equinox. Equinox, when the sun shone directly over the equator, occurred in August 2009.

Rodriguez is presenting the results and new images at the European Planetary Science Congress in Rome on Sept. 22.

Though Titan's surface is far colder and lacks liquid water, this moon is a kind of "sister world" to Earth because it has a surface covered with organic material and an atmosphere whose chemical composition harkens back to an early Earth. Titan has a hydrological cycle similar to Earth's, though Titan's cycle depends on methane and ethane rather than water.

A season on Titan lasts about seven Earth years. Rodriguez and colleagues observed significant atmospheric changes between July 2004 (early summer in Titan's southern hemisphere) and April 2010 (the very start of northern spring). The images showed that cloud activity has recently decreased near both of Titan's poles. These regions had been heavily overcast during the late southern summer until 2008, a few months before the equinox.

Over the past six years, the scientists found that clouds clustered in three distinct latitude regions of Titan: large clouds at the north pole, patchy clouds at the south pole and a narrow belt around 40 degrees south. "However, we are now seeing evidence of a seasonal circulation turnover on Titan – the clouds at the south pole completely disappeared just before the equinox and the clouds in the north are thinning out," Rodriguez said. "This agrees with predictions from models and we are expecting to see cloud activity reverse from one hemisphere to another in the coming decade as southern winter approaches."

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
 

Mars Rover Opportunity Approaching Possible Meteorite

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its panoramic camera to capture this view of a dark rock that may be an iron meteorite. Part of the rim of Endurance Crater is on the horizon. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

September 21, 2010
PASADENA, Calif. -- Images that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity took at the end of an 81-meter (266-foot) drive on Sept. 16 reveal a dark rock about 31 meters (102 feet) away. The rover's science team has decided to go get a closer look at the toaster-sized rock and determine whether it is an iron meteorite.

"The dark color, rounded texture and the way it is perched on the surface all make it look like an iron meteorite," said science-team member Matt Golombek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Opportunity has found four iron meteorites during the rover's exploration of the Meridiani Planum region of Mars since early 2004. Examination of these rocks has provided information about the Martian atmosphere, as well as the meteorites themselves.

The newfound rock has been given the informal name "Oileán Ruaidh" (pronounced ay-lan ruah), which is the Gaelic name for an island off the coast of northwestern Ireland. The rock is about 45 centimeters (18 inches) wide from the angle at which it was first seen.

Opportunity has driven 23.3 kilometers (14.5 miles) on Mars. The drive to this rock will take the total combined distance driven by Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, to more than 31 kilometers (19.26 miles).

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004 for what was planned as a three-month mission.

NASA Selects Investigations for First Mission to Encounter the Sun

The Solar Probe Plus spacecraft with solar panels folded into the shadows of its protective shield, gathers data on its approach to the Sun.  


September 02, 2010

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA has begun development of a mission to visit and study the sun closer than ever before. The unprecedented project, named Solar Probe Plus, is slated to launch no later than 2018.
The small car-sized spacecraft will plunge directly into the sun's atmosphere approximately 6.4 million kilometers (four million miles) from our star's surface. It will explore a region no other spacecraft ever has encountered. NASA has selected five science investigations that will unlock the sun's biggest mysteries, including one led by a scientist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
"The experiments selected for Solar Probe Plus are specifically designed to solve two key questions of solar physics -- why is the sun's outer atmosphere so much hotter than the sun's visible surface and what propels the solar wind that affects Earth and our solar
system? " said Dick Fisher, director of NASA's Heliophysics Division in Washington. "We've been struggling with these questions for decades and this mission should finally provide those answers."
As the spacecraft approaches the sun, its revolutionary carbon-composite heat shield must withstand temperatures exceeding about 1,400 degrees Celsius (2,550 degrees Fahrenheit) and blasts of intense radiation. The spacecraft will have an up-close and personal view of the sun, enabling scientists to better understand, characterize and forecast the radiation environment for future space explorers.
NASA invited researchers in 2009 to submit science proposals. Thirteen were reviewed by a panel of NASA and outside scientists. The total dollar amount for the five selected investigations is approximately $180 million for preliminary analysis, design, development and tests.

