Amanda Gefter, Books & Arts editor


Albert Einstein's original handwritten manuscript, "The Foundations of General Relativity", is now on display for the first time in its entirety at Israel's Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Jerusalem. The manuscript is on loan from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to which Einstein donated the paper in 1925.


The paper lays out the logical and mathematical bases for Einstein's theory of general relativity, which explains that what we perceive as the force of gravity is really the curvature of spacetime.


Einstein's goal had always been to rid physics of the Newtonian notion of an unobservable absolute space - a preferred coordinate system against which all motion could be measured. Instead, he believed that the laws of physics should remain valid in all coordinate systems, no one more privileged than the next.


Special relativity, which preceded the general theory, accomplished this feat for uniformly moving coordinate systems by holding the speed of light constant in all reference frames and allowing space and time to wrinkle and stretch.

The general theory, as outlined in the paper, allowed Einstein to tackle accelerated coordinate systems as well. By equating an accelerated reference frame with a uniform frame under the influence of gravity, Einstein was able to do away with the need for absolute space and ensure that all observers see the same universe.


Einstein wrote the 46-page paper in 1916 - three years before Arthur Eddington observed the bending of starlight around the Sun during a solar eclipse, providing the first major confirmation of general relativity. The paper mentions the potential test of the theory, as well as its prediction for the perihelion of Mercury's orbit, which had, until general relativity, remained an anomaly.


Einstein also commented in the paper that it remained "an open question whether the theory of the electromagnetic field in conjunction with that of the gravitational field furnishes a sufficient basis for the theory of matter or not."


Writing in 1916 Einstein didn't yet know of the two other forces that would have to be taken into account - the weak and strong nuclear forces - but his question was profound and remains an open one today. Legions of physicists are trying to answer that very question, as they seek to unite general relativity with quantum mechanics in an ultimate "theory of everything".


If you can't make it to Israel to check out the manuscript, it's worth reading the paper anyway, and you can find it online here.


There's a particular thrill that comes from reading Einstein in his own words, with his unique philosophical style that is at times deceptively simple, full of useful thought experiments and always questioning even our most basic assumptions about reality.


As physicist Stephen Hawking wrote in A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion (Perseus Books, 2008): "The most lucid, not to mention entertaining, proponent of Einstein's ideas has always been Einstein himself."

Albert Einstein's handwritten manuscript The Foundations of General Relativity will be on display at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Jerusalem through 25 March

conjunto universo

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conjunto universo

conjunto universo

conjunto universo

Monday, 10:34 : Stella McCartney at Opera Garnier. The show is a complete contrast with the explosion of gold in the decor. It’s simple, straight cut, and beige, beige, beige.

4:08 : At Kenzo. Anna Dello Russo says to me in her lovely Italian accent, “Ah, but Garance! You’re coming to the Jonathan Newhouse dinner! Okay! But that’s fan-tas-tique!!”

6:00 : I go home to get ready. Dinner with Jonathan Newhouse = a huge honor = huge amounts of stress.

For once, I know exactly what I’m going to wear: the one, the only, the sublime Balmain dress that Carole gave me a year ago.

This dress is everything it should be. Simple and beautiful. And I still don’t know how it succeeds in giving me the most amazing silhouette I could ever imagine. Well, so I’ve been told. I’m just like everyone else, always thinking I’m too big. (Especially during fashion week, big, tired, and crazy.)

7:30 : The only problem is that when you’re not used to fancier outfits, it’s tough to find stuff to go with the dress.

It’s 10 degrees outside and I’ve got nothing to wear over my dress.

7:36 : But as it is 10 degrees outside, I definitely find something to wear over my dress. I put on a cape and long grey gloves. I tie my hair back and put on some red lipstick because red lipstick = 200 fancy outfits. Even with the red lips, I still freeze.

8:00 : In a taxi with Scott, heading toward the Grand Palais for the Yves Saint Laurent show. He can’t stop telling me how beautiful I am. This guy, he sure gets it.

8:57 : In the Grand Palais. It’s freezing. I don’t really understand the show. But that happens to me often enough.

10:08 : We get to Prunier for dinner. To keep it short, Jonathan Newhouse is the CEO for the international editions of Condé Nast. So all the editor-in-chiefs of all the international Vogues are here. Carine, Franca, Yolanda are here, super glamourous. Anna Dello Russo and Emmanuelle as well. Coolitude on top of coolitude. She’s in a pair of jeans and a Balmain jacket.

10:16 : Guests of honor : Alber Elbaz, Christophe Decarnin, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Scott. And me.

