I did not know this story....it did not even figure large in Einstein's biography that I recall.
Yet without Eddington....??



Like Wallace and Darwin, one is forgotten the other in the science pantheon.

Brilliantly cast and portrayed.
A story I did not know and am thrilled to now.
That these two principled world citizens should cross paths in a way that altered all of science's understanding of the universe is an astounding tale.

Science at it's very best transcending nationalism and with the all the drama this breakthrough deserves.
Well done HBO...another feather in your cap.

Highly recommended, highly entertaining.

Wallace spurred Darwin on and of course there is the lingering idea that Wallace provided the key.....yet he is little known.

Without Eddington's brilliant understanding to bring theory to reality.....acceptance of Einstein's revolution would have been a far more onerous journey.

Yet in both cases the catalyst companions are forgotten
Are there other's out there whose brilliance should emerge from obscurity??? Little acknowledged partners in significant breakthroughs

Wasn't there a German/Jewish woman whose discoveries in physics were effectively stolen during or just before WWII ...something with nuclear fission math.

Edwin Armstrong is one that comes to mind....a sad tale that angers..

Errr, HBO?

History remembers the fortunate.

Remember Howard Florey?

Nope - do tell...

Florey actually isolated the stuff that Fleming had, on observation, conjectured to exist.

Well in the case of Darwin and Wallace, one did all the legwork for decades working out the details and uncovering the evidence, while the other tripped-out during a malarial fever in the jungle.

It's quite right we praise Darwin more.

Horwood Beer-Master wrote:Well in the case of Darwin and Wallace, one did all the legwork for decades working out the details and uncovering the evidence, while the other tripped-out during a malarial fever in the jungle.

It's quite right we praise Darwin more.

Evolution would be true in either case. Do we go on endlessly about the efforts of the Wright brothers every time a new plane flies? It is downright creepy this cult of Darwin....and gives creationists a human personality to shoot their emotion based arguments at.

Yeah I love evolution and couldn't give two shits about Darwin. I mean it was bleeding obvious, he simply had enough 'nads to say it.

Dudely wrote:Yeah I love evolution and couldn't give two shits about Darwin. I mean it was bleeding obvious, he simply had enough 'nads to say it.

Time, chance and place. If he hadn't someone would have done within a window of fifty years either way.

Berthold wrote:Florey actually isolated the stuff that Fleming had, on observation, conjectured to exist.

Yeah, most people think Fleming invented the antibiotic drug when in actual fact he just discovered, 20 years? after a Frenchman already had, that a certain mold killed bacteria. He thought, "That's interesting but nothing worthwhile here," and went on his merry way.

Years later Florey turned penicillin into a drug and then Fleming got the Nobel Prize for it and Florey got one for being his assistant even thought Fleming had nothing at all to do with the production of the drug.

alienpresence wrote:

Dudely wrote:Yeah I love evolution and couldn't give two shits about Darwin. I mean it was bleeding obvious, he simply had enough 'nads to say it.

Time, chance and place. If he hadn't someone would have done within a window of fifty years either way.

With Einstein and relativity they say someone else would have done it within a window of a few months. Other people were that close but today it's pretty much taught that without Einstein we'd still not have it.

Before that adorable (although factually shaky) movie came out I wrote an essay on this story for a History and Philosophy of Cosmology class.

As for Darwin, that's a great story too. I love a good story, especially a true one.

And yes, yes, all scientists are "just" uncovering things that anyone could. True. I agree that some scientists like Darwin get held up as being ridiculously important. But I still think they're important and worthwhile. Einstein came up with the idea. Eddington had the foresight to test it. Darwin was the one to put it out there.

If we celebrate anyone, these people are worthy of our celebration and interest.

I used to have a quote from Eddington as my sig line:

Eddington wrote:We often think that when we have completed our study of 'one' we know all about 'two', because 'two' is 'one and one'. We forget that we have still to make a study of 'and'.

I'm part of a group next year that's going to investigate Eddington's measurements which he took on the expedition to Sobral and Principe. There have been rumours for a while that he fiddled the analysis to get the answer he wanted in support of general relativity. We're going to reanalyse the original data to see if it really did support GR. Of course GR was correct in the end anyway even if the expedition was slightly fudged but it should be interesting what turns up. I'll report back nxt year

Sex sells.

astrowhiz wrote:I'm part of a group next year that's going to investigate Eddington's measurements which he took on the expedition to Sobral and Principe. There have been rumours for a while that he fiddled the analysis to get the answer he wanted in support of general relativity. We're going to reanalyse the original data to see if it really did support GR. Of course GR was correct in the end anyway even if the expedition was slightly fudged but it should be interesting what turns up. I'll report back nxt year

I have heard that rumour of Eddington fudging his results too. It's only of historical interest though. The ESA's Hipparcos astrometry satellite showed agreement with GR all the way to 60 degrees from the solar limb.