The selected proposals are:
-- Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons Investigation: principal investigator, Justin C. Kasper, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass.
This investigation will specifically count the most abundant particles in the solar wind -- electrons, protons and helium ions -- and measure their properties. The investigation also is designed to catch some of the particles in a special cup for direct analysis.

-- Wide-field Imager: principal investigator, Russell Howard, Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. This telescope will make 3-D images of the sun's corona, or atmosphere. The experiment actually will see the solar wind and provide 3-D images of clouds and shocks as they approach and pass the spacecraft. This investigation complements instruments on the spacecraft, providing direct measurements by imaging the plasma the other instruments sample.

-- Fields Experiment: principal investigator, Stuart Bale, University of California Space Sciences Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. This investigation will make direct measurements of electric and magnetic fields, radio emissions, and shock waves that course through the
sun's atmospheric plasma. The experiment also serves as a giant dust detector, registering voltage signatures when specks of space dust hit the spacecraft's antenna.

 -- Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun: principal investigator, David McComas of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. This investigation consists of two instruments that will take an inventory of elements in the sun's atmosphere using a mass 
spectrometer to weigh and sort ions in the vicinity of the spacecraft.

-- Heliospheric Origins with Solar Probe Plus: principal investigator, Marco Velli of JPL. Velli is the mission's observatory scientist, responsible for serving as a senior scientist on the science working group. He will provide an independent assessment of scientific performance and act as a community advocate for the mission.

"This project allows humanity's ingenuity to go where no spacecraft has ever gone before," said Lika Guhathakurta, Solar Probe Plus program scientist at NASA Headquarters, in Washington. "For the very first time, we'll be able to touch, taste and smell our sun."

The Solar Probe Plus mission is part of NASA's Living with a Star Program. The program is designed to understand aspects of the sun and Earth's space environment that affect life and society. The program is managed by NASA'S Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., with oversight from NASA's Science Mission Directorate's Heliophysics Division. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., is the prime contractor for the spacecraft.

Amateur Astronomers are First to Detect Objects Impacting Jupiter

Caught in the Act: Fireballs Light up Jupiter 








A fleeting bright dot on each of these images of Jupiter marks a small comet or asteroid burning up in the atmosphere. The image on the left was taken on June 3, 2010, by amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley, who was visiting a friend in Broken Hill, Australia, when he obtained the image with a 37-centimeter (14.5-inch) telescope.

September 09, 2010
Amateur astronomers working with professional astronomers have spotted two fireballs lighting up Jupiter's atmosphere this summer, marking the first time Earth-based telescopes have captured relatively small objects burning up in the atmosphere of the giant planet. The two fireballs - which produced bright freckles on Jupiter that were visible through backyard telescopes - occurred on June 3, 2010, and August 20, 2010, respectively.

A new paper that includes both pros and amateurs, led by Ricardo Hueso of the Universidad del País Vasco, Bilbao, Spain, appears today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. In the paper, astronomers estimate the object that caused the June 3 fireball was 8 to 13 meters (30 to 40 feet) in diameter. The object is comparable in size to the asteroid 2010 RF12 that flew by Earth on Wednesday, Sept. 8, and slightly larger than the asteroid 2008 TC3, which burned up above Sudan two years ago.

An impact of this kind on Earth would not be expected to cause damage on the ground. The energy released by the June 3 fireball as it collided with Jupiter's atmosphere was five to 10 times less than the 1908 Tunguska event on Earth, which knocked over tens of millions of trees in a remote part of Russia. Analysis is continuing on the Aug. 20 fireball, but scientists said it was comparable to the June 3 object.

"Jupiter is a big gravitational vacuum cleaner," said Glenn Orton, a co-author on the paper and an astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It is clear now that relatively small objects, remnants of the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago, still hit Jupiter frequently. Scientists are trying to figure out just how frequently."

