Genius (2017) s01e04 Episode Script

1 Previously on Genius This Rontgen fellow, snatched the credit you justly deserve.
He's a rat, like the Jews.
Rats, must be eradicated.
It's only the very first Nobel, you will win the next one.
In this class we will deal only with what has been proven.
The existence of molecules has not.
Jost: Oh you brought us Mr.
Besso.
Such a charming dinner companion.
Marie Winteler: I do hope you return sooner rather than later Mr.
Besso.
Albert: I will find a formula to freeze time.
You won't even know I'm gone.
Marie Winteler: Ah, what a lovely thought.
Albert: Dear Frau Winteler, I write and ask you to share my feelings with your dearest Marie.
She deserves more attention than I have to give.
Mother, you know very well that I have someone else now.
Milena, you're the love of my life.
Pauline: That creature, she's just a nasty little witch.
Albert: She's no witch, she's my wife.
Mileva: He's very busy, Papa.
Milos: He can't even get a job.
Marcel: There is a position I know of at the patent office.
Albert: I'm a scientist, Marcel.
I'm better than a clerkship.
Haller: Welcome to the patent office, Herr Einstein.
[Theme music plays.]
awaqeded for Pierre: May I help you, Mademoiselle? Marie: You gave me a shock.
This is an original piezoelectric meter, yes? Pierre: I'm sorry, but who are you? Marie: As a rudimentary device, it's quite effective.
But it would be far more precise with the addition of a mirrored quadrant electrometer and an ionization chamber.
Pierre: When I built the first model, I considered an ionization chamber but wasn't convinced that air would be a sufficient dielectric.
Marie: You invented the piezoelectric meter? Pierre: Is there something I can do for you, mademoiselle? Marie: I'm looking for laboratory space to conduct my experiments.
I'm studying at the Sorbonne.
Pierre: Physics? Marie: Magnetism to be specific.
Pierre: You haven't told me your name.
Marie: Marie Sklodowska.
Pierre: It's a pleasure to meet you.
Pierre Curie.
[Tower bell.]
Albert: Here before you sits a device which purports to synchronize clock towers across Switzerland It sends an electromagnetic signal at the speed of light.
A wondrous notion! As a patent clerk, however, I must ask myself if this device can actually deliver on it's promise.
According to Newton, the answer is yes.
Absolute simultaneity is possible because, well, time is absolute.
And this all works if we're sending a signal from Bern to Zurich, say.
But what happens if we're sending a signal from Bern to a clock on a moving train? Patent clerk: Why is a clock on a moving train? Patent clerk 2: You'd have to disassemble it first.
It's much too large Albert: No, that's not the point.
Man: What is going on here? Albert: I'm evaluating an application, sir.
Haller: The same device which passed across your desk three weeks ago, I see.
Albert: Yes, Herr Haller, although I'm not convinced it can actually do what the patent application claims.
If I can make it work properly Haller: Herr Einstein, either a thing works or it does not.
Your job is not to make it better.
How are you progressing with the signal box and rail switch applications? Albert: I, I Haller: I see.
Have them on my desk by the end of the day.
Albert: Can it wait until tomorrow, sir? Please, I have a very important meeting Haller: You also have a wife and a new baby at home, yes? If I were you, I wouldn't be so cavalier about the position that pays to support them.
Albert: Professor Kleiner, Professor Kleiner, my sincere apologies.
I was detained at work Kleiner: Save your breath, Herr Einstein.
Our time was up an hour ago.
Albert: Sir, please.
Just give me five minutes.
I promise my thesis proposal is unlike anything you've ever heard.
Kleiner: You have one minute.
Albert: One minute, yes, good Well, everyone believes that light is a wave, yes? Well, I can prove that when a light ray is propagated from any point, it consists of a finite number of energy quanta which can be produced and absorbed only as complete units.
That only took ten seconds.
[Laughs.]
.
Do you remember Philipp Lenard's paper on the photoelectric effect? He demonstrated that light doesn't always act like a wave.
