Top 10 Physics Findings That Will Tangle Your Brain

 There's a reason Albert Einstein always looked like he'd stuck his finger in a light socket: Physicists spend their days doing some of the most mind-blowing research in science. Here are 10 physics findings that will cramp your brain and make your hair stand on end.

1. Space ripples

This discovery is hot off the press (or, more accurately, hot off the cosmic microwave background radiation). Physicists have long been searching for evidence of how the universe was created. The working theory is that a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, the universe went through a period of ultra-rapid expansion, known as inflation. (In fact, the universe is still expanding.) According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, this fast expansion made ripples in space-time called gravitational waves, traveling outward from the center. Now, nearly 100 years after Einstein predicted them, scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have found direct evidence that these space ripples really exist.
 2. Quark-gluon plasma
Sounds disgusting! But actually it's just really hot. Right after the Big Bang, the universe was nothing but quarks (subatomic particles with a small electric charge) and gluons (particles that hold quarks together), muddled together at an extremely high temperature. When these particles started to cool, they formed protons and neutrons, which are the building blocks of matter. Just a few years ago, scientists were able to recreate quark-gluon plasma in a lab.
 3. Time is slowing down
No, you aren't just bored; time is actually slowing down. Tidal friction caused by the Moon's gravitational pull is causing Earth's rotation to slow so that a day on Earth gets 1.4 milliseconds longer about every 100 years. To compensate, every so often a "leap second" is added to atomic clocks.
4. Light can be stopped completely
Light isn't always the fastest thing in the universe; sometimes it has to sit in traffic just like everyone else. Last year scientists in Germany successfully stopped light from traveling for an entire minute, by trapping it in a crystal.
5. Teleportation
Teleportation is not just a Star Trek fantasy; scientists have actually been doing it since 1997. Granted, they are teleporting single photons (particles of light), not people, but still. Two years ago, researchers in China managed to teleport a single photon just over 60 miles, and new methods of teleportation are successful 40 percent of the time, compared with 1 percent of the time for earlier methods. This research probably won't have you teleporting anywhere soon, but it could lead to much faster ways to transmit data.
 6. Quantum entanglement
What makes teleportation possible is a crazy little thing called "quantum entanglement." When two particles are created at exactly the same point and time, they become entangled. After being split apart, what happens to one particle affects the other particle, even if they are very far apart. For example, if one particle spins in one direction, the other particle will spin in the opposite direction. Einstein called this phenomenon "spooky action at a distance."
7. Quantum foam
Empty space is anything but empty, and virtual reality is nothing new. A virtual particle is a particle that exists for only a very short period of time. They come into existence to facilitate interactions between ordinary particles, and then they disappear. It turns out that all of the space we normally think of as empty is actually full of these virtual particles popping in and out of existence. Physicists have termed this state "quantum foam."
8. Light bends matter
We all know that matter bends light; we see it happen all of the time through our windows. But by experimenting with ribbons of nanoparticles, researchers have also shown that light can bend matter. The ribbons were flat in the dark but curled up when subjected to light. What will they think of next?
 9. Invisibility cloak?
In 2012, researchers at Duke University successfully created an invisibility cloak to hide a 7.5-cm-by-1-cm cylinder. The cloak consisted of man-made objects called metamaterials, which are able to bend electromagnetic waves. By arranging the metamaterials in a diamond pattern, they succeeded in completely eliminating reflective light. The main catch, for now, is that it works in only one direction.
10. The "God particle"
In 2012, after looking for decades, physicists at CERN announced that they had found the "Higgs boson," aka the "God particle." This particle was theorized in 1964 and is essential to the standard model of physics. Wrapping your mind around the Higgs boson is more than a small challenge, so for an explanation, I'll turn you over to the man himself, Dr. Peter Higgs.
Does your brain hurt yet? Yeah, I thought so.

Einstein Biography:

"That is true, even when nobody has yet succeeded in being somebody else."

Albert Einstein, 1947

EINSTEIN

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, the first child of the Jewish couple Hermann and Pauline Einstein, née Koch. In June 1880 the family moved to Munich where Hermann Einstein and his brother Jakob founded the electrical engineering company Einstein & Cie. Albert Einstein's sister Maria, called Maja, was born on November 18, 1881. Einstein's childhood was a normal one, except that to his family's irritation, he learnt to speak at a late age. Beginning in 1884 he received private education in order to get prepared for school. 1885 he started learning to play violin. Beginning in 1885 he received his primary education at a Catholic school in Munich (Petersschule); in 1888 he changed over to the Luitpold-Gymnasium, also in Munich. However, as this education was not to his liking and, in addition, he did not get along with his form-master he left this school in 1894 without a degree and joined his family in Italy where they had settled meanwhile.

