Comment by Maro | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Maro | Hacker News Reader

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I agree that the sweeping statement "had all the math done by his wife Mileva Marić Einstein" is too much. Also, they got divorced at some point and Einstein didn't stop working then; although they were married in the miracle year.

A good reference is Appendix B, titled "The role of Mileva Einstein" in the excellent book "Who cares about Particle Physics?" by Pauline Gagnon (particle physicist at CERN/ATLAS). Here is a 4-page version, "The Forgotten Life of Mileva Marić Einstein" also by Pauline Gagnon:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.08888

I read the appendix by chance when I read the book itself, and I have to say it's fascinating. The book is about particle physics at CERN in general, and there's a late chapter about diversity at CERN, to which this is an appendix. The whole book is great, I read it as a refresher, as I left the field of (particle) physics many years ago. Based on the evidence presented, it is possible that some (how much?) of Einstein's most famous work was a collaboration between Maric and Einstein, and they simply didn't include her in the credits, because it was easier to get published as a single male author (and they needed the money).

More links:

- https://home.cern/authors/pauline-gagnon

- https://www.amazon.com/Who-Cares-about-Particle-Physics/dp/0...

> Based on the evidence presented, it is possible that some (how much?) of Einstein's most famous work was a collaboration between Maric and Einstein, and they simply didn't include her in the credits, because it was easier to get published as a single male author (and they needed the money).

Honestly, seems kinda revisionist.

"Hey we discovered radically exciting things that fundamentally change how we understand the universe. It's literally going to be called miraculous. Too bad the sexists just won't publish it if there's a woman's name on it. Also we'll never bother to correct the record once the status of the discoveries is established. Oh well, all credit to Einstein then!"

Try this one

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/030642290085349...

Can we tell what collaborations (with Maric, with Grossmann, etc.) were occurring by examining Einstein's notebooks? https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/Goodies/Zurich_Notebook/ What about the Born-Einstein letters, what collaborations are mentioned there? And as always "no man is an island", and we all advance our knowledge by discussing our ideas with others, but it is often left to an individual to ensure that all the pieces of the research puzzle fit together, that "all bases are covered". That was my limited experience from when I worked in a research setting. I had to think through the solution fully. Sure, I got help from others, but it was up to me to become the "world expert", as one's supervisor would say.

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