Erwin and Albert
26/05/07 16:30 Filed in: Science Anecdotes
Have you ever asked yourself "what is the most famous paper in all of physics?"
I've tried asking this question a number of times over the past few years and most often get one of two answers. In fact, you probably have one of them in your head right now. Either "special relativity" or "E=mc^2" are what come to mind for most people. There are a few hold outs.... those people that wish to think differently and respond with Newton's Principia or Copernicus, but most people come back with one of Einstein's papers.
When I was an undergraduate at Rensselaer I got the bug to go to the library stacks and look for the special relativity paper in its original form. After a small request from the librarians I had the journal and it of course falls open to that very page (as so many people before me have come looking to see just that paper!). My german wasn't very good and I couldn't really learn anything directly from the article. I could make out the equations and some of the german words are recognizable in english. Nonetheless, the best thing I got from this paleophysics experiment was a pleasant, if not humbling, feeling of having looked back to one of the most pivotal contributions to human knowledge.
During my graduate work at the University of Washington I became involved in the study of magnetic domains and magnetic memory. One of the first, one of the most early contributions on the subject came from a scientist named Erwin Madelung. In fact, Madelung's own thesis dissertation and his very first publication were on the subject of the memory of magnetic hysteresis loops. His very first paper appeared in back in 1905, the same time as Einstein.
This fact narrowly registered in my head as "about the same time and even same journal." But I never pursued it further. However, one day I got quite a surprise.
After one of his own paleo-physics expeditions, my thesis advisor handed me that same journal with quite a gem of irony. "Look where Madelung's paper is," he said. The bound journal fell open to the special relativity paper, just as the one had done for me years ago. But then there was Madelung too! In fact, Madelung's very first publication is the paper immediately preceeding Einstein's special relativity paper. On the left is the last page of Madelung's paper and on the right is the first page of Einstein's.
I got a huge kick out of returning to almost exactly the same place during my dissertation. Thus, if we conclude that Einstein's special relativity paper is the most famous, or most looked at paper in physics, then perhaps Madelung has the odd honor of having the most nearly looked at paper in physics.
In a rather sad note, often today Madelung's seminal work has been overshadowed by that of his contemporaries. While I do not disrespect their own contributions, I should be very happy if magnetic memory people choose to look a little further back past Preisach's contributions, to find those of Erwin Madelung.