But he couldn't explain it.
Well guess who can? Kleiner: You.
Albert: No! No, well, yes, yes, but, no Max Planck! I believe I can use Planck's constant to demonstrate the photoelectric effect and prove the duality of light.
Kleiner: You want to argue, for your doctoral thesis, that we have been mistaken about what has been a fundamental law of physics since 1678 that's 200 Albert: And 27 years.
Kleiner: Come back when you wish to be taken seriously.
Mileva: Look, Hans, Papa's home! Marija: How did it go with the professor? Albert: Wonderfully, thank you.
Marija: Not even a kiss for your son? Mileva: Do you mind, Mama? Albert: He shut me out, Dollie.
He didn't even read my proof.
Mileva: Albert.
Albert: I'm right, I'm sure of it.
But no one will ever know it if the bloated windbags of academia won't even consider my proposal.
Mileva: What are you aiming for, Albert? A piece of paper you can frame and hang on the wall? Albert: I, I want my ideas to be heard.
To be acknowledged and discussed.
To be recognized.
Mileva: Then forget Professor Kleiner.
You must get your work noticed by more important scientists.
Publish your paper.
Albert: Who would publish the work of a third-class patent clerk? Mileva: I've spent my entire life being overlooked and underestimated.
Giving up is a luxury I could never afford.
You can either wait for those dinosaurs to give you permission to engage in the scientific world, or you can show them.
That your ideas can not be snuffed out by those who lack imagination.
Albert: I have no time to for research Mileva: I'll go to the library.
Albert: And my math.
Mileva: I'll proof everything.
Albert: My handwriting is an embarrassment.
Mileva: Albert, shut your mouth.
I'll help you.
Albert: Read this.
Laue: Herr professor? Have you read this? Some fellow in Bern has used your discovery of light quanta to prove Professor Lenard's findings on the photoelectric effect.
Planck: Impossible.
Quanta are a mathematical construct.
They're not a real phenomenon.
Laue: Read it, sir.
Planck: Albert Einstein.
"On a heuristic point of view concerning the production and transformation of light.
" It's a bit lofty, don't you think? Laue: His proof is quite impressive.
Planck: Well we both know what sort of nonsense you can prove with proofs.
Laue: You must admit, it's tantalizing.
Planck: Yes, well I suppose you have a little bit of space in the next issue, but I'll be rather surprised if anyone gives it a second thought.
Albert: Four weeks since I was published! Four weeks and not a peep! Milos: Were you expecting a parade? Mileva: Papa.
Albert: No, no, no, your father's right, Dollie, and so were you.
It was one paper.
I'll simply write another.
And if no one takes any notice, I'll write another.
They can't ignore me forever.
We only need to find a problem.
Milos: It seems to me you have an ample supply of those.
Albert: An incongruence, a paradox that nobody else sees molecular mechanics, the ether, light, space Mileva: Ah yes, the whole of physics.
Shouldn't be too difficult.
Albert: It won't be, Dollie.
Not with you helping me.
(Intriguing music) Pierre: No, it must be an anomaly.
Try it again.
Marie: I already have, 20 times.
It's not an anomaly.
This sample must contain a new element.
A radioactive element.
Pierre: It would have to be hundreds, no Marie: Thousands of times stronger than uranium.
We must isolate it.
Pierre: Well then, I suppose we're going to need our own laboratory Marie: Pierre? Pierre.
Mileva: Do you remember the Curies' paper on radioactivity? Working tirelessly, side by side, without heat in their lab or funding for their research.
It's romantic, no? Albert: The Curies spent four years on that paper.
I have only three hours until the patent office opens.
Mileva: You should get some rest.
You can't think properly without sleep.
Albert: I don't need sleep.
I need more coffee.
Mileva: What is it? Albert: Do you remember our thought experiments on gas theory at university? Those weeks we spent holed up in my room? Mileva: I remember quite a lot of experimentation, yes.
Not all of it to do with science.