In order to be admitted to study at the "Eidgenoessische Polytechnische Schule" (later renamed ETH) in Zurich, Einstein took his entrance examination in October 1895. However, some of his results were insufficient and, following the advice of the rector, he attended the "Kantonsschule" in the town of Aarau in order to improve his knowledge. In early October 1896 he received his school-leaving certificate and shortly thereafter enrolled at the Eidgenoessische Polytechnische Schule with the goal of becoming a teacher in Mathematics and Physics. Einstein, being an average student, finished his studies with a diploma degree in July 1900. He then applied, without success, for assistantships at the Polytechnische Schule and other universities. Meanwhile he had abandoned the German citizenship and formally applied for the Swiss one which he was granted on February 21, 1901.

Search for employment continued. Between May 1901 and January 1902 he was teacher in Winterthur and Schaffhausen. Afterwards he moved to the Swiss capital Bern. In order to make his living, he gave private lessons in mathematics and physics. At this time also the Bernese "Akademie Olympia" was founded by Albert Einstein, Maurice Solovine and Conrad Habicht. During meetings in the evening scientific and philosophical questions were discussed. Einstein himself noted that this academy was beneficial for his career and even when he already lived in the US, he remained a loyal member.

In January 1902 Lieserl, daughter of Einstein and Mileva Maric, a former fellow-student, was born in Hungary. That Einstein had an illegitimate child has been only learned a few years ago when private letters mentioning this child were published. Nothing is known about the life of Einstein's daughter; probably she was released to become adopted. At the end of 1902 Einstein's father died in Milan. On January 6, 1903 he married Mileva Maric - against the wills of both families. In May 1904 Einstein's first son, Hans Albert, was born and in July 1910 his second son, Eduard.

Through mediation of a former fellow-student, Marcel Grossmann, in December 1901 Einstein applied for a position at the Bernese patent-office which he was granted, initially for a time of probation only. Beginning on June 23, 1902 he became technical expert, third class, at this office. Despite of the work associated with this position he found time for further research in theoretical physics.

 

In April 1905 Einstein submitted his doctoral thesis "A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions" to the university in Zurich which was accepted in July. During this same year he published four pioneering papers in the scientific magazine "Annalen der Physik" which revolutionized physics around the turn of the century. Three of the papers will be briefly mentioned here: In the first article "On A Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light" Einstein proposed that electromagnetic radiation must consist of quantums or photons. Even though this theory is capable of explaining - among other things - the photoelectric effect it was at first rejected by physicists, namely by the pioneer of modern physics, Max Planck, later, however, confirmed by him and adopted. This work became the foundation of a quantum theory and for this in particular Einstein received the Nobel Prize for the year 1921. The paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" delineates the principles of special relativity which deals with questions of objects as part of different coordination systems moving with constant speed relative to each other. It resulted in a new interpretation of the conception of space and time and relies on the constancy of the speed of light and the principle of relativity which postulates that it is impossible to determine motions in an absolute way. Shortly thereafter the paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend upon its Energy Content?" was published. It contains the famous equation E = m · c² stating the equivalence of mass and energy. Through these publications Einstein attracted the attention of the scientific community. At the end of 1906 he published the paper "Planck's Theory of Radiation and the Theory of Specific Heat" which can be regarded as being the first publication on the quantum theory of the solid state.

Einstein's famous equation:

In April 1906 Einstein was promoted to technical expert, second class, at the patent-office in Bern. His "Habilitation" (in the German-speaking countries a thesis to be submitted in order to be eligible for a position at the professorial level at the university) things did not go so well. His first application was turned down in 1907 by the university of Bern. In early 1908, however, he was successful and at the end of the same year he gave his first lecture. Einstein had decided that he wanted to devote his time entirely to science; hence, he gave up his position at the patent-office in October 1909 and in the same month he started to work as "Ausserordentlicher Professor" (adjunct professor) of theoretical physics at the university of Zurich. In 1911 Einstein was offered a chair at the German university in Prague which he took on. However, already one year thereafter he returned to Switzerland after having been offered a professorial position at the ETH.

Impressed by Einstein's achievements, Max Planck and the physical chemist Walther Nernst attempted to lure the young Einstein to Berlin, then stronghold of natural sciences. They wanted to make him a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, offer him a professorial position without teaching responsibilities at Berlin university and make him the head of the - still to be founded - Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute of Physics. For Einstein this offer was so tempting that he accepted and in April 1914 moved to Berlin with his family. On July 2nd, 1914, he gave his inaugural lecture at the Prussian Academy.