Orton and colleagues said this kind of discovery couldn't have been made without amateur astronomers around the world, whose observations of Jupiter provide a near round-the-clock surveillance that would be impossible to do with the long lines of scientists waiting to use the large telescopes. Amateur astronomers, for example, were the first to see the dark spot that appeared on Jupiter in July 2009 as the result of an impact. Professional astronomers are still analyzing that impact.

Anthony Wesley, an amateur astronomer from Murrumbateman, Australia, who was also the first to take a picture of that dark spot on Jupiter in July 2009, was the first to see the tiny flash on June 3. Amateur astronomers had their telescopes trained on Jupiter that day because they were in the middle of "Jupiter season," when the planet is high in the sky and at its largest size, as seen by backyard telescopes.

Wesley was visiting an amateur astronomer friend about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away in Broken Hill, and he set a digital video camera to record images from his telescope at about 60 frames per second. He was watching the live video on a computer screen at his friend's house when he saw a two-and-a-half-second-long flash of light near the limb of the planet.

"It was clear to me straight away it had to be an event on Jupiter," he said. "I'm used to seeing other momentary flashes in the camera from cosmic ray impacts, but this was different. Cosmic ray strikes last only for one frame of video, whereas this flash gradually brightened and then faded over 133 frames."

Wesley sent a message out on his e-mail list of amateur and professional astronomers, which included Orton. After receiving Wesley's e-mail, Christopher Go of Cebu, Philippines -- who like Wesley, is an amateur astronomer -- checked his own recordings and confirmed that he had seen a flash, too.

Before Wesley's work, scientists didn't know these small-size impacts could be observed, Hueso explained. "The discovery of optical flashes produced by objects of this size helps scientists understand how many of these objects are out there and the role they played in the formation of our solar system," Hueso said.

For three days afterward, Hueso and colleagues looked for signs of the impact in high-resolution images from larger telescopes: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Gemini Observatory telescopes in Hawaii and Chile, the Keck telescope in Hawaii, the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile. Scientists analyzed the images for thermal disruptions and chemical signatures seen in previous images of Jupiter impacts. In this case, they saw no signs of debris, which allowed them to limit the size of the impactor.

Based on all these images, and particularly those obtained by Wesley and Go, the astronomers were able to confirm the flash came from some kind of object – probably a small comet or asteroid – that burned up in Jupiter's atmosphere. The impactor likely had a mass of about 500 to 2,000 metric tons (1 million to 4 million pounds), probably about 100,000 times less massive than the object in July 2009.

Calculations also estimated this June 3 impact released about 1 to 4 quadrillion joules (300 million to 1 billion kilowatt-hours) of energy. The second fireball, on Aug. 20, was detected by the amateur Japanese astronomer Masayuki Tachikawa and later confirmed by Aoki Kazuo and Masayuki Ishimaru. It flashed for about 1.5 seconds. The Keck telescope, observing less than a day later, also found no subsequent debris remnants. Scientists are still analyzing this second flash.

Although collisions of this size had never before been detected on Jupiter, some previous models predicted around one collision of this kind a year. Another predicted up to 100 such collisions. Scientists now believe the frequency must be closer to the high end of the scale.

"It is interesting to note that whereas Earth gets smacked by a 10-meter-sized object about every 10 years on average, it looks as though Jupiter gets hit with the same-sized object a few times each month," said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL, who was not involved in the paper. "The Jupiter impact rate is still being refined and studies like this one help to do just that." 


Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Restore 'Show Desktop' Icon in your Quick Launch Taskbar

If the 'Show Desktop' icon is deleted from Quick Launch, using any of these procedure below will recreate the file.

Method 1: Manually re-create the Show Desktop icon

Click Start, Run, and type Notepad.exe. Copy the following contents to Notepad.
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
Save the file as "Show Desktop.scf" (with quotes, in order to prevent Notepad from appending .txt extension). Now, drag the file to the Quick Launch Toolbar.

Method 2: Using the Regsvr32 command

Click Start, Run and type the following command:
regsvr32 /n /i:U shell32.dll
The Show Desktop icon file should be available now.