Albert: What if we were going about it all wrong? What if, instead of studying gases, we studied a cup of coffee? Mileva: You really must sleep, Albert.
Albert: Jacobus v'ant Hoff's Nobel paper from 1901: Particles in a solution behave like a gas.
When sugar dissolves in coffee, water surrounds glucose and tears it from the sugar crystal, correct? The more sugar I add, the thicker the coffee becomes.
If we can calculate the osmotic pressure, perhaps we can deduce the precise number of Mileva: You want to prove the existence of molecules Albert: Too ambitious? Mileva: No.
It's brilliant Haller: May I ask you, what are you doing? Albert: I'm about to start work, sir, on a fascinating application for a Nickel-zinc battery.
Haller: That battery was patented last year, Einstein.
Albert: I beg you.
I'm well ahead of schedule.
If I could be granted the smallest parcel of time Haller: Time, Herr Einstein, is a privilege you relinquished when you accepted this position.
Albert: He's a tyrant! It's unbearable! He gives me four times the work as the other dolts in the office because I'm the only one who understands mechanical engineering! Grossmann: Poor thing.
A boss who respects your intellect and a full time job that pays twice as much as mine? Albert: I don't care about money, Marcel.
I've been toiling in obscurity for ten hours a day, six days a week for the past two years and I never see my family, I never see my baby.
Grossmann: Albert, you of all people have no interest in a baby.
Now what do you want? Albert: I want what Lorentz and Becquerel and Lenard have.
Whatever they say, whatever they write, people pay attention.
I want to wake up in the morning to pursue my passions instead of being confronted with a constant sense of dread that I, that I'm wasting my life.
Grossmann: I meant what do you want from me? Albert: Your father still has connections at the patent office? I need help.
Someone to work alongside me, to ease my load until I can make a mark with my ideas.
Grossmann: Do you have someone particular in mind? [Laughing.]
.
Besso: I'm very lucky.
It's a good job.
Second class patent clerk in the mechanical engineering division.
Marie Winteler: Will you be working with Albert? Besso: Yes.
In fact, he was instrumental in helping me secure the position.
Julius: How does it feel accepting a favor from the swine who dishonored your sister-in-law? Jost: Julius, please.
Marie Winteler: I think it's very kind of Albert.
Frau Winteler: Anna, have you found an apartment? Anna: Why yes, we have.
Besso: We have.
- It's very modest but - Julius: I'd check your walls.
Besso: What? Julius: Your walls.
You never know what might be crawling around in them.
Roaches, mice, Lucifer himself.
Jost: Julius, that's enough Julius: No, the devil is conspiring to turn this world into hatred and sin.
His agents are among us.
I hear them.
Open your ears! Jost: Julius.
Milos: It's growing colder, isn't it? Mileva: I don't mind.
Milos: You never did.
Do you remember when you dug a trench in the snow, covered it with a canvas and declared it your winter palace? Mileva: I wanted to sleep there.
But mama wouldn't have it.
Milos: You were always so independent, Miza.
So strong.
You seem happy again.
Mileva: I am.
Milos: And what about resuming your studies? Mileva: I'm working with Albert every day, exploring the most fascinating topics in physics.
I don't need a degree for that.
Milos: And that's really enough for you? Mileva: What's bothering you, papa? Milos: Your mother and I must go home.
Mileva: I don't understand, you said Milos: I've been called back to work.
Mileva: But Albert and I are writing an important paper.
I can't abandon everything to look after Hans all day.
He only stops crying when mother holds him, and Milos: Don't worry, Miza.
I'll make sure you have whatever you need Mileva: How could you refuse him? Albert: I didn't marry you for a dowry, Dollie.
I married you because I love you.
Mileva: It was 20,000 francs! Albert: Our marriage is not a business transaction! You are not a prized heifer to be bought and sold Mileva: That's very noble of you, Albert, but your lofty principles will not help me cook, clean, and raise a child all while midwifing your papers.
Ow! [Baby crying.]
