Even Einstein needed a helping hand

ORIGINAL: Marblar Muses

Even Einstein needed a helping hand. Image: Marblar Muses

At Marblar we absolutely refute the concept of a lone genius. The stereotype of a craggy-haired old scientist working around the clock in complete isolation is just for cartoons.

Take Albert Einstein for instance: another original Marblar. Some might say that the stereotype of a ridiculously smart but charmingly-awkward science professor evolved from him. And they’d have a point - his thought-experiments are the stuff of legend. He spent all of his days lost in lonely contemplation on the laws that govern the universe and relativity, right? WRONG!

It’s true that Einstein had an uncanny, almost superhuman ability to connect dots and see things in ways most of us can only dream of. But there was a time early in his life (when he was crafting his theory of general relativity) that Einstein was becoming increasingly frustrated that his perception of space-time curvature was requiring a better grasp of geometry. Quite frankly, Einstein was stumped.

So he reached out to a mathematician friend of his – Marcel Grossman. Grossman came with a fresh set of eyes and immediately referred the young Albert to an Austrian geometrician that had solved this exact problem (albeit in a different context) 50 years earlier! With the obstacle removed, Einstein’s torrent of creativity was free to push on with one of mankind’s greatest insights.

So it’s clear then, that even the smartest people can benefit from a fresh approach… That’s why we’re so excited about Marblar – we’re giving a heap of dormant science and technology a second chance, by welcoming the Marblar-verse into the equation. And as we see on Marblar every day, when you bring a bunch of brilliant people with diverse expertise together, the possibilities are endless. 

There’s no such thing as a lone genius – even Einstein needed a helping hand. Take a look at Marblar today to hook up with smart people building on each others’ ideas to move science forward!

Mehmet Fidanboylu is a PhD student at the King’s College London, and the co-founder of Marblar - a disruptive platform that seeks to crowdsource new ways to use cool science.

Follow Mem @mfidphd

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