Method 3: Copy the file from another user account

Every user account will have a copy of Show Desktop.scf file. Search for the file named Show Desktop.scf in your computer by logging in as administrator. Copy it to your user profile path here:
%Appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
(Type the above path in Start, Run dialog)

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Albert Einstein Quotes --4

“There are two different conceptions about the nature of the universe: (1) the world as a unity dependent on humanity; (2) the world as a reality independent of the human factor.”—Albert Einstein ---From a Conversation with Rabindrath Tagore, July 14,1930. Published in Asia 31 (1931)

“No idea is conceived in our mind independent of our five senses [i.e., no idea is divinely inspired].”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in W. Hermanns, A Talk with Einstein. AEA 55-285

“What really interests me is whether God could have created the world any differently; in other words, whether the demand for logical simplicity leaves any freedom at all.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by Ernst Straus in Seelig, Helle Zeit, dunkle Zeit, 72

“At present every coachman and every waiter argues about whether or not the relativity theory is correct.”—Albert Einstein--- To Marcel Grossmann, September 12, 1920. AEA 11-500

“The solitude and peace of mind are serving me quite well, not the least of which is due to the excellent and truly enjoyable relationship with my cousin; its stability will be guaranteed by the avoidance of marriage.”—Albert Einstein-To Michele Besso, February 12, 1915, CPAE, Vol.8, Doc 56

“It is abhorrent to me when a fine intelligence is paired with an unsavory character.”—Albert Einstein--- To Jacob Laub, May 19,1909. AEA 15-480

“I am not a Jew in the sense that I would demand the preservation of the Jewish or any other nationality as an end in itself. Rather, I see Jewish nationality as a fact and I believe that every Jew must draw the consequences from this fact—Albert Einstein --- In Jüdische Rundschau, June 21, 1921. CPAE Vol. 7, Doc. 57

“To obtain an assured favorable response from people, it is better to offer them something for their stomachs instead of their brains.”—Albert Einstein --- To L. Manners, March 19,1954. AEA 60-401

“Arrows of hate have been aimed at me too, but they have never hit me, because somehow they belonged to another world with which I have no connection whatsoever.”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in Portraits & Self-Portraits, by George Schreiber 1935-1936. AEA 28-332.

“In the past it never occurred to me that every casual remark of mine would be snatched up and recorded. Otherwise I would have crept further into my shell.”—Albert Einstein --- To Carl Seelig, October 25, 1953. AEA39-053

“I do not like to state an opinion on a matter unless I know the precise facts.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in an interview, New York Times, August 12, 1945.

“. . . I became more and more convinced that even nature could be understood as a relatively simple mathematical structure.”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in The Tower, April 13, 1935

“Of all the communities available to us, there is not one I would want to devote myself to except for the society of the true seekers, which has very few living members at any one time.”—Albert Einstein --- To Max and Hedwig Born, April 29, 1924. AEA 8-176

“There have already been published by the bucketsful such brazen lies and utter fictions about me that I would long since have gone to my grave if I had allowed myself to pay attention to them.”—Albert Einstein ---To Max Brod, February 22, 1949. AEA 34-066.1

Berlin is the place to which I am most closely bound by human and scientific ties.”—Albert Einstein --- To K. Haenisch, September 8, 1920. AEA 36-022

“Man is, at one and the same time, a solitary being and a social being. . . .”—Albert Einstein --- From “Why Socialism?” (1949). Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 153

Germany had the misfortune of becoming poisoned, first because of plenty, and then because of want.”—Albert Einstein --- Aphorism 1923. AEA 36-591

“Only in mathematics and physics was I, through self-study, far beyond the school curriculum, and also with regard to philosophy as it was taught in the school curriculum.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in Hoffmann, Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel, 20

“The ordinary adult never gives a thought to space-time problems....I, on the contrary, developed so slowly that I did not begin to wonder about space and time until I was an adult. I then delved more deeply into the problem than any other adult or child would have done.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by James Franck in Seelig, Albert Einstein, (1954), 84

“I have to apologize to you that I am still among the living. There will be a remedy for this, however.”—Albert Einstein --- To Tyfanny Williams, August 25, 1946. AEA 42-612