Pick up the baby, Albert! How are we to manage? Albert: Do you think I don't already have a solution to that problem, dear Dollie? I will ask my mother to come.
She knows how to run a household, how to care for a child, she will make it possible for you and I to continue our work.
Mileva: She despises me.
Albert: She doesn't even know you.
And how could she despise the woman who gave birth to her only grandson, huh? Pauline: Look at those cheeks! He's the spit and image of his grandfather.
Albert: Dollie, have you seen my tie? Pauline: I believe I saw it hanging over the bathroom door, darling.
We clean up after our husbands more than our children.
That one is terribly wrinkled.
Don't you have a pressed one? Albert: It will suffice.
Good day to you Frau Einstein.
And to you Frau Einstein! Mileva: Thank you for coming.
We do appreciate the help.
Pauline: Of course, darling.
I remember when Albert was born.
Such an exciting time.
But also a difficult one.
I had no idea how to care for myself, not to mention a child.
Mileva: It isn't easy, is it? Pauline: Oh, I made so many mistakes! With any luck I can help spare you the worst of them.
Mileva: I appreciate that Pauline: Of course, darling! What else am I here for? Now, shall we go to the market to stock your pantry? Mileva: Oh that's very generous, but I'm afraid I've got to go to the library.
I was hoping you could look after Hans for a few hours? Pauline: But I've only just arrived.
Mileva: Yes, but Albert and I are finishing an important paper.
Pauline: Mileva, darling, if there's one thing my Albert doesn't need help with, it's his science.
But with the rest of his life? He's quite hopeless.
Lucky for him, he has a wife.
Besso: Are you working with Stokes' law? Albert: Michele, Haller despises fraternizing, and I'm one misstep away from being ousted.
So if you wouldn't mind Besso: Albert, I know why I'm here.
Marcel told me everything.
It's quite all right I don't mind easing your burden, and I'm grateful just to have the job.
But of course, I'm curious Albert: I'm trying to prove molecules exist.
[Muffled laugh.]
.
How? Albert: I'd love to tell you, but I really need you to review those applications.
Besso: Of course.
Albert: It really is good to have you here, Michele.
Pauline: Did you mix in the Castile? Mileva: Castile? I, I'm sorry, what is Castile? Pauline: Soap, dear.
Mileva: Did you tell your mother why you asked her to come? Albert: Of course.
I told her we needed help with the house and the baby.
Mileva: She seems to believe her sole purpose is to instruct me how to cook, clean, and care for the child.
She's trying to turn me into a hausfrau.
Albert: She's downstairs watching the little one right now, is she not? Mileva: You must talk to her.
Tell her that our work together is important.
That my part in it is important.
Albert: I will, but indulge her a little.
Make her feel appreciated.
Now Look.
Mileva: You used Kirchoff's hydrodynamic techniques Albert: Which you introduced me to at university.
Mileva: My God, Albert Laue: Heir professor, Einstein has just proven the existence of molecules, sir.
Planck: What? That cannot Who did you say? Laue: Einstein.
The fellow from Bern.
Planck: Bern I lectured there recently.
I don't recall any Einstein Laue: He's not a professor.
He's a patent clerk.
Planck: A patent clerk.
Besso: It's a brilliant paper, Albert.
I'm sorry you didn't receive the response you anticipated.
Albert: Apparently, it's not enough to have an original thought.
The old masters demand data.
Oh well, perhaps the third time will be the charm, as they say Besso: Third? My God, Albert, you're writing another one? Albert: If I can find another good idea, something provable through experimentation.
Mileva's doing some research for me Haller: Einstein.
Your mother is here.
Pauline: She abandons her boy for hours on end, she refuses to be taught how to cook, and she leaves all the cleaning to me.
Now is that fair? Albert: Mother, we spoke about this Pauline: And I agreed to indulge the notion that you could use some assistance writing your essay Albert: It's a scientific paper, mother, published in a prestigious journal.
Pauline: But you finished it weeks ago Albert: And now I'm writing another one.
