Re: The Einstein Effect

On Tue, 7 Jan 2025 10:49:57 +0000, Martin Brown wrote:

On 07/01/2025 00:48, john larkin wrote:

On Mon, 6 Jan 2025 22:17:20 -0000 (UTC), Cursitor Doom
<cd999666@notformail.com> wrote:
 

On Mon, 06 Jan 2025 07:36:05 -0800, john larkin wrote:
>

https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/einstein-and-adam-grant-agree-

the-

puzzle-principle-will-make-you-instantly-smarter/91102339

>
Cohen's book looks interesting, so I ordered it.

 
You do realise that the Title of the book is actually taken from a paper
about how total gibberish prose attributed to a scientist is more often
believed by the general public than the same gibberish prose attributed
to a mystic guru (aka religious leader proxy).
 
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01273-8
 
That is behind a Nature paywall but the orginalpaper is free access
here:
 
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/

347290885_The_Einstein_effect_Global_evidence_for_scientific_source_credibility_effects_and_the_influence_of_religiosity

 
Religious leaders will just have to get used to the idea that scientists
and rational thought now hold sway over ignorance and superstition.
 

I'm now reading Gleick's short biography of Isaac Newton, who was a
very weird guy.

>
Not just weird but deeply unpleasant.

 
Which explains why he never had a girlfriend.

 
It is interesting that Oxford university now host the Newton Project
which is slowly building up a picture of his private and public life in
as much as it is possible from the very limited historical records
available.
 
https://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/his-personal-life
 
His physics research is well documented and copies of his published
works with additional annotation in his own hand are known.
 
He was intensely private and somewhat insecure which led to some of his
spats with Hooke (who was a brilliant experimentalist) and Leibnitz (who
was a brilliant mathematician). We should all give thanks that Leibnitz
notation for calculus ultimately won out although fluxions f, f' and f"
live on.
 
Modern diagnosis might be something like manic depressive genius (he did
have what would today be considered a mental breakdown in 1693 after not
sleeping for 5 days). He thought his friends were conspiring against
him.
 
OTOH his alchemical interests meant breathing mercury fumes and other
noxious gasses from time to time probably didn't help either.

ISTR inhaling mercury fumes was a 'cure' for constipation in those days.
Supposedly. Not terribly effective and with possible side-effects that
today would be unacceptable to say the least.