“The Press, which is mostly controlled by vested interests, has an excessive influence on public opinion.”—Albert Einstein --- From “Some Notes on My American Impressions”. Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 6

“Scientific research can reduce superstition by encouraging people to think and view things in terms of cause and effect.”--Albert Einstein ---To a Japanese scholar (1923). Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 262

“It is really a puzzle what drives one to take one’s work so devilishly seriously. . . .”—Albert Einstein ---To Joseph Scharl, December 27, 1949. AEA 34-207

“O, Youth: Do you know that yours is not the first generation to yearn for a life full of beauty and freedom?”—Albert Einstein ---To I Stern, 1932. Reprinted in Dukas and Hoffmann ed. , Albert Einstein: The Human Side, (1979) 30. AEA 51-870

Albert Einstein Quotes --3

“Let me tell you what I look like: pale face, long hair, and a tiny start of a paunch. In addition, an awkward gait, and a cigar in the mouth . . . and a pen in pocket or hand. . . .”—Albert Einstein --- To Elisabeth Ney, September 30, 1920. AEA 42-545


“My mother has died. . . . We are all completely exhausted. One feels in one’s bones the significance of blood ties.”—Albert Einstein --- To Heinrich Zangger, March 1920, AEA 39-732


“When a blind beetle crawls over the surface of a curved branch, it doesn’t notice that the track it has covered is indeed curved. I was lucky enough to notice what the beetle didn’t notice.”—Albert Einstein --- From a letter to his son Eduard, 1922


“I am an artist’s model”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by H. Samuel , October 1930. AEA 21-006


“A hundred times a day I remind myself that my inner and outer lives are based on the labors of other people, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.”—Albert Einstein --- From “The World As I See It” (1930), reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 8 .


“I have not eaten enough of the Tree of Knowledge, though in my profession I am obliged to feed on it regularly.”—Albert Einstein --- To Max Born, November 9,1919. AEA 8-142


“Although I tried to be universal in thought, I am European by instinct and inclination.”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in Daily Express ( London), September 11,1933.


“That little word ‘WE’ I mistrust and here’s why:No man of another can say “He is I”.Behind all agreement lies something amissAll seeming accord cloaks a lurking abyss.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in Dukas and Hoffmann, AE: The Human Side, 100


“Personally, I experience the greatest degree of pleasure in having contact with works of art. They furnish me with happy feelings of an intensity that I cannot derive from other sources.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by Moszkowski in Conversations with Einstein, 184


“Israel is the only place on earth where Jews have the possibility to shape public life according to their own traditional ideals.”—Albert Einstein ---From address, September 19,1954. AEA 28-1054


“There is only one road to human greatness: through the school of hard knocks.”—Albert Einstein --- From Why I remain a Negro, October 1947. AEA 59-009


“Now to the term ‘relativity theory.’ I admit that it is unfortunate, and has given occasion to philosophical misunderstandings.”—Albert Einstein --- To E. Zschimmer, September 30,1921.


“An hour sitting with a pretty girl on a park bench passes like a minute, but a minute sitting on a hot stove seems like an hour.”Quoted by Helen Dukas in Sayen, Einstein in America, 130.


“All of science is nothing more than the refinement of everyday thinking.”—Albert Einstein --- From 


“Physics and Reality” (1936). Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 290


“Although I am a typical loner in my daily life, my awareness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has prevented me from feelings of isolation.”—Albert Einstein --- From “My Credo” 1932. AEA 28-218


“I cannot write in English, because of the treacherous spelling. When I am reading, I only hear it and am unable to remember what the written word looks like.”—Albert Einstein --- To Max Born, September 7,1944. AEA 8-207


“Fear or stupidity has always been the basis of most human actions.”—Albert Einstein --- To E. Mulder, April 1954. AEA 60-609


“I have remained a simple fellow who asks nothing of the world; only my youth is gone—the enchanting youth that forever walks on air.”—Albert Einstein-To Anna Meyer-Schmid,May12, 1909.