Pauline: Albert, I don't understand Albert: I don't expect you to.
Pauline: You have a solid position.
A good income.
Your father would be very proud Albert: That I'd given up my dreams and settled for a bourgeois existence? Pauline: Look at me, darling.
Pursue your dreams if you wish.
But don't give Mileva false expectations.
I will not be here forever.
She must be taught to run a house.
Albert: I have to go back to work.
Mileva: It's hypnotic A single pollen particle is bombarded by water molecules ten-to-the-twenty-four times per second.
Albert: How am I going to predict that many movements per second in a three dimensional space? Mileva: Here, what if you tried using [Baby crying.]
Pauline: Your child needs you, Mileva.
Mileva.
Mileva: Yes one moment, we're just in the middle of Pauline: The baby isn't crying in a moment.
He's crying now.
Mileva: Frau Einstein, I do appreciate all you're doing for us.
But right now Albert needs my help.
Pauline: Your boy needs you.
This home needs you.
Mileva: Yes, but at the moment I'm working Pauline: Frankly, my dear, it is time to put away such indulgences.
I'm not your maid, nor your child's wet nurse.
Mileva: You just sit there, silent.
Albert: What do you want me to do? Mileva: I want you to defend me! Besso: Early morning or late night? Albert: I've run away from home.
Besso: Is it really so terrible? Albert: When my mother and Mileva are not at each other's throats, they take turns lunging at mine.
Besso: Brownian motion.
Very ambitious.
Albert: If I can prove it mathematically, it could be confirmed with the naked eye.
Besso: Well, good luck.
Albert: What? Besso: What? Albert: What? Besso: Nothing.
Albert: What? Besso: You're making it too complicated.
Albert: It is ridiculously complicated! A single pollen particle is bombarded by water molecules Besso: Ten-to-the-twenty-four times per second, yes.
And trying to solve those equations in three dimensions will drive you mad.
Why not construct a one-dimensional model.
It's much simpler and would still prove your thesis.
Albert: Would you be willing to help me solve it, Michele? Pauline: My, the weather is turning.
The wind nearly threw me off my feet.
Mileva: You promised you'd be home an hour ago.
Pauline: Well, I suppose we all fall short of expectations now and then.
Mileva: I'm late for Albert.
[Door slams.]
Albert: And three-x-by-t-squared equals r by t-squared Besso: And then apply it back to three dimensions and the coefficient Albert: Michele, you're brilliant! Mileva: Michele, what a nice surprise.
Sorry I'm late.
Albert: One dimension, Mileva.
Michele's great insight.
We calculate in one dimension! It's so Elegant.
Mileva: I'm not sure I understand Albert: Here, pretend I'm drunk.
Mileva: You don't drink.
Albert: Pretend! If I had as much to drink as Michele, I'd be staggering everywhere, yes? Besso: Like pollen wiggling in the water.
Albert: But where am I going? To the bar, the toilet, to the street? Mileva: It's impossible to predict.
We've been over this Albert: Precisely.
Michele helped me see that we can't predict exactly where I'll go, but using simpler math, we can calculate how far I'll go over a period of time.
Besso: Turns out it's six microns per minute.
Exactly.
Albert: Six microns per minute! I proved the existence of molecules and nobody believed me.
And now I've proved how they move, and it can be confirmed with an ordinary microscope! Mileva: That's wonderful Besso: To Albert! Planck: Congratulations, Philipp, the Nobel prize.
Lenard: You don't have to be polite, Max.
We both know it was only a gesture of consolation.
Planck: Well you're still not sour about Rontgen.
Philipp, that was four years ago.
Lenard: And yet it still stings.
Perhaps if I had received more recognition from my colleagues Planck: Philipp, you read the journals your name is invoked with great regularity.
Lenard: Of course you are right.
This patent clerk in Bern for instance.
He's cited both of us in a paper on Planck: Light quanta, yes, indeed.
You see? I dismissed him at first.
But clearly he's an intellect.
Lenard: He's very clever.