When I was saying that Jonathan and his wife were doing us a huge honnor, I wasn’t kidding. Wow.

10:17 : … Wow.

10:25 : Christope Decarnin has an incredible gentleness to him. I show him my dress winking at him. He gives me a big smile. I dunno, I thought it might be nice for him to see one of his creations on a normal girl. (Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, normal girl in an exceptional situation, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, exceptional. I agree.)

11:26 : Anna introduces me to Mary-Kate and Ashley. Without sunglasses, all smiley and charming. These girls look devilishly intelligent.

11:30 : At our table, Anna Dello Russo is cracking everybody up. This woman is heaven.

12:20 a.m. : Home again! Near dead! There are still a few mails to check and a post to do.

2:00 : I’m going to sleep at 2, utterly exhausted… But I know that these next two days are the last, and I’m so looking forward to them.

Tuesday, 10:02 : At Chanel, mini-bags with two kinds of lipstick are freebies. Cool! It’s the one from the Vanessa Paradis ad! So beautiful. I put mine right on. I look up and right there, I see… Vanessa Paradis. Hmm. Hmmm sometimes my life just seems so bizarre. Like reality is moving past fiction, just like that, nothing big, two or three times a day.

11:07 : Chanel starts. A giant iceberg under the arches of the Grand Palais, it’s beautiful…

12:36 : I’m talking on the phone with Salomé. At the same time, I’m fumbling around in my bag because I need to send a text to Chris. I’m looking everywhere, turning my bag upside down, and I still can’t find my cell phone. Merde! Where is it?

…

Hmmm.

…

Right next to my face. I’m in the middle of talking to Salomé with it.

Pffffffff I think I’m a little tired.

3:00 : At Chloé, everything is pure, beautiful, and beige, beige, beige. Prepare yourselves for an overdoooooose of beeeeeige!!! As always, all the girls love it. And we filmed the whole thing. So I’ll be back soon! Big hugs!

Translation : Tim Sullivan

Ivorypress Art + Books and PaceWildenstein currently present an exhibition that represents a decision by Claes Oldenburg to re-explore a work that he and his wife Coosje van Bruggen had made together in 1990. The show The European Desktop is comprised of a number of sculptures – a shattered desk pad, a quill, an ink pot, a blotter, and postal scales. The European Desktop is the third and final work in a series of theatrical installations that grew out of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s performance with architect Frank Gehry for the 1995 Venice Biennale, Il Corso del Coltello (The Course of the Knife). The first two works in this series were The Haunted House and From the Entropic Library.

Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen: The European Desktop / Ivorypress Art + Books, Madrid / Spain. Press Preview, February 16, 2010.

This segment has been realized with the kind support of Turespaña.

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The San Francisco Exploratorium is the Mind Hacks of science museums - every exhibit is hands on, giving you the chance to experiment with and experience for yourself scientific principles.

Obviously, one of my favourite exhibits was a psychology demonstration, one based on a classic visual illusion known as the "Ames' Room". We've a small model of this in Sheffield, which I use when teaching PSY101, but the Exploratorium's "distorted room" is full size demonstration of the effect. Here's me and a friend in the room:

Notice anything odd? We're the same size in reality, but I (on the right) look significantly larger.

The illusion takes advantage of the unavoidable principle that size and distance are confounded - known as "Emmert's Law". It is Emmert's Law that means that big things far away can look the same size as small things near by. Our brain makes assumptions about how far away things are and uses these to inform our impression of size. The distorted room is built so that, from one perspective only, the two sides of the room look an equal distance away. In fact, the corner on the right is far closer to the viewer (the camera in this case) than the corner on the left. Because I really am nearer the camera I make a larger image on the retina (take up more pixels on the camera), but because the brain assumes that I am the same distance away as my friend on the left the only conclusion that my visual system can draw is that I must be much larger than him.

Normally your visual system isn't fooled about depth - clues in the scene, the difference between the image on your two eyes and movements of your head can all help reveal how far away different parts of the scene are. The distorted room removes some of these clues by forcing you took look at the room with one eye from a fixed point, and other clues it deliberately tricks (like the shape of tiles on the floor, which look the same from left to right, but actually get smaller, because the tiles on the right are closer).

The confounding of size and distance is the same principle behind illusions like this:

The effect only works because it is in a photograph (so from one perspective) and because the relatively featureless desert removes other clues to the depth of objects.

So the next time you close one eye and line up someone in the distance between your thumb and forefinger while muttering "I'm crushing your head!", think of Emmert's Law. And if you are in San Francisco, visit the Exploratorium!

Manfred Paul Metamorphosen Des Merres series