Contrary to his professional advance, Einstein's marriage did not go well. In consequence, already in July 1914 his wife and children returned to Zurich. As Einstein was not willing to keep up his marriage with Mileva they became divorced in February 1919. From 1917 on Einstein became sick, suffering from various diseases resulting in a general weakness which lasted until 1920. Throughout this time he was under the loving care of his cousin Elsa Loewenthal. They fell in love with each other and on June 2nd, 1919, he married Elsa who had already two daughters, Ilse and Margot, from her first marriage. The couple then moved to Haberlandstrasse 5 in Berlin.

Apart from all his work Einstein still found time for playing music. Since his youth he played the violin and later he frequently was seen on the street carrying his violin case. He was an admirer of Bach and Mozart and, through continuous practice, he became a good violinist. Apart from his love for music he was a devoted sailor. Doing this just for fun, here did he find the time to think about problems of physics.

From 1909 to 1916 Albert Einstein worked on a generalization of his Special Theory of Relativity. The results of his efforts were published in March 1916 in the paper "The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity". This theory investigates coordination systems which experience acceleration relative to each other and also the influence of gravitational fields to time and space. Whereas the Special Theory of Relativity was still intelligible to the layman, this did not apply to the General Theory of Relativity. Moreover, due to the relatively small relativistic effects, this theory was difficult to verify experimentally. Einstein - or his General Theory of Relativity - predicted the perihelion motion of mercury, the gravitational red shift as well as the deflection of light in a gravitational field. He was convinced that light deflection by the gravitational field of the sun could be observed during a total solar eclipse. After several failed observations of total solar eclipses proof came in 1919: On May 29 of that year the English astronomer Arthur Stanley Eddington confirmed Einstein's prediction of light deflection when he observed a total solar eclipse on the volcanic island of Principe in the Gulf of Guinea in western Africa. A second expedition, led by Andrew Crommelin, observed this eclipse in Sobral, Brazil.

In February 1920 Einstein's mother died in Berlin. Between 1921 and 1923 he travelled, among others, to the US, Britain, France, Japan and Palestine. Since that time he began commenting on political issues more and more frequently, based on a pacifist point of view. In 1922 Einstein became member of the League of Nations' International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation which he left one year later even though he supported the aims of the League of Nations. With a revived belief in the ideals of this organisation Einstein re-joined the commission in May 1924. Opposed to any kind of violence Einstein supported pacifist movements whenever he had the chance. In addition, he supported the cause of the Zionists. He spoke up for the Hebrew University to be founded in Jerusalem to which he later also bequeathed his entire written legacy. In November 1952 Einstein even received the offer to become President of Israel which, however, he turned down.

As the consequence of overworking, in 1928 Einstein developed a heart disease which took him almost a year to recover from. In 1929 after his 50th birthday he built a summer house in the municipality of Caputh where he lived with his family each year between spring and late autumn until the December of 1932.

From 1920 onwards Einstein was working towards a unified field theory which, apart from gravitation, was also to include electrodynamics. This research would last until his death and remained unsuccessful. During the first decade of work towards the unified field theory he was still being supported by colleagues which, however, after having lost their faith in being able to resolve this mystery, turned to other problems such as the theory of the new microcosm or quantum mechanics. Niels Bohr, founder of the so-called Copenhagen School, Max Born, and - from the then young generation - Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli among others became the physicists to develop quantum mechanics. Einstein thus became a single fighter and gradually scientifically isolated which, however, did not seem to bother him much. His way into isolation was magnified as Einstein was unable to accept quantum mechanics and constantly exercised his criticism. In particular, he was opposed to the probabilities which were applied in this theory. In this context we have to understand his well-known quotation "God does not throw the dice". However, as far as quantum mechanics is concerned, Einstein was wrong because at present this theory is as widely applied in physics as are Einstein's theories of relativity.

When Einstein and his wife left Caputh in December 1932 to hold a third series of lectures in the US the political situation in Germany had drastically changed for the worse. In the 1932 elections the Nazis had become the strongest political party and in January 1933 Hitler seized power. As the consequence of the crimes of the Nazis during the "Third Reich" Einstein never again set his foot on German soil. In March 1933 he resigned from the Prussian Academy of Sciences and cut off all contacts with any German institution he ever had dealt with.

Albert Einstein found a new home in the US. From November 1933 on he worked at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey, where in 1935 he and his wife bought a house in 112, Mercer Street. In December 1936 Einstein's wife Elsa died. In 1939 his sister Maja moved to his house where she stayed until her death in 1951.

'Remember the five simple rules to be happy :


1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.