I've been in correspondence with him in fact.
He wants the footlights, that much is clear.
I only hope he doesn't try to take recognition for your work like Rontgen did to me.
Ein-stein.
It is fascinating what one can deduce about a man just by knowing his name.
Albert: I don't believe it Mileva: What? Albert: Lenard.
They're giving him the Nobel.
For cathode ray tubes a ten-year-old innovation.
Mileva: Suddenly you care about awards? Albert: I care about science living and breathing in the present and not suffocating in the past.
And yes, I'm not ashamed to say, I want some recognition for my contributions.
Mileva: I understand how you must feel.
Albert: But here I am, three published papers, and nothing to show for it.
It's as if I am Mileva: Invisible? Albert: Perhaps my mother's right.
It's time to put away such indulgences and concentrate on what's expected of me.
Haller: Einstein, I need yesterday's Albert: Yesterday's, today's and tomorrow's.
Besso: Where are you going? Albert: I have no idea.
Besso: Albert? Albert? I'm worried about you Albert: I approved a patent for a device that's now inside that very clock tower.
Every minute, it sends a signal at the speed of light to clocks in Geneva, Basel and Zurich, synchronizing them.
But what if we sent a signal to a clock on a moving train? Besso: Albert, you could use a good sleep.
Turn your mind off for a bit.
Albert: I can't.
Now listen.
A clock is here, stationary.
And now I attempt to synchronize it with one that is moving.
What happens? Besso: The clocks would synchronize.
Albert: Because space and time are absolute, according to Newton.
Besso: According to everyone.
Albert: But for that to be true Light would have to speed up or slow down to keep the clocks synchronized.
But James Clark Maxwell says that light only moves at one speed.
Now either Maxwell is correct, or Newton is.
But it can't be both.
Besso: Well if it's a duel between Newton and Maxwell? I'm afraid poor Maxwell gets it between the eyes.
Albert: Maybe so Besso: Are you considering another paper? Albert: No I'm just thinking, Michele.
Come on.
I'll buy you dinner, and we can think some more.
The bloated windbags can't stop us from doing that, can they? Besso: Maybe the bloated windbags can't stop us.
But Anna can.
You know the Winteler rules: Never miss a family meal.
Jost: Julius! Your eggs are getting cold! Marie Winteler: Must we do this every morning? Frau Winteler: The doctor says routine is important for him.
Marie Winteler: Well, I can't keep my students waiting Jost: Julius, come and eat! Sit down.
Eat your breakfast.
Frau Winteler: Julius.
Julius: Death to satan's messengers! Jost: No.
Marie Winteler: Julius! Jost: No.
Marie Winteler: My God, what are you doing? No.
Minister: O God, who brought us to birth, and in whose arms we die, in our grief and shock comfort us; give us hope in our confusion and grace to enter a new life; Through Jesus Christ.
Amen.
All: Amen.
Pauline: That poor family.
I should be at the funeral.
Mileva: You are free to go, Frau Einstein.
Pauline: No, no, my dear.
I couldn't possibly leave you alone with the child.
Mileva: If I really am so unfit to be a mother, you could have gone to Aarau and Albert could have stayed home with me.
Pauline: No, my dear.
Albert is exactly where he needs to be right now.
Marie Winteler: Do you remember what you promised me When you left for university? Albert: I I don't, I'm sorry.
Marie Winteler: You said you would come up with a formula to freeze time.
Albert: I'm afraid I'm I'm not as brilliant as I thought I was I'm sorry, Marie.
For everything.
Man: So sorry.
Marie Winteler: Talk to him.
He misses you.
Albert: Jost, I am so deeply Jost: Sorry, yes, everyone says that.
Albert: Is there anything that I can do? Jost: You are an intelligent man.
So perhaps you can explain to me this: How could my bright, beautiful son so suddenly turn into a monster? What did I do wrong? Albert: You musn't blame yourself.
I wish I could be half the father that you are.
Jost: Yes, I heard you had a son.
Hold him tight, Albert.
