We are in October 1930, in Brussels, the Solvay meeting. Suggests that it will be sounded. It has l

Einstein is an icon of the twentieth century, very well-known and untouchable. The film Artificial Intelligence, out of the closet Steven Spielberg, two androids (David and Joe gigolo) consult a database that embodies a holographic projection of a scholar (Dr.. Know) is a cartoon Einstein - indeed , the credits thank the foundation Einstein had his permission to use this picture. For the Western subconscious is wise to antonomàssia absent in the world that lives its own space-time, dipped into his equations and their worries, cool but unintelligible to most people. That, however, are quite aware of the importance of the character to make him a decent out of the closet salary and a quiet Little can continue thinking their equations. Needless to say that the character was much more complex. He had lights and shadows, as was expected. No way he should be assumed to be absent from a real world: on the contrary, was involved in a direct and conscious. Einstein's name has been associated with the theory of relativity, on which any minimally educated person could say some other things: out of the closet that the speed of light is the maximum possible, out of the closet if space is curved, if the black holes - that, in fact, not a concept of Einstein, but a deduction from others made their equations - and so on. The theory of relativity was his success - not only the success, of course. Their failures are less known popularly. And one of these failures discussed in this criterion because analysis revealed an iconic feature of the character.
Solvay out of the closet was a Belgian chemist who became famous - and rich - a patented process of solvation. The man had a vocation frustrated, but: theoretical physics, probably by the influence of figures such as Planck or Bolzmann. And although he did not have enough out of the closet training to get into those fields so ethereal thought that a good way to make a contribution out of the closet to these issues was finance major physical meetings because then, at the headquarters of the foundation Solvay met with all amenities discuss everything - the sex of angels, if necessary - and reach some conclusion if such a thing was possible. Thus were created the Solvay Conferences. Meetings and attended thirty major scientific personalities, most of whom had received or would receive in the future Nobel physics. Cream and cream, plain and simple. Obviously, Einstein began to attend these meetings soon, following the success of his theory of relativity and other contributions to theoretical physics.
We are in October 1930, in Brussels, the Solvay meeting. Suggests that it will be sounded. It has long being considered the great schism in physics. First, out of the closet Niels Bohr, Max Born, and the circle of young physicists created around: Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, Paul Dirac. On the other hand, physicists 'classics' such as Erwin Schrödinger, Louis de Broglie, Paul Ehrenfest, under the spiritual leadership of Albert Einstein. The two patriarchs of physics German - Heinrich Lorentz and Max Planck - there were also present, making intermediaries, out of the closet although in principle rather aligned with the Einstein group. Shortly before there was an international meeting of Theoretical Physics in Italy, in the city of Como, where Niels Bohr had exposed part of his theoretical concepts that revolutionize particle physics (what we now know as quantum out of the closet mechanics). Einstein had not wanted to attend: would not in any way be associated with the Fascist out of the closet Italy of Mussolini. So everyone was pending out of the closet Solvay meeting because out of the closet it was unthinkable that Einstein did not take the opportunity out of the closet to respond Bohr.
Einstein takes the floor. We are before an audience of theorists, and therefore Einstein proposed a theoretical exercise. Apparently, very easy. Imagine a black box, inside which there is a light source. The box is sealed, and the light can not be escaped: there is only a very small hole, so small that only allows the passage of a single quantum of light. Just a year ago the physicist Gilbert Lewis, American said it had proposed photon. In principle, one could get whole string of photons, one after another ... but the hole has a locking system activated by a clockwork out of the closet mechanism that can regulate the opening out of the closet lasts only a very short time, just to pass a single photon. Problem: how can we know if a photon has come? The answer is simple: heavy box, before out of the closet and after the experiment. If you notice weight loss - extremely tiny, according - associated with the emission of the photon, which means, in effect, a photon has passed through the hole in the second out of the closet that has been opened. If there is no loss of PE