“Freedom of teaching and of opinion in book or press is the foundation for the sound and natural development of any people.”—Albert Einstein --- From “At a gathering for freedom of opinion” (1936). Reprinted in Einstein: Essays in Humanism, 50


“We must . . . dedicate our lives to drying up the source of war: ammunition factories.”—Albert Einstein --- Published in Pictoral Review, February 1933. Quoted in R.W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times


“Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perennially rejuvenated illusions.”—Albert Einstein --- Aphorism, AEA 28-388


“The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naïve.”—Albert Einstein --- To Beatrice Frohlich, December 17, 1952. AEA59-797


“Strange is our situation here on earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.”—Albert Einstein --- From “My Credo”, 1932. AEA 28-218


“I would absolutely refuse any direct or indirect war service and would try to persuade my friends to do the same, regardless of the reasons for the cause of a war.”—Albert Einstein --- From Die Friedensbewegung, ed., Kurt Lenz and Walter Fabian (1922)


“I do not play games. . . . There is not time for it. When I get through with work, I don’t want anything that requires the working of the mind.”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in New York Times, March 28, 1936, 34:2


“He who has never been deceived by a lie does not know the meaning of bliss.”—Albert Einstein --- To Elsa Löwenthal, April 30,1912, CPAE, Vol.5, Doc. 389


“Even the scholars in various lands have been acting as if their brains had been amputated.”—Albert Einstein --- To Romain Rolland, March 22, 1915. AEA 33-002


“I myself should also be dead already, but I am still here.”—Albert Einstein --- To E. Schaerer-Meyer, July 27,1951. AEA 60-525


“Every reminiscence is colored by the way things are today, and therefore by a delusive point of view.”—Albert Einstein ---From “Autobiographical Notes” in Schilpp, Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (1949), 3


“It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.”—Albert Einstein --- From an interview June 23, 1946. Reprinted in Einstein on Peace, 385


“Mere unbelief in a personal God is no philosophy at all.”—Albert Einstein --- To V.T. Aaltonen, May 7, 1952. AEA 59-059


“The more one chases the quanta, the better they hide themselves.”—Albert Einstein --- To Paul Ehrenfest, July 12, 1924. AEA 10-089


“Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.”—Albert Einstein --- From “ Education for Independent Thought” (1952). Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 67. AEA 60-723


“It is not so important where one settles down. The best thing is to follow your instincts without too much reflection.”—Albert Einstein --- To Max Born, March 3,1920. AEA 8-146


“The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical fats by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in Life Magazine, January 9,1950.


“You must be aware that most men (and also not only a few women) are by nature not monogamous. This nature makes itself even more forceful when tradition and circumstance stand in an individual’s way.”—Albert Einstein --- To Dr. Eugenie Anderman, June 2, 1953. AEA 59-097


“The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in P. Frank, Einstein: His Life and Times, 185

“I am very happy with my new home in friendly America and in the liberal atmosphere of Princeton.”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in “Survey Graphic”, 24 (August 1935) 384,413

“I know what it’s like to see one’s mother go through the agony of death and be unable to help; there is no consolation. We all have to bear such heavy burdens, for they are unalterably linked to life.”—Albert Einstein --- To Hedwig Born, June 18, 1920. AEA 8-257


“When I was young, all I wanted and expected from life was to sit quietly in some corner doing my work without the public paying attention to me. And now see what has become of me.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in Hoffmann, Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel, 4


“The goal of pacifism is possible only though a supranational organization. To stand unconditionally for this cause is . . . the criterion of true pacifism.”—Albert Einstein --- To A. Morrisett, March 21,1952. AEA 60-595

“The trite objects of human efforts—possessions, superficial success, luxury—have always seemed contemptible to me.”—Albert Einstein --- From, “The World As I See It” (1930), reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 9.


“I was originally supposed to become an engineer, but the thought of having to expend my creative energy on things that make practical everyday life even more refined, with a loathsome capital gain as the goal, was unbearable to me.”—Albert Einstein --- To Heinrich Zangger, 1918. CPAE Vol 8, Doc. 597