You think his childhood will last forever, but I promise you, it will pass in a fraction of a second.
Mileva: You said you'd be home last night.
Albert: I'm sorry.
By the time it seemed appropriate to leave, I'd already missed my last train.
Mileva: Of course you did.
I'm sure you were terribly disappointed to have to spend the night with your beloved Wintelers.
Albert: Mileva, please, they're grieving Pauline: I can take him, dear.
Mileva: Don't touch my son.
Pauline: I'm only trying to help.
Mileva: You've been shoving your 'help' down my throat since you arrived.
Albert: Mileva, calm yourself.
Mileva: That's quite easy for you to say, isn't it? You do what you want, go where you please.
And I'm here.
Not in a laboratory or in front of a classroom as I should be Pauline: Perhaps I'm mistaken, but didn't you fail your exams? Albert: Mother, please Pauline: The girl needs to face the truth, Albert.
You need a wife to make you a home, not a Mileva: I'm sorry I'm not Marie Winteler.
Pauline: So am I.
Albert: Mother, apologize.
Pauline: I knew from the moment my son wrote to me about you, you would never make him a suitable wife.
Mileva: Albert didn't marry me because he wanted a housewife.
We're partners.
Pauline: Darling, open your eyes.
You are not his partner.
You are his librarian.
You are his clerk.
Albert: Mother, you should go.
Pauline: Go, go where? Albert: Home.
Pauline: If you think this creature can make you happy, then I promise you, son, you are in for a life of misery.
[Baby crying.]
[Baby crying.]
Mileva: He won't sleep.
I don't know what to do Albert: Go to bed, Dollie.
I can take him.
Mileva: Thank you Albert: I made you something.
Choo-choo, choo-choo.
It's a train, yes.
I was on one of these this morning, and I couldn't wait to get home to see you.
Papa Jost told me that time is fleeting; we think moments like these will last forever, but in fact they'll pass in a split second.
It's a nice sentiment, but you and I both know that time can't move at different speeds.
[Ticking clock.]
Unless Unless it could.
Oh my Albertli, you've done it! I've completely solved the problem.
Besso: What are you talking about? Albert: Close your eyes.
Pretend you're overlooking a train track Imagine a train racing past, faster than any train you've ever seen.
Now, I want you to imagine, as the train is flying past, two lightning bolts crashing beyond the tracks at the same time 100 meters apart.
Besso: So what? Albert: Patience.
Now imagine that you're standing in the middle of the train during the exact same scenario.
Would the lightning bolts be simultaneous? Besso: Of course.
Albert: Not if light moves at one speed.
Close your eyes.
Besso: Albert, this is ridiculous Albert: Put yourself back on the moving train, and really think about it.
Do it, Michele! Now watch the lightning bolts! Were they simultaneous to you? Besso: No! Albert: Because you were moving towards one and away from the other.
To me, standing still, they were simultaneous.
How could the two of us experience the same event differently? Besso: We couldn't.
Unless Albert: It's not Maxwell who gets it between the eyes.
It's Newton.
Besso: What are you saying? Albert: Time is not absolute.
Besso: Holy hell.
Albert: I'm writing the paper, Michele.
I dare them to ignore it.
[Laughing.]
.
Ha! [Coughing.]
Pierre: Marie.
Come see what we've found Don't look.
You believed it would be 1,000 times stronger than uranium.
This element is a million times stronger, and it's not even pure.
Marie: It's beautiful.
Pierre: What shall we call it, my love? Marie: Radium.
Albert: Dollie, Dollie, you're awake! Thank God.
Since I first imagined riding alongside a light beam, it's been bothering me.
How could light freeze in time? Well, it couldn't! Mileva: You're gone before I wake, home after I'm asleep.
Do I not at least deserve a "hello?" Albert: Hello, my darling Mileva, now listen 300 years ago, Galileo devised his principle of relativity Now Newton built on these theories to devise his own laws; motion, gravitation, and absolute time.
Mileva: I know all of that.
