Einstein w bliskiej współpracy z polskimi fizykami: setki listów wymienione

Albert Einstein and Maria Skłodowska-Curie exchanged correspondence for over 20 years. However, the Polish scientist never collaborated with Einstein on joint research projects. They were rather friends who shared a common interest in science and society. There were, however, other Polish scholars with whom Einstein collaborated scientifically.

One of the closest scientific relationships that connected Einstein was with Leopold Infeld (1898-1968), associated with the Jagiellonian University. The researchers exchanged over 120 letters. They discussed not only research-related issues, but also personal matters. Einstein praised Infeld’s books, and Infeld shared the tragic fate of his family with the Nobel laureate. Einstein and Infeld also co-authored the book „Evolution in Physics,” and together with Banesh Hoffmann, they worked on the research paper „Gravitational Equations and the Problem of Motion.”

Albert Einstein also exchanged 30 letters with Myron Mathisson (1897-1940), a scientist of Jewish descent associated with the University of Warsaw. Einstein admired him as a researcher. Their correspondence also touched on personal matters. In one of the letters, Mathisson complained to Einstein about the anti-Semitism he encountered. „The mud is made from our tears,” reads one of the letters.

There is also a significant correspondence between Einstein and Ludwik Silberstein (1872-1948) – in total there are over 50 letters. Silberstein played devil’s advocate in the general theory of relativity, trying to show Einstein its incorrectness. Over time, it turned out that there were errors in Silberstein’s thinking, to which the Polish researcher was able to admit in a letter.

Albert Einstein, at some point in his work, dealt with a similar topic as Marian Smoluchowski (1872-1917). Both researchers described Brownian motion, which is the movement of atoms visible under a microscope when particles of the right size are added to a fluid.

Prof. Gutfreund mentioned that Albert Einstein had scientific and personal contacts with researchers such as Józef Wierusz-Kowalski (1866-1927), Władysław Natanson (1864-1937), Mieczysław Wolfke (1883-1947), Stanisław Loria (1883-1958), Jakub Laub (1884-1962), and Jan Weyssenhoff (1889-1972). Among Polish physicists who influenced Einstein, he also mentioned August Wiktor Witkowski (1898-1913), with whom, however, the Nobel laureate had no direct contact.

Polish scientists appreciated Einstein’s theory of relativity, in contrast to physicists, especially from Germany, who found it difficult to accept Einstein’s new thinking. Among physicists who ensured a good reception of Einstein’s new ideas in Poland was Tytus Maksymilian Haber, who defended critical voices of physicists in the press, and quickly translated Einstein’s popular book „On the Special and General Theory of Relativity” (1921) into Polish.

„We are no longer discovering new documents about Einstein, but every time I give a lecture about him, I find a new perspective, I notice something I hadn’t noticed before,” Gutfreund concluded.
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