March 8, 2018 9:20 pm

Celebrate the Life and Legacy of Albert Einstein with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice, and Janna Levin

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

That is my favorite quote by Albert Einstein. One of the smartest minds in history telling us to not worry about how much talent you have, and to focus on exploring the world around you.

On this episode of StarTalk Radio, Neil deGrasse Tyson, comic co-host Chuck Nice, and astrophysicist and StarTalk All-Stars host Janna Levin are together to reflect upon the many accomplishments and genius of Albert Einstein, just in time to celebrate his upcoming birthday on March 14.

You’ll explore Einstein’s beginnings as a patent clerk and how his early papers revolutionized modern physics. Neil, Chuck, and Janna also discuss his process of discovering special and general relativity.

You’ll also hear how Einstein’s studies impacted the science world today, including the discovery of gravitational waves at LIGO. Our trio discusses the groundbreaking discovery, how it finally happened at an unexpected time, and what LIGO has continued to find from that moment forward.

Next, the conversation turns to creativity: is it better to have constraints or free rein? Coming from a design background, I find that constraints help push creativity to the forefront. With free rein to create whatever, the project can become daunting and hard to conceptualize. As Neil points out, restraints can give engineers the best opportunities to be creative if they make things that have to fit certain dimensions, cost, and materials: like rockets.

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”

As we look back on the life of Einstein, one thing I always come back to is his commitment to the importance of imagination. Tune in tomorrow night to celebrate the life of one of the most imaginative figures in human history!

Please join us for Celebrating Einstein at 7pm ET right here on our website, as well as on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and TuneIn. If you’re an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free at 7pm, too.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Ian Mullen