I am a native in this world And think in it as a native thinks

Friday, July 31, 2026

Einstein's blackboard




For our final field trip, we stayed in Oxford and visited the History of Science museum. This is their prize exhibit--a blackboard used by Einstein for a lecture in Oxford in 1931. (In case you can't make it out, he was talking about general relativity and the size of the universe.)

Some of the Oxford dons who had attended his first lecture decided to preserve the blackboards from the second lecture; there were originally two, but one was accidentally erased. Einstein was not pleased. He wrote in his diary, The lecture was indeed well-attended and nice. [But] the blackboards were picked up. (Personality cult, with adverse effect on others. One could easily see the jealousy of distinguished English scholars. So I protested; but this was perceived as false modesty.) On arrival [back in Christ Church] I felt shattered. Not even a cart-horse could endure so much!

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