Albert: But neither man took into account the true nature of light.
So, I've devised my own principle of relativity.
Mileva: Lorentz transformations? Albert: Yes.
He saw time dilation as a mathematical quirk.
It's not.
The faster we move through space, the slower we move through time.
Mileva: It is extraordinary, Albert Albert: It's more than that.
It's the redefinition of the universe.
All the work.
All the late nights.
This, Mileva.
This is what we've been chasing Will you proof it for me? Mileva: Am I your clerk? Is that it? Albert: No, of course not, Dollie.
You're my partner.
Albertli, you brilliant little man! [Knock.]
Pierre: Doctor Lauret.
Dean: Doctor Curie.
I just received a letter from Stockholm.
You are to be awarded the 1903 Nobel prize in physics for your contributions to the research of radiation phenomena.
A hearty congratulations, Pierre.
Pierre: Will my wife be given the prize, as well? Dean: Pierre, we all know madame Curie has been a valuable assistant.
But it's the tools you invented that are responsible for discovering radium.
Pierre: No, no, tools don't make discoveries, doctor.
People do.
Madam Curie and I are partners.
Please inform the Nobel committee that I will not accept the prize if they do not honor my wife alongside me.
Mileva: "The introduction of a luminiferous ether will prove to be superfluous.
" Superfluous! I love that word.
Albert: I preferred 'idiotic', but alas.
Mileva: "In conclusion, I wish to say that in working at the problem here dealt with, I have had the loyal assistance of my friend and colleague M.
Besso And that I am indebted to him for several valuable suggestions.
" You thank Michele.
Albert: Of course I thanked him.
His advice was instrumental.
Mileva: But I've helped you with so many papers.
Including this one.
Albert: Of course you have.
Mileva: But you never thought to put my name in any of them.
Albert: Well, I suppose it never occurred to me Mileva: No, I don't suppose it did Albert: No, because in my heart, the two of us are one.
It's our name.
Einstein, 'one stone.
' this paper, every paper, it's both of us.
I couldn't do any of it without you.
You know that.
Mileva: No one else does.
Albert: Mileva.
Mileva: You're going to be late for work, Albert.
Planck: 'On the electrodynamics of moving bodies' by Albert Einstein? Laue: His fourth paper this year.
I haven't seen anything like this since Newton's annus mirabilis.
Planck: Doctor Laue, are you honestly comparing Einstein to sir Isaac Newton? Laue: Read it.
Planck: He provides no footnotes.
Laue: That's because he has answered a question no one was asking.
Herr Einstein? Max Laue, I work for Professor Max Planck at the Prussian Academy.
A sincere pleasure to Haller: I believe you're looking for him.
I've tried to get him to brush his hair and smarten himself up.
But the man is hopeless.
Laue: Albert Einstein? Author of the principle of relativity? Albert: Well, Galileo is the author of the principle of relativity.
I simply provided a revision.
Laue: My, you are modest.
Besso: He most certainly is not.
Laue: May I ask why you are working at a patent office? Albert: History is full of bad jokes, I suppose.
Laue: My name is Max Laue.
I am here at the behest of Professor Max Planck.
Besso: Max Planck? The father of Prussian physics? Laue: He greatly admires your work, Herr Einstein.
You've achieved more in one year than most scientists do in a lifetime.
However did you accomplish it? Albert: Curiosity, I suppose.
Besso: That and he wanted to be noticed.
Laue: Well, you've succeeded.
We would like to help you further your career.
Tell me, are you working on anything else? Albert: Uh, yes, in fact.
I've realized that the relativity principle, combined with the Maxwell's equations, requires that mass be a direct measure of the energy contained in a body.
Laue: I'm not sure I follow Albert: Light carries mass.
Laue: But that's impossible.
Albert: Perhaps! For all I know, the good lord might be laughing at the whole matter.
I believe this theory could be tested using elements whose energy is highly unstable.
Madame Curie's radium, for example Laue: Herr Einstein, it's It's genius.
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